Loose Powder

The December Eco-Emi box came in a brown box tied with a gold ribbon and, like the previous box, came with flyers from the companies included as well as some coupons. Inside, the box was loaded with goodies!

Here’s what was in my box:

• Greenology GreenShield Organic free and Clear Laundry Detergent
• Lauren Brooke Botanical Lip Gloss (winterberry)
• Whispering Pine candle by Wyck Candles
• Zambeezi Tangerine Lip Balm
• Patterned Footies by Maggies Functional Organics
• John Masters Organics Jojoba & Ginsing facial cleanser
• John Masters Organics Blood Orange & Vanilla body wash
• Artisana Organic Raw Cacoa Bliss
• Genesis Today Vitamin C with Zinc Chews
• Organic Candy Cane by The Natural Candy Store

I don’t know if I’m a fan of the random edibles from companies I’ve never heard of… but they probably won’t hurt me. From other reviews, it sounds like Eco-Emi includes lip balms every month, which is great for someone who goes through lip balms rapidly. The footie socks are great, though!

This is my second Eco-Emi box and I’m still not sure if I should keep the subscription or not. The contents of this month’s box is worth more than the $15/month subscription, but I’m still undecided since I’m not very interested in the food items it turns out. Might give it another month.

My December Birchbox arrived last week, but I’ve only just had the chance to take photos of the contents. This month’s theme is the holidays, of course, and the usually pink outer box had festive white snowflakes! Inside the box, the plum tissue paper was replaced with one that is white with very fine pearlescent glitter. Very pretty!

So very pretty! Definitely saving the tissue to reuse for gifting. Inside the box were five items that should all be fun to try out:

• Benefit Cosmetics, The POREfessional
• Harvey Prince Ageless (Perfume)
• Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Birchbox Pink
• Orofluido Beauty Elixir hair treatment
• Extra: Showstoppers Designer Fashion Tape
• Extra: EBoost Orange Natural Energy Booster

I haven’t used these products yet, but the Jouer samples I’ve gotten in my Birchboxes have all been great. The fashion tape could come in handy… if I ever wear a fancy dress that would need them, of course!

The Harvey Prince perfume is a light, fruity scent with notes of pink grapefruit, pomegranate, mango, and jasmine. I also love that these luxe perfume samples are now tiny sprayers instead of the traditional stopper tops which could get everywhere when you try to open them.

I don’t usually drink any of those energy boosting solutions, but perhaps I should give this a try as I’ve been feeling kind of run down lately.

Not super-wowed by this month’s box, but I’m still loving the monthly box of treats so I’m keeping my Birchbox subscription!

I got this sample size of Stila‘s Forever Your Curl mascara with a Sephora order a couple months back.

It’s a very tiny tube, but certainly good for traveling. I wouldn’t have purchased a full size of this without trying, so the sample was great to get.

The brush has very short bristles – almost as short as the plastic type brushes I like. I found the formula rather dry, though that meant it didn’t weight down my curled lashes and also didn’t leave globs of mascara in them.

Here are a few before and after sets:

The results are pretty subtle… I might as well not be wearing mascara at all. It definitely doesn’t give me noticeable length or volume. It did hold the curl better than some other mascaras, but i think that’s due to the drier formula that doesn’t weight the lashes down.

This is not a waterproof mascara, so it was easy to wash off with soap & water or eye makeup remover.

There was no flaking with this mascara and it wore all right, but the lackluster results are not worth $22 in my opinion. The mascara hunt continues!

Hey, guys! Here’s a super-quick review of Essence Stays On and On and On! mascara. I picked this up at Ulta for $3.99. The tube advertises a smudge and smear-proof mascara that adds volume but is easy removed with warm water.

The brush has shorter bristles than most of the mascaras I’ve tried so far. The formula is also rather dry.  Because I had so much trouble getting the mascara on, it ended up being a little messy, which you’ll see in the photos since I didn’t clean it up that well.

There is noticeable volume and some length, but I found the application a little clumpy. I think it works all right for a $4 mascara, but it certainly isn’t one of my favorites.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to use the rest of the tube, but it seems to dry out more with each subsequent use. Not a good thing!

Love & Beauty polish is carried in Forever 21 stores. I’ve always peeked at the colors, but nothing really caught my eye. Recently, I’ve started seeing some really fun colors. The first in a batch that I picked up is a cornflower blue with a rose gold duochrome shimmer.

In direct sunlight, you can see the polish looks mostly blue, but in indirect sunlight you can see the gold duochrome shimmer that shifts from rose gold to gold to gold with hints of green. The frustrating thing about these polishes is that the names are available online, but aren’t on the label anywhere, so if you can’t find the polish on their website you won’t be sure exactly what shade you have.

I loved this color! It looked different depending on the angle, which was really cool. Here are some more photos:

This manicure lasted the normal week for me with base & top coats. Application was smooth and I used two coats of polish. This color is a little sheer, though, and you could still see the nail line so I probably could have used a third coat.

Love & Beauty polish costs $1.96 per bottle and are available from Forever 21 in their stores or online.

With my fantastically stubborn eyelashes, traditional eyelash curlers don’t work for me. If I can get them to curl at all, it never holds and the lashes got right back to pointing straight down.

I recently saw a review by Eki for a heated eyelash curler. At first, it sounded a bit scary to be putting a heating element that close to your eye! Looking at other reviews, the girls seemed to have both eyeballs intact, so it was probably fine right?

The Panasonic Heated Eyelash Curler (model EH2351AC) had good reviews and for $10, it was a great deal!

I liked the form factor of this design, as opposed to some of the other ones I’ve seen that were more like a thin mascara tube. There is a simple on/off switch and the cap functions as a safety measure – with it on, the curler will be in the off position.

The head of the lash curler is a plastic comb with a flat top and teeth  on the sides. It also functions as a cover for the heating element underneath. DO NOT use the lash curler without the cover – you’ll definitely burn yourself and those heating elements get very hot! The third picture shows the indicator on the back of the head – when the tool gets hot, it will turn pink.

It did take a couple uses before I was used to using this and I’m not going to lie – I did kind of poke myself accidentally with the teeth. Thankfully, I wasn’t really injured nor did I burn myself. However, it definitely made me treat this thing carefully while learning to use it!

There are a few tutorials on youtube that might be able to help, so do a search for those.

Here are my before and after photos; sorry the before photo is so dark!

I really like that this looks more like a natural curl than the harsh angular crimp you get with a traditional curler. Without applying mascara, the curl does stay for several hours. Once I apply mascara, however, the curl falls a little almost immediately (depending on how heavy/wet the mascara is). It’s okay, though, since my lashes don’t go back to their normal state, which is to point straight down.

The best technique to use when curling your lashes is to hold the curler at the base of your lashes and press a little for a few seconds, then slide it up the lash to the tip and to the tips, and hold for a few seconds. Brushing a heated curler through does nothing – much like curling your hair.

Depending on the mascara, you can use the heated lash curler after your mascara is dry. This technique works really well with mascaras like imju Fiberwig and blinc. I’ve also tried it with Buxom mascara and it smooths out the lumps but the heat will melt the mascara a bit and remove some.

The heated eyelash curler runs on a single AA battery. I’ve been using it every other day for the last month and the battery is still good. The first couple times you use it, it will heat up very quickly and get very hot. Be careful! Each subsequent time, it will take a little longer for it to reach full temperature, but so far it’s still been quick – a minute or less. I haven’t tried using a rechargeable battery in this yet.

This is definitely the best tool investment I have made! If you have trouble with curling your lashes, be sure to check out a tool like this.

Eco-Emi is a monthly subscription sample box similar to Birchbox. I’ve wanted to try it out because it boasted having a varying selection of eco-friendly products that covered cosmetics, food, and household items. In August I’d placed myself on the wait list, which has been full for some time. In October it was announced that there would soon be no wait list, so I continued to wait for the subscriptions to open up.

I was a bit confused as to when I’d receive my box since there seemed to be a mixed opinion as to if you were charged the month before or not. My account was charged the first week of November, but I wasn’t sure if I would be getting a November box or a December box.

My first Eco-Emi box arrived on November 21, which was a very pleasant surprise! It arrived packed in a priority mail box, all of the items inside were wrapped individually in green tissue paper and all the items were tucked into a clear cosmetic bag.

It makes a very nice presentation… but seems a little environmentally wasteful? Along with the sample items, there was also a small pile of literature from the various companies included in this months box, among which were special coupon codes for future purchases.

There are quite a lot of items packed into the box! First some picture of the items and then I’ll list them:

• Keeki Ooh La La Lip Shimmer
• Hugo Naturals Vanilla & Sweet Orange Mist Spray
• Earths Beauty Mineral Eyeshadow (in Sunlight)
• Organic Excellence Wild Mint Shampoo & Conditioner
• Deep Steep Candy Mint Foot Cream
• Blissoma Refine Clay Renewal Face Mask
• Planet Botanicles Shea Butter Cream
• Soul Flower Button
• Sweet Riot Dark Chocolate

And here are some close up photos of the items:

It’s an interesting selection of items from companies I’ve never heard of. I haven’t tried many of these items yet, mostly because they aren’t really that exciting. I did get a charge notice for my December box, which should be arriving in a couple of weeks, but after that it’s likely I will discontinue my subscription.

Eco-Emi subscriptions are $15 a month with occasional special boxes for sale – usually leftover boxes from the previous month.

I’m still making my way through the polishes my friend gave me for my birthday and here’s the next one: Barry M polish in Cobalt Blue!

I wasn’t sure about this color from the looks of the bottle – it seems like almost an electric blue in some lights. Once applied, though, this might be my favorite color of blue polish! In incandescent light and shade it’s probably my favorite shade of blue polish!

I did end up applying three coats of this, but two coats would probably be enough. You can see in the third photo that in shade, it’s a deep blue that reminds me of the color of the TARDIS. Needless to say, I love it!

With a layer of top coat, this manicure lasted a little over a week. I will definitely be using this polish again in the future!