Tombox/Swaagbox Review

Hi, everyone! 

I received a free Tombox to review for my blog. I'm so happy I was chosen as this box is a fantastic deal! Get your first box for $8 when you click here.. To begin, subscribers take an in-depth quiz to determine the best products to be sent. Here are the payment options for Tombox.  

Let me take you through what I received in my box! First, I love the packaging. The box labeled "beautiful" contained all of the products. Nice touch, Tombox.

 My first item was this delicate lip brush. The bristles are so soft. I couldn't find the brand name, but I do appreciate getting the brush.

 This is why I love subscription services like Tombox. I get to try items I would normally never buy for myself. The ring came packaged in a bag to keep it safe. This silver ring is fashionable and goes with many outfits. I like that the ring itself is flexible so most ladies will be able to wear it.

 For me, the ring fits best on my middle finger. Please excuse the grown out nail polish.

 The next item is an ankle bracelet with summer-inspired charms. Again, this is a piece I normally would not choose for myself, but it is a perfect accent to a summer outfit.

 I chose these because they are my favorite brand of tampons. Subscribers may choose to get tampons or pads when they subscribe.

This Cargo shadow retails for $16; that's the cost of one box! The shadow is silky and blends easily.  This full size is quite a large size for an eye shadow. I blended out the shadow, but you can see how pigmented it is.

 The next item is a liquid liner from Skone in black. The retail value is $15. I love the way it glides on and stays in place.

The Real Chemistry Peel is a fabulous product. I love getting samples of this because the full size retails for $48 on their website. The peel is interesting because you apply it, leave it on for 20 seconds, then rub your face. The product will ball up, essentially taking off dead skin and impurities. My skin is soft and not irritated after this peel.

This Be a Bombshell lip crayon is in the color Shameless. The retail value is $16. I did not swatch this because I already have one. The color lasts a long time without drying out my lips. 

Styled by Hayadi Pure Happy Smooth Smoothing Keratin is the next product in my box. According to the Styled by Hayadi website, this product Weightless smoothing Keratin infused styling lotion. Seals the cuticle and controls frizz, visibly improving the appearance of hair immediately. When used with heat, shine and smoothing are intensified. "

The last item is a Maybelline New York Color Show nail polish in Urban Utopia ($2.99). I am a sucker for limited edition items, and this one is no different! The color is unique and beautiful for summer. I do not have any other color like this one. Again, thank you, Tombox for breaking me out of my everyday routine!

Overall, Tombox is an excellent value! Not only will subscribers get feminine products, they also get an assortment of jewelry, skincare, haircare, and makeup products that well surpass the subscription price! Thanks for reading! Please comment below with what you think of Tombox!

Bite Beauty's got a hold on me!

Hi. I'm Jenn and I'm a Bite Beauty addict. Buckle in because this post is a longer review of various Bite Beauty products. This company took a chunk out of my wallet and my heart! These are my new holy grail lip products. They are pricey, but the most pigmented lip product I've tried. I decided to get the holiday gift sets so I could try as many colors as possible.

My addiction started with the first two pictures. I wanted to find a new nude color so the $12 double-ended Luminous Creme lip set was perfect. Restina and Musk are perfect nude colors for my skin tone. In the same visit to Sephora I purchased the $25 Best Bite Remix set. The colors range from nude to red in a durable travel case.  The last item I purchased was the Cinnamon Plumping Oil. Sephora states, "A 99%-natural cinnamon- and Resveratrol-infused lip oil that naturally hydrates, shines, and plumps the appearance of lips in one spicy swipe." I LOVE lip plumpers and cinnamon so this is a definite win for me. I like to wear this over any of the colors below.  

 I have swatches on my hand of the four colors (with and without flash). From the bottom up: Sable, Rhubarb, Winterberry, Pomegranate.

The bottom two colors are Musk and Restina from the $12 Mix n Mingle mini. 

This is Sable, a my-lips-but-better color. I hate when I look in the camera so I'll be looking off into space in the others lol.

 Rhubarb is beautiful for a little more color on the lips.

 Winterberry busts me out of my comfort zone. I love this berry color for winter.

Pomegranate is a bright, but wearable red. I've tried to tone this down by layering a nude color by Bite and it's still beautiful, but wearable.

The is the actual size of each pencil. I know it may not look like a lot of product, but a little goes a VERY long way. 

After I tried and feel madly in love with the two sets, I had to get more. I went back to Sephora to get two lip crayons. Again, I wanted to try the minis before committing to the full size. Glace and Augburgine chanted my name from their containers. I heard awesome reviews from Youtubers so I got Glace because I can never have enough nude lip colors in my life. I wanted to try a vampy purple since I don't have any in my lip collection. Augburgine proved to be a perfect fit in my lip wardrobe. 

Augbergine

Glace

Swatches of both

I like variety when it comes to my lip products.  My lip collection is complete with nudes, berries, red, and wine colors. With how pigmented these are, the minis will last for quite some time. I'm now saving up for more Bite Beauty products like the Agave lip mask and the BB for lips. I assure you, my love affair will continue. Let me know what other Bite colors and/or products I should try!

Influenster #frostyvoxbox

This is my second favorite Influenster voxbox of 2014. My first was the Victoria's Secret voxbox. This Frosty box has everything for a woman to be ready for 2015. As always, I was sent these free products to test and review.

 This is an overview of all of the products that came in the box.

These Fruit Vines didn't last a day in my house, lol. These bite sized, chewy snacks were delicious without being overly sweet. These retail for $1.79. 

The McCormick brand of seasonings is a trusted name brand of seasonings. Thyme is not purchased in my house, but I'm not sure why. It goes with most meats and smells like the holidays. I would recommend rubbing any dry seasoning in between your hands before using it to "wake up" the flavor. I'm excited to see a quick search brought up 89 recipes! I am also a part of their consumer panel. I've only been invited to try one product, but it was free! This full size product retails for $4.79.

I love this tea! The minty flavor soothed my overworked voice from the end of the school. This is perfect for the times I want a hot drink besides coffee and hot chocolate. The two packets didn't have a price.

 The No. 7 serum serum packet is supposed to provide the best anti-aging results. My skin is acting up right now so I will keep you posted when I try this. The full size retails for $22.99.

This Ecotools brush is effective with most of its claims. My hair took less time to blow dry and was less frizzy. Unfortunately, it isn't as soft as my Wet brush. 

 Very flexible bristles against the open base. This retails for $11.99.

These next three products are makeup products! I never tried these products, but I have different NYC and Rimmel products. I love trying new makeup!

 These are the swatches of the lipstick and liner in natural light with no flash.

 This is a full size lipstick from NYC in Sugar Plum. In the tube this looked extremely frosty (old lady), but the color is actually complementary to my skintone. I cannot get over the level of moisture and shine. It is perfect for an everyday look or a night out.  For $1.99 I can't wait to try more colors!

The last products from the voxbox are both from Rimmel London. The Scandaleyes Kohl Kajal liner in black is raved about on Youtube. The swatch above was one pass on my hand! Not only is this affordable at $4.49, it also is long lasting. I have trouble with liners staying in place. This one did not fail me. It is just as long lasting as my Stila liner. 

 Because the liner is so waterproof, you do need an effective remover. This Rimmel Just Let it Go remover is perfect. My HG remover is the Clinique Take the Day Off balm, but this is my new favorite liquid remover. It's safe for contact wearers and sensitive skin. I dab a little on a cotton round, place over my eye for 10-15 seconds, then begin gently swiping away my eye makeup. This is perfect for my gym bag! The remover costs $7.49.

The retail value of the box is about $33. I am extremely pleased with the amount of full size products and the fact that I will use all of these products. Please use this link if you are not a part of Influenster nation!

Baybeezmomma's giveaway winnings!

If you are not a fan of Amy's  blog, GO follow her now. I'm not a mother, but I love the variety of her blog posts.  I am honored to be the winner of her first giveaway. I won the Cynthia Rowley set. These pictures are courtesy of Amy's blog.

The colors are gorgeous, creamy, and blendable. I didn't experience a terrible amount of fallout either. I used all of the colors and the liner with no issues. I didn't use a primer because I wanted to see the actual colors and staying power for myself.

This picture is with the liquid liner. I like the color and the ease of application. I'm not a pro at liquid liner, but this product was easy to apply. Please don't judge my hair, lol. It's my weekend.

This is my finished looks. I think a primer would help blend these, but the application was easy due to the pigmentation.  I like that I can use one palette to create day or evening looks.

 Overall, I couldn't be happier with Amy for this giveaway! Cynthia Rowley made beautiful packaging for beautiful makeup products. I will be purchasing more of her products in the future! What have you tried from her line? Thanks for reading!

Why I LOVE Birchbox!

I was a long-time Ipsy lover. I loved that I got full-size products for $10/month. I found their rewards lackluster at best, and often I didn't like the color or product I received. Then, I found out about Birchbox from fellow makeup lovers on Facebook. I decided to try it because I got 100 free points (details to come) and a fellow Facebooker would send out a gift if I used her code. I figured, why not? Needless to say, I'm in love and canceling Ipsy. Birchbox typically sends only samples, but for $10/month PLUS 50-70 points/box, I can't beat it. I emailed customer service to ask if I could stop getting face creams (I have very sensitive skin), but still get eye creams and toners. While the answer was no, I was placed in a Beta group for Birchbox. I am allowed to choose how often I get products-face creams, eye creams, tools, perfumes, etc. I LOVE this because I can essentially choose what type of products I get. I hope this Beta testing works out because all members should be able to do this.

Let me explain the points. You get 10 points for each product you review from your box. That equates to about $5 to spend in the Birchbox store. Technically, I only spend $5/box if I review all of my products. When I signed up, I got 100 points so the box was basically free. You also earn points for every dollar you spend in the Birchbox shop. Ideally, you will love the samples so much you buy them. I like to save my points and splurge on something I would normally not buy.  For the first Birchbox purchase I bought the Juara set below. I love coffee, scrubs, and body butters, hence the reason why this set is perfect for me. The $49 was too steep for me to buy outright. The Caudalie set is perfect for winter for the perfect price. I decided to buy it since I was already placing an order. I'm so happy I did! This duo is amazing at moisturizing dry lips and skin.

Another beautiful thing about Birchbox is their Bonus Shop and % off specials. I got a free Mystery Pack, Ace Bonus Pack, free shipping, and 25% off my purchase. These sample packs can be disappointing like two foil packs. I'm staying optimistic that I will get something better this time. What should have cost $71 only cost me $5.75 thanks to my points. This is why I love Birchbox. Not only do I get to sample new products that I've never tried, I also get points to splurge on expensive products, or stock up on tried-and-true favorites. I will have a review on the actual products when I get them. 

What have you used your points on in the Birchbox store? Just for my readers I am offering a FREE gift if you use my code to sign up for Birchbox! Leave me a comment with your email so I can get your mailing address to send your free gift!

When I got my package, this is what the scrub looked like.

 The lid and seal were both broken. I'm not sure how this happened since it came in a gift box.

I emailed Birchbox immediately since this was my first order I ever placed. They handled the situation immediately by giving my 100 points and another Juara gift set for FREE. That is stellar customer service. 

InStyler review

Thanks to Vocalpoint.com I got to try InStyler products for free! I received:

• InStyler Max
• InStyler Ionic Style Pro
• The TULIP by InStyler
• Goodies for your guests-wide-tooth combs and bags 
  
  This picture shows my hair AFTER using the InStyler Max (pink in the photo). This is the OG of the InStyler products. The flagship product can add volume and curl hair in two different directions. It heats up quickly and is pretty easy to use. It curled the ends of my hair nicely. 
   Next, I tried the Ionic Styler Pro (the purple handle). This was trickier using the comb side. I start by brushing sections of my hair carefully to try to prevent snags. Then, I would wrap my hair and try to pull the comb through, but sometimes it would get stuck in my hair. I tried smaller sections, but it still happened. In the picture below the left side was straightened using the iron while the right side was curled with the comb side. I like the idea of two products in one, but this wasn't my favorite product.
  
  
  
  
   The most difficult to use, but my favorite product was the TULIP. I read the directions AND watched a tutorial before curling my hair. The next two pictures depict my first results.  I thought I had the swing of things.
  
  
  

  

  Then this happened! I followed the directions; I swear! 

  
  
  Shortly after, I got ambitious and tried to curl too much hair at once...never again. That was a tangled mess! Luckily, there's an "O" (for oh crap?!) on the bottom for these mistakes. After I regrouped and vowed to NOT lose to a machine, the results were amazing! I've never been able to get great curls like this with my long hair. The next pictures are my TULIP results. I'm in love with this machine. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I can't wait to have my friends over so I can share how awesome these products are! Thanks for reading! Please let me know which one you'd like to try!
  

  

  Please don't mind my no-makeup day.

  
  
  
  
  

November's Ipsy bag

This is what I got from Ipsy this month. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of these products.
1. Be a Bomshell eye base went on smoothly. It made my eye shadow last longer, but I still creased by hour 6 of applying my makeup. I will say, this is pretty typical of my eye makeup. My tried-and-true favorites bases are Too Faced Shadow Insurance and Nars. If you have recommendations leave them in the comments please!

2. The Elizabeth Mott liner was easy to apply, but extremely glittery.  couldn't get past the glitter, but the staying power/formula was awesome.

3. The LA Colors Chunky Lip Pencil has a fantastic formula. It was moisturizing, yet pigmented. The only problem was the color. I was not thrilled with how pink it appeared on me.

4. My favorite product was the Laura Mercier powder and fan brush. I don't know what the magical ingredient is, but the formula covers pores and shine like a dream. I tried using the fan brush to apply the powder, but found I love it more for highlighters and bronzers. My small complaint was that Ipsters didn't get a discount code. Thank goodness I'm a Sephora Rouge member. I earned a $25 off coupon. I'm going to buy the Mercier powder and a primer.

5. I didn't find anything spectacular with the Marc Anthony Oil of Morocco Argan Oil Volume Shine Hairspray except the incredibly long name. I'm not particular when it comes to hairspray. This one provides a decent amount of hold and smells great.

My overall grade for Ipsy this month is a C. I liked some of the products, but not enough to make me stay an Ipster (*gasp). I am doing the unthinkable and unsubscribing after December's bag. Birchbox won my heart.