January Birchbox

Everyday last week I drove home from work at 6pm hoping that my lovely little Birchbox would have arrived. With it being January and all that, the month of no spending, no alcohol, no sunshine or warmth (can you tell it’s not my fave yet?!) I really just couldn’t wait for a little treat and had been in waiting in anticipation for it to arrive since my last box in December.

Wednesday rolled around and so did the arrival of my box. It’s a bit of a mixed bag this one so if you’re interested in finding out the contents, keep reading…

Let’s start off with the box design. This months box was designed by the very talented gang at Ohh Deer. If you’ve never heard of Ohh Deer, they are a very quirky British brand creating beautiful cards, stationary and homeware. They also have their own stationary subscription box called Papergang which I’m veryyyyy tempted by.

The theme of this months Birchbox is ‘Stand Tall and Be Fabulous’, so it’s all about doing YOU, standing tall and being confident in your own skin.

Charlotte Mensah Manketti Hair Oil
My absolute favourite product this month, is the hair oil which I have used pretty much every day since receiving it. Having afro-caribbean hair, it is naturally on the dry side and I have to make sure I condition it and keep it nourished all of the time. This hair oil does the job perfectly for me and doesn’t make my hair look greasy or wet, which I find other oils can do. It also smells amazing aswell.
RRP £48 for 100ml

 Lord & Berry Blusher Crayon in Peach
I’ve never used a blush crayon before and I think it’s a brilliant idea! I’ve used this crayon a couple of times and it’s so, so easy to apply. You can build the product up to the intensity that you like, just draw a little onto the apple of your cheeks then blend with your finger or a beauty blender to get instant colour, which I can confirm stays all day.
This was the full-size product in this months box and I would definitely recommend it.
RRP £15

Marcelle Waterproof Eyeliner in Charcoal
This is one of the products I’ve not got round to using yet, I think because I’m more of a gel liner gal than pencil. I have swatched it just for you guys though, and the consistency seems really good. It definitely stays put as I’ve had a hard job getting it off my hand again – so that’s a plus, and I like the colour, which is a dark, slightly glittery charcoal.
RRP £10.99

Benefit POREfessional Pearl Primer
So I’ve seen this product used quite a lot in other peoples beauty regimes, however I sadly did not get on well with it at all. The texture for me is very strange, it’s a cross between a very thick cream and a mousse and it just didn’t match my skin. After applying it, I ended up with loads of little white balls all over my face where the product hadn’t sunk in. I much prefer gel-like skin products so I think this was always going to be a fail from the start. It does work quite well as an under eye brightener so i’ll be using the rest of the sample for that, but I definitely won’t be buying the product again for it’s intended use.
RRP £27.50 22ml

Afterspa Amazing Makeup Remover
Here we have a magic, make up removing cloth. Yes, that’s right, the instructions tell me no cleansing lotion or make up remover, just water and the cloth to remove everything. I haven’t used it yet but I am such a fan of a cleansing and toning routine so I will definitely still probably do that alongside using the cloth as well.
RRP £5.50