Birchbox January 2015

I normally really enjoy my birchboxes but this month birchbox has been really poor. 
The fact that it is so poor is really disappointing. 
I'll show you what I've got as I know for others it might be a good box but for me it definitely wasn't. 
Here are my items:

Stila lip glaze 1.5ml

To be honest I'm not huge lip gloss fan to start with but am even less of a fan of sticky lip glosses. This one has a nice shimmery pink colour but for me it is so sticky that I will definitely not be wearing it.

Why exactly the people at stila thought it was a good idea to have it so sticky I have no idea but I suppose it is different strokes for different folks?
Sadly this stroke rubs me up the wrong way.

Birchbox palates band 

The next item is the lifestyle item and it is a Pilates band. 
It is not something that I'm really interested in it looks rather like an item you would get free with a magazine. 

Granted that this is a match up with womens health but I'm not really buying this box for a match up with the women's health. 
I'm looking for a beauty box and if they're putting more focus onto the lifestyle extras by producing this Pilates band rather than giving me decent samples I don't see the point in continuing to subscribe to birchbox.

Embrace matcha green tea

The next item is another lifestyle item and this time it is a single sachet of green tea and tbh I'm not sure why we only have one sachet. 
But I suppose with the Pilates band they believe that we would be happy with that and only need one sachet of the other lifestyle item.

For me this is another lifestyle that is a fail as I probably won't use this. 
I'm not interested in it and I've had lots better lifestyle items from birchbox and to be honest this box just follows on the trend that the themed boxes don't tend to be that good.

But onto the rest of the beauty items of this month.

Healgel face 5ml

This was the item that really upset me when I did my YouTube video. 

It is a moisturiser and is a very small sample. 

I've seen foil samples that contain 5ml of moisturiser. 

Plus after actually using this moisturiser I know that this sample size lasted about two or three days and when using it I realised it wasn't anything special.  
For me the rrp is rather too high for what it actually is and is definitely not worth the money.

To be honest the best moisturises I've found so far have been either French or Korean and I wouldn't bother with this much especially as the price on birchbox shop is about £50, so not worth the money in my opinion.

Agave healing oil treatment 4ml

I've had this before with my other Birchbox account and for me hair oil is an item I will use and 4ml is a fair amount and will go a fairly long way. I haven't tried the other sample from the other box but I will enjoy trying this item.

But it is a sad state of affairs when I am saying this is my favourite item from the box. 
Surely there should be something better in the box than this to make me go wow. 
Sadly, there is not.

In general what's lacking this month is a wow factor and four mls of hair oil is not going to give this box the wow factor.

Philip Kingsley flaky/itchy shampoo 20ml

To say that their elasticiser product is not a favourite of mine would be an understatement. That product tends to repel me due to the scent but thankfully this product by Philip Kingsley hasn't got the same scent so I may actually be able to use this product.

 For me this product has very little scent but the fact that it is only 20 ml is not a good thing for me as I've hair right down my back so to me it might have maybe one or two applications. 

The product is well suited for me though because I have problems with my scalp and having the flaky itchy scalp one is good but I'm unlikely to ever purchased after one or two uses but it might be a good shampoo to take away with me when I go on holiday.

Activbod cooling finish lotion 20ml

The last item this month is this cooling finishing body lotion and it is a 20 ml sample of a product which has cooling menthol, vitamin E and is tailored for use after exercise to cool the muscles and it will also deodorise your body and moisturise and repair dry skin. 

20 ml isn't a particularly large size though, but I suppose if you are only going to use it topically in certain areas it wouldn't be too bad. 

The other issue I have with it is that on touching and squeezing the tube you can tell that there is a lot of air in the tube and that sets me off wondering if there is actually 20mls of product in here.
A bit of a meh product for me tbh.

Sorry that this has been such a negative review to be honest I'm not happy with this box.

They've asked me on Instagram to speak to the customer services but on having done it in the past I know they will say that all the boxes differ depending on your profile, a statement that makes me laugh as it always feels random but with three more boxes to go I will have to make my mind up how I feel about Birchbox at the end of these three boxes.
I will know then if I want to continue but three more boxes like this and I definitely won't continue with this box despite having been with them for over 18 months.

Nowadays there are so many boxes around and if you have a few bad months as a box company you will lose customers and I know that some people have left birchbox after this box and if I was monthly I may consider it too to be honest.

Hopefully the Valentines box will be a lot better after this box.

Here's hoping.

Have a lovely day and I hope if you got this box you had a better box than I did.

x-J-x