Loose Powder

This month’s Birchbox is co-curated by designer Cynthia Rowley. The box comes in a special sleeve and instead of the usual plum tissue paper, it’s a bright aqua!

As always, everything is neatly packaged and the smaller items are nicely wrapped and tied. Let’s see what I got in my box!

• AHAVA Mineral Hand Cream
• philosophy Purity Made Simple One-Step facial cleanser
• Redken Shine Flash 02
• Zoya Touch Collection – Shay (sample bottle)
• Extra: Kind Fruit & Nut Bar – Almond & Apricot

I didn’t get any sample packets in this box, but I didn’t mind that much. The only item I haven’t tried yet is the Philosophy facial cleanser, mostly because I’m still using the Philosophy foaming cleanser I own.

Ahava’s mineral hand cream smells and works great! I will probably keep it in my purse to use. The Zoya polish is nice and not too pink for my skin, but I don’t wear neutrals that often. The Redken Shine Flash works okay to make dull hair shiny and tame some fly aways. However, I thought the smell was unpleasant – reminded me of chemical cleaner. I might finish the sample, but I wouldn’t purchase it again.

My mother just subscribed to Birchbox and this month was her first box. She received a different Zoya polish (hers would have been too pink for me) and instead of the AHAVA hand lotion, she got a guava Korres shower gel (which smells great!). Just goes to show that boxes aren’t all the same!

Can’t wait for next month’s box of fun!

Birchbox is a subscription service. For $10 a month, you get a fun box filled with large sample sizes from various beauty brands.

I was asked to compare & review some of the cleansers I have used for eye makeup removal. Until recently, I haven’t used many difficult to remove items like mascara and eyeliner so my regular facial cleansers and a wash cloth seemed to work just fine.

However, once I began using eye primers (like Pixie Epoxy), mascara, and heavy eyeliner for smokey looks, I quickly discovered that the normal cleansers weren’t going to be effective. Sure, they worked — it just required a bit more scrubbing, which might be fine on other parts of your face, but around the eye? Not so much.

In this article, I’m going to talk about three products: Philosophy’s Purity Made Simple Foaming Cleanser, Philosophy’s Just Release Me Eye Makeup Remover, and Burt’s Bees Orange Essence Facial Cleanser.

You might be thinking it isn’t fair to compare one eye makeup remover against two face cleansers. Well, why not? Some people suggest using sunflower oil and that certainly isn’t a cleanser!

To start with, I picked several eye products: e.l.f. mineral eyeliner w/powdered eye shadow on top, e.l.f. waterproof eyeliner, NYC liquid eyeliner, Wet N Wild liquid liner, e.l.f. sugar kiss glitter liner, and NYC waterproof mascara.

And made four sets of lines on my arm with each product. I used Tarte Clean Slate primer underneath and let everything for about 3 hours.

My method for each product will be the same: I’ll use a q-tip with the product and some water. At the top of the test patch, I’ll use minimal pressure when rubbing on the product. Below that on the same patch, I’ll use a bit of scrubbing pressure, which you probably wouldn’t use on your eyelid. Then rinse with water and see what happens!

Now for the results!

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