So this weekend I went on a little trip to London to visit the Birchbox - Build your own Box 'pop up shop' currently featuring in store at Selfridges. This exclusive offer has been running from August 28th and will be available until the 27th of September. It’s 5 years since Birchbox launched their beauty subscription service to the world and, to celebrate, they are bringing the box to life at Selfridges Oxford Street, London. On offer for the value of a reasonable and a bargain price (I think) of £15 is the chance to select six deluxe samples from incredible brands including Elemis, Benefit, Nuxe and Stila – and you get to take them home inside a specially designed Limited Edition Birchbox. I had a great time at this event choosing from all the samples on offer and would highly recommend it if you are a lover and subscriber of Birchbox.
The samples were divided up into 5 categories and you are given a little beauty guide to inform you of what is on offer and to help you choose your selections. The categories are Make-up, Skincare, Body Care, Hair Care and a bonus Beauty Treat. The Make up category has the widest selection of samples to choose from and there are 8 on offer 2 of which you can select for your own personalised box. The staff at this event were incredibly helpful and made the experience very enjoyable. To start off you are given a box and are asked to choose a little Birchbox bag in the colour of your choosing to put the products in; one the same as the one you receive in the standard Birchboxes.
For the make up products I choose; the Lord & Berry Couture Kohl Kajal Eye Pencil in black and Modelco Power Lash black mascara.
The Lord & Berry eyeliner is in a travel size and is perfect for fitting in my make up bag; I love Lord and Berry products and have already received a lip product from a past Birchbox so I knew this was a good brand. The eyeliner texture is nice and creamy to create a smoky smudged effect but has the precision for creating a bold black line and cat eye flick. It is extremely versatile and an eyeliner I would definitely buy in a full sized product however I feel this travel size is perfect. For the Modelco mascara.. I can't say this is a brand I have heard of before. however this is the beauty of Birchbox; it introduces you to brands you may never have heard of before. Again this is a small compact mascara and is very highly pigmented with an ultra lengthening effect which I was quite surprised by with this type of brush; as recently I have been drawn to the more comb like plastic style brushes to attain a lengthening effect. I am pleased with this product and is the perfect size to take on a night out and pop in my bag. Not the best mascara I have tried but does the job and I was pleased with the results.
Moving on to the Skincare range.. there were 4 products on offer from Embryolisse, Elemis, Nuxe and Ren. You are allowed to choose one from this range and I choose the Elemis Pro Collagen marine cream; I haven't tried anything from Elemis before but have heard people praising the brand so I thought I'd best try it out. I am quite the obsessive one for anti-ageing creams these days so this was the perfect choice for me.. The cream comes in 30 ml and the packaging looks nothing but sophisticated. The cream is supposed to help reduce wrinkles, fine lines and increase radiance in 15 days.. so lets see how the results go.. the cream has a lovely fresh, light scent and is not overly scented which I always think is a big plus for skincare products and has a light texture. I am really pleased with this product and the beauty of this pop up shop is that you can try the samples out before you make your selection.
For the Bodycare selection I chose a Rituals Yogi Flow Foaming Shower Gel in a 50 ml size. What can I say about this?.... I am absolutely IN LOVE with the scent of this shower gel. The scent is sweet almond oil and Indian Rose. A Rituals body scrub was featured in a recent Birchbox so I was instantly drawn to this brand when I saw it and excited to try the shower gel. The formula is a gel which transforms into a foam on contact with water and leaves your body feeling refreshed and invigorated. This is definitely a great product for an early morning wake up shower and makes me think of holidays...!
The 4 Hair care products on offer are a Protection Hair oil, a moisturising sea salt spray from Parlor by Jeff Chastain, a Percy and Reed hairspray and a Philip Kingsley Elastacizer. I choose the hairspray in a 50 ml size which again I thought would be perfect for my bag; for days and nights out. This Reassuringly Firm Session Hold Hairspray has a great holding effect and a scent which is quite strong and not the best. All the same I would rate this for the hold which it gives to your hair and try not to let the scent detract me too much although I would prefer if they work on their scent a little better. The packaging was cute and looks very professional.
The last product I chose was a Beauty treat which was a novelty pink leather tasselled Birchbox key ring which I thought was really cute for my weekender bag. The other products on offer were 2 different pillow sprays to aide a relaxing nights sleep and the other was an Enamel science advanced toothpaste from Regenerate. I wanted them all but unfortunately could only pick one..
I loved my Birchbox building experience and would strongly recommend going if you have the chance to or are heading to London anytime soon...! It is a really fun experience and even my mum enjoyed making a box despite not knowing much about Birchbox. If you are unavailable to go to London before this opportunity ends then you can purchase a special Selfridges Birchbox edition on the Birchbox and Selfridges website. I am really enjoying that Birchbox have been involved in exciting collaborations recently with French Sole, Habitat, the Beauty Junkie edition and I hear they are soon to collaborate with Stylist magazine which I am very excited about!
Please keep a look out for my upcoming post on September's edition of Birchbox "Happy Birchday". I am currently trying out all the samples at the moment so keep a look out soon to read my reviews on these! This box was one of the best I have received though since my subscription started.
Thanks for reading and what did you think of the Birchbox event if you attended?
Cheryl xox
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