This is also a rather late blog due to reasons explained in my last blog post and I needed time to recover from the trauma I experienced when unboxing my last beauty box featured in my blog, which was birchbox, it’s safe to say after the experience of broken product and warehouse dirt I will most definitely be sticking to glossy box only for now!
It’s safe to say my mood was instantly improved by ti’s bundle of refreshing goodies!
The theme of this box was “holiday haul” and whether you were going away and looking to take a few travel sized goodies away with you to keep you refreshed on your travels or you were coming home and feeling tired from travel, this box was amazing!
The boxes items were mainly travel sized items that were easy to carry around apart from the mannakadar mascara which was full sized along with the boots tea tree witch Hazel face mask but that obviously doesn’t need to be travel sized, it’s a one use product in a small package.
I couldn’t fault this box as usual with glossybox, problems aren’t typical with them, their boxes are usually really well thought out and it was buisness as usual with this edition. I felt refreshed just looking at the products in this box! It’s everything you need to keep your skin and hair going while you enjoy salty air, sea and sand! This box is self explained. The morroccan oil will hydrate your hair, the body lotion will make your tan last longer and the face mask will be there to aid any dry dead skin you have obtained from soaking up all the vitamin D. The cleanser I will admit however I wasn’t a massive fan of, it seemed like it didn’t really do its job to the standard I expected it to, it was described as “cleansing foam” but it just didn’t seem to foam up to my expectation, it didn’t really have that feel of “oh I feel so clean and tingly” that other products seem to induce. The mascara was good but it wasn’t the best, I mean it was a good mascara but I didn’t like the wand, that is not a wand that I would have put with that mascara.
Overall I enjoyed the boxbut I am more excited for the next box! The next glossybox is the glossybox birthday edition and there are some amazing products that are probably going to be featured in there because the sneak peak was huda and glossybox really aren’t playing around!
I have recently joined birchbox, just because I was curious. I had heard mixed things, mainly bad, if I’m being honest so I thought I would check it out because I am open to trying new things and I had heard some good things. Fans of birchbox really will defend this box to the death because it enables their customers to try amazing new product, which is the main point of getting a beauty subscription in the first place but after trying beauty boxes like glossy box, I wonder if they realise they are not really getting the best value for money that they could get and I will explain my opinion as to why.
I subscribed to birchbox in perfect time to get their June box, which looks like this:
Paperchase and Birch box had joined forces to bring you this box and as much as the box is pretty and decorative their wasn’t much else to let you know that paperchase had much to do with this box other than two random vouchers for 20% off that were tucked neatly into the box and this was a little pointless to me, it would have made more sense in my opinion to put a pen in the box, the whole thing was rather lost on me because the box was meant to be a paperchase and Birchbox box and yet paperchase felt so irrelevant.
Moving on from the oddly merged theme and onto the size because when you are getting a box, size really does matter! The box was rather small compared to what I am used to, Glossy box may have moulded me into a minor spoiled brat on my expectation to what I actually expect from a box and as soon as I saw the size I knew I wasn’t going to be getting a lot of full sized items, which I find rather disappointing. The products in the box had me a little confused because they were so small. I stress once again that I have used Glossy box and if you are a customer of Glossy box you are used to getting full sized products, not a box of literal samples. To add to the overwhelming feeling the box was also late and it really was underwhelming considering the wait.
The benefit gimme brow was a small sample, the paul and joe primer was also tiny and the balance me flash cleanse micellar water was also tiny, the coco and eve like a virgin hair mask was also small but seemed like there was enough to pacify the user and the laritzy lip product in plum was the only full sized product going to be in my box had I not been prepared with a code for a free nail product and if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t of been a very happy bunny, because when you’re in person looking at a small box with tiny products without the nail varnish in, it doesn’t look like you’re going to get much use out of it.
The products featured in the box were not all that interesting to me but I am so thankful for the code I had to get my nails.inc gel effect nail product because that was my favourite item in the box! it’s a stunning shade and I just love it! The benefit brow product I gave to my mother without bothering to try it because it came in the shade of a natural light brown and I like to have my eyebrows a little dark, I have blue and pink hair, when my roots come through they are usually dark, I just thought the product could go to somebody who would actually get some use out of it as well as the paperchase voucher which I am giving away to two of my friends at work to use. The coco and eve product smells great and I am excited to get that hair mask on my head because of the smell andThe Laritzy product, the one full sized product in the box was not really up my street, I like a long lasting liquid lip and this was a lip crayon that slid straight off at the slightest touch, no good for me or my life style, I am a mother of two and my kids are always poking and prodding me, If I wore this I would end up looking like a sad clown. The other products in the box I will use but they don’t seem to be worth mentioning because they will be here today and gone tomorrow because they are so small.
There’s not much else I can say about the box in all honesty, it was just overall disappointing compared to other beauty boxes and I can see why people cancel their subscription, I’ll be keeping mine for another month but if the next box is anything like this one I think it will be my last, the products and their size just aren’t worth the money compared to what you could get from another beauty box and I think birchbox are probably the weakest of the boxes at this point, it didn’t “wow” me like glossy box does and you don’t get as much and where Birchbox are concerned I feel like I am “over it before I got under it” after one box, it just wasn’t great but I did however notice another problem…
Now like most beauty boxes Birchbox comes with a leaflet telling you about the products, what they do, their RRP and on the back you usually get a sneak peak for next month and this is where birchbox really do something different because they allow you to pick one thing that you get in your next box, however this time things didn’t add up. On the back of this leaflet there is a choice of INC.redible sheet masks but if you are a birchbox subscriber you will know that this wasn’t the choice we were given because what we were actually given was a choice of two eye shadows. so I don’t really know what happened here or which we are going to get, I honestly have no idea, I would have liked the sheet mask if I’m honest, I love a good face mask, I would have gone for unicorn.
my final opinion on this box is that it seemed rushed, unorganised and underwhelming. It basically kind of sucked, they couldn’t even get basic information on a leaflet correct and this isn’t a subscription I can see myself keeping but I’ll give it a fair trial and stick around for the next one because my blog may seem a bit “cut throat” where birch box is concerned, especially considering it is my first box, but if a beauty box subscription can’t come up with a decent summer box then I think that says a lot and this box was definitely a flop, but the next box will tell for certain.
I received my June 2019 glossy box, the theme this month is summer soiree and is obviously themed around summer events like barbecues, garden parties, wedding season and various other events where you would be expected to look classy and fresh faced. While the box theme was put together well and I enjoyed some of the items in the box as well as the theme, I actually found experienced my first beauty subscription problems in this box.
If you are not new to the world of beauty subscriptions then you know that with companies like, glossy box and birch box before you receive a box you are asked to provide information on your skin type, skin tone, details on your hair, ect… so that you receive products that you can actually use and so that you won’t be disappointed. In my beauty profile I provided my basic info, My skin is pale and sometimes I get dry skin, my hair is dyed and not a natural shade ect… you get the point.
Now in this box, all subscribers received a sleek make up, face form contouring palette and you receive one of two shades, light for the paler people and fair for the rest. Now despite me stating in my personal beauty profile that I am pale I received the fair shade, which left me a little annoyed because this is a product that I simply cannot use.
it’s annoying when you’re pale and you get sent a product shade in fair.
Now annoyance number two was the Meech and Mia eye shadow chubby stick, it looked to be a lovely shade of light pale gold, it looked promising, but it wasn’t pigmented in the slightest and by the time I had applied the product to a visible standard I felt like I had asked Freddy Krueger to itch my eye for me, it was awful and I won’t be using it again in a hurry!
The box however ,after these two terrible issues, the box was not a complete flop for me, I had three items that I was more than pleased with, I got the lovely Avant pro perfecting collagen touche Eclat Primer, which I love, I got a hair mask by Hask which I haven’t actually tried yet but really can’t wait because I’ve wanted to for a while and my absolute favourite item in this box was the modelco lipe cream matte in peachy nude because I am a lipstick junkie, I love matte liquid lips and anything like that is right up my street!
The products, my thoughts and RRP price:
Avant pro perfecting collagen touche Eclat Primer – RRP £85 It’s a wonderful primer, I can’t fault it! If I was the richest person on the earth, yes I would spend £85 on a primer but this isn’t for the penny saver, more for somebody who likes to throw their money around like confetti or is really. As a product I cannot fault it, it’s flawless in every way.
Hask deep conditioning hair treatment –RRP £2.49 I haven’t found time in my bust life to actually try this yet, so I can’t actually comment much on this product, however I have heard good things from people that have and that they are great, I can’t wait to try it and at £2.49 you can’t be robbed.
Modelco lipe creme matte – RRP £15 This was probably my favourite product in this box, I am a lip product junkie and at first glance I did not expect to like the shade, but I love it! it goes on so well and looks so pretty on, I haven’t always been a lover of a nude lip, but I bought Jeffree star baby daddy and I was a instant convert and I love this warm peachy nude shade, it’s perfect for any occasion really, it stays on wonderfully as you can see below, it survived my hot sweaty busy bar shift!
the peachy nude shade is so lovely.
Sleek make up face form contouring palette – RRP £9.99 This product was unusable due to them giving me a palette that was “fair” rather than “light” so I can’t comment on this, although I will say for the size of the product you could probably get something better value for money.
Meech and Mia eye shadown chubby stick – RRP £12.99 Also known as the product from hell! I hated this and I don’t think I will use it again in a hurry, as previously stated, it was like asking Freddy Krueger to itch my eye for me. It’s got that 2000’s scratchy eyeliner feel to it and we are so over that time period to be putting up with product like that, not worth the money at all.
Over all I enjoyed some of the box, I think that glossy box need to maybe pay more attention to their customers beauty profiles because I would have had much more enjoyment from the box if there was just one more product I could have made use of and enjoyed, I hope my next box is fabulous and I’m still keeping my subscription, the primer and the lip product really saved this box for me and the mask is just a nice treat in the box, I still got good value for money when you look at the products I did enjoy so I guess I’m looking at this box as a person who is a “glass half full” person rather than half empty, I’ve messaged glossy box on facebook to question why I got a item that was fair rather than light and I’ll have to see what their customer service is like with that matter.
So, In May I decided I needed to take more time for myself and take more “me time” and I was thinking of ways in which to do that, I am not one of those people who sits down and manages to stay like that for more than a few minutes, I am easily distracted and I always find myself finding something to do, which isn’t a bad thing, but we all need to take time out for ourselves and relax and I found my best way of doing this would to be, to maybe invest in a hair mask, skin care or find something I can do while sitting around and still feel like I am doing something, so I found myself subscribing to glossy box and I haven’t regretted a moment of it so far!
May 2019
May 2019 was my first ever box, the theme was “trending beauty” and when it arrived, to say I was excited to unbox this would be a huge understatement. When I opened my glossy box I was a little deflated at first because obviously, not all the boxes are the same and I had peaked on the tagged photos on Instagram and I had an idea of what I wanted to receive in my box and what I would get. The main reason I was left feeling a little deflated was that I was actually really liked the idea of trying the shake and shot face mask but it wasn’t meant to be and I can get one from ASOS for £8 if I want one so badly, so it’s not the end of the world!
My deflated feeling was short lived, I just happened to have a cold and flu bug when this box arrived and as much as it wasn’t the box I wanted, it was more the box I needed at the time, the Natruline would help my dry skin from the use of tissues, the Nailberry little treasure nourishing cuticle oil was useful because when you are feeling sick and run down the things to always suffer are hair, nails and skin and anything to revive those was obviously a godsend. The Barry M contour cream kit and the Annabelle minerals blush helped me to look alive until I actually felt alive again. The Mudmasky was the most intriguing beauty item placed in this box because it’s actually the first product in the word designed to be used after the application and removal of a face mask.
This box was great value for money, especially considering this was my first box and I got it for £8 plus postage!
List of Items, my thoughts and their RRP: Natruline by beauty Kitchen – £2.99 This product is okay, at first glance you’d just think “oh it’s just vaseline” but unlike vaseline it’s actually made with 100% natural ingredients, The packaging is 100% recyclable and is meant to be less greasy and it is, but It’s not a product I would personally buy again as I’m not a great user of this kind of product anyway, I love anything natural and environmentally friendly but the overall product just isn’t for me, However, I gave this product to my daughter who loves this kind of thing and stashes Vaseline like it’s going out of fashion and she does love it!
MudMasky – £43 I tried this out and I was excited to get this because lately I have been on a bit of a “skin journey” lately and as the most expensive item in the box I did expect more from this, I did a standard mask, I bought from superdrug and applied this after. I felt a difference to my skin and saw one, but I personally see more of a difference from a the ordinary moisturiser product and some Hemi squalane oil by the ordinary which costs far less, If the mudmasky was £10-15 then I could see people buying it but it defiantly is not worth the £43 in my personal opinion. Nailberry little treasure Nourishing cuticle oil – £17.99 I absolutely love this product, it has a lovely citrus, lemon smell to it and as first I was sceptical and not really bothered about this because up until May 2019 I had a nasty habit of biting my nails and this product actually helped me to stop after an entire life of biting them. It leaves your nails smelling and looking lovely and after a month and a half of using it I can see the difference.
Barry M chisel cheeks contour cream kit – £7.99 A good contour, very easy to control and blend, you can get a look of a slick contour to a gentle one and I actually had never tried a barry m product before but I was impressed.
Annabelle Minerals rose mineral blush – £12.50 This was my absolute favourite product in the box, they’re natural, 100% organic and you can literally feel that it’s natural and gentle because it leaves your cheeks so soft. I am addicted to this blush which is something I never thought I would say about a blush, I’m usually a lipstick junkie, but everything about this company and their products is just so pleasant! They are so nice and they interact with their customers and people who love their products, I was pleasantly surprised to see them comment on my glossy box Instagram post with a “get well soon” message and then a few days later commented on a selfie where I had used their product.
I really enjoyed the May 2019 glossy box, I discovered a product I loved and got to experiment and try new things, I loved it! It inspired me to stop biting my nails, I got to try things instead of sticking to the same brands over and over! It was pretty, a nice surprise and more than great value for money! I will be keeping my subscription for the foreseeable future!
Malamai 