Fortune Cookie Soap Fall Soap Box

Fortune Cookie Soap boxes are different from the usual beauty box subscriptions in that they are quarterly and contain bath and body-type products.  They are an American-based company and they ship worldwide.  The do a great range of products and have some excellent themes like Harry Potter, The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Hunger Games. 

I had heard of this company for a while but hadn't ordered anything as I was worried about the shipping charges.  However, when I found out about the subscription boxes, called The Soap Box, I decided to give it a go.

This is about the 4th box I've received and they contain around 7 sample-sized products and 1 full-sized signature Fortune Cookie Soap.  Each box is themed brilliantly and this quarter is a Halloween-type of box in the it has a Wizard of Oz theme to it.  There is usually a teaser picture that appears prior to the release and this also appears as a sticker on the front of your box.

Inside you get a card that tell you the themed names of the products and what the scents are.

I have to say that the smell that greets you when you open this boxes is uh-may-zing!!

First up is the Roy G. Biv OCD Hand Sanitizer.

I love the name OCD for the hand sanitizers.  I'm a bit of a nut for using hand sanitizers so the OCD name appeals to me.

I have to say that the name 'Roy G. Biv' threw me at first and then I found out that it is a mnemonic for remembering the colours of the rainbow.  Very clever.  When I was at school we had to make one up ourselves.  The best we could come up with was Really Old Yogurt Goes Bad In Vans!  Roy G. Biv would have been much easier.

The scent of this is fantastic but so difficult to pinpoint!  The card describes it as 'a full-spectrum of citrus notes and florals against a cool fall background'.  It is alchemy is what it is!

Next up is a whipped cream.  The card states that you would get one of four scents and I got 'BFFs'.

Whipped Creams are beautiful, soft body creams that absorb nicely and smell heavenly.  BFF is no exception, smelling like a sugary, pastry pie with pumpkin and blueberry.  I want to eat this with a spoon...honestly.  I won't, of course, but I really want to.

The other 'flavours' that were available with this Fall box were 'Green Is The New Black' - pumpkin pie with cinnamon, ginger and brown sugar (O. M. G.!!!), 'No Good Deed' - pumpkin, cinnamon, maple syrup, rum, vanilla and caramelized sugar (*faints*) and 'Wicked Good' - orange, apple, pear, pineapple, cherries, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, vanilla and sugar (someone break out the defibrillator!).

After being on the skin a few minutes the fruity scents become more obvious and delicious.

Then we have 'Swankified' the Walnut Facial Scrub.

I mentioned in my August Birchbox review how much I love really scrubby facial scrubs.  Well this one is a real winner for me.  A new addition the the Fortune Cookie Soap range, this face scrub is beautifully scrubby and exfoliating without being too harsh and leaves my skin really soft.  The scent is very nutty, as you might expect from the name and the card tells me that this is 'bunches of ripe bananas mashed into sweet, sugary cake batter, then topped with walnuts and baked to a golden brown'.  I guess there is a pie-like quality to the scent but I can't really detect bananas personally.

Onto 'Miss Popular' Bubble Bath Powder.  This is a bag of white powder which I can only assume does exactly what it says and bubbles in the bath.  I haven't tried this one out yet as I don't have many baths (I have showers - just in case you wondered) and I didn't want to waste any of this trying it out in a sink.

The scent of this is floral, sweet and utterly gorgeous.  The card states that there is honey nectar, star anise, star jasmine, sweet orange and violet in here.  I am really excited to try this out as the smell is divine and I can't wait to see how this works in the bath and how it makes me smell afterwards!

'Hair Flip' is a hair oil which is, again, something new for Fortune Cookie Soap.  This is a custom blend of oils that is designed to help dry, damaged hair.  You only need 1 or 2 drops to give you lovely shine without any greasiness.

This smells like rich, buttery, sweet pastry and I love, love, love it.  I haven't tried this out yet as I want to wait until I next wash my hair to get the most out of it.  I honestly cannot wait to try it as I really, really want my hair to smell of this. I want everything to smell of this.

'Flying Monkeys' is the Personal Space Air Freshener.  Again, I love the name of this range as I really hate people who invade my personal space.

This is a room freshener that Fortune Cookie Soap do a whole range of in a variety of different scents.  Flying Monkeys has a lovely, fruity smell that reminds me of Fruit Salad chewy sweets (who remembers those!).  The card says it has peach, watermelon, neroli, jasmine, bananas and 'air and aquatic' notes.

I love this spray and have always like the other Personal Space sprays that I have had with the other Soap Boxes.  I love having beautifully scented rooms and love scented candles and room sprays that aren't cloying or suffocating.  This is a lovely fresh smell that I know I'm going to end up using really quickly as I want every room to smell like this!  This is a nice handbag-size too so you could easily take this away with you on holiday to make your hotel or apartment smell delicious.

 

'The Shiz' is a perfume oil in a cute little bottle.  The smell is intoxicating and has a sandalwood type scent to it and maybe pine, but there is nothing I can put my finger on here (I am rubbish at picking out perfume notes).  The card describes the scent as 'a woodland hike through damp balsam woods, with top notes of maple leaves blowing through new dawn blossom, laurel and sweet clove'.  I feel like a dunce that I only really know what clove smells like but it clearly explains my inability to describe what it is I'm smelling.

This is a wonderful, complicated scent that is deep, fresh and most definitely a unisex perfume.  I would love to wear this in Winter.  It does have a lovely Autumnal quality to it but it also seems to have a lovely Wintry zingy-ness to it.  Very unusual and unique and I must have sniffed this a million times and still not been able to pinpoint what it is I'm smelling!

I purposely left the actual Fortune Cookie Soap until the end here as, not only is it the product that the company is named after but it is my favourite scent of all.

'There's No Place Like Home' is pure ruby red slippers in a soap.  To me this smells like cherries but the card states that this is apple peels, cinnamon, allspice and clove.  I cannot explain why this equals cherries to my nose but it does and I love it for it.

It may be an angel to the nose but it is a devil to photograph.  Flecked with tiny red glitter this soap is mesmerising to look at and I wish that I could properly capture that here.

On a re-smelling I can really detect the clove and cinnamon!  Personally, I love strongly scented soaps.  I work in an office and often have one hand near my face as I try to think of what to write, try to concentrate on reading a lengthy email or memo or just daydream for a few seconds.  Having a lovely scent to smell adds a little bit of brightness to my day, especially as the weather feels like it's on the turn to crisper, cooler days.

Fortune Cookie Soaps come in a large range of scents on the website and each have a fortune inside.  I think this is a lovely idea and good fun.

With each Soap Box you get a $10 code to use against a future purchase from the site.  You cannot use this towards a Soap Box or against shipping and the amount must be used in full.

The Soap Box costs $34 for the international option and this is charged every 3 months.  This may sound pricey to some but it's around £20 for a lot of products, shipped from America and comes with a $10 voucher.

If you are interested in signing up to the Soap Box subscriptions you need to do this fairly quickly.  This Autumn box has already sold out but you can sign up to the next box and have a look at past boxes) here.

I love this company.  Dreamt up by husband and wife, Shannon and Justin, this company was grown from a little business to a much bigger company that sells worldwide.  They mostly run the business by themselves and have a team of helpers for busier times of year.
The range of products and scents is huge and some scents come in a full range of products that they refer to as 'all the things'.  Currently their home page shows a full range of Butter Beer products and Polyjuice Potion products!  Perfect for the geek in all of us!

I really want to get into the products and scent ranges that this company offers over the coming months and plan to buy a few (by 'few' I mean 'many') items the second payday hits, from products I have already tried but in other scents to shampoo and conditioner bars, body scrubs and lip balms (I have a bit of a lip balm obsession).

I had to include a picture of one of the 'confetti' sprinkles in this box.

 Who else was terrified of Miss Gulch in The Wizard of Oz?  That bit when she changes into the witch in the cyclone sequence still gives me the heeby-jeebies!

Head on over to Fortune Cookie Soap here and follow them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Until next time my pretties...x

Random cat post #1

Elsie the cat decided to stare me down yesterday when I was about to start photographing my new Glossybox.  She sits on the edge of the sink and glares until you cave in and turn the tap on for her to drink from.

It was as if she knew the light was strobing between bright sunlight and overcast and that I needed all the time I could get to ensure I took bright photos as she decided to drink for about 5 minutes.

 

It's not as if she doesn't get any water - there is always a fresh supply.  I think it tastes better when a human is waiting to do something and you can waste their time.

In the end I decided to make the most of it and snap some pictures of her in action.  If any of my pictures yesterday looked a bit dark you can blame this...

...or the person stupid enough to wait patiently until the cat decides you can go now.

Thanks Elsie! :D

August Glossybox

Glossybox is another subscription beauty box service that gets delivered to your door.  Once again there are different plans for subscribing: £10.00 per month, with £3.25 delivery, for the monthly plan, £9.50 per month, with £9.75 delivery (total), for the 3-month plan, £9.00 per month, with £19.50 delivery (total), for the 6-month plan and £8.50 per month, with £39.00 deliver (total), for the 12-month plan.  As with the other beauty boxes, you receive a selection of items at random with no clue as to what you will receive.  You can view the contents of previous boxes on the Glossybox website.

They also offer a Limited Edition box that, in the past, has included a Dr Nick themed box, a Roger & Galet box and a Darphin box.  They currently offer a Bridal Box that costs £25 for 1 box and the contents have a retail value of £99.

They also have an online 'magazine' that gives lots of tips, tutorials and information on different products and techniques for hair, skin, nails and make-up.

This month Glossybox founder Charles Von Abercron adds a 'thank you' message to the contents card which states that this is their 3 year celebration. 

The box comes in the standard, pale pink box that just oozes luxury at first sight.  I know I spoke of liking other beauty boxes for their eco-friendly feel but the Glossybox feels like an indulgent treat which I find very welcoming in the middle of the month.

 See!  Doesn't it look lovely and inviting?!

The card with this box is laid out in a concertina style with all the product information on it.

Oooooooooh......

Ta-da!

First up to the plate is the Kryolan highlighter in Cashmere.  This is a lovely, creamy highlighter that can be used on the brow, cheeks and lips.  The pot is beautiful, in a square glass pot and glides onto the skin with a lovely silky texture.

 This product retails for £12.95 for 4.5g and can be purchased from kryolan.com.

Then we move onto the Figs & Rouge hand cream.  This is a shea butter hand cream in a lovely, handy sized tube.  My scent was in Mango & Mandarin but the card shows a Rose Berry scented tube so I assume that there were different 'flavours' available in the Glossyboxes.

 The scent of this is absolutely delicious and you can really smell the mandarin in this and almost a hint of floral but that may just be the mango creeping in.  I've said before, I think, that I have an issue with some hand creams when they refuse to sink into the skin and leave your hands feeling greasy.  I've had this so many times with some brands and end up having to keep them for night time, to be used with cotton gloves.

This was a dream to use as it sank into my skin almost immediately!  I can feel where I applied it so it isn't completely undetectable but it certainly doesn't leave any unpleasant residue.  I will definitely be popping this straight into my handbag to be used during the day (I work in an office and the dry atmosphere, coupled with the rubbish printer paper we use, dry my hands out very badly.

The card states that this product retails at £6.95 for 80ml from www.feelunique.com but this fragrance, and the one shown on the card, are both only available on the site in 20ml tubes which retail for £3.95.  The scents on the site include the ones I've already mentioned (obviously) and Vanilla Pistachio in the 20ml tubes with French Vanilla, Cherry Blossom (yum!!!), Mocha Orange and Coco Rose in the 80ml sizes.

Having just checked the site I see that the Mango Mandarin and the Vanilla Pistachio are currently on offer at £2.37 and Coco Rose and Mocha Orange for £4.51.  At those prices I will most certainly be making a few purchases come payday (and maybe before then because I am weak willed and my purse must be punished).

Now we have the Yves Rocher nail polish which is a Birthday Bonus from Glossybox and is in the colour Rose.  The bottle is 3ml which is apparently the full size of the product and retails for around £3.60.

 

Nail polish in beauty boxes is always going to be weird for me because I have such a huge nail polish stash already.  The polish would have to stand out for me and be something new or special to be something I haven't chosen myself.  In this instance, while the polish isn't particularly 'special' it's a lovely, dusty pink/rose shade and I can't really say if I already have one like this which is a good thing.  Also, being such a tiny bottle, it isn't really going to take up any room in my stash.  I want to try and get back into doing some nail art (don't hold your breath - I'm nothing special in that area but I am a trier!) and, if nothing else, this polish could easily get incorporated into a nail art design.

 

  It swatched very nicely onto my nail art wheel.  I couldn't try it out live as I already have polish on my nails but it took two coats to become opaque on the wheel and dried medium-fast.  Overall, I really like this shade which is great as I wouldn't have necessarily picked a colour like this for myself so it's a nice surprise for me. www.yves-rocher.co.uk

The Philip Kingsley Elasticizer is a pre-shampoo hair treatment that offers strong, supple hair.  You apply it to wet hair which you then cover with either a shower cap or towel (or both) for 20 minutes and then rinse out and shampoo and condition as usual.

This product was originally created for Audrey Hepburn, who, let's face it - had gorgeous hair and promises to restore bounce and elasticity to your hair.

I haven't tried this one out yet as it's not time to wash my mane.  My hair is treated so it gets unruly and bad tempered if I wash it too frequently so I'll leave it a day or so more before trying it out.  The scent is barely there but there is a trace of a soft, delicate smell.

The card states that this retails for £38 for 250ml from www.lookfantastic.com but the site actually shows that, for this particular size, this is a special 40th anniversary edition and comes with a towelling wrap which I assume is a turban-style wrap.  I'm pleased to say that there appear to be various sizes of this product, from 75ml to 1000ml and there is also an Elasticizer Extreme version too.  The Look Fantastic site has a great range of all the Philip Kingsley products and I will definitely give these a look if I am impressed with this one.

I'm looking forward to trying this out.  My poor hair is a bit tortured at the moment and I really want to give it a lot of TLC so I'll have my fingers crossed - but not when applying it!

The penultimate product is a Lalique perfume sample in L'Amour.

This is a standard 2ml sample and has an unusual, sprinkler-type top which I was not expecting but was nicely surprised at - just be careful and not ham-fisted like I am!

The perfume card states that this is a floral scent but that is a serious understatement.  It has notes of cedar, rosebud, gardenia, sandalwood, bergamot and tuberose.  It is a luxurious, sensual and complex fragrance and I am hooked, hooked, hooked.

I am very much into my floral scents and this one is the jackpot for me.  So beautiful and feminine.  The perfume cards describes it as 'a love potion' and they may well be right.

This is available in 50ml for £67 or £94 for 100ml from Boots.

And last up is the Essence Longlasting Lipstick.  I have the shade 'Natural Beauty' *insert derisive laugh here as you point at my bleached, unnatural, hair!* but it seems that other shades were available in the Glossyboxes.

Lookit, lookit, lookit!  Mine has a dink in it!

The picture here shows it as being quite dark but it applies quite lightly which I like.  It has a nice, buttery texture and glides on nicely.  On application it comes over as a pink-y nude shade and is very flattering.

I've heard loads of good things about the Essence brand but is only available in the UK from Wilko stores and there isn't one that near to me.  I keep promising myself that I will travel to the nearest one to me but the weather of late doesn't cry 'shopping trip' to me right now.

The Essence brand is very cheap but has a very good reputation among the beauty gurus I follow.  If you have a Wilko near you I would definitely recommend giving them a look.  At these prices (£2.29 for this lipstick) you can afford to try out quite a few.  You can use the Essence store locator here.  There is a list of all products available on the Essence website.

Phew!  That seemed like a lot of good products this month and there'll be 3 or 4 of these added to my ever-expanding wishlist after this.

Glossybox subscriptions can be purchased on their site at www.glossybox.co.uk

Thanks for reading. x

August Love Me Beauty Box

So, you may have gathered by now...I have a bit of a thing for beauty subscription boxes.  As well as Birchbox, I also subscribe to Glossybox and Love Me Beauty.  I also love Latest In Beauty but they're not a subscription service.  Anyway, more on them another time, this time I want to show you the Love Me Beauty Box I received yesterday.

Love Me Beauty are a slightly different beauty box service in that you can choose from three boxes depending on what products you're likely to be interested in.  Each month the 'Boutique' opens and you receive an email inviting you to peruse and choose a box for that month.  The contents are usually very similar, maybe just a difference in colour choices and are often full size products.
The prices start at £10 per month + £2.95 p&p, £27 + p&p for 3 months, £48 + p&p for 6 months and £90 + p&p for a yearly subscription.

This month the choices are a mineral eye pigment in one of three colours, a lip pencil in one of three colours, an eyebrow pen in 'Blonde' and either a wrinkle correcting eye cream, an eye liner or a hair oil treatment.

I chose box 1...eye wrinkle cream.  Er, hello?  I need all the anti-wrinkle I an get.  One of this things I like about this beauty box is that they are eco-friendly with their packaging.  It's all cardboard and yo open the box and are right into the products - no box within a box here.

 

Once again, these boxes come with a handy card to tell you what you have and how to use it.

First on the list is the Marsk Mineral Eye Shadow that retails for £14.49.  The shade that came with this package is in 'You're Toast' and is a lovely light brown loose pigment which can be used wet or dry.  The pigmentation seems to be quite high - as I was trying to swatch the colour I noticed how bright the colour was on my finger so I'm very hopeful about this product and I personally think that the colour is very versatile for a multitude of eye looks.

The A La Carte Smudge Proof Eyebrow Definer in next up and retails at £25.  The colour in all the boxes was the same 'Blonde'.  However, you can see in the swatch that the colour is a mid to dark brown so I think that this could easily be used for different eyebrow colours.

Now, I'll confess that eyebrows scare me.  Not literally...I can be in the company of eyebrows comfortably enough but when it comes to makeup and eyebrows I get a bit nervous.  I think that eyebrows are such a vital part of our overall face look that I become convinced that mine will look terrible if I start using brow products on them.  I'm not without a good reason for this - many years ago (don't ask how many) a friend of a friend wanted someone to practice waxing legs on for a beauty course.  I volunteered as I wax my own legs all the time.  After she was done she asked if she could have a go at waxing my brows.  I stupidly agreed and she ended up taking too much from the inside of my brows and, although they don't look terrible, they don't look as I'd like them to.

The A La Carte eyebrow pen is just like a felt-tipped pen and you use it by adding 'hairs' to your brows using light pen strokes or you can add colour and smudge it quickly for a softer look.

I could not resist giving this a go and was...well, amazed at the results!  You really can achieve a fuller look to thinner parts of the brow and it looks quite natural and part of your eyebrow.  Obviously close-up scrutiny would reveal the pen strokes but not many people will be getting that close, will they?  The card states that the pen can also be used as eyeliner or even semi-permanent body art!!  This pen may be a bit on the pricey side but it wins hands down for the best eyebrow product I've used so far.

Next up is the Oriflame Ecollagen Wrinkle Correcting Eye Cream which retails at £16.95.  This comes in a handy tube with a handy roll on ball tip for very easy application (my favourite type of application - easy).  The instructions state that this can be used morning and night and will address wrinkles, dark circles and puffiness.

This feels lovely to use but then I think there is something very nice about an eye cream roller as the ball always feel lovely and cool on application.  It applied very easily but anti-wrinkle creams are never going to be something to work overnight so I won't know for some time whether this actually works or not but I'll continue to use it as it won't be any problem to slot it into my face routine either end of the day.

Lastly is the Mirabella Lip Luster(sic) Liner (the brands website lists it as Lip Lustre) which retails for £10.50 and the colour with box 1 is 'Bashful'.  Bashful is a dusty pink colour and contains aloe vera.  The guide advises that this can be used all over the lips as a lip gloss base but presumably can be used as a regular lip liner too.

I don't own any lip liners as I predominately use lip gloss these days and used to wear a lot of long wearing lip colours (the kind you use with a special lip gloss topper and last for hours) and lip liner was not a good idea with those.  However, I have been using more lipsticks in the last few weeks and have been thinking about investing in a lip liner.  This Mirabella  lip pencil seems absolutely ideal for me as, not only will it be useful with my new lipstick colours but I can use it under my lip glosses too!  The application was lovely and smooth and the colour was lovely.  I know that £10.50 might be a high-ish price for some but can I just say, this pencil seems very long!  I know I'm out of touch with lip liners but this one would seem to be longer that I would have thought so you do get a lot of pencil for your money.

 So, overall I am very, very impressed with the August Love Me Beauty box and the quality and size of the products I received.  Would I buy all of these products again?  I don't know is the simple answer.  The eyebrow pen and the lip liner would be my highest contenders for re-purchase but the eyeshadow pigment will need to contend with my large eyeshadow collection and the wrinkle correcting eye cream would need to wow me with the results.  However, as a box of products that cost me £12.95 in total - I'm swept away!

You can subscribe to Love Me Beauty here http://lovemebeauty.com/

August Birchbox

Hi,
So Monday I got my August Birchbox and wanted to share the contents I got with you. I had to laugh that I had an email saying my Birchbox was on its way and it was already here!

The boxes always come in a buff, recycled cardboard type box and contain around 4-5 sample products to try. It costs £10.00 per month with £2.95 shipping if you just want to sign up month by month but there are other options for 6 month (£50 + shipping) or yearly (£90 + shipping). There is also a chance to buy the full size versions of all the products from the Birchbox site.
 

The samples you get are a random mixture from all the samples on offer that month.  You can go to the Birchbox site to see the other products that were on offer that month (not always recommended – you might see something you really wish you had received!).

Inside the box is a plastic zip lock bag as the idea this month is items you can take on holiday.  Usually the samples come in a small cloth drawstring bag so this was a nice change.  Inside each box will be a card that tells you about the samples in your particular box.

The card tells you what you have and how to use it so you have a nice quick guide to your samples.  There is also a big concertina card with information about other products and information/ideas that are relevant to the theme.

First up in my particular box is the Super Comb Prep & Protect leave-in conditioner which helps protect against heat and sun damage.  It has a lovely sweet smell to it and it comes in a spray bottle.  The full size of this retails for £20.

 

 

(sorry for the blurry image – it looked fine when I snapped it, honest!)

Next up is the Chella Highlighter Pencil that can be used for highlighting the brow bone, cheeks and inner eye.  Having this in a pencil makes it a lot more controllable and it has a lovely smooth texture.  This product retails for £19.95

Then comes Nude Progenius™ Omega Treatment Oil.  The full size of this retails for £58!!  It contains omega 3, 6, 7 & 9 and you apply it to your face after cleansing and can either be used alone or under your usual moisturiser.

It has a very nice, almost nutty smell and applied very easily and silkily to my skin.  Although you can use this morning and evening I might skip a morning useage as I would be worried about looking too oily but if you have dry skin this could be a great product any time of day.

Vasanti Brightenup! Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator (try saying that three times fast!) is an exfoliating cream that you use on wet skin to give you a renewed complexion.  The full size of this retails for £26.  It has a lovely, Nivea-type of smell and has a light, grainy feel so it will be scrubby on your face but not too harsh.

Supergoop! Daily Correct SPF 35 CC Cream retails for £32 for the full size version.  I was a bit disappointed when I first saw the sample size but then I noticed that there were two tubes, 3ml each.  My sample is light to medium and is a nice, creamy product that applied very smoothly and matched with my complexion once blended in.  The photo below is obviously not blended but I wanted to include it so you can see how it looks.

 Last up is a slightly unusual one for a beauty box – it’s the first chapter of The Proposal by Tasmina Perry and is available for £7.99.  The cover states that the book won a Reader Recommended Books award from Good Housekeeping.  I love that this was included as I love to read and I love the unusual inclusion of this in a beauty box.

Finally, I have included pictures of the little zip lock bag as it’s cute and very useful.  I think that this is ideal for carrying a few beauty essentials in but, for me at least, would come in more useful for items that get a bit messy like suntan lotion or slightly damaged face powders.  This bag has a lovely plastic-y smell that just takes me back to my childhood of blowing up beach balls, paddling pools and various other childhood playthings that are made of this same, flexible plastic.  Maybe I’m just weird for smelling plastic bags!

I love that this looks like a beach front shop canopy at the top with ice lollies in the middle.

So that concludes my August Birchbox share.  You can subscribe to Birchbox or buy the full sized items from their site at https://birchbox.co.uk