London Fashion Week: Beauty Essentials

Hey kittens! Today’s the last day of London Fashion Week for the Spring/Summer 2014 season – boo! However, hopefully this little blog post will help dry your eyes as I talk you through my London Fashion Week beauty essentials, with Birchbox’s September box, very timely named as the LFW edition.

As my very first Birchbox, I was excited to try these mini beauty bits, especially with how they linked so nicely with my first love – fashion. So, if you’re excited to learn about the essentials to take to LFW, or know what might come in a monthy subscription box like this, read below to find out more. And, see why whilst this is my first Birchbox, it hopefully won’t be my last…

So, first thing’s first – the box itself! When a Birchbax branded parcel came through my door, I was delighted to see this lovely little cardboard box nestled inside. It’s about an A5 size box and made from pretty strong cardboard, created to look almost shabby chic. Just the right size for storing my favourite nail polishes, I reckon – handy, that! Plus, who doesn’t love a ribbon?

Inside the box itself comes a mesh pouch with the goodies inside (but we’ll get to that in a bit!). The box also comes with the monthly Birchbox magazine and some information cards about the products inside. To be honest, the magazine isn’t really a “mag” in a traditional sense, but I’ve popped it in my handbag for a bit of light commuter reading on the way to work tomorrow. However, the product cards are handy, especially as a couple of the brands I hadn’t heard of before.

As I said before, the products inside come nicely packaged in this purposefully industrial looking pouch. I absolutely love this touch! The pouch itself actually undoes so that it lies flat on the ground and you can pick the items out from within in, almost like a little picnic basket. I’m not gonna lie, I did imagine myself having a little beauty box picnic… Okay, too far, but this is definitely going to be a handy little travel cosmetics bag for me, the perfect size for popping into my handbag.

Now, time for the good stuff! I split the goodies inside into two camps – the skincare and the make-up. As y’all can tell from my previous blog posts, I can be a bit of a skincare fanatic, (after all, it’s the foundation to your makeup) so I was delighted to see some new brands that I’d not tried before – especially Bioderma. 

If you’re a beauty blog fanatic like myself – come’n, hands up! – you’ll have heard beauty bloggers rave on about this brand no end. And now, I get to as well! In fact, having used this Bioderma Sensibio H2O sample to remove my eye-makeup after work, I’ve noticed a huge difference compared to my usual cleansing wipes and it’s not even irritated my sensitive eyes. The full size bottle retails at £9.99 and I would be tempted to repurchase this two-in-one makeup remover and cleanser again,

Another new brand to me came in the form of this little body lotion, the Molton Brown Ylang-Ylang Nourishing Body Lotion retailing at £25 for the full size product. Having read the Birchbox product card, I’m told that “Molton Brown has become a British Institution” – well, doesn’t that make me look silly! Although my beauty stash seems to be inundated with body lotions, we all love a moisturiser and this handy sample size has worked its way on to my desk, for emergency hand softening operations.

Finally, the last of my skincare treats was this mini Aromatherapy Associates Revive Body Gel. Now, I’m gonna be completely honest – and maybe this is because I’m a fashion blogger and not a beauty blogger – but I’m not sure what I’m meant to do with this. Put it on my body, yes, but why? Apparently the mix of grapefruit, rosemary and juniper berry essential oils has cleansing and skin toning properties, leaving skin looking healthy, smooth and radiant. Well, I’m not sure but it doesn’t half smell amazing.

As for my make-up items, I lucked out with the nail polish! I was pretty over the moon to see this Révérence de Bastien in a bright pillar box red, my personal favourite nail polish cover ever. Red lips, red nails forever. As far as I’m aware, this is a full size product and so it’s a pretty big bonus to include this in a box worth £10 a month when the item itself usually costs £16. I know I’m gonna get a lot of use out of this colour and sure I’ll have some sample pictures within on of my Outfit of the Day posts soon.

My other make-up product isn’t so much up my street, simply due to the colour. Usually I’d be delighted at a new lipstick but unfortunately this ModelCo’s Party Proof colour really isn’t me. Y’all know I’m a red lips kinda gal so I was disappointed to see this was a nude colour. However, I do get that nude is a pretty generic colour for most ladies and so can understand why it was put in the box – I guess colour is a risk you take when getting a mystery subscription box through your door! Oh well, I’m sure I can find another owner of this.

Over all, I’ve loved receiving this little treat and can see how much of a thrill it might be to look forward to getting this every month. Although it’s possible to spoil your surprised by having a sneak peek at the items included in the box each month online, there is some variation as you will receive 4 to 5 out of a possible 6 or 7 products. Oh, and as a finishing touch, I was given a bitesize chunk of a white Green & Black’s bar to give me a little chocolate boost. If that doesn’t end the review on a sweet note, i don’t know what would.

So kittens, have you tried a Birchbox before? Do you receive any other monthly subscriptions? Leave me a comment below and let me know! And don’t forget to follow me on Twitter, like my Facebook page and subscribe to my Youtube channel to keep up to date with all things fashion!