BYOB- Build Your Own Birchbox! + A Giveaway!

Birchbox is the queen of all monthly boxes! We all know how popular these monthly boxes have become over the past year, and there is no stopping them.

I am fascinated how Birchbox continuously revolutionizes the monthly boxes and how customers try new products. I know so many who subscribe to their boxes, and now I am one of those people after visiting their store in Soho. In the last week, I have visited the store THREE times…you could say I am addicted.

This past time, I went with my two new friends, Morgan  of Mostlymorgan.com and Lara of Seafoananddiamonds.com! We went and created our own, customized Birchboxes.

DSC09977

Me, Morgan (Middle) and Lara (Right)! 

Let me just start off by saying how adorable the Birchbox store is! Take a look at these pictures:

IMG_2964

IMG_2905

Can you see all of the yellow? You all know I am in LOVE with the interior of the store, I mean how could I not be? It is YELLOW and MAKEUP!

After Morgan, Lara and I wondered around the store for a little bit, we decided to get to cracking and build our own boxes. Let’s take a look at the process~

IMG_2982

First, you choose one of the extremely cute box to put all of your items in, I chose the one in the middle!

DSC09961

Second, look through all of the products and choose one from each other their sections: makeup, hair, fragrance, skincare and body.

DSC09946

If you ever get the experience to go to the store, you will need at least 30 minutes to build a box because they have so many great products, it’s insane.

Here is a preview of the boxes that are full of sample size products for you to choose from!

IMG_2971

Birchbox has so many amazing options to choose from, especially things that you would be too nervous to buy a large bottle of, like a bee venom face mask.

We had a blast making each of our boxes. It was difficult to choose from each area of products. The only area that was not difficult for me was the hair section, because as most of you know, I get my hair washed once a week, so I do not need my own shampoo and conditioner etc., but I got this amazing hair tie made by L. Erickson.

At the end of a really fun hour and a half in the store, we had three amazing completed boxes! Lara’s boyfriend joined us and even made his own customized box in the Birchbox Men section of the store!

My box included: a Banana Hand Milk cream, a Stila liquid lipstick in the shade Fiore, a Ceramidin liquid skin moisturizer, which I used this morning and it is AMAZING, my L. Erickson hair tie and a Sud Pacifique Vanille Abricot perfume.

our bircbox all finished

We love our boxes so much that we have decided to gift one to our amazing followers because we love you all so much! <3

We are gifting one of the Radiant Finish Kits. The picture below describes all of the products inside of the box. The summer is the perfect time to have that dewy, luminous skin that we all want! It even has a full-size beauty blender!

13588955_10208433432166597_455309973_o (1)

To enter to win the Radiant Finish Kit all you have to do is enter down below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway will start today at 6 p.m. and go until July 13 until 6 p.m.!

We are so excited about this giveaway and we hope you all are as well. I will announce the winner on July 13 on my Instagram: @Danieminor13.

After our trip to Birchbox, we had an amazing afternoon full of yummy food and photoshoots! I am so glad that this summer I met these two amazing women! I cannot see where the future takes our friendship.

IMG_0002
Cannot wait to announce the winner of our giveaway!

XODanieSparkle

Not resolutions, but promises to Myself

HAPPY 2016 DEFINING DANIE READERS! 

Thank you so much for making 2015 one of the best years for me! I cannot thank everyone enough for taking the time out of your day to read my posts!

I try not to make resolutions because I am one to feel guilt when I do not follow through with the resolutions that I do not keep.

For 2016, I have REAL promises that I am going to keep for myself. I know that a promise can be related to these resolutions, but in my book they are different!

DSC_0038

What are my promises? 

I will start with something that I struggle with often…

Promise #1 

I do not need others around all the time to make me happy. I am personally so extroverted that I crave being around people 24/7. I really want to start learning how to hangout in my house all day and RELAX. I am not one for relaxing, but my mental health needs it so bad.

DSC_0039.jpg

Promise #2 

In the spirit of taking care of myself, I am promising myself that I will stay on track with exercising. When I was a senior in high school, I was a workout ADDICT. I was looking back at my social media from when I was working out constantly and I truly think I was a happier person then. Not because I weighed less, but because I know I truly FELT better. I know it is true that exercising releases endorphins and with a stressful semester coming up, I need all of the endorphins possible!


Promise #3 

To just start taking care of myself overall. I have put my health aside for far too long now. 2016 will be the year of “Danie’s Health Journey.” I am promising myself that this year I will not only be more conscience of what I am eating, but make sure to take the medicines that I am prescribed. I HATE medicine, but my health is coming to a point of needing it more than ever.

I hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year’s Eve! This year, I stayed in with my sister, Payton and one of my best friends, Amanda! We watched the ball drop!  I cannot wait to see what 2016 brings for me.

XODanieSparkle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ready for some bloopers from this fun photoshoot done by friend, Amanda?

DSC_0042

I think this will definitely capture my 2016.

DSC_0043

We have captured this one as “moving on to 2016,” HAHA! Do not worry, we did not go out and rent the moving van, her mom had to move some stuff in!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Your Skin Is In!

Skin cancer is something I have become increasingly passionate about.

When I was going into 10th grade, I was diagnosed with atypical nevi. What does that mean? It means that I had moles that were genetically predisposed to melanoma. I had to have surgery to remove the area of skin. They numbed my back and I was awake during the entire procedure. I was so nervous for the procedure that my mom sat in the surgery with me (I don’t know how she was able to stomach watching them cut into my back). I left that surgery that day with somewhere around 250 stitches.

Here is a picture of my scars on my back from when I had surgery. This was taken today.

FullSizeRender

You can only imagine the pain of that surgery.

Melanoma is the second most common form of cancer for teens and young adults ages 15-29 (SO scary, right?!), however it is one of the most preventable and curable!

But just because it is one of the most curable, that does not mean that you should go and start tanning because your risk goes up by 59% for melanoma after the first time using a tanning bed before the age of 35.

Instead, what you should do is go and sign the #Yourskinisin pledge campaign launched by the Melanoma Foundation of New England.  This pledge is to promise to protect your skin because later in your life you don’t want to have to go through surgeries that leave you with 250 stitches.

Do you know if you’re at risk for melanoma?

  • Being a white male over the age of 50
  • Having other family members who have had melanoma
  • Having atypical nevi (what I had when I was in 10th grade)
  • Being born with mole(s)
  • Ultravioliet (UV) light exposure (tanning in a bed and outdoors) 

UV lights are: UVA, UVB and UVC. UCV rays are the most harmful to us. But not to worry! They are blocked by our ozone layer, so they can’t reach us.

This does not mean that UVA and UVB are not harmful though. UVB rays are what causes sunburn and UVA rays are what causes tanning. Both of these cause skin cancer though.

So basically… the more you tan and burn, the greater your chances for skin cancer are!!!

The Your Skin Is In Campaign will begin in January 2016 but you can take the pledge NOW. I did, so you should too!

If you are worried about your exposure to the sun or a tanning bed, you should look for the ABCDE signs for skin cancer.  The signs are the characteristics how a mole can change!

A-  Asymmetrical Shape

B- Borders

C- Color

D- Diameter

*E- Evolution (How the mole has changed over time)

Evolution is the most important for catching skin cancer before it can lead to melanoma!

Another reason to want to protect your skin aside from skin cancer is we don’t want wrinkles sooner than we have to! 😉  

Go take the pledge now! For more information on Melanoma and the Your Skin Is campaign visit:

www.Yourskinisin.org

www.Facebook.com/melanomafdnne

XODanieSparkle

 

*This post is brought to you by the Melanoma Foundation and Her Campus Media. All opinions are my own.