Loose Powder

My Birchbox was a little bit late this month and having seen the goodies my mother got in hers, I was anxious for it to arrive! Their theme for November is Getting Gifty and the box is supposed to include some gift ideas for you.

When I opened my box, I discovered I had a lovely bonus item! The black wood pop bracelet from BaubleBar is a special thanks from Birchbox for referring friends, giving feedback, and purchasing from the shop. Here’s a photo of the bracelet and contents of the box:

So what else did I get in this month’s box?

• Klorane Soothing Eye Makeup Remover with Cornflower water
• LaROCCA Skincare Champagne and Shimmer Body Polish – featuring 24K colloidal gold
• Oscar Blandi Jasmine Protein Mist
• Zoya Nail Polish in Noel (sample size)
• Treat: Chuao Chocolatier – Firecracker Chocopod (dark chocolate laced with chipotle and popping candy)

And some close up photos of the contents:

The Zoya polish I had already purchased in full size, so I’ll probably be gifting this sample, but I do love the color. It’s blue with fine silver glitter – great for winter.

The Oscar Blandi hair mist does have a nice, light scent (which I wouldn’t call jasmine) and works okay to revitalize second day hair. My hair doesn’t tangle much day to day, but it does add some smoothness without being sticky. I don’t use heat tools in my hair so I’m not sure how well this works for breakage. Would probably use the rest of the sample, but not sure about purchasing a full size.

I haven’t yet use the Klorane makeup remover, but I’ll definitely try it out with all these mascaras I’ve been wearing lately. I do like that it doesn’t contain any oils and is good for sensitive eyes.

LaROCCA’s body scrub has a texture similar to Body Shop’s scrubs.. of course the Body Shop scrubs don’t contain 24K gold. It’s a nice sample to try, but I don’t think I’ll be purchasing a scrub that’s so expensive!

I do love chocolate, so when I heard that Chuao samples were making their way into November’s box, I was excited! Unfortunately, I dislike both chipotle and popping candy.

Despite having items I wouldn’t purchase full sizes of, I’m quite happy with my box this month overall.

Zoya‘s Jem is part of the Fall 2011 Mirrors collection. It’s a dark purple polish with pink shimmer and gold duochrome flakes.

I love this polish in the bottle, but on the nail it was difficult to see the gold duochrome flakes even in direct sunlight. You can see a bit of it in the first photo with the bottle, but on the nail you can only see the pink microglitter.

Because I wanted more of the duochrome look, I added a coat of nfu-oh’s NFU 51 to the top half of my nails and it was a much more interesting look – and more what I was hoping for out of the bottle, to be honest.

NFU 51 is a purple jelly packed with large duochrome flakes that shift from orange to gold to bright green. It looks so great on top of Jem!

I added a coat of Finger Paints top coat. The manicure last about 4 days, but I admit to not following my usual application of thin coats and waiting for each to dry before adding more. I will probably try this manicure again – I love the look of the nfu-oh on top of this Zoya color.

Zoya nail polish is available from their site for $8 a bottle. I bought my nfu-oh from Fabuloustreet.com.

Tao is part of Zoya’s Fall 2011 Smoke & Mirrors Collection. It’s described as a, “light smoke grey with blue undertones and a muted, softened metallic finish.” That’s a perfect description of this great color.

I used two coats of polish with my normal base & top coat. The manicure lasted about a week, which is about normal for me and Zoya polishes.

Tao is available from Zoya, whose nail polishes are all formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) or camphor.

A quick but fancy manicure that I put together to wear out for Liz‘s bachelorette party!

I started with a metallic silver base – two coats of Zoya Trixie. Once dry, I applied one quick coat of China Glaze Black Mesh Crackle polish. The ringg fingers I left silver so I could apply a floral water slide decal. Finished it off with two coats of top coat to smooth out the crackle.

This manicure was quick to put together, but looks much more complicated. Very fun to wear!

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.

Here’s another manicure using China Glaze Crackle polish!

I applied two coats of Zoya’s Trixie, a silver foil polish. (I think Sonia Kashuk has a similar silver polish for sale now.)

This is a great polish, but it feels kind of Christmas-y. On top of that I applied a thin coat of China Glaze’s Crackle polish in Crushed Candy – a light turquoise color that is similar to For Audrey.

Like all crackle polishes, apply thickly for larger cracks and thinly for smaller cracks. Brush the polish on quickly and with a minimum of strokes.

I really like this look and got a few compliments during the week I wore it. I think next time I will try this crackle polish with a copper base.

Zoya’s Sam is a very dark red creme that’s almost brown in lower light.

Two coats were enough for bottle color and I used Essie 3-Way Glaze for the top coat. This manicure lasted about a week, which is standard for most Zoya polishes I have used.

Sam is available from Zoya, whose nail polishes are all formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) or camphor.

Strangely, it’s been a long time since I’ve swatched a Zoya polish. Not sure how that happened! Anyway, here’s a look at Harley, a light grey pearl polish from the Twist Collection.

Only two coats were needed to get bottle color. Depending on the light, this grey will be a little bluish in tone.

Like most of the Zoya polish I’ve used, there was very little edge wear after a week.

Zoya polishes are free of toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and are vegan friendly.

This was one of the polishes I got from Zoya during their Polish Exchange. I only just got to try it and it might be one of my favorite Zoya polishes!

Charla is a pretty aqua blue with a silvery/teal shimmer in sunlight and a green with gold shimmer in incandescent light. It took two coats to get bottle color.

The polish looks like it’s a glitter, but it’s all shimmer and very smooth. I love it as a summer color! Now I want to get the other polishes in the Sparkle Collection, especially Mimi, Ivanka, and Nidhi.

After about a week, there is little tip wear, but I have been adding top coat about every two or three days. I think that is helping to extend the life of my manicures.

Zoya polishes are free of toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and are vegan friendly.

I love dark red nail polishes and this is no exception!

Zoya’s Colbie is a dark red with metallic shimmer. The red shifts a little bit depending on the light. In the pictures below, you can see the difference between direct sunlight (left) and indirect sun (right).

Two coats got me the coverage I wanted and there were no brush stokes. This is a very pretty red and will definitely be worn again!

Colbie is available from Zoya, whose nail polishes are all formulated without formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) or camphor.