July birchbox

So its that time again when I get a lovely email from a courier service saying they will appear at my door with some new beauty goodies, and every time it makes me super excited and my poor boyfriend ends up stuck in the house all day waiting for the parcel (because I am normally at work) and this month was no different.

The box and its contents this month

The theme of this box was never ending summer but I'm not gonna lie none of the products are anything summer related and that makes me kinda sad but oh well.The purple box is lovely but has abandoned the draw like opening of last months box in favour of the old simple pull the lid off style box.

The full size item this month was a John Frieda product you could chose between a product that helped put more volume in your hair or one that was anti-frizz, with my super curly frizz prone hair though it was easy to pick between the two options. 

Packaging of the John Frieda frizz ease forever smooth anti-frizz primer

The John Frieda frizz ease forever smooth anti frizz primer claiming to realign the structure of someones hair using coconut oil and glycerides claim to also improve manageability and protect from heat. I can't test the heat protection cause I very rarely using heat styling products on my hair but I can say I used this one and didn't notice a scrap of difference. Now I know I only used it once and so its not really a fair test but normally with this type of thing you can see a difference after one use and I didn't get that. I have used many many products from John Frieda claiming to help with frizzy hair issues and can't think of one that I actually feel helped me, but that might just be me, the primer retails for £9.99 normally. 
 The next item in the box was a mini nails inc polish which came in varying colours in peoples boxes, there was lovely blues, pinks, purples but yet I got this chocolate brown colour, which is a lovely colour but it is definitely not screaming summer to me. 

Nails inc tester in shade Oxford Street

Nails inc is a very well known brand and its nail varnish does not retail for an overly cheap price, the full size version of this style of product is £14. The application of the product was very pigmented but was not smooth at all, it was very streaky and uneven, which is not what you want from any nail polish but especially not from a darker coloured one. 

inside the bottle

You can see in this very bad quality product above as well the chip in my thumb nail, this photo was taken approximately an hour after application, and after 2 days the chipping was so bad on every nail the polish had to come off, there was chunks missing out of every nail and various places. I would hate to think that I had paid £14 from the full size product to have the same problem. Based on the few reviews I have read of this range of products it seemed to be just me who had this problem though, some people even boast that they have had up to 7 days wear out of the polish without chipping. Now the two days I had this one one my nails I was at work in a retail environment which saw me working very hands on and this may have affected performance but still I have Barry M polishes that kept up much better and was much much cheaper than what the full size of this product would be. 

Full size version of this product is £43 but may be well worth it

This box also had two skincare products in it that made me very excited and I was very happy to receive. The first being a sample of the Elemis Hydra nourish night cream, the cream claims to repair moisture loss with hyaluronic acid and aims to rebalance irritable complexions and I honestly say that I noticed a change in my skin after one use. My skin seemed calmer, more even and definitely more hydrated to the touch. I must say I loved this product and look forward to putting it on my skin every night but it is hard to say whether the difference in my skin was due to this product or the next sample in the box. 

Sample of Caudalie vinoperfect radiance serum 

This Caudalie Vinoperfect radiance serum might be one of my new favourite things, I have tried serums before but felt they did nothing or even dried my skin out but this one is very different. Just like the Elemis product I look forward to putting this on my skin as it just seems to make everything that littlest bit better. It seems to help to even out my skin tone despite it having no colour pigmentation at all and claims to fade dark spots although I can't comment on that cause I don't have any. It does all of this without using oils, parabens or sulphates though which means for anyone who has skin as irritable as mine this product is amazing. The full size product is definitely pricey at £45 but I think this would last a grate deal of time as it only takes the smallest amount of the product on the face. 

outer packaging of LOC colour ultra gloss pencil in Bohemian rose

The star of the show (or box) however was this little lipstick here. This comes from the birchbox exclusive brand of LOC or Love Of Colour and was designed by the lovely Millie Mackintosh and comes in the shade Bohemian Rose which is such a beautiful but yet vibrant pink colour. Its a lovely all round colour and I seem to wear it most with the Gosh lipliner in the colour Antique rose underneath to tone it down a little for work. The glossy formula stays on quite well on its own though and seems to hydrate the lips throughout the day. I can honestly say I love this and it seems to have a similar but much much cheaper formula and look to the YSL rogue Volupte oil sticks (my review of which can be seen here) this will be getting an awful lot of wear from myself and might be the best thing I have received from birchbox yet.

Swatch of Bohemian rose on my hand

Overall I quite liked this box the only major let down was the nail varnish but all in all it was a good box this month. If any of you fancy trying birchbox out yourself you can sign up right here...

But until next time guys, 
Love Kim 
x