December Birchbox

I joined Birchbox in November and really enjoyed my first shipment. I even purchased the full size of the Avene cleanser, which I love. I really cannot recommend it highly enough. The bottle says it's for oily and blemish-prone skin, and I am not either of those, but I have been remarkably and happily blemish free since I began using it. My skin is really soft now, too.

My December Birchbox was more hit-or-miss. It included a fragrance sample, for one thing, which...eh. I'm not crazy about most perfumes, and even less crazy about the sample of Harvey Prince Ageless I received. I would never buy this.

This month, all Birchbox subscribers got a tiny sample size of Jouer lipgloss in a signature color (although it looks suspiciously like the Peony color Jouer always offers) designed especially for Birchbox. It's a very bright pink, though less pink on the lips than you would expect, and shimmery. Not my taste, although it wasn't horrible looking. I doubt I will use it, though.

I have been using my sample of Orofluido Elixir and thus far I can't really see that it has any lasting wonderful effect, other than making my hair smell really really nice. Which is lovely but I'm not going to pay $30 for just that. I have yet to try this on wet hair, but I have no great enthusiasm about buying this.

I'm still undecided about my sample of Benefit The POREfessional. I've used it on the areas of my face that are the most...uh, pore-y and it...kind of works? I have some spots on either side of my nose and right above my eyebrows that kind of bother me, and I've applied this over makeup and I do find that it sort of diffuses the appearance of larger pores. However, the last thing I need is another pricey ($29) product to slap on my face every day, so I'm not at all sold on this. It just seems like a large investment for a minimal payoff.

Truly, I could care less about the Showstoppers fashion tape I received. I'm not a 19-year-old starlet nor in desperate need of attention so I don't wear stuff that's in danger of exposing my breasts and I doubt I will ever use these. But you never know! So I'll hang onto them just in case.

The last item in the box was a packet of EBOOST natural energy booster. I gave this to my boyfriend because he said he was super tired this morning. I'll have to ask him if he felt invincible after drinking it. I like the opportunity to try little things like this, but honestly, I would probably never buy something like this. I'd be more likely to have a glass of ice water or take a nap.

So that's it for this month! We'll see what January brings. If you're interested in signing up for Birchbox, it's $10 per month. You can use this link to sign up (if you subscribe, I get Birchbox points.)

New makeup & CVS Beauty Club

On Tuesday I was seized with the desire to buy cosmetics and, because I had some CVS coupons burning a hole in my pocket, I decided to embrace the situation.

Earlier in the week I had stopped at CVS for some face wash and I bought a couple of Revlon eye shadows, Nude Slip and Violet Starlet.

Violet Starlet has a super neat greeny flash in it.

Nude Slip is one of those colors I just can't get enough of lately. It's like the Urban Decay Naked palette has inspired me to build an entire collection of wearable neutrals. (Wow...sounds exciting doesn't it?)

The other day I wore Nude Slip under (haha) Maybelline Lux Lilac and Urban Decay Mildew with UD Mildew eyeliner. It sounds garish but it was quite subtle and I would definitely wear it again.

Anyway, it was on this visit to CVS that I joined the beauty club, which is really just a rewards system within a rewards system. You can piggyback it onto your CVS ExtraCare account. Basically you get a 10% off coupon when you join, $5 ExtraBucks for every $50 you spend and $3 ExtraBucks on your birthday.

Now initially I thought the $50 reward level was a little much. That's a lot of makeup. However, qualifying Beauty Club purchases include hair care, sun care, skin care, hair accessories, hair color and even hosiery. So there are a number of items that would get you closer to your $50 reward, provided you like and use items that can be found at CVS, of course.

So I joined, because I am a sucker, and I got my 10% off coupon and a stray ExtraBuck. The coupon is only good for three days, so when I felt compelled to go peruse the cosmetics aisles on Tuesday during my lunch hour, I went back to CVS.

I actually did "need" a few things. I am out of my Sally Hansen nail polish clean-up pens and CVS had Sally Hansen products on sale. I also had in mind picking up some Physician's Formula bronzer, as every bronzer I own seems to be destined to fall to its death on tile bathroom floors.

I chose something called "Happy Booster" bronzer.

I must admit it is terribly cute.

Supposedly these are "mood boosting" bronzers and blushes. I mean, okay, sure. I can't speak to the veracity of that claim but it does what a bronzer should do otherwise.

The back of it reads like a bad translation to English: "The sweet scent of Violet provides a feeling of joy each time you apply." Hm well if you say so. It does have a scent so if that kind of thing bugs you, be warned.

See? Cuuuuute.

Plus these come with a $3 off coupon on the package and you get $7 ExtraBucks when you buy it. So it's almost like getting it for $4 instead of $14. Yay coupons! I will spend the $7 on something boring like contact solution. (Or maybe Easter candy. I will keep you posted.)

My Sally Hansen correcting pens are different now.

First I hyperventilated a little bit when I saw this, but honestly it's the same thing. Plus they're $5.49 now instead of $9.99. BOGO 1/2 off right now at CVS!

You can also get ExtraBucks rewards right now for buying Maybelline or CVS brand skincare products, and Revlon cosmetics (including the Top Speed polishes) are BOGO 1/2 off too.

I'm not one of those super savvy couponing people but I am a huge cheapskate so CVS' reward program gets a thumbs-up in my book.

Oh and because this site is called "Nail Polish Nonsense" and not "Makeup Nonsense" or "Plain Ol' Nonsense," here is some nail polish I wore recently, Like It Like That from one of the more recent Misa collections. It's more grass green and less teal in real life.

Question of the week/Review of the week

The issue at hand today: Why are mass market brand mineral makeup dispensers so incredibly jank?

A bit of background: I switched to mineral makeup several years ago because liquid foundation is the devil. No, sorry, that's not totally accurate. It's just that liquid foundation was a terrible, terrible thing for me. How many did I try over the years? A dozen? Probably more. And they were all terrible, they would just sit there on my skin and slide around all day, and then they would give me zits. To be perfectly frank, I find liquid foundation disgusting. But I understand this puts me in a minority. I switched to powder foundation and tried both NARS and MAC (WTF, CAPS LOCK LOL), both terrible and NARS being the worst. Eventually I realized that I don't like or need that much maquillage slathered over my face and I tried Jane Iredale makeup at the recommendation of a salon owner. Later I switched to Bare Escentuals on the advice of a friend.

Not long ago I ran out of Bare Escentuals foundation and Mineral Veil. (Let's not even talk about Mineral Veil...there is literally no replacement for it and I miss it so much I could cry. Really, don't talk about it.) To replace the two of these things costs $44, American, plus tax. Due to I am unemployed, this is not feasible. And seeing as how you can practically buy mineral makeup at the corner gas station anymore, I decided to give cheaper brands a try.

Now I understand "cheaper" is relative. No one has to pay $44 for makeup, but I like to, and I used to have a job that afforded me that pleasure. The two mass market brand mineral foundations I tried cost $11.99 and $12.49, which is also not really "cheap," depending on your perspective, your budget, and the importance of makeup to you personally. But for the purposes of this post let's consider it cheap enough.

The first one I tried was Revlon ColorStay Mineral Foundation, which I purchased at Target for $11.99. It comes in eight shades and has an SPF factor of 10 (Bare Escentuals is SPF 15). It is also sold in the worst dispenser in the world. I won't try to tell you that the Bare Escentuals sifter is foolproof, because I've dropped plenty of them and also they are terrifically inconvenient for travel. But I can fit a makeup brush in there, which is more than I can say for Revlon's crappy dispenser.

Where to begin? The shape of the sifter is odd, practically ensuring you'll leave a third of the product unused because you can't get at it; the brush is stubby and painfully scratchy; the powder reservoir is too narrow to get a real brush into; the brush apparatus is clumsy and droppable. The makeup itself? Fine, if not spectacular. The coverage was decent, although it didn't seem to last as long as Bare Escentuals. (That may just be the Mineral Veil difference...but then again we're not talking about you-know-what.)

I hated the Revlon container so much that I decided to try L'Oreal Bare Naturale Mineral Foundation for my next purchase. I picked up a coupon circular in my apartment building mailroom and, sure enough, there was a coupon for L'Oreal cosmetics, making it only $10.49 at Target. The L'Oreal mineral foundation comes in 10 shades with an SPF of 19.

To be honest, it's a much nicer mass market mineral foundation. The L'Oreal shade works better for me and seems to provide better coverage for a longer time. Also, the container is less stupid, but only slightly. You have to pop the brush out of its dumb little bell jar, leaving you with a clumsy "handle" that's covered with powder, since the bottom of the brush is the lid of the powder reservoir. At least the bottom of the jar resembles a traditional sifter, although somewhat dinkier in size. Though L'Oreal's brush is softer than Revlon's (by a lot), I am still using a regular old Sephora brush with this. It's just not worth it to fool around with the too-cute-by-half arrangement that L'Oreal has chosen.

Anyone use mineral makeup? Have you found anything you like at mass market prices?