Mail order surprise pretties

Have you ever considered a beauty subscription box? If you're the kind of person who can't even pick up cough drops without spending an hour and way too much money on random stuff in the beauty aisle (guilty) it may be just the thing for you.

Subscription boxes are a FANTASTIC way to try brands, colours, and formulations you may not have heard of much less bought full size or price. Makeup gets expensive FAST so it can be hard to invest in things you are not so sure about.

I get two beauty subscriptions every month, Birchbox and Ipsy Glam Bag. Both average about five samples per shipment and are a little more than $10 per month with shipping. I can usually expect to find one thing I really like and one thing of no use whatsoever per shipment, beyond that it varies month to month. Offerings are chosen based on a survey you fill out at joining (which can be updated any time) and as you review the things you get your orders get a bit more personalized.

FULL DISCLOSURE: both links above are my referral links and it would earn points for me if you signed up through those links. This is a feature of ALL memberships to both sites. I have no affiliation with either company and am not being compensated for this post.

On left, my January 15 Birchbox. On right my April 14 Glambag

I received my Birchbox subscription Friday and should be expecting my Glambag subscription within the next week or so, so I figured I'd talk about them generally here and then post with my shipment specifics.

I had gotten several months subscription to Birchbox as a gift a few years ago and liked it but was not impressed enough to renew on my own. Later I joined GlamBag and realised that as my interest in beauty products grew some of those previously untouched Birchbox items in the back of my makeup stash had now become my favorite products. I've had a number of moments where I just needed *one particular thing* to finish off a look and it ended up being some item I had totally dismissed when I first received it. I decided to poke around at their site again and was so impressed with the recent offerings I restarted the subscription.

Ipsy seems to lean more toward makeup products and Birchbox seems to lean more skin/haircare, but that may be the way I have my own preferences set.

One of the neat things about the Ipsy Glambag is that it comes with a unique makeup bag every month. At first this was kind of annoying as they seemed to be everywhere, but as my collection grows these bags have become essential for sorting my makeup. Off the top of my head I have separate lipstick bags for pinks, purples, reds, and copper/golds, and separate bags for eyeliners, moisturizer samples, my go-to five minute face products.

I particularly like getting lotions, masques, scrubs, nail polishes, lip products, and makeup products outside of the usual "five minute face" products (for example highlighters, shading powders, setting sprays).

I'm not interested in perfumes, pencils for the eye area (I prefer liquid liners, and powder products for both brow and shadow), and rarely get useful colours in the concealers, foundations, and eye shadows.

A friend of mine gets GlossyBox (not a referral link) and has been very happy with that subscription, but it is about twice the price of the ones I already receive so I have not yet taken the plunge. The items do however seem to be VERY nice quality and come in surprisingly large sizes so it seems like she always gets her money's worth.

I have thought about a few of the nail art boxes out there, but what I would really kill for is a hair product specific service! I had very long hair for decades which I completely babied and now have very short hair which I beat the crap out of and as a result I have bought more expensive and completely useless hair styling products than I like to think on!

How I feel every time I consider buying a new hair product

I'm tired of collecting $30 tubs of product I end up using maybe twice, so I make do with the same things over and over. I'm sure there are a lot of products I would buy in full size if I just got to try them first!

Anyone else get a beauty based subscription service? Is there anything you particularly like or dislike about them? Do you have a good swap community you can recommend for off-base products?

It's alive, it's alive!

I'm sorry, it's been pretty quiet around here as I continue to recover from the whirlwind of my wedding. 

I've been at an interesting point beauty-wise for the intervening couple of months which definitely deserves its own post, but for now I'll say I'm starting to feel like doing the pretty thing again.

It also occurred to me today that I really like talking about cheese, and I have this handy blog thing here that I neglect, so I should totally like... do something with that. I'm not an expert by any means but I am QUITE a fan and I have been trying some pretty fun stuff lately.

My actual fridge the day after Christmas.

TL:DR - You may occasionally see posts about cheese. 

Hopefully my random-person opinions on cheese (rather than the words of some fancy frommagier*) will pique your interest.  

(*I made that up).

So, on to the usual "the Itsy Bitsy" thing...

I actually did a BUNCH of beauty related retail therapy yesterday.

I've mentioned Fashion Project here before, they re-sell higher end donated clothing at problematically good prices with a significant (listed) portion of each sale benefiting the charity of the donator's choice. It's catch as catch can of course, but they have a fair amount of product on a BEAUTIFULLY navigable site so finding something good tends to be a bit TOO easy.

They have "Personal Invite Links" which give the original linker a $20 credit if a person ends up buying through that link.
I'm not saying you should definitely use my link, but it would be pretty cool if you did!

I ended up picking up a very frivolous pair of Brian Atwood "Consort" heels in pink yesterday which benefited Breast Intentions and a very functional Dooney and Bourke black pleated leather clutch which benefited Canine Assistants Inc. They pull the listing once the sale is made so I can't get to the pics to link them here, but I'll post pics once they arrive. I spent less than 30% of the list prices on the two items so I consider it good hunting rather than poor decision making.

I had a haircut after work (as always props to Fran at Cactus Salon in Holbrook) and I finally went for it and cut off the last of the hair I grew out for the wedding. I'm now back in my super short pixie happy place, though the sides are buzzed, as is the style of the time (if Instagram is to be believed anyway). I shied away from short sides for a while because it can be harsh, but I love what it does for my cheekbones so I'm playing with it.

From there I went to Ulta and got my eyebrows done at the Benefit Brow Bar at the Patchogue store. This is the fourth time I've gotten my brows done there and I've been quite happy every time.

My brows are pretty sparse so I usually have a terrible time getting someone to do them so that it comes out evenly. Sadly I'm terrible with names and I can't find the card I got, but I'm pretty sure the woman I've seen every time is named Tanya, and I like how decisive she is. I went for a higher arch than usual this time and I'm not sure if I want to stick with that, but it does look quite nice.

While I was there I also picked up some Freeman face masques as I have become rather enamored of cleansing my face with anything but soap.  I picked up the Charcoal & Black Sugar Facial Polishing Mask and the Pineapple Facial Enzyme Mask because both seemed pretty straightforward in the ingredients and low on the eye stabbing perfume.

On the nail front I got two discounted China Glaze Pop Top sets for $10 each.
Full size China Glaze for $2.50 a bottle? Yeeeeeaaaaaah, couldn't resist that. So I got those in "Glisten Up" (the four colours on the left) and "Feeling Sparkly"(the four right).

I feel a bit indecisive about what to do with my nails next but I've had naked nails for two days now so I'll probably get on that soon. I keep thinking about going for a professional pedicure and then... not. Mostly because I've spent so many afternoons at the vet lately, but that's a whole other story.

I still have approximately 1/4 of the pedicure from my wedding remaining! Sexy!

A fantastic budget fashion find

I tripped over a REALLY PROMISING site today and it solved a small dilemma. I really needed to pick up a nice outfit for some pre-wedding functions but it's hard to feel good dropping any kind of real money on YET ANOTHER wedding related thing at this point. 

I noticed a pretty dress while poking around on my Pinterest and followed the link to the original posting page. What I found was Fashion Project.

click on the above image to reach the website via my Invite link

It initially reminded me of Tradesy in the layout and in that both have listings for pre-owned items, but I quickly realized that this site was both considerably better organized and charity oriented.

Fashionproject is basically a charity thrift shop website. They re-sell donated fashion items at fantastic prices and then donate 55% of the net of each sale to charity. The charity differs from item to item and is noted on the search page. The amount of the charity contribution is shown on the listing. There is free shipping on all donations and orders over $100 and there are even coupon codes available if you dig around online!

The pictures of the items are professional and well lit from multiple angles, and the sizes are searchable and listed in the title. There are listings for clothing, bags, shoes and accessories.

I picked up a couple of things I really needed anyway for way less than I expected to pay AND supported a couple of charities in the process. I paid in the early afternoon and had a tracking number by the end of business hours!

They have "Personal Invite Links" which give the original linker a $20 credit if a person ends up buying through that link. *

I'm not saying you should definitely use my link, but it would be pretty cool if you did!

The dress I got is by Pins and Needles for Urban Outfitters (without actually giving any money to Urban Outfitters, which I feel completely sweetens the deal) and the other item was a pair of satin and leather pumps by BCBGMaxazria for a total of $54 with shipping (after a 20% off code which I found via Retailmenot). I've since found an Ebay listing for the same dress new with tags going for as much as I spent for the entire purchase.

The donation from my shoes went to NEADS/Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans, and the one from the dress went to Suited for Change. Based on what they listed 33% of the gross went to the charities. The site is run out of Boston so many of the charities are Boston local charities.

After I posted the link in my personal Facebook one of my friends found a *gorgeous* Sue Wong dress for literally 1/5 of what that label tends to go for. I will definitely update with my impression once I receive the items and with pictures once I wear them.



*The owner of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The "Personal Invite Links" for this particular page is standard to all users. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely that of the blog owner.