Coming Soon: Not one, but TWO box reveals!

Hello dear readers! I know it's been a while since you heard form me, it's been a really busy week and a half, but lucky for you I'll have two new box reviews coming in the next couple of days, plus I have lots of ideas for articles I know you'll be excited about. Stay tuned!

What to Do When You Burn Yourself With a Curling Iron

So today, like the genius I am, I was curling my hair with a clipless iron and accidentally grabbed the end heated to 370 degrees as opposed to the room temperature one. It took me a second or two, but I freaked out, dropped the iron on the floor and proceeded to scream "HOLY JESUS!" loud enough that I'm pretty sure everyone on my hall heard me. Once the momentary panic subsided, my hand was in quite a bit of pain. Here's what I recommend for anyone who finds themselves in this situation.

Image via the stylishhousewife.com

Step 1: Quickly go to a sink and run the burned area under cold water, or submerge burn in a bowl of ice water. If the burn is somewhere that cannot be easily be submerged, grab an ice pack or fill a plastic bag with ice, wrap in a paper towel or thin wash cloth and apply pressure to the burned area.

Step 2: Dry hand off and apply aloe vera to the burn. It's cooling and moisturizing, which may help prevent a blister.

Step 3: Every couple of hours after the burn, apply a healing balm like Surfer's Salve or The Honest Company's Healing Balm. This will help prevent blisters and continue soothing the burned area. If the burn begins to throb again (like mine did), apply an ice pack wrapped in a paper towel or thin washcloth until the pain subsides.

Step 4: The next day, apply a lotion with aloe to the burned area. This should sufficiently soothe and moisturize the area for the rest of the day. If your burn has started to blister, instead apply Neosporin and a band-aid to prevent infection.

Obviously, this should work for any burn you get, but since this is a beauty blog I figured it would be appropriate to do this article for beauty-related burns. I'm usually very careful about this sort of thing, I promise you this does not happen often, but when it does you need a good routine to get rid of the pain, fast. I hope this helps you next time you accidentally burn yourself (it happens to the best of us).

Spring Trend Report: Orange Lips

Orange lips have been all over the spring runways, and it's a trend that's going to be everywhere before you know it. Here are some of the totally awesome, totally chic looks from the runways:

                           Photo via harpersbazaar.com                                      Photo via harpersbazaar.com

Rag & Bone and Prabal Gurung

                    Photo via harpers bazaar.com                                                     Photo via thecitizensoffashion.com

 DKNY and Nanette Lepore

Photo via harpersbazaar.com

Creatures of the Wind

As you can see, runways of all kinds were sporting this trend for S/S '14. Personally I think this trend is best worn matte, but many of the looks from Fashion Week were worn glossy. For bold beauties who want a bright tangerine orange, try Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick in Siren or Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids in Electric Orange. If you're not crazy about the color of clementines, try a red-orange. It's a nice compromise if bright orange doesn't compliment your skin tone. My favorite is MAC Lipstick in Lady Danger, but Maybelline Color Sensational Vivids in Vibrant Mandarin is a great low-budget option. If you want a really subtle take on this trend, try Bite Beauty's High Pigment Lip Pencil in Chablis. It's a soft coral with just a hint of orange, and it's extremely wearable for those of you who aren't crazy about brights.

It's February Birchbox Time!

I've got an extra special Birchbox post for you today - I've finally received my replacement box! In addition, I also received an order I made from Birchbox about two weeks ago with some really great stuff in it, so I'll share that with you too!

As you know my first Birchbox contained a lot of Smashbox makeup and a nail polish, but my second Birchbox contained more skincare and a fragrance sample, and I actually think I like this box better!

This month's box is the Us Weekly box, and in the spirit of awards season, it's filled with all sorts of fun products made for getting red-carpet ready. Although  I assume not many Birchbox subscribers actually have occasion to do that, it's nice to think that we're being given products used by the stars that help them look fabulous. My second box contained some really fun products that I was really excited to try:

My main products were the Beauty Protector Protect & Oil, OPI's new Sheer Tint color-tinted top coat in Don't Violet Me Down, Dr. Brandt's pores no more treatment from the new Birchbox-exclusive Camera-Ready Kit, and Joan Vass L'eau de Cristal perfume. I received two Harney & Sons teas as my monthly extras in Cleansing White Vanilla Grapefruit (white tea) and Enlightening Paris (black tea).

I was most excited to try the Dr. Brandt pores no more, I've heard fantastic things about this product so I was happy to have received it. ON first impression it felt like every other gross, matte pore refiner I've ever tried, but unlike the other treatments this melted right into my skin and really reduced the look of my pores. I feel like it helped the makeup on my nose stay better and kept me looking poreless all day. I'm really excited, because I have massive pores, so I'm considering buying the Camera-Ready kit. It's an amazing value, the kit includes the full size pores no more treatment and costs less than the product by itself, plus includes three other deluxe samples and a mirror. It's hard to say no to a deal like that!

The other products were surprisingly great this month. I'm not overjoyed about the Beauty Protector oil as it shattered in my first box, and clearly someone in shipments needs to be fired because my second bottle was not closed tightly and had leaked in my box. Luckily this time it wasn't enough to ruin anything but it was still annoying. I would call the product average as it pretty much does what every other hair oil does (softens, shines and de-frizzes), but this release is behind the trend. The OPI nail polish is really fun, I love the sheer tint, it's a lot like Julep's Rock Candy Nail Glaze, and I like the color range. This will be really fun for spring time, and I love that the color is layerable so you can use it to create fun looks with your other nail polishes. The perfume was a surprising champion in this box - I never expect much from the fragrances, I've received some really sub-par scents from Birchbox, but the Joan Vass smelled AMAZING. It manages to be soft and sexy and not overpowering. It's extremely feminine and smells really expensive. I was pleasantly surprised and will definitely enjoy spritzing this on. I haven't tried the teas yet but the flavors sound so interesting and I'm glad I'll get to try them!

My other shipment is something I was really excited about - I had racked up $20 worth of Birchbox points and decided to treat myself to a product I've put off buying for a long time - Dr. Jart's Detox BB cream. I've heard fantastic reviews about this product and its ability to cut back on shine, calm and reduce acne and reduce the look of dark spots. I've been having serious acne flare-ups for the past few months so I decided I'd finally splurge and spend the $16 to hopefully soothe my irritated face. I managed to pick up three free samples in the Birchbox Bonus Shop, two of which were mystery samples and one of which was a deluxe-sized Leave-In conditioner from EVOLVh. When I got the package, I had received Harvey Prince's hello. and The Honest Company's Healing Balm as my samples.

The samples of the conditioner and Healing Balm were actually really large and I'll probably get quite a lot of use out of them. I was ambivalent about the Harvey Prince fragrance, it smells like a lot of other citrusy spring scents I've tried. The leave-in conditioner is really great, it made my hair really soft and silky even after blow drying. The Healing Balm actually seemed familiar to me, I've used a similar product called Surfer's Salve which I like a bit more than this balm, and it's meant for essentially the exact same thing. Although this is formulated with babies and diaper rash in mind, it's a product that help soothes dry, chapped skin, sunburns and bug bites, which Surfer's Salve does just as well but with a few different ingredients. I'll definitely use the tube, but I do prefer Surfer's Salve over this.

I'll do a separate post about the BB cream as this one is getting a bit long, so stay tuned for that coming soon!