January Birchbox review & ramblings of a hypothyroid gal.

January 2014 Birchbox Overview:

• Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk by Klorane.
• Three Whishes Body Butter in Pomegranate by Whish.
• Fruit Pigmented Mascara in Black Tea by 100% Pure.
• Resist C15 Super Booster by Paula's Choice.
• Tea in Mint Mystique, Blackcurrant, & English Tea No. 1 by Ahmad Tea.

Gentle Dry Shampoo with Oat Milk by Klorane.

• Retails $19.50 for 3.2 oz. 
• About the product: This sulfate, paraben, & sodium chloride free product claims to add volume & texture, soak up oil & sweat, and extend the life of blow outs and color to your hair, while oat milk & rice starches will soften it.  Hold product approximately 10 inches away from head & spray onto your roots.  Leave in for 2 minutes, then brush out & style as usual.
• What I thought: First off, you know those air cans that they sell that blast air out of them?  That's what it felt like when trying to apply this to my hair.  Having short hair, it coated all of it (not just my roots) & it made it harder to manage to get the look I wanted.  I applied it per instructions & tried using it on clean hair, hair with product in it, hair I didn't wash after a few days.  Every time it just made my hair feel more dry, full of product, & blown out over proportion.  I can see how this might work well with longer hair but pixies be warned!  If it wasn't such a blast of aerosol I might be okay with it because I could control the use better.  I gave the rest of my sample away.
• I wouldn't buy this. 

Three Whishes Body Butter in Pomegranate by Whish.

• Retails $24 for 5 oz. 
• About the product: It claims to soften, smooth, replenish & firm your skin.  It's packed with organic ingredients including aloe, shea butter, raspberry butter, seaweed extract, & rice bran oil.  It states rice bran oil is a super anti-oxidant that is 30 times more powerful than vitamin E and studies show it helps prevent skin cancer & improve sun screen efficiency.
• What I thought: I loved the way it smelled!  It wasn't too overly sweet like a lot of fruity body butters I have tried.  Unfortunately, its great ingredients & scent do not make up for the lack of benefits this gave my skin.  It was just too watery for me to consider it a butter and a little does NOT go a long way.  The sample was used up very quickly and the moisture didn't last long enough for me in this wonderful, dry, winter weather we've been having here.  It's mediocre at best & there are too many other, better, body butters & lotions out there that are more moisturizing & last much longer on my skin.
• I wouldn't buy this.

Fruit Pigmented Mascara in Black Tea by 100% Pure. 

• Retails $21 for 0.24 oz.
  
• About the product: Like the name of the brand, this product is 100% natural and vegetarian.  With a long list of ingredients packed into this mascara, you'd expect there to be some unknown substance hidden in it.  Instead, with ingredients like powdered coffee beans, blackcurrant, raspberry, & blackberry extract, organic green tea (and the list goes on), you can feel safe actually knowing what's inside the bottle you have.  It claims to lengthen, separate, thicken, & gloss lashes, while being water and smudge resistant. 
• What I thought: I was really excited to try this even though it's like, my 10th mascara I've gotten between Birchbox & Ipsy.  The wand for application in the sample is NOT what is pictured with the actual product and I think this is where my problem came in.  The sample brush was a lot fuller & soaked up a lot of the product so when I removed the wand from the bottle, it took most of the product out with it.  Then when I tried to put the wand back in, a ton of the product ended up all over the place & I had to wipe it away.  Gone to waste.  I got it in Black tea & it had a berry smell to it.  Due to the brush it came with it clumped like crazy on my lashes when applied.  It took some elbow grease to get my lashes looking well but it eventually looked good, lasted long, & the color stayed on well with no flakes.  Removed easily also!  I'd like to try it directly from the manufacture next time in the bottle and with the wand that it is intended to be used with.
• I'd be open to buying this in the future.

Resist C15 Super Booster by Paula's Choice.

• Retails $45 for 0.67 oz.
• About the product: Ingredients include 15% stabilized vitamin C, vitamin E, and ferulic acid to help you reduce redness, fade dark spots, acne scars, stimulate collagen production, reduce wrinkles, brighten & firm your skin.  Apply 2-3 drops of this to your serum or moisturizer, or use alone on your skin & you should see a difference in a few weeks.
• What I thought: There's no scent & you use very little of it.  I can't use it alone as it dried up way too quickly on my skin.  So taking from its advice, I ended up adding it to my argan oil I use, occasionally my moisturizer.  My skin became a little bumpy at 1st after using, which is typical when I try new products & change up my routine, but a week later it went away.  So it has been a few weeks & it probably helped me  maintain healthier skin, but not enough to notice any difference.  Still have 1/2 a bottle so I'll keep using it to see maybe if there's a benefit of using it a little longer.  As of right now, I just don't feel it's very effective in any way and could do without it in my routine.
• I wouldn't buy it.

Tea in Mint Mystique, Blackcurrant, & English Tea No. 1 by Ahmad Tea.

• Retail price varies; see list at Amazon.com.
• About the product: Ahmad Tea is a UK based family business which started in 1657.  They are a member of the United Kingdom Tea Council and belong to the Ethical Tea Partnership.  They taste over 600 cups of tea per day to make sure they are providing the best quality tea to its customers as it is exported to over 70 countries.
• What I thought: I got this in Mint Mystique, Blackcurrant, & English Tea No. 1.  They were all great & very fresh teas but the Mint Mystique was the best!  I'm the kind of person who loves to leave the tea bag in the tea & ignore the seeping rules so I can get a ton of flavor.  Some herbal mint teas are too pungent, drab, or stale, but this mint with green tea was so soothing & fresh!  Blackcurrant, & English Tea No. 1 are more common teas but you can definitely taste the quality in them.  I can't wait to try some more!
• I'd buy this.

See what I did there?  Let's hope I remember this format for my next post.  You have the product info with retail links, the retail price & size, about the product & use, my specific thoughts, & then if I'd buy it or not.  This ends my January Birchbox experience.  So if that's all you're interested in, you can stop reading because I'm going to ramble on about my life next.

~

Well, I'm FINALLY back to work.  Due to being out for a little over 6 months I have to go through re-training.  I'll admit, I was annoyed at 1st, though I understand their reasoning for doing so.  Now, being 2 weeks in, I'm glad I'm going through it again.

I still have a lot of stuff fresh on my mind so I've been helping some of the new trainees when needed.  At times, I don't want to seem like I'm not paying attention or participate by being quiet, but I want my new co-workers to be the ones answering the questions.  I've been using these systems for the last 10 years & these are completely new to most everyone else in my group.  I'm also not a know it all.  Things have changed since I left so I'm learning.  I feel as if the weight that was on my shoulders from my illness since I left has been lifted.

~

So that brings me to my health.  I'm still on the Armour, but adding the Cytomel was putting me in a hyperthyroid state so we dropped that.  I'm still struggling a bit between my body feeling hot & cold, but at work I have my blanket for when I'm cold, and a personal fan for when I'm hot.  My bigger issue right now is my fatigue.

I can keep myself awake at work, though close to when we leave I just want to fall asleep at my desk.  The later in the day, the harder the struggle is to keep my eyes open.  Mornings are OK but I tend to have worse brain fog then.  When I get home, I try as hard as I can to stay awake but usually end up konking out for a few hours on the couch from exhaustion.

I saw my new endocrinologist & explained everything to him.  He thinks I should stay my course on the Armour, but when I have my next blood tests done we are going to look into adrenal fatigue & also my progesterone levels.  Something my last endocrinologist didn't even bother to look into.  He told me to see my OBGYN, & they told me to go back to my endocrinologist, causing a big back/forth between doctors.  Then the more I read up, the more I realized these things were all part of my endocrine system & so, my endocrinologist should have been the one looking into it.

I do have to say things are SO much better now than they were before and after my thyroidectomy.  I'm hoping the day will come where I'm completely back to "normal."  Though I'm on my 3rd endocrinologist now, my last one was a big help & I do appreciate all he did for me.

~

Hmmmm... what else?  January 6-7th we had, what I consider to be, a mini blizzard.  I posted a video of the sideways snow blowing in my backyard.  We had our annual bowling day with my Dad's side of the family which is always fun.  On Valentine's Day, Chris & I had a nice dinner at Faletta's.  (Still no ring.)

Things have been good.  Did have a downer that is just causing more hoops to jump through, but 2014 is starting off really well.

This weekend's post has been brought to you by Bath & Body Works' Pink Chiffon collection.  I hope you are all well.  Happy bathing!