Nobody is paying me to say this. That said...
I have a favorite new little indulgence.
It's Birchbox. Have y'all heard of it? For $10 a month, they send you a little box full of joy and indulgence, right in the mail. A tiny box filled with sample sizes of all the hottest, new beauty products. I adore it.
Every month, it arrives, and I immediately take it straight to the bathroom and shut the door. It's like the mailman brought me porn. I open the mailing box, and inside is the Birchbox itself, with all the little treats wrapped up sweetly in tissue paper and a ribbon, like a present just for me. Here's the September box...
Benefit's Foamingly Clean Facial Wash & Benefit's Refined Finish Facial Polish (an exfoliant) - both samples were so ample that they lasted me all month. Caudalie's Vinexpert Firming Serum. Dr. Jart+Water Fuse Beauty Balm SPF 25+, which is this cool tinted moisturizer/sunscreen. Color Club nail polish in this wild charcoal gray color, which I adore, but Jude deems "too gothy" for me. A darling little Twistband hair tie. And a cool little Tili plastic travel makeup bag.
Here's October...
Supergoop City Sunscreen Serum - Two huge samples of an excellent moisturizer/sunscreen/serum combo - I LOVE a good combo. Jouer Lip Enhancer - a lip balm and plumper (woohoo!) with a little bit of a pink tint. Kiehl's Rosa Arctica Eye Cream - I LOVE Kiehl's. A travel sized Illume candle in Red Cedar, which I have been burning daily. And a lemon Luna Bar, which lasted about 45 seconds.
These are all high-quality beauty products. Skin care, makeup, hair products, perfumes. Seriously nice things that I desperately wish I could afford to buy regularly for myself, but can't. So these little samples are such a wonderful indulgence. I love to open my little box and squeal and coo over all the pretty things.
And it's all the latest, most current stuff, you know? Back in the day, I used to read the magazines and know all about the best new products, but nowadays? I know diddlysquat. I don't have the time or money to troll the makeup department at Bloomingdales anymore. But my Birchbox makes me feel like I'm not just a pitiful old, out-of-style maw-maw.
Of course, the Birchbox people are pretty smart, and you can purchase full-sized versions of all of your box contents from their website with no shipping charge. I have so far managed to resist all but one thing - the Benefits Foamingly Clean Facial Wash from September, which is the best cleanser I've tried in AGES. And I really needed a new cleanser. Really. I swear.
The only thing I would possibly criticize about the whole Birchbox experience, is the videos! Every month, right after the box has been shipped, they email a video of the ladies who own the company giving a little preview of what's going to be in that month's box. Now, I realize that these ladies must have something serious going on upstairs, because it's such an excellent and inspired company, but I'm afraid they come across as...how do I put this?...silly, brainless, Valley-girl idiots. It's true. I just cringe and have to turn it off. Which is better anyway, because then I'm totally surprised when I lock myself in the bathroom and open my little magic box of wonders.
I highly recommend that y'all go for the Birchbox thing. My friend Julie signed up both herself and her teenage daughter, which I would have ADORED when I was a teenager. And I've been hemming and hawing about whether I should share this or not, but I think I will just because...well, just because...but don't feel any pressure or anything. I'm not spitting this out, am I. Well if you DO decide to join the Birchbox folks, and you follow THIS LINK HERE, then they will know that I "refered" you, and I'll earn some Birchbox points. Which I can redeem for free stuff if I get enough. But no pressure. I'm just telling y'all about it because it's so fun.
Hmmm. I think I'll go put on some eye cream. And some of that lip balm. And light my candle. Heeeeeeeeeeeee!
___________________________________
And here are our beautiful Beauty spinners for the week...
Suzicate at The Water Witch's Daughter
Vandy J at The Testosterone Three and Me
Ginny Marie at Lemon Drop Pie - NEW on FRIDAY - SHE'S VLOGGING, Y'ALL!
Mommy Lisa at Mommy's Nest - NEW on FRIDAY!!
Janice at I Got Nothing - NEW on FRIDAY!!
___________________________________
Next week on The Spin Cycle...
Spooky
Now, I want to be clear, this is not our Halloween spin. We'll have a Halloween Show and Tell the week of Halloween. This is just to get us in the Halloween mood. Last year, Jen at Sprite's Keeper, the former maven of spin, assigned a Ghost Story spin about this time, and I wrote THIS post, about famous Los Angeles murders, which was about the most fun I've ever had writing this blog. Who knows? Maybe I'll come up with a few more LA dastardly deeds to share with you.
Do you have a good scary story? Ever seen a ghost? What frightens you most in the world? Do you have a favorite scary movie? Scary book?
Or...share a Halloween tradition or costume from the past that was spooooooooky. Something we could all use to scare the pants off our kids?
Write your spin. Let me know. I'll link it here! Come back next Friday for my Spooky spin and next week's spin topic.
Please join in the fun!
Share your spin!
Highlight the code.
Copy to your HTML.
Et voila! Linked!
Indulgence is wonderful and totally underrated.
Posted by: Janice Adcock | 10/18/2012 at 10:17 PM
Oh, that sounds like so much fun! I totally want to try that nail polish. I think that color is hot right now (not that I really keep up with beauty trends!) When I was a teenager, I wore this dark blue nail polish that I adored, but my aunt thought it was "interesting", hehe.
Here's my link: http://www.lemondroppie.com/2012/10/freaking-out-about-appearances/
Posted by: Ginny Marie | 10/19/2012 at 05:13 AM
That does sound like fun! I may need to check that out :-)
Posted by: Alaina | 10/19/2012 at 06:59 AM
http://www.mommysnest.com/2012/10/youre-so-beautiful-veronica-sawyer.html
I spun! I spun!
And I clicked and asked for BirchBox too. Me want.
Posted by: mommylisa | 10/19/2012 at 07:52 AM
The BirchBox sounds so cool! A little indulgence for mom.
Posted by: VandyJ | 10/19/2012 at 09:20 AM
Okay, you made it sound so fun. I clicked over there using your link and it had me enter my email to wait four weeks for a chance to buy. I really hope it doesn't take four weeks! Mama needs a prezzy!
Posted by: becky | 10/19/2012 at 09:53 AM
Okay, you made it sound so fun. I clicked over there using your link and it had me enter my email to wait four weeks for a chance to buy. I really hope it doesn't take four weeks! Mama needs a prezzy!
Posted by: becky | 10/19/2012 at 10:00 AM
The birchwood box sounds awesome...I just love little packages of goodies!
Posted by: suzicate | 10/19/2012 at 10:17 AM
My mom used to get Yves Rocher when I was growing up! I still remember the tiny little lipsticks - I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Like Christmas every time.
Posted by: Sarah at 32Flavors | 10/19/2012 at 11:48 AM
Wait! I can feel hip...for only $10 per month!?!?! Thanks so much for sharing! I am going to double check the budget, take something out of the kids' column and follow your link (how cool for you!)
Posted by: Andrea | 10/19/2012 at 04:29 PM
That would indeed be a fantastic gift for a teenage girl...may have to consider that for the newly-ordained teenage goddaughter. Great idea!
Posted by: The Meaning of Me | 10/19/2012 at 05:08 PM
Arrrgh, they still do not ship to Canada.
Posted by: Keely | 10/21/2012 at 08:57 PM