Samples Samples Samples - March 2012 Eco-Emi Box

I had a nice little surprise waiting for me on Wednesday after I got out of surgery - my March Eco-Emi box!  Don't get me wrong, I like Birchbox and MyGlam, but Eco-Emi is the box I look forward to the most every month.  I like the mishmash of beauty and other items, and I love that they're all green.  It soothes my hippie soul.

This is a prescription for happiness, oh yes.  Yaaaay box!

Christine always packs her boxes in the prettiest ways.  It just makes you feel special, like there was a lot of care put into it.  ... I also always open boxes in the most destructive manner possible.

The first thing my eyes went to was the incense packet.  Champa is possibly my favorite scent for my house to have, and this was a cute little sample size.  There were three baby sticks in it, courtesy of Auromere.  They have loads more scents, and seeing as I've already burned these, I'll be making a purchase soon.

Toothbrush!  It's got a handle made out of recycled material, which is a good idea.  I use a fancy electronic toothbrush, but I'll use this to clean out the bite plate that keeps me from grinding my teeth at night.  This is from Vitacare.

Also from Vitacare is a pack of gum.  I love me anything pomegranate flavored, and I actually don't even hate it with the hint of mint.  I don't know how well it whitens, but then again, I don't think any gum really makes a difference in the whitening department.  As long as it's tasty - which it is - I don't mind.

This is a food bar from Bella Bar in cinnamon nut flavor.  I haven't tried it yet, but it looks to be in the same vein of food bars as my beloved Luna Bars, albeit with fewer nutrients.  I like cinnamon and I like nuts, so I'll probably try this on my next day at work during a break.

This is a bottle of soap oil from Old Post Road Oils.  It says that it's "pear tree" scented, but I don't smell pear at all.  I smell a bit of musk, but no pear.  I rather like it; it reminds me of my grandfather's smell - one part pipe tobacco, one part old spice, one part old man.  I used it to shave my legs, and they are silky smooth.  I like this a lot.

Onto the items in the bag!  Look at how pretty it is!

This is a shampoo/conditioner travel set from Greenbody Greenplanet.  This is a different scent than I got last month - this is Revitalize.  I love the smell; it smells clean and fresh and lively.  It didn't leave my hair as moisturized as my normal haircare routine, but this would probably be great if you have normal hair.  Mine tends to be a bit on the dry side.

This is a Badger Lip Tint.  It doesn't tell me what color it is, but it really is a pretty color on my mouth.  I'm always looking out for lip tints - I don't usually wear lip colors that pop since I'm too busy doing that on my eyes.  This has a nice feeling on the lips - not too waxy, not too watery.  It's pretty easy to forget that you have it on at all.  It's not super duper moisturizing, but it didn't dry my mouth out either.  So that's a nice thing.

Badger Lip Tint swatched

These are two adorable eye shadows from The All Natural Face.  I got warm honey (left) and rose gold (right).  While these containers are adorable, they were a bitch and a half to get open.

This is a pot of gel eyeliner by The All Natural Face as well.  My box ended up sitting in the car for a while, so it ended up melting a bit.  I tried it out after letting it sit in the house and the AC for a day, and it was still pretty liquidy.  I'm used to gel eyeliners that are a bit more firm, so this will definitely take some getting used to.

From left: warm honey eyeshadow, rose gold, black gel eyeliner - no primer used.  I actually love how soft and smooth these mineral shadows are; they feel like they have a bit more substance than some mineral shadows I've used.  They're soft to the feel and super spreadable, and the color payoff is super high.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to get a pot of warm honey.

For fifteen bucks?  I'm super happy with this month.  I found a lot of stuff I'm going to have to buy bigger sizes of, and it cheered me up during post-op.  Do you guys get sample boxes?  What can't you live without?

Samples Samples Samples - March Conscious Box

I'm a bit of a hippie.  No, I don't smell like patchouli, but I did fuss and worry a lot over the MPG when I was deciding what car to get.  I also have a reusable lunch bag that I pack with reusable containers, little cloth bags, and reusable silverware every day for work lunches.  I use cold water to wash my clothes.  I am a tiny dictator when it comes to turning lights off when they're not in use.  You get the idea.  A lot of it just saves me money, but I'm all about saving resources now so that when I'm eighty, gas isn't 255 bucks a gallon because we can't find it anymore or whatnot.  That being said, I was so excited when I saw Susan talk about a sample box service I hadn't heard of - Conscious Box.  It's not just makeup products, but "a variety of unique pure and natural products every month".  It's 12.00 USD a month, plus 7.00 USD shipping, so a total of 19.00 per month.  I figured I'd try it for a month and see if I wanted to keep it.  This was month one for me, so here's what I got!

Right from the get go, they're walking the walk - 100% recycled shipping box / container box with veggie inks.  I love that they didn't use a whole lot of packaging for the box either.  It makes me happy.

Here's all the loot I got!  It's an exciting amount, really, and to my eyes, well worth the 19.00.

 First off was a package of seeds from Baker Creek.  I've been debating if I should try growing some flowers on my patio, and this just sort of hung it for me.  Next day I have off, I'm going to go to Target and get a little pot and some soil and start to diggin'!

This is a single serving packet of Tera's Whey.  It's got 22 grams of protein mixed with real fruit and low glycemic stevia.  It's meant to help people get more protien in their diet.  Pomegranate cranberry is pretty much my favorite flavor ever.  I'm going to take this to work and mix it with some water like it instructs and hopefully it'll help me stave off the munchies I always get between my lunch and my last break.

This is a bag of non-GMO, all natural, gluten free tortilla chips from a company called RW Garcia.  This variety is called Mixtbag.  It's a single serving, and who can't use tortilla chips?

This is a one glass sample of liquid coffee extract called Java Juice.  Allegedly you just pour this into some water and then enjoy some coffee.  I don't love coffee, but this makes even me dubious.  But hell, I'll try anything once, and since this box came with a sample of natural powdered creamer, it's game on for you, sketchy ass coffee packet.

Natural powdered coffee creamer!  Good Kind makes this, and I can't thank them enough.  Ever since I saw that episode of Mythbusters where they used CoffeeMate to make a cannon, I stopped using their powdered stuff.  (Anything that could kill a dude, probably shouldn't be swallowed.)  No, seriously, watch that clip and tell me if you want to use your powdered non-natural creamer for coffee or for BURNINATING THE COUNTRYSIDE.  I'll wait.  ... yeah, the countryside is the obvious choice, good on you.

Oh, acai, you're like the weird friend that keeps showing up to parties without me inviting you.  Why are you always around?  How did I meet you?  How did anyone meet you?  Why do you smell funny? Anyway, this is by Healthy To Go!, which kind of makes me sad that they have an exclamation point in their name.  But you know what, I'm going to ignore my hatred of acai and overuse of punctuation (you only use an exclamation point when you are exclaiming something, and if you use more than one in a sentence, may god forgive you) and just drink this.  It's got antioxidants and vitamins and junk, and I do enjoy me some tropical punch flavor.

These are Minteas by Tea Forté in their ginger pear flavor.  Allegedly they're supposed to help you focus.  Now, I don't know how many I'm supposed to nosh before I get the uberfocus of an owl looking for food in a field.  I do know that they're pleasantly zingy, which I'm sure is the ginger, but still vaguely sweet.  Thank you, pear!  They have other flavors that make other nifty claims, but at this point, I'm just glad for some zingy mints.  Also, the word zingy.  Note to self: use it more.

These are Crunchmaster Gluten Free crackers in sea salt.  I'm not going to lie, but these were fucking delicious.  Each cracker tasted like a big mouthful of perfectly popped popcorn, with just the right amount of salt.  I kind of want to take a bath in them.  A crunchy, delicious bath.

 Next up is a single lozenge from Olbas.  I thought it was Olba's at first, but nope, it's plural for Olba.  I don't know what an olba is, but if you're Swiss, please let me know.  It's a cough drop, and with the hacking plague the girl who shares my cubicle at work has, I'm sure I'll be using this sooner rather than later.

EBoost Natural Energy Booster in pink lemonade.  I feel like a douche, looking my sorta gift horse in the mouth, but ffff, I hate lemonade.  Pink, yellow, white, neon green, lemonade is disgusting.  My roommate will be getting this as a gift soon.

Next is a sample of Olivella eye cream.  I don't usually use eye cream as I have fairly oily skin and don't really need anything super hydrating under my eyes (seriously, it gets oily even there), but I'll try anything once.

This is a 15.00 gift certificate for mineral makeup from Mineral Hygenics.  That's enough to try one eyeshadow, or put a dent in a foundation and bring it to half off.  I haven't ordered it yet, but I'm sure I'll get there eventually.

Free cookie!  Granted, it's a Morning Sunshine Breakfast Cookie, but hell.  It's a cookie.  I'll try any kind of cookie once!

I also got a code for 5.00 off from Hip Mountain Mama.  That, I'll probably use on some arm warmers or something.

All in all, I'm super stoked about my Conscious Box, and I'm already looking forward to the next one.  It's going to be for Earth Day, so it should have some awesome stuff.  I know this wasn't very beauty oriented, but with all the sample boxes going around, thought I should review it.  I'm in so many of them (BirchBox, Julep Maven, Eco-Emi, this, and I'm debating Sample Society.)  Do you like sample boxes?  Dish in the comments.