It's been a while since my last post and I think I have even skipped a month of Birchbox product reviews. Here's why: I haven't been all that impressed with Birchbox lately. I love the idea. But my products started getting uninteresting to me. So I logged in and updated my preferences and profile, and I hope by next month I start getting products that I'm more interested in. I was getting too many hair products and body products that I don't use a whole lot, so I just sort of lost interest for a bit.
This month's box came last week, here's a pic: 
The theme was travel or something, so there was this passport thingy with a little quiz and info on how to enter a drawing for a travel certificate. Anyway, I'm going to quickly talk about a couple of the product samples.
The benefit They're Real! mascara is great - I've used it before, so this wasn't a new thing for me. I don't like the ingredients, but as a mascara in general, it's AMAZING. It defines individual lashes, makes them look like twice as long, and lasts all day and into the night. It will come off with lots of regular eye makeup remover, just be patient and switch to a new cotton ball when one is saturated. It literally makes your natural lashes look like you're wearing falsies, which you don't have to do with this mascara. That being said - I have pretty long and full eyelashes already, so I would be interested to hear from someone who has thinner and less full lashes.
The lotion:
The smell was nice without overpowering, not a horrible ingredients list, and it was nice and thick without feeling greasy. I think I got about three evenings of use out of the sample size, applying to hands and arms and legs and shoulders. It was about the size of a hotel lotion sample. Pretty good.
The hair product:
At first I was like "hmm, ok, I don't really have 'multicultural' hair," whatever it was referring to. I'm pretty darn white. With pretty darn white-girl hair. THIS IS THE BEST HAIR-SCRUNCHING PRODUCT EVER. No lie. This is amazing. Use a quarter size amount for almost-shoulder-length damp hair, let dry. This is fabulous. I've tried fancy scrunching creams, cheap scrunching sprays and all variety of styling mousses. This is the best. Whether I have "multicultural" hair or not, (and I know the package says it's really for all textures) I am seriously considering purchasing this product. I haven't worn my short hair in scrunched curls very often because I couldn't find a product that was sufficient in terms of weight, texture, doing what it says it does, holding curls all day, etc. Love this product. Buy it; I'm about to. Oh, and the size of the sample is HUGE! I thought I'd have to use a lot of the product, but I didn't, so now I've used it like four times and have at least enough for four more uses probably. Amazing.
As far as the other two products:
One is a shower gel, smells nice but I prefer Dr. Bronner's Castile soap. The sample size was really nice too, a little jogger than standard hotel sample size.
The last item, the tiniest little tube in the photo of my whole box, is some wrinkle serum or something. I've used it but cannot speak to it's efficacy as the size of the sample is too small and I always forget to use it consistently. It's really smooth and doesn't smell bad or anything, both characteristics are sometimes hard to find.
HEMP MILK. I am loving it. I use a brand called Tempt, unsweetened and without added flavor like vanilla or anything. I needed something to put in my tea when I worked one of the public health clinics last week, and I had a bunch of almond milk at home already so I thought I'd try hemp milk. I like this brand because, unlike every other brand of hemp milk, it does NOT have carageenan. Hemp milk is a bit thicker than almond milk (a huge plus for me, because my tea additive of choice is still heavy cream!) and tastes a but more earthy. Oh, and the reason I don't just use heavy cream is because I am doing the Whole30 for the month of June. So that means no dairy.
So the other day I tried making my own little "creamer" by mixing half almond milk and half hemp milk, and have been trying it in a few different teas that I drink. It's working quite nicely as a universal dairy- and chemical-free creamer.
There you have it! Thanks for reading, and until next time - make sure to schedule at least one weekend this summer where you can unplug. As soon as this post goes live, I'm off until Sunday. Enjoy!
