Review | Birchbox - Step and Repeat

February's box was all about awards season. Birchbox featured samples that would help us common folk perfect our red carpet look. I guess...

• Bain de Terre passion flower Color Preserving Shampoo & Conditioner - I tested this for a couple of weeks to see if it really did what it claims on the bottle. Let me just say that a shampoo containing sulfates won't do much for preserving color and this one had it. The shampoo and conditioner did nothing to preserve my color nor did it moisturize my hair. In fact, it was frizzy when I blow dried it. Eeks! The only upside was that it smelled really good!
• Miracle Skin Transformer Face Spotlight SPF 20 - This tinted moisturizer claims to "visibly improves skin's texture and appearance of pores, minimizes the appearance of fine lines, reduces discoloration, evens out and illuminates skin tone, and protects from UVA/UVB rays." While I can't say it did any of that, one perk of this moisturizer is that it gives a very natural glow. It has a bit of gold shimmer in it, so for someone with oily skin like me, it wouldn't be a good idea to put all over the face.
  

  

  The shimmer catches in the light very subtly; it's perfect for highlighting.

  I personally like to apply it where I would usually apply bronzer. I also couldn't apply it all over my face because it was a little dark for my complexion and would've made my face look more tan than the rest of my body.
• StriVectin-AR Advanced Retinol Eye Treatment - Oh gosh, ever since I signed up for Birchbox, I've been praying to the gods (both old and new) to get this in one of my boxes. After two years, my prayers were answered. It's just too bad that this didn't work for me. I am SO incredibly upset because I know how everyone raves about this eye cream. After a week of use, I noticed the skin under my eyes were getting a bit dry. I'm guessing that this was a tad too strong and that I might be allergic to one of the ingredients. And so, the search for my HG eye cream continues...
• 32 Oral Care Effervescent Breath Crystals w/ IsoVoxy - These are basically minty pop rocks. They were very fun to eat and while it did make my breath minty, it didn't stay that way for very long. Bottom line is that they're exciting and cool because pop rocks will forever be the best candy ever, but I would never buy these. I'll just buy gum.