Birchbox - May

I finally received May's Birchbox on Wednesday, felt like I had been waiting forever!! What makes it worse is the fact I knew this month's was a collaboration with Bazaar and so I was literally desperate to get mine! But here it is, and it did not disappoint. Even the box looks great:

This month's products are Liz Earle Hot Cloth Cleanse and Polish, Aromatherapy Associates Revive Morning Bath and Shower Oil, Beauty Protector Protect and Shampoo & Protect and Condition, Benefit They're Real Mascara and Soigne Nail Polish in shade Persimmon.

This oil actually smells delicious. The sample size is pretty small, which is a bit disappointing, but I think if I use it before showering it will last. I am really looking forward to trying this as I have heard brilliant things about Aromatherapy Associates.

These shampoo and conditioner bottles are really handy for taking to the gym as they fit nicely in my wash bag and have dispensing lids which are always good on  the go. I was kind of hoping that the samples would be a bit bigger as they are a Birchbox own brand and so they could have been a bit more generous. They are literally tiny bottles, 2 washes at the very maximum. Being that the full sized product is around £16 though, I am hoping I will be impressed.

What an amazingly packaged nail polish! It was in this very chic box, surrounded by a foam packaging to stop it getting damaged, very nice! I love the shade, even though I have so many polishes in roughly this shade but never mind. I couldn't test it yet as I have just painted my nails but I will do soon. It does look a very nice, high end product. And it's a full sized sample!

I have heard so many brilliant reviews about this Benefit mascara and so I was really excited to get my hands on it. I was slightly put off by the applicator as I prefer the brush fiber ones to the plastic like ones like this, as I think they just do a much better job of separating the lashes and making them appear longer. After trying it though I was very happy with it. It beautifully separates and lengthens my lashes with no clumps in sight. What I like about the wand is that it is shaped to catch even the little lashes in the corners, which really gives a great wide eye effect. Love.

This Liz Earle cleanser has got to be my favourite item from this month's box and the product I was most looking forward to. I think it's hard to miss the amazing reviews and awards this has been receiving and I wanted to try it out to see if it lives up to it's reputation on my oily skin. It really did and then some! I use this at night before bed and the improvement in my skin by the following morning is already noticeable. Truly a wonder product. I have already ordered myself a full-sized bottle and more muslin cloths as I know it will be a product I really miss when it runs out!

So that was my box! I may have had to wait ages for it but it was definitely worth the wait. If you're a subscriber to Birchbox, what products did you receive this month? Were you impressed with your box?

Reverse washing - just not for me??

As you may have seen, the new big hair care 'thing' is reverse washing. This involves conditioning your hair before shampoo-ing it (hence 'reverse') and it's supposed to leave your hair feeling lighter and more cared for as using shampoo second means you wash away any conditioner residue that was left in your hair. In theory this sounded like a really good idea so I was keen to try it, but was disappointed to find that actually I really don't like it this way round. I like my usual routine that I have always done!

I reverse washed my hair on three seperate occasions with my Tigi Bed Head Colour Goddess Shampoo and Conditioner. I chose these because the conditioner is really thick and nourishing as it is designed to protect coloured hair, and so I hoped the effects would last through the shampooing.

I found that applying conditioner to hair that hadn't just been cleaned just felt...weird? It didn't feel like it went nicely on my hair and really absorb. I did leave it for a few minutes like you usually would with a conditioner before rinsing it off and shampooing. I found that the shampoo did really foam, a lot more than usual, very odd. But it left my hair really knotty. It may just be that I have hair that is just prone to knotting at the earliest convenience but half the point of conditioner to me is to ease out the tangles caused by the shampooing process, if you don't condition second all those knots are left in! Very painful detangling session after.

But I perservered, even though I wasn't really loving it at this point. I had visions of having big, beautiful, glossy hair for all my efforts, but sadly I didn't notice any real difference to when I 'forward wash' (is that what we call the 'normal' way of washing now?!). It looked exactly the same to me. Disappointing :(

It may just be because I don't wash my hair everyday, choosing to leave it at least a couple of days between washes, so maybe with the dry shampoo in my hair still when conditioning it didn't allow the conditioner to soak in properly? Also, I have really fine hair so maybe with really fine hair the effects just aren't as noticeable?

Has anyone else tried reverse washing? Did you have the same results as me or did you find it worked really well (I'll pretend I'm not jealous). Would be nice to get some feedback to see where I went wrong!

All comments, as always, are very welcome. I ensure that I read them all and reply if possible :)