My last Glossybox (maybe)

Glossybox keeps annoying me in small ways. I have no idea why they roll out shipments in dribs and drabs. I hate it that some people get theirs before others. I don’t get the point in shipping that way. And the customer service was just plain bad. I got to the point where I was kind of afraid that they had my credit card info. I cancelled for February for two reasons: 1. Sucktastic customer service. 2. It was a shitty box with nothing I might use.

I got sucked back in for the March box because they sent me a promo code for an eyeliner which included a spoiler for the Modelco Cheek & Lip Tint. It retails for $24+ and that covers the box cost and then some. Also, I understand that gb has stepped up their customer service from horrible to less horrible. In the end, it turns out March is a good box. Glossybox is $22 per month.

Elite Models liquid eyeliner in Matt Brown – $15.00. I’m going to try it but I’m scared of liquid eyeliner. I’m like a T-Rex having a seizure when it comes to that type of thing.

Modelco Cheek & Lip Tint in Rosy Red – $27.31 on Amazon. I’m happy for this mostly to try on my lips.

Pixi Glow Lid Last Shadow Pen in Shell Sheen – $11.99 on Amazon. It’s got a lot of shine and sparkle which is never a good thing for old chicks like me. I might try it under my eyebrows as a brow definer.

Prestiche Essential Oil Bar Soap in Yin Yang – $17.99. It smell like eucalyptus which reminds me of Vick’s Vapour Rub. Um, just no. On top of that, I don’t like bar soap. They’re messy. I’ll see if one of the kids wants this.

Sebastian Shaper Fierce Hair Spray – $2.10 ($14.35 full size 10 oz on Amazon.) I like Sebastian products and I really need a new hairspray so I’m happy for this.

Illamasqua Medium Pencil in Flinch – $20.63. This was the promo item. On the site it’s called a charcoal grey but it’s actually brown with a grey hue. It’s a hard, dry pencil and I can tell it will be a bitch to get on. I’ll give it a try; maybe I’m wrong. I wish I had used the code to get the lipstick instead.

The only item that wasn’t full size is the Sebastian hair spray which is a deluxe sample at 1.5 oz. There is also a $40.00 gift certificate to use on the Prestiche website. There are several types of items that go for $40 or under but shipping is $12…no matter what you buy. A single soap is $18 with $12 shipping. Ridiculous! If anyone wants this certificate, let me know and I’ll send it to you.

The value of just the product is $95.02. If you add in the gift certificate, that brings the overall value to $135.02. My $22 turned into $95.02. You just can’t beat these subscription boxes for their value. Depending on what I see for April spoilers, this might not really be my last box. I just keep getting sucked in.

Stripes

I moved away from dots for my latest manicure and into stripes! I’m liking this quite a bit and it’s toned way down from my fabulous watermelons of last week. I got all of the polishes for both of these manicures from Rachel. She’s a rockstar!

Base coat is Seche Clear
Top stripe is is Opi A Grape Fit
Middle stripe is OPI Ate Berries In The Canaries E46
Bottom stripe is OPI Strawberry Margarita M23
Top coat is Seche Vite Dry Fast

I bought the Seche Clear base coat. I love the Seche top coat so much, I figured the base coat must be awesome too. It dries super fast.

My daughter-in-law had the baby and left me to my own devices so I did both of these manicures myself. The girls in Bath & Body Works just loved the watermelons. They really were super cute in spite of having broken the nail on the index finger of my left hand. :sad face:

Base coat is Sally Hansen Diamond Shine
Pink is Essie Status Symbol 681
Green is Essie Pretty Edgy 725
Top coat is Seche Vite Dry Fast

There was also a small amount of Wet n’ Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme 424A and Nyx Girls in White #149 and a paler green from Kleancolor but I forget the name.

Dotty

I had to do my own nails because my personal, unpaid manicurist, aka my daughter-in-law, had to go and have a baby and left me to my own devices. They’re cute. I really love the fuchsia pink colour.

One pic is blurry and one pic is shadowed. Blame it on Bill, he took them for me. This is a shiny, creme pink that I made matte before I painted on the black and polka dots. I really, really, really love how it looks matte. And I love the China Glaze mattefier (not a word but work with me here) because it leaves no rough feeling like matte polishes do.

Base coat is Sally Hansen Diamond Shine
Pink is Kleancolor Wild Rose #127
Black is Wet n’ Wild Wild Shine in Black Creme 424A
The matte topcoat is China Glaze Matte Magic
White is Nyx Girls in White #149

It’s all about the lips

It’s sad I don’t have any but it doesn’t stop me from loving lipstick though!

I got my Lip Factory box today! Yippee! It was late for me this month but well worth the wait. I still say Lip Factory has the best subscription box out there. It’s consistently good. Every box I’ve gotten has exceeded the previous ones in quality and usefulness. I really, really love this box. They do an all lip products box once every 3 or 4 months otherwise it’s usually a mix of all types of makeup.

It’s $22 a month but each box well exceeds the cost. I figure the total worth of this box is $79.50 So yeah, if you’re going to subscribe to just one cosmetic box, this is the one you want. If you do, please use my referral number! 27546

This box contained all full-size products plus a lip brush and a sample of Dermalogica renewal lip complex.

Nabi Lip Pencil in L31 Mauve ($8.95 on Amazon)
Lip Factory brand Lip Brush
Korres Liquid Lipstick in #28 Raspberry ($22)
I love all of these! I can’t wait to try them.

Designer Skin Lip Shimmer in Afterglow ($9.99 on Amazon)
LaSplash Diamond Lip Gloss in #14092 Forbidden ($6.99)
NYX Jumbo Lip Pencil in #709 Deep Red ($4.50)

I Am thrilled with the first two. The Afterglow is an amazing colour. Even though it looks very light, it’s highly pigmented and semi-opaque. I love it. The LaSplash is a really nice colour for me. The NYX, however, is red…a brick red for sure…but it’s red. I cannot wear red lipstick. I’m sad about this because I’ve seen that other ladies have gotten colours that would be way more appropriate for my skin tone and really wish I had gotten one of those. Sadly, I really love the NYX Jumbo pencils so it sucks this one is useless to me. Fortunately, they’re cheap so I can always buy it myself without the expensive makeup guilt I often feel when I spend tons of money on one makeup product.

Be A Bombshell Lip Gloss in Kiss Off ($14)
Ofra Lipstick in Berry Sexy ($13)
Dermalogica Renewal Lip Complex sample

I love the BaB glosses so this was a happy surprise for me. The colour is awesome and I’m stoked for this. The Ofra looks very dark but it’s actually just sheer enough that I can blend it out and make it work for me. It’s a grape colour and I really like it. I tried it with some of the Afterglow on top and the colour was really nice. I’ve never tried the Dermalogica but I’ve heard good things about it so I’ll definitely be trying this.

The Ofra smells amazing but it has no detectable flavour. The Korres has a mild, minty aroma. None of the others have an aroma that I can detect. The Korres and LaSplash have a minty taste but not a burn. They’re not lip plumpers. The others have no detectable taste. The Nabi pencil isn’t as smooth as I would like but the colour is great for me.

All in all, I absolutely love this box and Lip Factory has gained a loyal customer in me. I hope they keep up with the excellent boxes. Between the great products and the fantastic customer service, this is one subscription box I feel really good about and now I can’t wait for April’s box!

Lotsa boxes!

I received my Ipsy, Love With Food and Nail Art Society boxes in the last few days. Some love, some hate, some meh. No matter what, I still love these boxes!

First up: Ipsy. This month was kind of unusual in that there was only 4 products. I think they count the 2 eye shadows as two separate pieces but I count it as one. Regardless, I’m happy with this box. It contained a Juice Beauty hydrating face mist, which I like and I enjoy the scent. There were two Yabi eye shadows, one in azalea and the other in seashell. I like the neutral colours so I’m happy with them. They are pretty light so I’ll probably use them wet. They’re also a bit on the chalky side but I can totally work with them. The GlamRX palette is cute and while small, I see it being very useful. It totals out to about $23 worth of product which while much less than past bags, it well exceeds the cost of the subscription by $13.

Next up is Love With Food. I got this box for $2.00, it’s normally $10 and I suppose if you like this kind of stuff, it’s worth the money but after seeing it, I promptly canceled. This is stuff I would absolutely never eat. I don’t like funky weird snacks so this one had to go. Granted, the stuff is interesting but to me, it’s pretty inedible.
There was Dark chocolate orange good fortune cookie from Emily’s Chocolates
Granola from Ola! Foods
Chocolate covered wasabi peas from Chocwasabi
Fruit & veggie juice from Kids 50
Salted caramel baked corn from Cosmos Creations
Green tea infuser from Revolution Tea
Wholesome snacks from Mary’s Gone Crackers
Wild berry flat fruit from Wacky Apple

Blech.

Finally, I got my first box from Nail Art Society. This box goes for $19.95 regularly but I got my subscription for $9.95 for as long as I stay subscribed. I would NEVER pay twenty bucks for this, ever. But at $10, I’m ok with it. I actually thought I got my money’s worth with this so I’m going to see how next month is. They have monthly themes and this month’s theme is “Freestyle.”

It included:
Nail Fraud nail polish strips in a black with white polka dot design. I’ll definitely try these.
NAS coloured bee bee balls. They’re like a mink brown colour. This is for doing caviar nails which I don’t know if I like those and I imagine that if I had rough stuff on my nails like that, I’d be picking at them.
NAS fruit nail art. These are basically orange slices just like the kind you can get in sticks that you have to cut. I’ll probably do a design with these.
NAS fabric flower nail art. They’re cute little pink flowers that lay flat on the nails. I will definitely use these.
3D ceramic flowers. These are pink flowers with white centers and a green leaf. They are hard and would stick out from the nail. I’m not a fan of big stuff stuck on your nails but they really are cute so I might give it a try.
3D bead drop nail art. They’re clear yellow beads, flat on one side. I’ll definitely use these at some point.

All in all, I’m happy with all that for $10. I seriously cannot believe they try to rip people off $20 for it though.

I should be getting Lip Factory soon. I got mine really early last month so this one is late. It seems like everyone has theirs but me. I’m jonesing here! I also resubbed for Glossybox because I’m a sucker for the spoilers. I hope it’s a good one!

Garnier Skin Renew Dark Spot Peel

I received the Garnier peel via Bzzzagent and used it every night for about 15 days. I was really pleased with how much brighter my skin looks. I don’t really have dark spots but I’m older now and I do have an uneven skin tone.

You only use it once a day; at night after you cleanse your face. It smells really nice and it’s a gel so it goes on very smoothly. I did notice some drying so for me, I think it’s something I will mainly use in summer when my skin is not so dry.

All in all, I’m very pleased to have tried this product and it’s something that I will definitely buy again once the one I was given is gone. I definitely recommend it. If you’d like to try it, you can get a $1.00 of coupon here.