As a birthday gift to myself I decided to wrap things in one string, and made an order for the March Botanika beauty box. This was actually my first time shopping at Alice & White, as their stuff is a little more high end, but I was hoping with this box get to try some of their hyped products! I know this review comes a bit late, but better late than never, right?
Alice & White Botanika Box March
Luxsit Uplifting Facial Peeling & Exfoliating Facial Mask
I started off with trying the one-time samples from the Swedish brand Luxsit. This duo reminded me of Estelle & Thild's Micro Polish and Detox Mask, though nothing says that these two should be used together. Either way, I began with scrubbing my face with the Uplifting Facial Peeling that has tiny jojoba micro beads that melts away. As I was massaging it in, I thought about how my boyfriend would not like this scrub, and while it made my skin feel smoother, I just personally would also gravitate to something more grainy that felt like it actually did something. In other words, I still prefer the Estelle & Thild Micro Polish over this one.
After washing it off I then went on applying the Exfoliating Facial Mask. I had some mixed emotions about it. Sometimes you just know that a cream won't work for you by the consistency and feel. While rubbing it in I felt some uncomfortable stings, but that vanished as soon as I stopped and let it lay there. I've had that experience with other masks without a problem, but with this one something felt wrong. I washed the mask off after 15min and felt refreshed. But the next day when I woke up I had gotten a few white heads around my chin. In this case, I didn't feel like purging was a good sign, so I was glad that I didn't have more product to use. I can't really locate what type of ingredient that may have caused this, but I'm suspecting Zea Mays Starch, as I've had trouble with it in the past. Something about both of these products felt a bit on the heavy side, and just didn't work with my skin type.
Repurchase? No.
Retails at: Uplifiting Facial Peeling 26£, Exfoliating Facial Mask 32£
Luxsit Balance Body Wash
Haven't had the chance to try this yet, but it smells good :)
Björk & Berries Never Spring Body Wash & Body Lotion
I'm more of a body cream-person than lotion, as I feel lotions tend to sink in too fast. One thing you'll notice is that all the Björk & Berries products smell quite nice, and the one is no exception, it's not overpowering in any way. The wash has the same scent and feels nice to work with, but I still like my Nubian Heritage better.
Repurchase? Maybe
Retails at: Lotion, 199SEK Wash, 160SEK
Björk & Berries Forest Extract Moisturizer
This moisturizer is described as "deep rehydration" and my first thought was that it was going to be a thick cream made for dry skin. But with it being for "All Seasons" and all skintypes, it's more of a milky texture that's the opposite of thick, and that genuinely hydrates pretty well without feeling heavy or sticky.
One of the active ingredients are Beech Bud Extract, which I've never heard of. It's supposed to boosts oxygen flow, strengthen and support collagen and elastin formation. This sample lasted me only two applications, maybe three if I would've been more careful. And while it contains perfume quite high up on the list, on their site it states to be 100% natural fragrance. It's a nice and pleasant smell, but may feel a bit overpowering for us supersensitive.
My skin usually reacts very fast to new products, and this thankfully did not break me out.
Repurchase? Not really.
Retails at: 390SEK
Naturligtvis Face Cream Normal/Combination
Naturligtvis (translated into Naturally) is a Swedish budget friendly natural brand that I've so far only tried their hand cream from. This face cream was in the same way not very special. Because I had at the time already switched to some new moisturizers and didn't want to confuse my skin even further I gave it to my boyfriend to try. However, he's grown fond of the cream I make, and so his general thought was that it's an okay moisturizer, but not as good as the one I make ;)
While most of the cream consists of just oils, I personally would like something with a little bit more active ingredients if I went all in to buy myself a moisturizer. But I guess not everyone's a DIY:er like me... This face cream also contains essential oils, so not completely fragrance-free.
Repurchase? No.
Retails at: 120SEK
Øresnd All Purpose Shea Butter Balm 15ml
Then there was this little tin of organic shea butter in full size. Yes, it's supposed to be like a convenient size to have in your purse for quick fixes. As shea butter is a multipurpose balm, and can be used as a lip balm, or to relive dry like hands, cuticles and other dry skin patches.
The shea butter in my tin came in it's usual grainy form which is a bit hard to handle. In my opinion they could've blended it with some apricot oil to smooth it out a bit. Then, also add some gentle smelling essential oil to mask the raw smell, as shea butter tends to have this "spoiled oil"-smell to it that seems to not go away.
As I got the tools for my own moisturizer/balm production, I remelted the butter and put it in the freezer to reduce the grainy bits as much as possible – that usually does the trick. Then I realized I could have added a few essential oils... But maybe when I've used almost half of the product I'll do the process all over again and by also mixing it with some apricot oil. Nonetheless, I gave it to my boyfriend who tends to suffer more form dry patches than me, so he has more use from it. Not to mention that Øresnd is a male-focused brand, and do sell in similar tins solid cologne, which is something I might look up for my hubby!
Repurchase? No.
Retails at: €7
Body Bazar 85g of Illusion Bath Bomb in Mmm Blossom (& Sweet Choco Coco)
A few months ago I was one of the lucky winners in an Instagram contest to win Body Bazar's new organic bath bomb of my choice. I picked the scent Sweet Choco Coco. So I was already familiar with this product. Though I haven't been able to use it as I do not have a bath tub, and although I got the brilliant tip from Alice & White to use it in a foot bath, I don't own a bowl large enough for that. However, I thought I'd throw this one in and wrap it up in the same review.
On my recent trip to visit my mom I brought both bath bombs with me to try, as she has a bath tub. But taking a bath is quite time consuming, and me and my boyfriend only ended up trying the Sweet Choco Coco in a quick foot bath instead. So I can only speak for my feet that truly needed a relaxing bath after been walking 20km around Stockholm, and they felt really refreshed after.
The scent of Sweet Choco Coco was not at all what I expected, it smelled a lot more mint (like the "Refreash! Restart!" is supposed to smell) than African chocolate with Brazilian orange blossom as it states on the package? But this could've just been my copy of the product... However, Mmm Blossom has a much more pleasant scent to it, no surprises, I really enjoyed this one. It's described to smell of Tunisian neroli and Chinese magnolia. I saved it for my next visit, and hopefully I will have time for a relaxing bath! I'm hoping to have a bath tub in the near future, so I can try all the other scents. The price is decent, and would work great as a stocking present for someone!
Repurchase? Yes.
Retails at: 45SEK/€5.40
OBS: Click the arrows to see the text or click on brand below.
Luxsit | Björk & Berries | Naturligtvis | Øresnd | Body Bazar
Conclusion
After observing the Botanika boxes that had come before this one and seeing the many international cult favorites Alice & White have in stock, I had high hopes to get some samples from their higher end products, like: Krypris, Antipodes, Odacité, Nouri etc. However, the March box focused instead on Swedish green beauty, which left me a little disappointment in the end as I really wanted to try brands that are otherwise hard to get around here. This was just my bad luck! And because I only got one box, I can’t really speak for the subscription as a whole, and can only say that the March box wasn’t to my liking, but either way it was a nice present to myself. But I personally tend to like boxes where you get to know the content of beforehand, as with surprises, there’s always a chance you get disappointed.
