Here we are again, it’s Birchbox time!   Absolutely beautiful box this time.  This month’s theme is “Live a life beautiful” and every subscriber received one of 10 different designs, each one designed by an Etsy seller.  Mine is the Constance and Clay one, and it’s so pretty!  I love bright colours and purples anyway, but I really love the way they’re put together in this design.  I shall definitely be hanging on to this one for storage.

So, what’s in the box?  This time we’re back to the drawer opening style of box…

Shiny things!

So, from left to right, the contents of the box are:

• CLÉ Cosmetics Melting Lip Powder in Blushing Peach (Sample)
• Rituals Happy Buddha Foaming Shower Gel (Sample)
• Dirty Little Secret Eye Shadow Crayon in Gold Plated – full size product, RRP £10.50
• Number 4 Sugar Spray (Sample)
• Dr Botanicals Pomegranate Superfood Regenerating Sleeping Mask – another full size product, RRP £14.90

And here’s the box insert:

As always, full and further information together with details on how to subscribe can be found on the Birchbox Website.

As you will know from my previous post, I’ve had a bit of a rough ride with my health lately so there hasn’t been too much in the way of testing yet.

First of all, I won’t be testing the Number 4 Sugar Spray.  I will be finding a good home for that one elsewhere.  It’s designed to provide extra texture to your hair – and if there’s one thing (other than grey hair) that I already have far more of than I know what to do with, it’s texture!  Straight in the “donate” box with that one.

Second, the Dirty Little Secret Eye Shadow Crayon.  This is the second month in a row that I’ve had an eye shadow crayon, and as I said last month, they simply don’t suit my super-oily skin type.  Absolutely no disrespect intended to the product, it’s just not for me.  A second one to be donated to a good home.

The CLÉ Cosmetics Melting Lip Powder…  wait, what?  This is one of the strangest things I’ve encountered to date in the makeup world.  So what is it?  Well, when it’s in the tube, it’s a powder.

But when you apply it to your skin, it melts into a very thin liquid, which dries down to a matte-ish finish:

The observant among you will notice that this is on the back of my hand and not on my lips.  Suffice to say, I applied it to my lips and it did not go well!  The liquid that it melts down to is so thin that it promptly spreads all over the place, making it very difficult for me to get an even coating.  It takes a long time to dry, and when it does it’s incredibly patchy, even on a second coat.  The colour is less peach and more orange, sadly.  Also, a more minor thing but still: it tastes horrible!  I’m sorry to say, this one has been consigned to the dustbin of history.    You win some, you lose some!

That’s it for now – the Dr Botanicals mask and the Rituals shower gel are up for testing in the next couple of days, I’ll report back later on those.

DISCLAIMER: This review is not sponsored by Birchbox, Dirty Little Secret, CLÉ Cosmetics, Dr Botanicals, Number 4 or Rituals, and I have no affiliation with any of them.  I have not been paid or otherwise compensated for this review, and I (or my very generous husband) pay for every product I review. All opinions are my own unless otherwise stated.