July Birchbox: Glamour Magazine Edition!

It’s July! It’s Birchbox! It’s Glamour! What a great combination. Today, my friends, was the day that the practically Rastafarian mailman dropped off my little Birchbox package. With this month’s team up, Birchbox is celebrating Glamour Magazine’s “Five Senses of Summer” theme.

If you’ve been following me for a little while, you know that I have a love-hate relationship with Birchbox. I started out as thrilled with my boxes each month, using a majority of the products, but  after awhile, the items in my Birchbox became rather pointless. They were skimping on products and repeating things I’d already gotten. I was disappointed to say the least and unsubscribed after I was really let down by the Gossip Girl box. Well, when I saw that Birchbox was teaming up with Glamour (not to mention that the only other subscription service that seemed worth it – Glossybox- was twice as much as this one), I decided to give them another chance.

I am pleased to report that this month’s box made me glad I resubscribed!

Here’s what I opened:

In my box, which was super colorful this month, I received:

1. Harvey Prince Perfume in “Hello”

2. Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner

3. LARABAR Über snack bar

4. Birchbox Exclusive Neon Earbuds

5. boscia BB Cream SPF 27 PA+++

6. amika Obliphica Nourishing Mask

7. amika Obliphica Hair Treatment

   

 

DIY Lip & Face Sugar Scrub

I absolutely love Summertime. The watermelon, the cookouts, catching lightning bugs, wearing a bathing suit top as an acceptable shirt… everything about the season gives me that warm, happy feeling. Warm, for sure, because it’s been about 103 degrees every day here in Virginia this month. To relax a bit from the heat and to compliment that bronzy glow we get this time of year, I’ve come up with a delicious sugar scrub for both lips and face. It has exfoliating natural ingredients like sugar and lemon, with honey and olive oil for gentle nourishing.

Here’s what I did to make the scrub:

Ingredients - 

1 cup Sugar

3 tbsp Non-melted Coconut Oil

2 tbsp Honey

1 tsp Almond Extract

1/2 tsp Olive Oil

1 tsp Lemon Juice

2 tsp Grapeseed Oil

Directions -

Combine ingredients into a bowl (not the one you’ll be using for storing the scrub) and mix them together with a spoon. If you’re finding you’d like a different consistency, just add sugar for a rougher scrub and add more coconut oil for a less rough scrub. The Grapeseed Oil acts as a preservative so that your scrub stays fresh. 

Once the ingredients are mixed well so that all the sugar is incorporated into the liquid, add a small drop of food coloring in the color of your choice. I chose red and included the smallest amount so it would stay pink. Add your color and mix again. Then, find a jar or whatever you wish to store your scrub in, and scoop the scrub out of the bowl with a spoon. Pack it into the jar or container, and wipe off any spills or excess. If you have leftover scrub after filling your jar, try buying little travel container pots and filling those with scrub. Then you can take it on the go and have soft lips anywhere!

Hope you enjoy!

For my jar -

I used an old Yankee Candle jar that had only a little bit of candle left. To remove the remaining wax and wick glue, I put a doubled-up sheet of aluminum foil on a baking sheet (take care to fold the sides of the foil up so that wax doesn’t spill off the sheet) and I placed the candle in the middle of it, upside down so that the wax could drip out. I then put the sheet in the oven, set to 200 degrees, and let it work its magic for about ten to fifteen minutes. Just check occasionally to make sure all of your wax is gone. Then I took it out of the oven, let it cool down, and used a paper towel to clean all remaining wax particles from inside. After it was clean of wax, I soaked the jar in hot water for ten minutes to make the labels easy to remove. I used a knife to scrape the soaked labels off. Any remaining soot stains can be cleaned with a bit of Acetone and a cotton pad. The candle jar makes a really neat container for the scrub and wrapping a ribbon around the jar adds a girly touch that enhances the summery feel even more!

I hope you like this DIY project! Let me know in the comments if you try it out or if you have any recommendations.

Love, Kristin