My First Birchbox

Last Thursday; due to great timing and dumb luck, I paid an impromptu visit to the Pure Pr #puregetaway press day (which FYI was lovely). As part of their goody bag, I got a Birchbox!! I haven't been part of a subscription service in almost a year and a half but I cannot lie, there is something about receiving a box of unknown samples that is ridiculously exciting.

Birchbox is a monthly subscription service when you get 4/5 items a month for £10 plus p/p. This month Birchbox are supporting Fashion Target Breast Cancer, which is an annual campaign set up by Ralph Lauren to bring attention to Breast Cancer by donating 30% of all sales made during May on the Birchbox e-shop towards the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer Charity as well as £5 for any referrals & subscriptions made during this period.

OPI Nail Lacquer (RRP £11.50) | Elemental Herbology Cell Plumping Facial Moisturiser (RRP £42.50) | B/Attitude Body Souffle (RRP £24) |  Makebelieve Enhance Luminize Skin highlighter (RRP £7.50) | Doctor Duve Anti-aging & Firming Eyecream (RRP £115) | Kusmi Detox Tea (RRP £13.85)

In this month's box I've received 6 items in my box but 2 of these products are extras because of the Pure PR event but I am sure that one of these products should pop up in your box if your'e a Birchbox subscriber.

As I am not used to receiving beauty boxes, I can't tell you if this is a good or bad Birchbox as I have never really paid attention to their past boxes but I actually quite like this box. I can see myself using the Makebelieve Enhance Luminize Skin highlighter, OPI mini nail polish and of course the Kusmi Detox Tea (I love tea!!)  but I will have to do a bit more research on the ingredients used on the skincare items before I can even dream of playing with them.

Do you subscribe to beauty boxes? Do you think this is a good box from Birchbox or have there been better?



Also, you may have already noticed, but it is that time of the year again.... It is the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards!  This is my first time of signing up for these awards so I would be REALLY, REALLY grateful if you could take five minutes to nominate Epiphannie A in the Established Beauty Blog category. I have been loving sharing my zany self all over the beauty blogosphere for the past two years and it would mean the world to me to be nominated for this at least once

Thank you in advance!

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Guest Review:- MakeBelieve Sunbeam Bronzer & Brush | #TFWOC

This week marks the last of the 3 reviews for Makebelieve for the 'Tans for Women of Colour' Blogger Project and their lovely scented products (Ok, you’ve had me obsess about their Self-tan for 4 weeks so I'm not going to go into it now). This week we are reviewing the Makebelieve Sunbeam Bronzer & Brush, which is another product from their Enhance Range designed to top up your tan and bring a glow to your face, as many people (me included) do not add tanning products to their face.

I’m not going to lie . . . I had a staring competition with this product trying to figure out the best way to use this. The matte formula of this bronzer paired with the fact that it was a few shades too light made this very difficult for me to review.

Sooooo I gave it to my blog wife Sam of Sam Ram Beauty to review for me and here is what she had to say:-

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Hey guys!
First, I just want to thank Annie for allowing me to do a guest post on her blog. I love her blog so I was super excited to be a (tiny bit) part of it =)

I will be reviewing the Make Believe Enhance Sunbeam Bronzer and Brush compact. On first appearance, I really do like the packaging. The black box and gold writing gives a glamorous feel, and we all love to fell glamorous right? When you open the box it comes with a decent sized mirror and a medium sized Kabuki style brush. The brush is super soft and cute. I love that it’s not too small and not too big. I always find kabuki style brushes to be rather big or they come out too much on the sides. This one is rather tapered and dome shape which is great for contouring too. The bronzer is a matte medium brown shade. This may be disappointing to some who associate bronzer with glitter, I on the other hand, was rather happy. I don’t like shimmery face products because I fear I will look like a disco ball.

Now I don’t actually ever wear bronzer or use products to tan. Partly because I feel that I am tanned enough and I really don’t understand how I could benefit from tanning. So with this mind, I tend to use bronzers to contour with because it gives you a sun kissed, summery, glowish look. Whereas if you just applied the bronzer all over your face, this could look like a mess, it could look unrealistic and it’s not really doing much for your face. If you apply the bronzer in the correct places, such as where you contour, this, to me, gives a more realistic tanned look. It’s an illusion of where the sun has kissed you. This is my personal understanding of it, anyway onto the post.

I decided to use the Sunbeam Bronzer as a contour powder. At first I was a bit sceptical because the bronzer is lighter in shade to what I generally use to contour with. I use the Sleek Contour Kit in medium and the contouring powder has a slight rich brown tone to it, whereas this bronzer is a dull washed out brown tone (If that makes sense). I assumed I would need to use quite a heavy hand but I was wrong. See the pictures below

No Bronzer Added

I first contoured my cheeks and my jawline. As you can see from the pictures, it gives a great colour. It gives a different look compared to my Sleek contour kit, and I actually prefer this look. I think the Sleek contour kit can look heavy, whereas this one is more subtle, blends in better with my skintone and looks more believable. Make believe with that!

I then decided to contour the sides of my nose. Contouring my nose is not a thing I’m good at. I still need to practice a lot more. I found this bronzers tone to work great against my skin and it really reduced the size of my nose. Always a bonus! The bronzer blended out nicely and didn’t look too harsh which my Sleek Contour Kit tends to do. Having said that, I still think it looks a bit obvious that I have contoured my nose. I’m trying to learn how to contour my nose without people thinking I’ve contoured it – if that makes sense.

Overall, thumbs up for being a great contour. As an all over bronzer, I would never personally do that. I actually like this more than my sleek contour kit (kill me). Where does one buy this from?

Answer me Annie!

You get it online dammit!!!! 

Don’t forget, I’m holding a giveaway right now so if you want to get your hands on Love Goddess from the Limited Edition MAC Marilyn Monroe Collection , then best get clicking!!!!

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Review: Makebelieve Enhance Glow Tinted Moisturiser #TFWOC

Time for part TWO of the Makebelieve and TFWOC reviews. I told you last week that Makebelieve were absolutely angelic and provided 3 products towards the Tans for Women of Colour Tanning Blogger Project that Laalaa and I have put together with these lovely ladies donating their blogspace to posting reviews.

Grace All That Slap

Safiyah FrootiBeauty

Tass Une Tasse

Hafsa Muslimah Beauty

Sophia Tattooed Tea Lady

Stephanie Nerd about Town

Dija Dija’s World

Lola LolaStar Heart

Last week I reviewed Makebelieve’s Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer; which I am still perving over (smell wise), and this week it’s their Glow Tinted Moisturiser, which is part of their Enhance Range. A range that has been developed to support your tan by enhancing it, so you can expect to find bronzers, tinted moisturisers highlighters and even illuminating concealers within it.

Makebelieve Glow Tinted Moisturiser is described as a hydrating and lightly tinted moisturizer that can be used on your face to get a ‘luminescent facial glow’. To be honest, I don’t think this should be described as a moisturizer as I don’t find it to be either hydrating or moisturing I thought that this much too heavy and thick.

Colour-wise (or tint-wise) when applied all over to my face, this product covered my face in shimmer (which was great) but the tint was so strong that I came off looking a bit cakey and scary. So like with everything I get that doesn’t work exactly the way I want it to . . .I experiment!

Here are some of the best ways I feel that you can experiment with the Glow Tinted Moisturiser; especially if the tint doesn't work that well with your skin tone, to get your moneys worth  

Experimentation 1.1

Use Tinted Moisturiser as a Highlighter

This is how I would use the glow tinted moisturizer as it gave a bit of a shimmer to my everyday dewy look

Experimentation 1.2

Use Tinted Moisturiser under Foundation

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Overall I do stand with my original point that the Glow Tinted Moisturiser is not the best moisturizer on the market but makes an AWESOME highlighter. The shimmer gold tones are easy to work with, when mixed with something and becomes an added bonus to darker skin tones

Have you tried the Glow Tinted Moisturiser? What way have you used it that I could add to my experimentation methods.

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Review: Makebelieve Self Tan Lotion with bronzer

Another week, another tan but since it is all about donating my skin for the greater good (kinda). I don’t mind.

This week we have Makebelieve which is an Independent British Company providing the UK market with tanning products that ‘makes you feel better about yourelf [. . .] helping you to feel more confident to release your inner glow’ since 2005 by choosing ingredients that leave you with ‘beautifully tanned and moisturized skin’ without the fake tan smell or colour’. Now I just want to take a little time for THANKING the Makebelieve team for providing this for the ‘Tans for Women of Colour’ project as well as 2 other products from their product line which is INCREDIBLY nice of them because we had no clue they would do this.

The Makebelieve Self Tan Lotion with Bronzer comes with a 1-5 zone guide; where 1 is the lightest and 5 in the darkest, with great descriptions on the effects you should get when using a tan in that colour range.

Zone 1 – Provides a Subtle Glow

Zone 2 – For a  Warm Glowing look

Zone 3 – For a Medium Tanned look

Zone 4 – Provides a Golden Tanned look

Zone 5 – That very Dark Tanned look (which can be achieved by layering zone 4 twice)

I was sent the Zone 4 Self-tan lotion in Zone 4 (RRP £24.50), which is a light, moisturing lotion that is meant to bring a golden tan to the skin while still conditioning it and I LOVE the fragrance of this tan. It has a very warm, smell that reminds me of a mixture of pink oil lotion and pineapples.

I kid you not.

I was having throw back sessions to my childhood when I used this tan and I couldn’t resist sniffing my arm during the day. I just loved the smell! I didn’t really care what colour it turned my skin when I first slapped it on because the smell of this tan just won me over but alas I still have to do a review and stop obsessing about how nice it smells.

The Self tan comes in white packaging with a bright blue and gold colour, and comes with a pair of tanning gloves inside the box which is a really nice touch as it saves you having to go out and get a pair of mitts and gloves (top marks for that Makebelieve).  It does come out a creamy, dull brown colour which a lot of the bloggers on the project refer to as milk chocolate but honestly I don’t know what those girls were seeing because this doesn’t look milk chocolate to me loool.

Colour wise, I am not a fan of the colour this tan turns my skin as I think that it brings out the red tones in my skin and suppresses the yellow tones, which made my arm turn a weird orange shade that I wasn’t in love with, so I don’t know how golden your tan might be with this but mine was a lot more amber than gold. However, it does moisturize my skin very well but I do think that the fact that this tan has so much moisturizer in it makes this tan take a little while to dry.

I found that it didn’t last a week on my skin but about 2 or 3 days which is definitely not bad. Honestly I really love everything about this product except its colour but I think that a body bronzer on top of this would add more yellow tones to my skin and make this perfect

I’m off to sniff my arms some more but check out the other Makebelieve Self Tan Lotion reviews from the #TFWOC ladies.

Sophia Tattooed Tea Lady

Safiyah FrootiBeauty

Tass Une Tasse

Grace All That Slap

LaaLaa Dolce Vanity

Hafsa Muslimah Beauty

Yinka Vex in the City

Stephanie Nerd about Town

Dija Dija’s World

Lola LolaStar Heart

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