May 2013 Birchbox - Open Box

Woohoo!

Here is it! The May 2013 Birchbox! And it's like Christmas, all over again! I just love receiving my sample subscription boxes (Birchbox and EcoEmi) every month. I get to try new products and never know what's in the box. Quite frankly I think it is the element of surprise that keeps us going with these boxes and just when I thought I would not get another one, I discovered Barkbox, which is pretty much the same concept, only they send you items for your dog! I am seriously considering trying Barkbox, but the price is a bit prohibitive right now ($19/month with a 6 months subscription or $29/month as a month to month purchase). You can check out Barkbox here.

This month's Birchbox is by far the best I have received and I am glad to see that the girls have been listening to their customers' rants about the scarcity of good samples in the earlier months of 2013. In fact, this month's box looked more like an EcoEmi box to me: organic tea? Organic moisturizer?

This month, samplers have an opportunity to win every full size item in their box by entering a sampling note on Twitter. I have a Twitter account but never use it, so I have to give it some thoughts since I am really not Twitter savvy.

Anyway, Here is my May 2013 Open Box :

I received four samples plus one Lifestyle Extra (the teas).

 

 

This is what the box looks like once you open the tissue paper...

 

 



 

 
Runa - Guayusa Tea -

There are four samples to try in the following flavors: Mint, Cinnamon-Lemongrass, Ginger-Citrus and Traditional.

This is from the card:

"With more antioxidants than green tea, this caffeine - rich blend is made from Amazonian Guayusa leaves - Full Size - $7.00"

It is no secret that I love drinking tea, so you can imagine how I am looking forward to trying these!

Amika - Obliphica Nourishing Mask

This is a hair mask. I love the packaging and design. It states that it deeply conditions and repairs hair with Sea Buckthorrn Berry (Obliphica).

"Packed with omega acids and vitamin C, this lush conditioning mask boosts shine even helps repair split ends - Full size - $12-40."

These days I have been using Organix Hydrating Macadamia Oil Intensive Moisture Mask -- 8 oz and have been pretty happy with it, but I am willing to try something new since the humidity levels are going up and my frizzy hair is becoming more difficult to manage.


Marvis - Classic Mint Toothpaste

            "A stylish Italian import with an invigorating peppermint flavor - Full size - $6 -11."

 

Have you ever tried a "fancy" toothpaste? These are so different in taste and texture. Once in a while I would treat myself to a toothpaste from Bigelow Apothecaries and this is one of the few I have tried in the past. I am so happy to have received a sample since my Mall does not have a Bigelow store and I am really getting tired of the old Crest! Awesome sample!

 

Coola - Classic Face SPF 30 Cucumber Moisturizer for Face

 

 

 

I am so attached to my Wrinkles & Radiance Dazzling Day Cream - Combination Skin from Yves Rocher best sellers!

 

But, I do not currently use an SPF (I know, I know...it's bad) and it's about time I try one!

 

 "This mineral sunblock is infused with organic antiaging ingredients like evening primerose extract and borage seed oil. Full size - $32"

 

 

Sumita - Color Contrast Eyeliner

 

Finally a makeup product!

 



"Inspired by the traditional Indian formulas, this velvety liner glides on easily and lasts for hours. Set of 4 mini pencils, $21."

As you can see, I swatched it on the back of my hand. No kidding, this liner does glide on! It has a gel like texture and is highly pigmented. Best of all, thus far and despite many attempts, it has not rubbed off either. It 's like tattoo for your eyes! I am hoping it goes off well with eye makeup remover though! This appears to be a very good quality liner, and I would be willing to try other colors since the black is so rich, it might contrast too much with my eyes.

That's it folks! This was my May 2013 Birchbox. So far, I am happy with every product and excited about the toothpaste too!

Again, this is by far the best box I have received since joining in December 2012. I am keeping my subscription going!

Thank you for liking and sharing MGC with friends and family. You can find me on FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE.

Sophia, NJ


 *This site contains affiliate marketing. I am affiliated with Yves Rocher and Amazon but I am not compensated for reviewing their products, nor am I solicited to review products. I am not affiliated with Birchbox. All opinions are my own.
 

April 2013 - Birchbox Review

Hello friends,
 
Before I unveil my May 2013 Birchbox, which I received on the 15th this month, let me go over all the goodies from last  month.
 
This is what I received for the April 2013 box:
 
 

 
 
Overall, I thought this was one of the better boxes. All the products were exciting to try and I would have to admit that, had Birchbox not made an effort with the last two boxes, my membership would be history.
For those of you who may not have read my previous Birchbox posts, here is a quick recap: Birchbox is a cosmetics and skincare subscription ($10/month, shipping included). The girls at BB pick new samples each month which you receive shipped directly to your door. Over the first 4 months of my subscription I really was not impressed with the products I had sampled and felt cheated a few times when comparing mine to other boxes several bloggers had received (bigger, better). However, the past two and soon the reveal of the third box have proven that BB could actually be a great deal for those of us looking to try new things without committing to full size.
 
To view my other boxes/reviews, check these previous posts:
 
March 2013 Birchbox  

March 2013 Full Review

April 2013 Birchbox
 
 
This box was very good.  For the most part I enjoyed all the products and was not disappointed with the quality or selection. So here is my review:
 

Nexxus - Rejuvenating Serum - A-
 
This was a good sample size which lasted 2.5 applications (I have curly, mid length hair). The product comes out as a typical milky serum and I have to say that the scent was very refreshing, a mix of flower and fruits.
As a serum, I felt that it actually did a good job at separating my curls and leaving my hair supple throughout the day. I would recommend this product for those of you whose hair tends to be frizzy and unmanageable. The one thing I did not like (outside of the full size price of $20.99) is that the product itself tends to thicken your hair a bit too much, so once you brush your curls out, you end up with this mass of hair with curls that won't bounce back (if that makes sense). So for that reason - lack of longevity - I am giving it an A-. That said, should I find myself with a good discount or coupon, I would probably purchase this product.
 
 

 Skin & Co - Sicilian Body Gel - B+
 
I prefer cream base body washes since gels have a tendency to dry my skin. When you first unscrew the cap, it smells nothing like oranges, instead and as mentioned in my previous post, it smelled more like French Savon de Marseilles, which in itself is not a bad thing. However, once in the shower and provided with a good squeeze/rub on a wash rag or mesh scrunchy, the orange scent is released and I would say this was a nice fragrance to use in the shower. I did not think it was too overpowering and unfortunately, it had no staying power. For that reason I am not giving it a higher score. As for the cleanliness factor, it does the job and my skin did not feel dry after using the gel. It is a nice cleanser but I would not purchase it on my own because it is too expensive ($17.50) for what it is and I can't say this gel is above the crop.
 
 

Stri-Vectin -SD Eye Concentrate - A
 
I was super excited to try this sample since I am a big fan of eye creams and am always looking for a new one to try. First, the sample size was pretty big for an eye ream, so much so that I still have some left and I have been using it pretty regularly every night. It does not have much of a fragrance, which is a good thing for an eye cream, and comes out as a relatively thick cream. I can't say that one month of use would lead to great results but I did notice a reduction in fine lines around and under my eyes. Deep lines, however, remained the same after one month of us. This is another pricey product (full size is $65) and I would have to wait for a sale or coupon before purchasing it.
 
 
 
 
 

Weleda - Body Lotion - A
 
I am familiar with this line of body lotions, having received many samples in the past from my local Whole Foods Market. This is a good, fluid and non greasy lotion that penetrates well and is very fragrant with great staying power. I applied each one after my morning shower and was very pleased with the hydrating results. However, not all fragrances are to my liking and I guess this would fall under individual preferences. For instance, the Wild Rose is my favorite one, the Sea Buckthorn is also very nice and more of an amber/honey and sandalwood undertone. Unfortunately, I did not care for the Pomagranate. It may sound weird but to me it smelled like tomatoes. These lotions retail at $16.50 full size. I think it is a fair price for the quality of the product as well as the intensity and staying power of the fragrance. Again, scent is a personal thing and you may find that Pomagranate is more within your own taste. You can reach out to Weleda's website to ask for samples or, you can purchase a Body Lotion Kit for $13.50.

Youngblood - Anti-Shine Mattifier - B
 
 I have combination skin and tend to be oily around my chin and nose. So with warmer outside temperatures on their way, I was ready to try this product. It comes in a paste you would apply to your skin using fingers or a concealer brush. Overall, I would say that it does the job at keeping your skin matte as well as diminishing pores. When combined with loose mineral powder it can be used as a great skin primer as well. There is only one thing I did not like about the product: I wish it came as a lotion rather than a paste. It is pretty thick and I would be concerned that it would clog pores with repeated use. For that reason, I would only use this for those occasions where I know there would be pictures taken and I don't want to look like I spent hours by the frying pan.

This was, by far, the best box I have received. All products received good grades from me and there are a few I would consider purchasing for myself. It looks like Birchbox is keeping me as a customer with this box!

Thank you for reading and sharing my blog.

You can find me on FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE.
Sophia, NJ


* This blog contains affiliate advertising. I receive a commission from the purchase of items advertised on my blog but I am not solicited to review any products. I am not affiliated with Birchbox. All opinions are my own.

Basement - mini office set up and organization

Hi friends,

Tonight I am going to show you how I organized my repurposed vanity into a mini office station in our basement. If you missed out on the original post where I showed you how I repurposed the vanity itself (pain and Mod Podge top and liners) you can check it out by looking at my post: repurposing a vintage vanity into an office desk.

As you know by now, I am always on a budget and for this project, I only picked items I either had on hand or I could purchase for very cheap and locally.  I found most of what I needed at Amazing Savings (A.S. is somewhat of  a dollar store only they have better quality housewares and household supplies, not to mention tons of decorative boxes and cute office supplies, all for a few bucks, if even that!)

So here is the vanity the way I left it in my last post:

 

 

 

I wanted a bulletin board and was not sure whether I needed a dry erase white board or a cork board. When in doubt -  opt for both! Amazing Savings had these boards under $6.00 each.

 

 

 

I also found this magnetic dry erase perpetual calendar at Barnes and Noble. It came with very cute matching sticky notes, flags and note pads. I found it in the bargain section as a gift set for under $8.00. I realize I should have taken a picture of the set, I am sorry I forgot.

 

The board is magnetic but I wanted to affix it to one of the bulletin boards. I used hot glue and centered it right in the middle of the board. It worked just fine and I still have room around it to pin a few small items such as stamps etc..

 

 

I don't really have a wall behind the desk to hang boards or art work, but I do have the bars from the stair case and since the boards are not heavy at all, I thought it would actually assist with hiding a bit of the stairs by hanging them directly to the bars.

 

 

 

 

On to supplies. My biggest splurge was a few items from the Martha Stewart Avery collection which you can find at Staples. I love her designs and some of the items she sells for Avery are actually quite ingenious. Here I bought (with a 40% coupon and my reward card) a set of coordinated folders, I believe the original price was $4.99 for a set of 6 (I picked the Robin Blue and Black & White patterns). I also picked a set of labels to coordinate with the folders ($2.99).

 

 

 

Back in the days, I had purchased this mail sorter at Amazing Savings. It found its way on top of my desk. My Martha Stewart files folders fit perfectly in the back slots.

 

To keep myself organized, I picked the blue folders for household items which I labeled as follows:

• Bills - To Pay
• Bills - Paid
• To Read - Urgent
• To Read - Not urgent
• Scott & Sophia
• Boys

You can see one of the dry erase board coordinating note pad below. I am setting the black folders aside for when I actually start some back to school projects.

 

 

 

These containers are interlocking, also from the Staples bargain bin. They stack and lock together and are great for keeping paper clips and spare binder clips in different sizes.

 

 

 

 

A friend of mine knew I always wanted a garden gnome. Unfortunately, the one I had set my eyes on has been out of stock for years. But he did give me this one instead ( it looks like the Travelocity gnome, but it is not) and we quickly named him Norris. Don't laugh, I think it is important to have a desk companion.

 

 

 

 

The decorative box is also from Amazing Savings. For now it sits empty as I am only using it to raise my tiny lamp above the desk. I do not want a bigger lamp and for some reason I like this old one a lot. I may decide to use the box at a later time, but storage for now is not an issue. The box was under $5.00.

 

 

Here is how I organized my drawers:

Top Left Drawer - Pens, pencils and office supplies. The trays are from Staples ($1.00 / 3-pack).

 


Bottom Left Drawer - Envelopes and address labels. Scissors (which I also use to open envelopes).

Middle Drawer: more binder clips and push pins. Assorted sticky notes and flags (matching the dry erase board), a sticky note collection I found at Barnes and Noble, and my three notebook you may recall from an earlier post: DIY Notebook Cover.

 

 



 
I really like these sticky notes, they come in a hard cover box and are just too cute! I think the set was under $6.00 at Barnes and Nobles (Bargain section).

 
 



Top Right Drawer: in this drawer I keep some other office essentials such as hand wipes, hand sanitizer, hair clips and Glue Dots. The blue and grey pouch is actually a makeup pouch I recycled into a portable office supplies necessities pouch.

 

 

This pouch was given to me and as far as I can recall it is from Cle de Peau.

I like it because it has zippered compartments that are long enough to hold pens and all manner of other supplies I may need on-the-go. It is also compact enough to fit in my purse and, this is where I keep all favorite pens too!

 

Here is a close up at some of my LePen pens. If you missed my previous post, these are ultra fine points with high pigmented colors. The best thing about LePen pens is that they will not bleed through paper and dry instantly, making them the best choice for a personal planner or note taking.

 
 Bottom Right Drawer: Assorted notebooks and legal pads (boring stuff).

 

 

So there you have it, my mini office in the basement. I keep it as simple and functional as possible because I do not want it to take away too much attention from the rest of the room. This is where I plan my week, pay the bills and work on my planner. Hopefully and real soon, I will also study for school in this tiny space I created just for me!

 

I am still debating as to whether I should bring a small ink jet printer to the basement. Ours is wireless but the thought of going up two flights of stairs and back down in between printing jobs is not too appealing to me. Got to think some more about it.

 

I plan on one big splurge for this set up: a chair. This one is from my dining room and I would really like to get one of those comfy chairs from Home Goods. If I am lucky, I could find one with a grey and pink fabric pattern...I will keep looking until I find just the right chair!

Thank you for liking and sharing my post.

Sophia, NJ

You can find me on FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE

*This site contains affiliate advertising. I am not affiliate with Barnes and Noble , Staples, Home Goods, Cle de Peau, Martha Stewart for Avery, Amaing Savings or LePen by Uchida. All opinions are my own.
 

Turning a vintage vanity into an office desk

Hi friends,

If you have been following me on FACEBOOK, you probably know by now that I have been seriously working on a complete basement makeover. Though we have a finished basement, we never really used it as a functional family room - it pretty much had become the resting place for all the unwanted stuff around the house and needless to say, it quickly had become unmanageable. Though my basement makeover is not complete, I still have clocked in over 12 full days of hard labor (all by myself - otherwise it would not be much of a challenge) and I am ready to start sharing some of the things I have completed thus far.

My big goal is not only to have a fully functional family room, I also want to create a sacred space for myself, a corner of the house where I can go and take care of the household management - undisturbed. And since I also plan on returning to school to "sharpen the saw", I also needed a desk where I could study away from all.

Years ago, I had found this vintage vanity waiting to be trashed on bulk day...

                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

 

At the time, I had turned it into a fabulous patio buffet table.

 



 

 

 

To see how I had complete this initial project, check out my post on repurposing a vanity into a patio buffet.

 



While we had enjoyed our buffet table for more than 18 months while it sat on our deck, I really felt that I could put it to better use by moving it down to the basement and repurpose it, one more time, as a command center/mini office desk. And this is exactly what I did!

For this project, you will need the following items:

• Interior paint in semi gloss (bright white) with all the necessary equipment that comes with painting such as brushes, paint tray etc.,
• Mod Podge,
• Sponge brushes in various sizes (they can be found at any craft store and are relatively cheap)
• Two rolls of Heavy duty wrapping paper in your choice  of color and design- I picked two colors: silver for the top of the desk and hot pink to line the drawers,
• Glass buttons or new hardware of your choice.

This is the vanity, which I will now call a desk, as it sat in my basement while I was working around it with all manner of painting, plastering etc.

 

I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures in this post, I worked mostly in the evening hours on this project and tried to take pictures both with and without flash.  Before taking the desk to the basement, I had measured it and was very glad to find out it would fit perfectly in the space right against the stairs (you can see it behind the desk).

 



The first thing I did (after washing the desk to remove all the dusk) was to paint it entirely in white, I needed three coats for the side, front and back but opted only for one coat on the top of the desk since my intention was to cover the top with a sheet of wrapping paper and Mod Podge.

Once all the paint was dry, I was ready to work on the desk top. I had purchased a roll of heavy duty foil wrapping paper from Domain (found at Home Goods for under $5/roll). This is a white paper with the thickness of craft paper, decorated with a silver scroll pattern. My intention was to cover the entire surface of the top portion of the desk with paper and seal it with Mod Podge so that it would be protected from scratches and other wears.

Adhering the wrapping paper onto the desk was a very easy task. First I unrolled the paper and cut it to size. I left enough clearance to allow the paper to wrap around the edges of the desktop.

To apply the paper to the top, all I needed to do was to brush Mod Podge directly onto the surface and slowly press on the wrapping paper, making sure I would not have any air pockets.

The desk has a groove along the edges and also curves at corners so that part was a bit tricky and I needed to go slow. However, do not worry about mistakes, just make sure the paper does not rip. To form the angles, you may need to slit the paper in order to give it more flexibility. If you have spots where there is no paper, just patch them using smaller pieces and more Mod Podge. I found that technique allowed for a seamless blend. The one thing you want to focus on is pressing the paper into the grooves to make sure the wood design shows through.

Whenever there is a fold or some kind of issue where the paper does not seem to stay flat, just press with your fingers while the glue is still wet to get it to set into the shape you want it to take. Work slow because the paper is now wet and will rip easily.

 

Once the paper was set and the Mod Podge dry, I was ready to apply another coat of Mod Podge, this time directly onto the paper to seal it (I actually brushed on a second coat once the first one was dried).

At  first, when you apply Mod Podge, it will look completely white. No worries, it dries to a transparent sheen. Mod Podge is a great sealer (almost like a varnish) and the top coat also acts as another layer of glue so whatever you adhere to your surface, whether fabric or paper, it is there to stay.






Once my desk was fully dry (day two), I used my second roll of Domain wrapping paper, this time to repeat the exact same process, to line the inside of the drawers. In this case, all I did was cut one big piece of paper and glued it on from left to right on the inside of the drawer (wrapping it around) and only used smaller pieces for the front and back of the drawer. Once applied, I again used Mod Podge to seal the paper lining my drawers.

In the picture below, my second coat of Mod Podge is still drying. The advantage of lining drawers with Mod Podge is that you not only make them stylish to reflect your personality, you also protect them from stains.

Here is my desk as a complete project and before attaching new hardware (miniature glass buttons).

And here is my desk project once completed and waiting for me to begin setting it up as a mini office.

 

The possibilities are endless with Mod Podge. I am fairly convinced that you cover anything with it. It provides a durable finish and allows you to really give character to ordinary objects.

I am hoping this post has inspired you to try some new projects of your own. Please share them with me as I would love to see my readers' creativity!

 

Do not miss tomorrow's blog when I will take you on a tour of my new mini office desk in its current set up, complete with a command center board.

Thank you for liking and sharing MGC with friends and family. You can find me on FACEBOOK and YOUTUBE.

Sophia, NJ


 *This site contains affiliate marketing. All opinions are my own.