September 2014 Birchbox and Birchbox Plus

Back to talking about my old Birchboxes! This time we're going back to September 2014 and my first time trying out Birchbox Plus!

A photo posted by Elizabeth (@onegirlsreviews) on Sep 17, 2014 at 9:40am PDT

Ruffian Essential Blush Collection & Remover Towelettes: I've gone on several times about my love for Ruffian's nail polishes, and when I saw this gorgeous collection, I had to have it. I'd been wanting some more feminine but neutral-ish tones. These colors are gorgeous in person, and they're a fantastic base to do more fancy nail art, or put a bit of glitter on top and have a more simple look (for me that's simple). They go so well together, and my favorite is definitely No More Tears. I used it for my Valentine's Day manicure this year. These will also definitely be good colors for the Ruffian Manicure Look!

I can't seem to get a good picture of my Valentine's Day look. It's No More Tears from @ruffian and @birchbox with a top coat of Love by @julepmaven.

A photo posted by Elizabeth (@onegirlsreviews) on Feb 13, 2015 at 2:27am PST

Now to my actual Birchbox items!

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser and Cloth: This was my pick for the sample choice this month, and I actually got it because I already own a full size (thanks to a birthday present from my sister, yay!) and loved it so much I wanted a travel size to take with me on trips. It's a really lovely cleanser, and it works so much better than most I've tried. And while I think the muslin clothes are a bit expensive on their own, as a package deal they're quite nice to use and worth it.

Dear Clark Resurrecting Wash and Dear Clark Resurrecting Rinse: These were kind of a rare product that I absolutely did not like. The smell was awful, I don't know which aspect of it that I didn't like, but the scent was just gross to me. I didn't like it going on, and then throughout the day after I used it, I would turn my head and catch a whiff of it again and be grossed out all over again. Not a fan at all. That said, I gave mine to my best friend who said she liked the smell, so who knows.

Caudalie Vinoperfect Radiance Serum: Honestly, I'm so very over serums. I don't see a difference in my face when I use them (except maybe the oily spots get oilier) and they're usually ridiculously expensive. Which this one is, it's far too overpriced for what it is. Sure, it was a good serum, but like I said, I've never noticed a big difference between when I use a serum and when I don't, so why spend $79 on one ounce of a product like that?

Smashbox Be Legendary Long Wear Lip Lacquer: I do really like Smashbox products, and this lip lacquer is nice, but it goes on a little thick and bright for my current style of makeup. But it is fun to try a brighter color once in a while, so I've kept it and use it once in a great while. It is a lot thicker than what I would consider a "stain," but I still liked it okay.

So that's it for this Birchbox. I'm a fan of the plus upgrade option, though I haven't used it again since this one, just because the one other time I thought about it the item I wanted was sold out. They are usually good deals, but on pricier items that are above my range anyway, or things that I wouldn't use/aren't my style. But I'm always excited to check them out, and if they have some cool nail polish again I'll definitely go for it.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

I know, I'm very behind the times, but I only just got around to seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron last weekend. To be honest, absolutely none of the trailers or pre-release buzz really got me hyped, and then a bunch of stuff happened, so it took a while to get around to it. The short version of my feelings on the film were how I summed it up right after I left the theater. It's a mixed bag, but trending positive. There were a lot of things to like, a lot of scenes I enjoyed, and quite a few characters that I just love seeing no matter what (Hi, Captain America and anybody from his film series). I was surprised that I actually really enjoyed pretty much anything with Hawkeye in this film. Up until now, Clint has been kind of a non-character in the movies, but this time he got some valuable development.

I know some people probably disagree with my opinion here, but there's a particular spoiler-y development with Hawkeye that quite a few people hated and felt came out of nowhere, but I actually thought it was great. Could there have been more set up? Sure, if Hawkeye had really had any character at all in any of his previous appearances. Yeah, throw rotten fruit at me all you want, but he spent most of The Avengers mind controlled and then being angry about being mind controlled. That was about all you got. Instead this time we got a lot more out of him and I liked what we got. His sense of humor was really well done, and I liked it.

I know I'm probably a little biased, but I also really enjoyed all the bits with Steve. Captain America is clearly my favorite of all of them, so that's no surprise. I like his sense of leadership and responsibility and how he still is funny despite being very heartfelt. I don't know, he's just very much what I like in characters. He's what I always want Superman to be, very powerful, understanding the responsibilities that come with that power, but not breaking under the weight of it either. He's serious without being grave. And I think a lot of that comes from Chris Evans, who plays every moment with a lot of nuance.

But that leads me to one of my greater problems with the movie, is that there is a LOT of stuff there and a lot of it doesn't need to be there, or need to be as long as it is, because then they leave very good stuff on the floor instead of exploring it. Every character in this movie is shown their greatest fear, a vision that is meant to destablize them and make them unable to fight. Iron Man is shown all of his friends dead, Black Widow flashes back to her traumatic childhood, Thor sees himself as a destructive menace.

And Captain America finally sees VE Day, which he didn't get to experience the first time around. He's told he can go home, that the war is over, they are all finally done fighting. And Evans clearly shows us that this is just as tragic, and not just because he missed it the first time. It's because he knows it's not true, it's never true, they're never done fighting, and for him and his best friend and the love of his life, there was nothing real about going home.

How interesting is all that? I wanted to see it, at least hear Steve acknowledge it, something. But instead we get my major problem with the entire film, and something a lot of people are talking about, which is some sort of flailing attempt at romance between Bruce and Natasha.

I'll avoid the spoilers, but basically absolutely no scene about this particular pairing works. The characters have no chemistry on screen. I think both the actors were trying so hard to hit the beat that these are two broken people who aren't sure if they're worthy of a relationship that they didn't get anything else. There's no longing, no attraction, nothing. Natasha's relationship with Steve is so much more interesting and compelling in The Winter Soldier, so it makes this feel just clunky and terrible. I can see why the writers thought it worked on paper and wanted to try it, but they should have dropped it as soon as the first scene they shot wasn't working.

I'm not getting into the line/dialogue everybody is talking about right now and discussing if it's sexist or not. Listen, we can have all the debates we want about intention or context or whatever, but at the end of the day what's on the screen is all there is, and what's on the screen is a brick of a stupid scene that never should have happened, was framed poorly, and yes, came across as a very sexist moment and that I personally found more than a bit offensive even as I understood what they really were trying to do with it.

There are two action sequences that go on too long, but the final fight scene could have taken longer and I wouldn't have cared because it was well done. And the fight scene in Seoul was fantastic. Maybe it just took halfway through the movie before they started being more willing to kill their babies in the edit suite to cut down the fight to the important bits. Or maybe those two fights weren't necessarily chocked full of things that were there to sell toys to older comic book fans (I'm sorry the Hulkbuster was there because why? Sure, you could have it, but that fight was WAY too long for no reason besides OOH, HULKBUSTER). There are too many characters, and too many plot lines that aren't developed. There are too many moments, most of them centered on Iron Man, that are there just because "we need X to happen" and not because of something that felt really fleshed out and set up.

But in the end, I'm still thought it was generally good, I had fun watching it. I'd watch it again, but I wouldn't buy a second movie ticket for it.

August 2014 Birchbox

Time for another Birchbox catch up post! I'll get through these eventually, I swear! This box was pretty good, I got another new favorite, and no huge disappointments.

A photo posted by Elizabeth (@onegirlsreviews) on Aug 13, 2014 at 2:17pm PDT

Amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo: I actually had just finished my previous sample of dry shampoo when this one came in, so perfect timing! I actually did like the smell of this one more, it does have a nice-ish scent, but it does also still smell like aerosol too. In the end I've decided I just don't like dry shampoo and I likely never will, but if I was going to keep some around just in case, it would be this one. What a glowing review, huh? It really is nice, it's just dry shampoo feels like a lot of hassle for little reward to me.

nugg Beauty Soothing Face Mask: I loved this face mask. Enough that I ordered the variety pack from the same brand before the month was up. It's a fantastic face mask, and each little tub actually does two, maybe even three masks for me. I just keep a sample container around from The Body Shop that I put the extra in when I'm done with the first use, to keep it more fresh. It really did make my face look better, and it was a really nice texture and everything. I enjoyed it, I need to restock actually.

Supergoop Forever Young Hand Cream: I have absolutely no idea why you need a separate sunscreen for your hands. Or maybe it's supposed to be a lotion that happens to have SPF in it? I don't know, it doesn't matter to me because I don't see the point either way. It's a nice product, it smelled good, but it also separated like the other Supergoop product I've gotten, and I generally wasn't impressed, especially for the price. I'll stick to my Neutrogena sunscreen stuff, it works great, it smells nice, and it costs far less. My hand lotion doesn't need sunscreen, I use lotion and sunscreen at entirely different times so I have no problem with using different products.

Dr. Jart+ Dis-A-Pore Beauty Balm: I was not a big fan of this product, partially because it went too thick for me and it was hard for me to be sparing with it, which I have to do because otherwise it made my skin look weird rather than minimizing pores. In the end it wasn't really awful, but it wasn't anywhere near as good as The POREfessional which does the same thing but so much better.

ModelCo Bronzer: This was my sample choice for this month, and I'm pretty happy with it. Honestly I still don't know what to do with bronzer, but it's a great product to experiment with, and I can put it on very lightly to get just a touch of color, a lot of bronzers are far too dark for me even at the lightest application, so that was good. And it wasn't too sparkly either. Overall I really like it, I need to practice with it more.

So there's another Birchbox for you! I highly suggest trying the nugg masks, and if you're in the market for a dry shampoo Amika's smells pretty nice overall, even if I don't like dry shampoo. But in general, this Birchbox was exactly what I want from my box, a set of stuff I really wanted to try so I could make some decisions about if I want to buy them full price, plus a surprise (the masks) that turned out to be a new favorite brand.

Remember, if you want to try Birchbox out, please consider using my referral link!