Early Bird tasteBox Review

I first read about the EarlyBird TasteBox on Cole Of The Ball and thought I'd give it a try after loving the Graze box so much. I got my first box free using a code like this one- 'swing-4387', feel free to use it yourself.

Delivery was prompt and I received my box in November and was immediately taken in by the packaging, I absolutely loved the colour scheme and the shape of the box, I couldn't wait to open it. Upon opening it I was however slightly disappointed with the contents, though you do receive  5 snacks and 2 tea bags the portion sizes do seem quite small particularly for the price of £4.50 (Especially in comparison to Graze Boxes). The snacks themselves taste surprisingly really nice considering its fruit and nuts for the most part, they make great healthy snacks for between meals or also great toppers for porridge in the mornings.

But what's different about Early Bird is that you also receive a piece of Artwork on each box and a playlist by either a guest or their in house DJ. I personally found the art to be disappointing but did quite enjoy the playlist, though it was House music which is a genre I don't usually listen to. In that way it's good because it can introduce you to songs and artists you wouldn't necessarily find on your own.

Overall I quite enjoyed this box but won't personally be sticking with it as I prefer the service and snacks that Graze offer...

My Little Creative Box: October

October's My Little Box will be my 8th and final. Whilst I am still enjoying receiving them I can't really justify the cost anymore as £15 a month isn't that cheap considering I  get items or products that I don't want or need. I'm making a conscious effort to buy less 'things' and stopping my subscription will definitely help, though the message on the bag does weirdly echo my sentiment. 

I also want to apologize that my review is so late, college has been a bit of a nightmare lightly. This was my first box to arrive late which didn't help either, as though it said it had been dispatched on the 7th I didn't receive it till the 23rd and they are meant to be delivered between the 10th and 20th each month. I often read on Instagram that people's boxes arrive late but I guess I've just been lucky before. 

As you can tell October's theme was 'Creativity' however I'm not sure that the items in the box portrayed this. The Tote Bag is lovely and very useful to me but I think if they were aiming for creativity they should have sent a plain tote and some fabric pens. Similarly the Tech Jewelry wasn't that creative but also happened to be quite useless and not something that I was really interested in.

The Magazine was rather boring as ever, they always fold out to be giant posters so that it's just photos on the one side and they usually have 2-3 articles including a hair or makeup tutorial and an interview with people that I rarely know.

The beauty products were also unfortunately similarly disappointing. I found the Talika Photo-Hydra Moisturiser to be quite rubbish, especially considering it costs over £40 a tube usually, it has a gorgeous gel consistency which feels so smooth on your skin when you apply it. It absorbs really fast which seems great, but immediately after, your skin just feels dry again, I've taken to putting two moisturisers on now because of this. The tube also felt rally empty before I'd even used any. The other annoying thing was that I also received a My Little Beauty Night Cream in October's box which though lovely, it is slightly pointless to give 2 moisturisers in one box. The night cream is super thick and creamy and feels lovely when you apply it to your face, it's definitely too thick to use in the morning. It absorbs fast and leaves your skin feeling very hydrated too unlike the other one. The final beauty product is an AINY Oil for hair or skin. I've used it in my hair and it's nice but it feels 'wetter' than the Mark Hill one I usually use. I know that's a strange thing to say but I feel like as a result it makes my hair feel greasy thought it hydrates my hair just as well. It also feels really nice when used on the skin as a moisturiser. However once again the fact that I already got two moisturisers in this box makes it quite annoying that this is also basically just a glorified moisturizer.

The fact that I was quite disappointed with this box helped with my decision to end my subscription but the main fact really was the cost. When I consider that I've spent £120 on these boxes now I definitely feel like I've made the right choice. Not to say that I haven't enjoyed many of the items I've received.

What's your opinion on monthly subscription boxes?

July My Little Box: My Little Roadtrip Box

Once again I'm finding myself wanting to type about how this is my favourite box that I have received but since I start nearly every My Little Box post with that, I'm instead going to tell you how after 5 boxes I am still consistently loving the items I receive and highly recommend this subscription service. I honestly think the two things that make this subscription stand out is the fact that you don't only receive beauty products which I think could get boring quite fast, particularly if they aren't items you would use and secondly the fact that so much thought is put into the theme of each box each month. 

This month was themed all around traveling and road trips and was so up my street because I have a serious case of wanderlust. I want to go everywhere and see everything, I really don't understand why you wouldn't. Top of my list are Istanbul, Paris and Marrakech at the moment. 

The first product in the box was the Garnier Micellar Water which is one of the few high street micellar waters I haven't tried so I was pretty excited to find that. A good makeup remover is obviously a travel essential and micellar waters are so much better then wipes, though they may be easier to transport; they're so much more effective and don't dry out your skin like wipes do.

From the My Little Box line I received a gorgeous After Sun Sorbet. A good moisturiser is always necessary when travelling and this one just smells so amazing, reminiscent of sun lotion and thus smells just like holidays to me. It's a gorgeous gel consistency that is so cooling on the skin and really is very moisturising.

When I first saw the Essie Nail Polish I wasn't too sure about the colour (DJ play that song) as I'm not usually a fan of pinks/purples but when I tried out I really liked how bright and summery it was. It's a nice change to the usual pastel colours for summer.

For the non-beauty items My Little Box have partnered with Bic to provide a Bic Stylus Pen which is super useful for when I'm switching between researching things on my tablet and writing notes on actual paper (Writing things on tablets and phones is never quite as satisfying for me). They also send a super cute Postcard Book which you can write about your travels in and then post home to yourself full of memories or maybe send to a friend to let them know all about your adventures. I'm heading to Edinburgh with my family later in the summer for the Fringe Festival and think this is a great idea for then because I can write about all the shows I see and all the tourist-y things I do and then post it home to myself full of tickets and other little mementos and stick it into my Smash Journal when I get home.

The Flash Tattoos were an excellent on-trend addition to the box and as you can see in the photo above I wore the bird ones on my collar bone (Inspired by Tris from Divergent! )when I attended a party and they stayed on remarkable well and lasted for almost 2 days. I cant wait to use the others over the summer, especially the wave one.

The last non-beauty item in the box had me beyond excited. Although I'm not actually going anywhere but Edinburgh and maybe London over the summer, I had been lusting after all the gorgeous travel organisers in Paperchase so when this Travel Organiser landed on my doorstep how could I not be ecstatic. It has loads of pockets perfect for keeping your passport, plane tickets, maps, attraction tickets, currency, any mementos that you pick up along the way plus anything else at all really. It also came in the cutest little box that said 'never stop exploring',  the packaging in these boxes is just so cute I always keep it but I just don't know what to do with it!

The Magazine was once again a big fold out poster which I'm not a huge fan of, though I'm not a huge fan of the magazine as a whole, I personally don't find it that interesting to read except for the odd article. The interview this month was quite interesting though I miss the old style of magazine that I got in my very first box which was a proper glossy style magazine.

Once again I'm going to recommend this subscription service if you're looking for a regular delivery of exciting beauty and lifestyle items that won't disappoint! 

PS I did not realise how long that was, congrats if you stayed till the end!

June 'My Little Box' Unboxing

Of the four boxes that I have received, I think this may be my favorite, which is such a relief after the disappointment of last month's Provence Box. I love the idea of a holiday in the French Riviera and I just love the turquoise and blue tones in the box, the products themselves are also lovely, though I do usually get caught up in the packaging and presentation.

The rather strange thing this month was the Foldable Plant Pots that came in the box, they have pretty designs printed on them but are altogether rather random, not that I'm complaining because my succulent Friedrich (I like to name things okay? Okay.) needed a new home as he was currently living on my desk in a red christmas plant pot. The larger one I'm using as storage to organise all my body lotions, face masks and scrubs etc in  my bathroom. By organise I of course mean that I just plonked them all in there.

The second lifestyle product which I absolutely adore are the Sarah Lavoine Sunglasses. Unfortunately My sister also took a liking to them and I actually had to steal them back from her in order to take these photos! Though I guess I probably should let her have them since I already have like 5 pairs of sunglasses. They look black in these photos but they have a purplish brown tinge to them and the shape of them is just so pretty.

The first beauty product was a Loved by Sarah Lavoine Nail Polish in a beautiful dark blue turquoise colour, it's opaque in one stroke and lasts without chipping for a few days.

From there in-house beauty range I received the My Little Beauty Sea Salt Body Scrub which smells like the sea and makes your skin feel so soft. As a sidenote it also tastes like the sea, don't ask how I know.

When I saw the Loreal Keratase Keratine Thermique Hair Milk I was a little upset because I got a Keratase product in the first box and it was a very disappointing conditioner. It did nothing for my hair but make it feel weird, however I have been putting this on my hair whilst its damp and then waiting till it's dry to straighten it and its feeling and looking quite healthy for now, so we'll see.

The My Little World Magazine was lacking the usual nail tutorial which was disappointing and the rest was pretty average as usual. Once again it was a fold out poster this time adorned with pictures of a woman frolicking on the beach making me insanely jealous. 

So although that look a bit of a turn at the end, I was really pleased with this box overall. Of all the subscription boxes I've looked into, this definitely seems to be the most consistently interesting and useful one about.

May My Little Box Unboxing

I've been meaning to write this for ages now, oops. But to be honest I was a bit disappointed with the May My Little Box, whilst the theme did seem interesting the products weren't great. But saying that, May's box came with my favourite of the My Little Beauty products which was an Amazing Eyeshadow Crayon in a beautiful metallic brown colour that looks great with my blue eyes, it lasts well and is super pigmented and is great if I just want a sweep of colour over my lid which I can then blend in with a brush. The other beauty products that came with it were from L'occitane, which are  a brand I've never tried due to the price and have to say I wasn't particularly impressed with them, whilst all the products smell great and have gorgeous packaging they weren't particularly interesting or special for me. I gave the Rose Hand and Nail Cream to my friend because she loves rose flavoured things and I have been using the Verbena Leaf Soap daily to wash my face and it has a lovely citrussy smell and feels nice on my skin. However the Shower Gel and Body Lotion I haven't really used, I think I'm going to save them for a trip because of their size, but they are right about the shower gel, it smells so summery and just like holidays somehow. Moving on to the lifestyle products, I was very disappointed in the Magnets and have given them to the charity shop as I won't use them yet liked the Golden Cuff. Though I elected not to use the embroidery string as I think the gold looks perfectly elegant and pretty on it's own. The highlight of the Magazine this month was the nail art though I haven't tried it as it looks rather hard! The rest of the magazine was quite boring though really, and the poster that it folds out into was pretty useless.
Overall it was quite a disappointing box and if next months is similar, I may have to unsubscribe.