November Birchbox

I am so sorry for the delay lovelies! Between work and catching a mean flu all over again, I've just been swamped. I missed you all though! Now onto my November Birchbox review, I received mine quite late last month, considering I usually receive them anywhere from the 10-15. I never did receive a shipping email but much to my surprise and delight, my box just showed up one day. After seeing all of the disappointment, I honestly didn't have high expectations. I'm glad though, once again BB came through and I was proved wrong.

 Tis the season of giving and thanks, that was the Birchbox theme for this month. They've already opened up the holiday shop for this year and so far things have been looking up for BB despite the hurricane Sandy tragedy. This month, BB made it well known that there would be shipping delays because of the recent events. Most people received their boxes by the 10th but a few, like me in fact received there's much, much later. I'm not going to complain though because I commend Birchbox for coming through after everything that happened, so many kudos to their staff.

Despite the BB staff giving us their best efforts this month, it was not without incident. From spilled body oils to actually including a men's cologne sample in some boxes this month, quite a few customers were less than satisfied, and I can't say that I blame them. It honestly irks me that BB would include a male item in some boxes (we have Birchbox Man for that!) but what followed that was a blatant plug for new BB Man subscribers covered up by a "holiday giving" scheme. I know, I know that BB is in fact a business and needs to make money but to take our subscription box that we pay for and swap out one of our samples for a male one so we can "give" it to a guy friend so that in turn he can hopefully sign up for BB Man is a new low. Shame on you Birchbox.

All in all though, I am absolutely thrilled with the box that I received. With the exception of the cupcake bath bomb that was sent to a few subscribers, I received everything that I had been eyeing in other boxes, so this was DEFINITELY a great month for me:

• Oscar Blandi Texture & Volume Spray
• ModelCO Fiber LashXtend Mascara
• Viva La Juicy "La Fleur" Perfume
• One Love Organics Aromatic Body Serum "Rose"
• Cranberry Soyjoy Bar
• Give Pillowbox
• Chromatic Gallerie $15 Coupon

I enjoyed everything but the CG coupon, in all honesty it's completely useless to me. If anyone would like the code I would be more than happy to give it to you. Just contact me via email or twitter. It expires 12/31.

I was DYING for this mascara but for me, it fell a little flat. The formula is VERY and I mean VERY dry. So much that I though the product may have been expired until others said the same thing. Despite that, I do like the mascara and I will use it, but as far as purchasing it's a definite no. Even with the lash fibers, I noticed no difference between this and my regular Maybelline mascaras. Be careful as well because quite a few fibers got into my eyes (OUCH) and it was NOT pleasant. 

The One Love Serum was nice, it absorbs into the skin quickly and the rose scent is light. Which I definitely prefer since i'm not that crazy about rose scents, they always seem a little musky to me. I didn't really notice any added moisture but it did leave my skin feeling soft and silky.

I really wanted to love the "La Fleur" perfume since I love Viva La Juicy but this one just didn't do it for me. The perfume by itself smells really good but once on me it smelled like pure watermelon. 

The stand out item for me was without a doubt the Oscar Blandi spray, I absolutely LOVE this product and I will definitely be purchasing the large size. I have always hated the smell of hairspray, even more so I've always hated how the smell lingers. With this, I don't have that, the product smells absolutely amazing and smells more like hair perfume than anything else. It also held my hairstyle in place but didn't make it crunchy or sticky and did not weigh my hair down.

 As much as I thought that I was going to despise the Soyjoy bar, it was actually very good and that speaks volumes for me because cranberry has always been something that I've never enjoyed. If this was available in a plain flavor or maybe even chocolate chip, it would probably be amazing. Get on it Soyjoy!

All in all, this was a great box for me and now I have my eyes on December! Happy Holidays everyone, I hope you are somewhere warm with the people you love. 

xoxo