Sorry I've not posted for a while, but I was firstly busy in the week, then really ill on Friday which made me still feel crappy yesterday, and then this morning my laptop wouldn't work, so annoying!
I was SO excited for this box, and was thrilled when I got into work on Wednesday morning and saw that I'd got an email saying it had been dispatched, and even more thrilled when I got a call from reception at about 11AM telling me it had arrived! I'm assuming they used different couriers as a lot of people on Twitter were confused about how quickly it arrived as well.
On first impressions, I love the tissue, it just adds another element that will make the packaging brilliant for putting presents in..
It was a lot more neat than this, I did rip it all open at work, I just can't help myself.
Anyway, onto the contents (which were taken in my garden, LOVING this sunshine, and the daisies)
I blew up the balloon and gave it to 1 year old Smokey, who has never seen a balloon before and seemed to have great fun with it...
For all of around 20 seconds...
Then once her work was done she was off.
The second anniversary extra was a cute little branded compact mirror, with one magnified side. I was thrilled with this because I always lose mirrors and have forgotten to buy one for ages, forcing me to carry a shard of broken mirror in my bag (seriously, it's not sharp but god forbid I forgot about it and tried to go clubbing). This is a nice size and snaps shut nicely.
Next up, two Lolita Lempicka perfume samples. I've never heard of her before, but I got Si Lolita which I don't like as it's too spicy, spicy smells remind me of aftershave, but that's my opinion. it is quite different, and i like the top note, just not when it fades down.
there's also her first fragrance, which I LOVE. It's fruity but with a vanilla (I think) undertone, it really reminds me of a perfume I bought on a school trip to France when I was about 13 which I can't remember the name of, but so much so it really transports me back to that.
I don't mind getting perfume samples when they're a decent size (like the Versace one in the Harrods box), but these tiny little samples infuriate me in beauty boxes, as everyone knows you can just go into Debenhams or wherever and ask for them! I am kinda glad I got these though as I'm probably going to buy the original one in full size, but I would have rathered been able to wear it for more than 2 days before deciding this.
The next product was a little bottle of Berber hair oil, which I've seen blogged about before, I do love a good hair oil so I'm looking forward to trying this out. It comes in a bottle like an essential oil, but it had leaked a bit I think as I could smell it as soon as I opened the box.
next up is a 75ml bottle of noble isle shower gel in summer rising. it says on the bottle that this smells like Cornish hedgerows, which my friend thought was hysterical. I like the smell of this but I washed my hands of it and the smell it left on my skin afterwards reminded me more of old man aftershave. You can use it as bubble bath as well, so I'll probably be trying that later.
I also got two Express Beauty revitalising face masks with pomegranate, one of which I've already used. The sachets are technically full price, but I hate sachets. I got two uses out of the one I used, but had to do them one day after the other as it would have dried up otherwise, which is annoying. This is a creme/gel based mask with little red dots in which pop on the skin, it didn't sink in as such but dried and went a little sticky after 15 minutes or so. I don't think it's done anything fantastic to my skin, but it did moisturise it, as when I tried to apply my serum and moisturiser afterwards my skin was a lot shinier and they took much longer to sink in as usual. I'm going to keep the other sachet for when my skin gets seriously dry/dehydrated like it did a few weeks ago, as I think this would really help that. and recieving skincare in boxes is my favourite, so this went down well overall.
last but not least, lashes! These are from Eldora and I believe they retail from £3.95 or similar (I left my product list at work). I saw some people got lashes with either glitter or diamantes on them, and I'm very glad I didn't as there's no way I'd find anywhere to wear those without looking a prat; most of the times I wear eyelashes at all I look overdone compared to everyone else! These are a bit spikier than I'd normally go for, but I'm looking forward to trying them out. They're handmade and come with a little thing of glue which to be fair will probably end up binned as I'm a DUO girl, but I can see how this is a definite plus for those who don't wear lashes often; there's nothing worse than getting eyelashes and having no bleedin glue!
So, that's that then. I was absolutely SO excited for the anniversary box as a lot of you were, but I can't help but feel a little... deflated (balloon pun, sorry). Considering how much glossybox banged on about their first birthday, this really didn't live up to the hype for me.
I've looked around at what other people got, and as usual the ambassadors got what I would consider a more worthwhile box, I still wouldn't say anything I've seen has excited me that much. When you compare this to the fact that the USA got their first box recently and it had 5 full size products in, I don't really see how this box is celebrating how popular they've been over here, and therefore not really impressed me.
I know Glossybox have been doing a lot of big daily competitions on their facebook page, but as someone who doesn't use facebook this is useless to me, and I kinda wish they'd put more effort into the boxes, as it all just seems like they've been trying to get people more interested in this box, and then not actually delivered as far as the contents go.
When the highlight of a box is a compact mirror, I'm gonna be a bit miffed.
