February Birchbox

Just got my February box in yesterday (3/25/13). Took 6 weeks, which seems like the average for packages that aren't sent USPS Priority mail. I was a little bummed because this box took some damage. One of my samples is done for, and it was one I was excited about. I sent them a message and I'm waiting to hear what can or will be done (I'll update later on if anyone is curious as to how they handle damaged items).

Update: They sent me a message back as I was putting this post together. Said they no longer had samples left of my broken item, so would instead add 100 points ($10) to my account within 3 days. Essentially making this box free, but you have to spend the points in their shop.

I already know my March box will be extra late. My credit cards had to be canceled due to hacking, so I couldn't pay since it took over a month to get my new cards. I had to go into the bank and pull out cash for weeks, and no online spending unless it was PayPal friendly. Huge pain. It got fixed before they gave my box to someone else though. This means that it shipped very late. Looks like a good one though from the preview.

For February, I got:

• Dr. Jart+ Black Label Detox BB cream- I was excited to finally try a BB cream, but this looks so very dark for my very white skin. I guess I'll have to see how it is. I love that is paraben and sulfate free and has natural SPF of 25. I'm hoping it goes on a lot sheerer than it looks. 
• Juicy Couture Couture La La- All these Juicy Couture perfume samples have just been terrible for me. They are all so strong and overwhelming for me. 
• theBalm cosmetics Hot Mama- This is a blush/shadow. This is the item that arrived damaged. The product was just a disaster. It wasn't just broken, but it had just turned to dust. 
• TIGI  Catwalk Your Highness Root Boost Spray- Really interested in trying this one too. My hair is very straight and not at all voluminous. Will have to figure out a style to try with this though. I'm so used to washing and just letting it air dry because it's that straight and fuss free. 
• Ghirardelli Milk and Caramel square- This was just a little bonus. I love these things, but as I've mentioned before I'd rather have another sample and no food. 

Going to try to salvage some to try it out.

From my January Box, I'm still using the Clark's Botanicals Smoothing Marine Cream. I do like it, but not enough to go spend over $100 on it. That's the only thing I've really used from the box though. I will use the eye primer at some point, but had a lot going on to really mess with it the last few weeks. 

Seems like I'm getting many more hits on my blog, but have a little following of 3. I feel like I'm chatting to myself sometimes, so subscribe or comment. Would love to hear your thoughts or experiences with any of these items, or to just say 'hi' and let me know you dropped by.

Jean Shopping (A Dreaded Task)

I was in dire need of new jeans. I had 2 pairs die on me leaving me with a third that was wearing thin, and you know that one pair of jeans that are too small, but you keep anyway. I've been trying to wear them as little as possible and only wash after 2-3 wears (or if they needed it of course). You know, in an attempt to baby them into lasting until I could get the new ones.

I decided to try out Buckle's factory second jeans. They only sell these online, but they are about $36 compared to retail price of $66 to $80. These jeans are seconds. This means the sizing may be off. They may say 27 waist, but are actually a couple sizes smaller or larger. The inseam may say 29", but the inseam will be much longer, or shorter. They may be marked as a skinny fit when they really aren't. They may have mis-stitched a portion, or did too much grinding/sanding. You won't know what the situation is until you have the jeans in your hand, or you may not really notice any issues.

I got 3 different cuts, 2 different waist sizes, and 2 different inseams. One pair seemed true to inseam size, and 2 to waist size. Of course the pair that was actually short enough for me was the pair that seemed to run smaller than it was labeled. The other 2 are a little longer than they should be, and one looks like they might have done too much destruction on the thigh area. It's nothing I'd consider terrible though and it's definitely still a good pair of jeans. I will just need to have them both hemmed up, but the total cost will still be considerably less than buying them at retail price.

These jeans do not come with free alterations like Buckle's full priced, in store jeans. They are not refundable either, but you can exchange them. The next pair they send might not have the same issue as the first pair you received. I'm exchanging my one 'bad' pair. The return shipping to them is on me, but the pair they send me will have free shipping (Just got an e-mail that they got the jeans, but my choices were out of stock by the time they got them back. I got a gift card mailed to me instead.).

I got a BKE Stella Stretch jean in the Hershey II wash. These were a 28 x 31. The waist seems true to size, but the inseam on these are long. I can't see any cosmetic differences from what they show. There doesn't seem to be any issues other than them being longer than they say, which is easy to fix.

Then a BKE Sabrina Stretch jean in the Kearney wash. These were the same size as the Stella and had the same issue. No cosmetic issues, but were just longer than the inseam says they are.

The third pair was the pair I was most excited about, and they didn't fit. They were the BKE Madison stretch in the Bristol wash. These were a 27 x 29. I was thinking they'd be good with flats and sneakers being shorter, and I really liked the lighter wash. The waist size seemed to be the problem with these. The 28s are loose on me, so a 27 should have been a better fit, but these were very tight at the waist and thigh.

Then I really liked that Buckle has free shipping for military, and they used Priority mail! The jeans took just over a week to arrive, which is spectacular for FPO/APO shipping.

I had meant to take photos so you could see how ridiculously long they were, but this post has been sitting here forever now. They are already being hemmed, so a bit too late. Life kind of took over for a bit, but that happens.

Back at it (update about what rock we were hiding under)

I know I sort of disappeared for almost 2 weeks. We had a long, rough week last week. One of those weeks were if things were going to go wrong, they did. On top of all that , all week they had us scheduled for some sort of maintenance. We were without power, water, or phone/internet/tv just about every day for a large chunk of the day. Not a huge deal, but when stuff is adding up against you, it's a huge pain.

Poor Amara didn't sleep well last week, so neither did I. She kept having nightmares, I think. One night she'd just wake up crying. Then the next she would wake up crying and incoherently babbling something about needing to clean something up. I couldn't figure that one out. I guess she was having a nightmare about something being messy. She does like things to be clean. Like tonight, she went around the roller hockey rink at derby practice and picked up ALL the trash. She put it all in her stroller, so we could make sure it got into the trash at home.

The dog also got sick last week 2 times. First time, he stole Amara's sandwich. Should be no big deal right? Wrong. It was whole grain bread, and he has a sensitive stomach along with grain allergies. He was up sick every couple hours that night. Then a few days later we took him in for his annual booster shots. Everything looked great. Still gaining weight back on. Good labs. Go home happy and all is well. Then about 4.5 hours later he starts blowing up like a balloon. He had a terrible reaction to the shots. I ended up staying up with him pretty much all night making sure it didn't get worse or start giving him trouble breathing. Took 2 days for that to go down and him being doped up on Benadryl.

In addition to all that, we were minimum skills testing for roller derby. You have to pass this test in order to pick out your derby name and number (or yearly to renew), and more importantly actually participate in a bout. We had practice Sunday - Wednesday every day for 1-2 hours. One day was indoors since it rained. We took our written test and had dinner together (I was soooo thankful to not have to cook and just sit there in good company). I think we have a day or 2 more of testing to do this week since the rain was not kind to us last week.

Friday and Saturday we did some volunteer work with the derby team (friend the team!). We did a fundraiser with Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society selling hot dogs. Then Saturday we had a booth at the base to base run and 1/2 marathon. We were handing out fruit and water to the runners, and giving sugar highs to their kids with some baked goodies and Easter eggs. I had a few people at this point asking if I was okay since my eye bags had bags and their own dark circles at this point.

By Sunday I was ready to fall over. We had a pajama and Disney movie kind of day. It was just what I needed. I'm finally starting to feel human again. Oh the joys of Navy life and getting to deal with stuff like this all alone from time to time.

The All Natural Face Sampler

I've had this sampler for a LONG time (postage date says (08/24/2012), but just haven't used it all that much. I recently recollected all of it and started looking it over again. The All Natural Face is an Etsy shop and a website specializing in vegan mineral makeups and beauty supplies. Anything from foundation, eye shadow and blush to deodorants and hair care items. I got this sampler from the website because not all items are available on Etsy. 

Get Started Green Kit sampler is a little bit of everything powdered mineral make up for only $23. It came with things like powder mineral foundation, eye shadow, blushes, veils, and mineral powder concealers. Then 2 different brushes: a mini kabuki and an eye shadow brush. 

• Foundation: You can pick your color range fair to medium, or medium to dark. Then you get all of the colors in your range. For my range, this was 28 different foundations. Seems overwhelming right? There was also a little direction card on how to find your correct shade. I also easily eliminated a large chunk of them just by looking. I'm ghosty white, so obviously Tan or Olive isn't going to work. I don't want to look like my face is brown , or green. I thought I had found the perfect one, but then I wore it out one night and my husband kept commenting on how I looked even paler than usual. Guess I need to go back to the drawing board on that one. They also claim if none of these are the right foundation that they will work with you to make one that will be a perfect match. 
• Eye Shadow: You get 20 random eyeshadow samples in little plastic pots. They look like they each have enough for an application or 2. I also got 2 bonus samples of eye shadow in this order because they usually send a sample or 2 free with you purchase. I got a wide assortment of colors. Every color of the rainbow in some shade or another plus white, black, brown, gold and silver. 
• Glows: I got 7 different glows (which I believe is all the shades the have). They can be used for pretty much anything from my understanding. Such as blush or by itself with no foundation just for an all over healthy glow. They could also be used as nice neutral eye shadows. 
• Blush: You get all the blushes too. That is 26 different ones. Once again, sounds overwhelming, but there are some that obviously I would not be able to wear with my skin tone. 
• Veil: You get all 3 mineral veils as well. This can be used to finish you look. Will help your foundation stay put. 
• Concealer: You get all 6 concealers too. They are each designed to do something different. I was mostly interested in Midas, Patina, and Salmon. Salmon does what Mida and Patina do alone. The other 3 don't really apply to me.        

1. Midas: covers dark circles.           
2. Patina: covers rosacea and redness.           
3. Dawn: Balances out skin that appears too yellow.
4. Parrish: Balances out orangey-ness especially from tanning beds. 
5. Ecru: Gives darker skin an inner subtle glow. Gives you a soft focus to your appearance. 
6. Salmon: Salmon is good for medium skin tones. Good if you normally wear brown concealer. 

You can order the kit, or samples of these individually. For example, a sample of a concealer is .35 cents for one, or $1.75 for all. You could easily build your own sampler. Since I have no make up and had no idea what I would like, I figured this larger sampler might be better. If you have an idea of what you are after al a carte might be better for you. 

From what I remember, service was fast and so was shipping. I had some sort of coupon code too. I think for free shipping maybe? It was a long time ago. They post specials here and I'm seeing they have started up a monthly beauty box like Birchbox or Ipsy for $15 a month guaranteeing $20 in product and extra samples to boot. 

I did drag this out and attempt to use it the other day. I was running on fumes and was trying to cover up my mommy/zombie look I had going on. I was too tired to make it work though. I think I actually managed to make myself look worse because I was just too exhausted. I want to give the foundation matching another go though. I like that this stuff is all natural, and vegan. I don't like putting a bunch of nasty, harsh chemicals on me. I just need to take some time to get used to it all. 

January Birchbox

This one got here a little faster! On the other hand, not really all that excited about anything I did get this month. I've had it a few days and it's just been sitting here.

Clark's Botanicals Smoothing Marine Cream sample sized exfoliating moisturizer. I'll try it, but it's so expensive that I'd never even consider buying the full size. No cream can really be worth $115.

Frownies Eye Gels 1 set sample. Fights puffiness and dark circles under your eye. This isn't a problem area for me, so not sure if I'll even try it.

Harvey Prince Skinny Girl fragrance. Supposedly, this fragrance helps fight cravings. I think it just smells bad though.

Keratase Nutritive Nectar Themique-Protect hair cream. I got 2 little foil packets of this. It's something I will use, but I really do like the coconut oil for leave in and you can't get anymore natural/chemical free than that.

theBalm cosmetics Put a Lid on it Eyelid Primer. I'll give this one a try too. I've never used a primer before.

I was glad to see there was no food in this box. I do like candy, but I'm pretty good at picking candy on my own and I'd rather have the extra beauty sample.



I've really been loving the Number 4 clarifying shampoo that I got in December's box though. I've only been using the sample bottle since I got it (so 2 weeks now). It's the first vegan, sulfate free shampoo I've been impressed with. It doesn't leave my hair feeling like it is super greasy and it doesn't dry it out either. You don't have to use much as long as you are mindful that it is not going to get foamy. Maybe half of the bottle is gone after 2 weeks. I might buy this one after the sampler is gone, if I can get over the cost. I just need to remember a little goes a long way and even though the bottle is small, it should last a long while.