I’ve been chomping at the bit to get this month’s Birchbox – as I’m fond of saying, this is the best $10 I spend all month.

If you’re not familiar with Birchbox – and really, why AREN’T you at this point? – it’s a subscription service where for $10 each month, you receive an adorable box, wrapped in pink and chock full of four to six deluxe beauty samples, often with little extra goodies and coupons codes as well.  I’ve gotten headphones and Larabars and fabulous new exfoliators and nail polishes – it’s pretty rockin’, and makes every month like Christmas!

 

 

 

This month’s box is a bit of a mish-mosh.  Inside was a little lookbook put together by the gals at Birchbox, which was pretty sweet.  I always enjoy the info that’s tucked away inside the box.

 

 

In keeping with the paperwork part of the box, there was also a $25 gift card to the website www.Madewell.com, which has lots of cute little dresses and bags, as

well as lots of cute boots – did I mention I’m ready for the fall weather to kick in?  Bring on the scarves, cardigans, and giant slouchy boots, please… but I digress.

 

Now, on to the beauty portion of your regularly scheduled programming.

 

 

Tucked inside was one of the new lace collection Twistbands.  Now, I’ve been previously exposed to Twistbands through Birchbox, and I’m pretty much obsessed.  They are like a hair tie upgrade – in fact, upgrades may have been the theme of that first box the Twistband was in.  They are little hair elastics that come in a variety of colors and prints and styles, so in theory they look as cute on your wrist as they do in your hair, and allegedly don’t crease your hair (except they totally do).  I’m telling you, I am never without at least one, and usually a few.  I’ve got a giant stash in my drawer.  They’re not cheap for a knotted piece of elastic, but I just love ‘em anyway, and I was tickled to get a new one this month.

Another welcome repeat treat was a Birchbox/Color Club collaboration nail polish.  I got Put a Pin In It, which was painfully appropriate given my ongoing dependency on  Pinterest.  It’s an almost foil-y rose gold that I can’t wait to paint on.  Foil-y Color Club polishes tend to wear very well and are just gorgeous, and I am currently sort of fixated on rose gold, so YAY!

Although I did see that there was chartreuse called Tweet Me, and I do love me some green polish, too… that may end up coming to live with me at some point.

Birchbox is great about sending fragrance samples – which is truly the only way I can ever get turned on to anything new.  I have my little arsenal of tried and true fragrance that I’ve been wearing forever, and very rarely branch out.  I feel like there’s some kind of freaky battery acid that must course through my veins that turns most scents to yuck  after ten minutes.  That being said, the jury is still out on this Bulgari Jasmin Noir, although I haven’t gotten a headache yet, so for now I’m counting this as a great success.

Also included were these funny little brush guards for makeup brushes.  I won’t lie, this isn’t something I’ll ever use, most likely, although for this particular product I may just not be their ideal demographic.  They’re little plastic cross-stitched sleeves in a few different sizes that slide over the head of your brush and are supposed to keep things a bit more sanitary, which of course sounds like a great idea.I don’t have time to muck around with brush guards for work (and I think it would slow me down tremendously), and I’m too lazy to even consider such a thing for my personal brush stash.   I’d love to hear from anyone who is singing the praises of these little brush guards – convince me, guys!

 

I love a good exfoliator, but I found myself a little disappointed by this Vasanti BrightenUp! Enzymatic scrub.  I tried a bit in the shower yesterday, and first off it seemed a bit harsh for my super sensitive, rosacea-riddled complexion.  Then again, most things are.  The Juice Beauty Green Apple Peel I received from Birchbox last year felt like it was melting my face off entirely when I left it on the recommended amount of time.  This may be a great scrub for slightly less high-maintenance skin.  It’s got enzymes as well as micro-crystals, and my guess is that it’s them crystals that are breaking my face.

This last product is the one I’m most excited to play with, but I keep forgetting to toss it into my overnight bag when going a-visiting.  It’s a little overnight kit of gel cleanser and a new CC cream (color control cream – not to be confused with the last wave of goodies, the bb creams.  I’m telling you, my finger is on the pulse and I can barely keep up with all the new products!) so that you can keep your complexion radiant and lovely even when you’re away from home.  This’ll be my first experienced with a CC cream, so I’m looking forward to it… even though I’d just settled on my love for the Dr Jart+ uber SPF beauty balm.  Sheesh, folks.

 

So there’s my September Birchbox.  What’d you get in yours?