Glamming it Up: My First Glam Bag!

For those of you who have known me a while, I never do anything once when I can go overboard and do it twice. So when I signed up for Birchbox, I signed up with MyGlam, too. No, I probably don’t need to subscribe to either of these services, but so far I kind of love them both. I’m certainly not ready to cancel either one yet!

Here we go – it’s the Glam Bag packaging! Woo!

Rather than a box, you get a cute little make-up bag. Nice!

There was a short note from MyGlam founder and my new bestie, Michelle Phan!

And of course, what we’re really all here for, the products!

My January Glam Bag included:

• Sheer Cover Duo Concealer: My skin totally cooperated and cooked up a horrible blemish for me to try out this product. I usually use a powder concealer, but this cream concealer had a nice texture to it. I applied it with a concealer brush and it gave good coverage. I liked that the concealer came with two tones for custom blending. I’ll admit that I went back over my problem areas with my usual powder concealer at the end. But I’ll definitely use this when I opt for tinted moisturizer over my usual powder routine.
• Wen Sweet Almond Mint Cleansing Conditioner: This is an odd product. I’m a diehard Head and Shoulders user due to dandruff (ugh!), so I don’t often mess around with new shampoos. But I did give this a try. Read my full review (with photos!) later in this post.
• Freeman Cucumber Facial Peel-Off Masque: Masks are the step in my beauty routine that I’m mostly likely to skip, but this was fairly simple and I was pleased with the results (see below). I’ll try this again. And it was nice getting the full-size of this product!
• theBalm Cosmetics Hot Ticket Nail Polish: I love theBalm, but have never tried their nail polish before. I was impressed with the color and quality. Check out my photos below!

We all know I can’t really paint my nails, so disregard the technique and focus on the glam color, okay? The polish gave great coverage and went on nice and smooth. I like it!

Here I am with Freeman’s Cucumber Facial Peel-Off Masque all over my face. Sexy!

Next time, I’ll apply a lighter layer. And I will try not to get so much goop in my eyebrows and hair. The masque has a nice tingling feel as it’s drying. But you really do have to give it a good tug to get it off…

Um… That’s gross.

Horrible camera quality (and my bathroom mirror really, really needs to be cleaned and no, I did not pick out that wallpaper), but I do think my skin looks soft and kind of glowy after the masque was removed. My pores seemed clean and tight afterward, too.

As I mentioned above, I’m pretty tied to my regular shampoo due to my problem scalp. You can see a “before” picture to the left. Wen Sweet Almond Mint Cleansing Conditioner is supposed to take the place of both your shampoo and conditioner. It doesn’t really lather up, but you massage it in and then rinse it out. The package said you could also use a small amount as a leave-in conditioner. I’m often scared of using too much product and getting left with greasy hair, so I worked the teensiest, tiniest dab through my wet hair.

I’m prone to frizz and Wen definitely helped with that. I also think my hair is softer and shinier. It definitely, definitely made it easier to comb through my wet hair and I guess that’s a good thing. And I love the smell of almond and mint, so the scent was a big hit with me. You can see my “after” picture to the right. Again, I’m taking crappy self-portraits in bathroom mirrors, so you can’t really tell what my hair looks like. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I saw improvement!

Once again, $10 brought me a lot of joy. Can’t wait to see what MyGlam sends me in February!

My First Birchbox

I was super excited when my January Birchbox came in the mail!

And what do I do when I get super excited? I take about a million pictures.

OMG, IT’S PINK!!!

OMG, IT’S THE BOX!!!

Yep. Still the box. Believe it or not, I didn’t include every picture I took in this post.

The theme for January is “Clarity”.

I was really impressed with the packaging and extra material included in the box.

At least one of these photos is totally gratuitous, but I thought the pink tissue paper and simple black ribbon was too adorable not to capture on film.

And finally, we come to the products! This is what it’s all about, right?

I’ve already sampled everything and here are my first impressions:

• Juicy Couture Juicy Couture: I’m not a huge fan of the Juicy Couture brand and that’s okay. I don’t think I’m Juicy’s target demographic. Its eponymous scent is described as a “sweet floral” and it’s sweet alright. It reminds me of the scents I used to wear in high school. I don’t hate it, but I think I’m just a little too old for Juicy Couture.
• Miracle Skin Transformer Treat & Conceal: In general, I’m a fan of powder foundation and concealer. But this stuff is kind of amazing. The card says it’s designed to “correct, cover and protect”. I can’t speak to how it treats, but damn, this stuff does conceal. I tried it on my bare face – no primer, no foundation – and it covered my yucky problem pores like magic.
• VMV Hypoallergenics Re-Everything: Eye Serum: I don’t think I have a big problem with dark circles. Maybe I’m in denial? I patted some of this serum on and it left a nice, refreshed feel to the skin under my eyes. I’ll use it for a week or so and see if I notice anything different.
• Zoya Nail Polish in Megan: I’m already sporting a pretty sweet manicure in Sephora by OPI’s Domestic Goddess, so I haven’t tried this yet. But I love purple (obviously) and I’m eager to try the pale pastel trend.
• ‘wichcraft Granola: This stuffy is surprisingly yummy. I like granola, but I don’t love it so I wasn’t expecting much. This was a small sample, so I just popped it in my mouth straight out of the pack. And I was impressed. I liked it enough to look it up online and discovered it’s the brainchild of Tom Colicchio, of Top Chef fame, and his ‘wichcraft sandwich shops.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get better, I found this list of Mini Detoxes in the bottom of my box. There are some fun tips here. I did something very similar with my own closet as part of my New Year’s Resolutions. And then I flipped the card over and found one last little love note.

Thanks, Birchbox! I can’t remember the last time something that only cost $10 made me so happy!

Daily Ablutions

Beauty Non-Essentials by jennyexiled on polyvore.com

Now you know why so much of my money goes to Sephora, Urban Decay and my local Mary Kay lady!