October Birchbox: Beauty Buzz

I'm running behind on posting the contents of my subscription boxes for October, so this week will be catch up on subscription box time.  Today I'm showing my October Birchbox, which featured some tried and true items as well as some totally new to me brands.  So, here we go!

The new to me items start with a full sized Pop Beauty Aqua Lacquer in Floating Rose ($14).  This is a mineral oil based lip gloss, but it  also contains Jojoba seed oil and Vitamin E and feels really nice on.  The applicator is the small plastic paddle type, which I'm not used to, but it works well and I'm warming up to it.  The gloss has a slight cooling sensation on my lips as well as minty fragrance, but I don't see peppermint oil in the list of ingredients.  Floating Rose is a soft pink and I'm liking the gold shimmer in it!

Liz Earle is a well regarded British brand with over 90 beauty awards to their credit.  The Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser two part system features a cream cleanser with cocoa butter, rosemary and eucalyptus essential oils that you massage into your skin, followed by the warm/wet muslin cloth to remove the cleanser.  The plant oils lift dirt off the skin’s surface without disrupting the natural barrier function and you also get gentle exfoliation.  I haven't tried these yet, but I'm intrigued.  My initial thought was that the muslin cloth needs to be washed after every 2-3 uses, so I'm not sure how practical this will be for me.  Sample value for the cleanser and cloth is about $9.

The Dermablend Smooth Indulgence foundation is actually a tried and true for me, as I purchased it in Soft Beige over a year ago (you can see my review here).  It's a medium to full coverage foundation that works really well with my oily skin.  The shade I received from Birchbox is Taupe, which is too dark for my complexion but which I can use for shading and/or blending with other foundations that are too light.  I received the full size, which retails for $32.

The extra this month is a ChapStick Hydration Lock, which is supposed to give 8 hour moisture and contains CoQ10, hyaluronic filling spheres, and vitamin E.  I'm a lip balm junkie whose philosophy is "you can never have too many", so I'm pleased.  Value of the full sized ChapStick is $2.99, making the total value of my October box $57.99, quite a good return on my $10 investment!