What’s In My April 2016 Birchbox?

It’s that time of the month again! My April Birchbox came in a week ago, and I’ve had a bit of time to test out the products and give y’all a full review. Let me first start off by saying this box is beautiful. Birchbox collaborated with Rifle Paper Co. to make this modern floral design, and I love how perfect it is for springtime! Now on to the products…

1. Beaver Repair Rescue Shampoo | Full-size, $15.90
This Beaver shampoo claims to strengthen damaged hair, prevent further breakage, and make hair soft and manageable with ingredients like collagen proteins and ceramide. I really appreciate that this shampoo is free of parabens and silicones, but it has an odd fruity scent that I’m personally not a fan of, even though I usually enjoy fruity scents. Thankfully, the smell wasn’t offensive after I let my hair dry. This shampoo left my hair feeling soft, but it’s not my favorite, due to the scent…and the packaging. It might sound silly, but packaging is the first thing that catches my attention, and the beige color, font choice, and amount of words on this shampoo bottle didn’t impress me. Besides those points, I think this is a great size sample – perfect for travel. This 60 ml size is worth around $3.70.

2. Beaver Repair Rescue Conditioner | Full-size, $16.90
This Beaver conditioner is worth $3.21 and pairs with the Beaver shampoo above. Similar to the shampoo, this conditioner claims to heal damaged hair with the same active ingredients of collagen proteins and ceramide. The texture of this conditioner is quite thick and creamy, and it felt nice when I applied it to my hair. Unfortunately, this conditioner isn’t the best I’ve used. Although it didn’t leave me feeling amazed, it’s still a decent one, and I’ll finish up the bottle when I travel. One thing I think is odd about the full-size conditioner is that it’s $1 more expensive than the shampoo even though it has less product. Does anyone know why that would be the case?

3. Penhaligon’s Levantium Eau de Toilette | Full-size, $170
Beware: my thoughts of this product aren’t good. This Penhaligon scent smells expensive, and it’s definitely not my style. I can see how some few would appreciate it. This perfume is just way too heavy on the saffron and absinthe, and it dries down to a very unpleasant, musky, heavy finish. I’m only 19, and this stuff makes me stink like a flowery grandma who smokes. I don’t know how much the sample size is worth, since it’s not labelled on the vial, but I could never justify paying $170 for the full size – especially since this stuff reeks! Read the reviews on the Birchbox website yourself…they’re quite funny.

4. Acure Organics Pore Minimizing Facial Scrub | Full-size, $12.99
I was excited to find this Acure Scrub in my Birchbox, because I’m a big fan of their Cell Stimulating Face Mask, as mentioned in the “My Favorite Face Masks” post last week. This scrub uses ingredients like Moroccan red clay and exfoliating black jojoba seeds to minimize the appearance of pores. It smelled oddly soapy, but I enjoyed the fun red color. This scrub makes a great exfoliator, but I can’t say that it minimized the size of my pores, since mine weren’t too large to begin with. This sample size is worth around $3.25, but I wouldn’t purchase the full-size product, since minimizing my pores isn’t a skincare concern of mine…yet. Fingers crossed it doesn’t happen!

5. Au Naturale Mini Face Palette in Lively | Full-size, $42
I chose this Au Naturale Palette as my sample choice this month, because I planned on flying out to the Northwest next week and thought this might be a great replacement for lipstick, blush, and highlighter. Sadly, I cancelled my trip. And sadly, after playing around with this product, I wish I hadn’t chosen it as my sample choice. I loved the idea of this 3-in-1 packaging, but the sizes are inconveniently small, making the products hard to use – especially the blush. Also, this makeup smells like play makeup you used to wear as a kid. I didn’t enjoy the color payoff or texture of the shimmery blush and highlighter, but I did like the bright color of the lipstick. I can’t figure out what this sample size is worth, since the size of the full-size products aren’t stated clearly online, but the three full-sized items together is priced at $42.

I’m happy to share honest reviews of all these products, because I love testing out new products and finding things that what work for me, so they might work for you, too! Overall, I was disappointed in this box. First, every product I received smelled odd or just plain bad. Second, I don’t usually like receiving perfumes in my boxes, because I am very loyal to my Stella McCartney “Stella” Eau de Parfum, a scent that’s been my favorite for years. Regardless, I loved the design of this box and appreciate that there was a 20% off code to purchase something from Rifle Paper Co. My March 2016 Birchbox Review and February 2016 Birchbox Review are also on the blog, and I promise those products are more promising. Be sure to follow along on Instagram @sarah_thebella for more beauty finds and reviews. See you back here soon!