Category: beauty boxes

beauty, beauty boxes, reviews

You Beauty Discovery – August

ramblingmads

Wow is this box disappointing.

image

These boxes are never as packed as others on the market but this month’s is especially underwhelming.

The two items I picked from their shortlist were Model Co blusher in Just Peachy and Inika Mineral Bronzer. The other options were nude nail polish, and an endless array of serums for skin or hair.

image

The ‘included in every box’ items are pretty poor. A sachet of SiennaX gradual self tan and a chapter sampler of Cassandra Clare’s City of Bones.

image

The box is smaller than previous ones, perhaps an attempt to hide how poor it is. Hopefully next month will be better – a more varied list to choose from and better samples for all.

image

P.S ignore the messy living room in the background, I couldn’t take pictures where I normally do.

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, latest in beauty, make up, reviews, skincare

Latest in Beauty – Get the Gloss

ramblingmads

image

I’ve been having issues with the LiB website so this took a while to order. Paypal have driving me crackers for the last two months as well. I definitely need a beauty based treat.

image

The box is very neatly packed with eight products, including several full size items.

image

Salon Science AquaCacteen Hydrasoothe Cooling Spray – Salon Science is a brand I only started hearing about this year. This is a cooling spray, not for your face but for your hair. Full size bottle and it smells quite nice too.

Nails Inc Gel Effect in Regents Place – full size, creamy blue shade (there were two – the other is Downtown – a hot pink, always a surprise as to which you get).

Bourjois Aqua Blush – I’m not a huge fan of liquid blush and out of the three available shades I wound up with a bright pink that really won’t work for me.

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse OR – plant oils and vitamin E in this sparkly face, skin and hair oil, from French brand Nuxe.

image

Philip Kingsley Swim Cap – sun protection and chlorine defender for hair. Mine always goes green in swimming pools – the curse of natural blondes – so this is a handy item.

Aurelia Refine & Polish Miracle Balm – instant exfoliator or enzyme mask. Smells good too!

Elemental Herbology Cell Plumping – applied daily this claims to make your skin plumper and more radiant.

Anne Semonia Eye Express Radiance Ice Cube – store in the freezer, pop on your eyes and it reduces redness, puffiness and the dreaded dark circles.

image

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, nail polish, reviews

Nailbox – the polish addict’s box

ramblingmads

image

I regularly check in with the reviews on other blogs and this caught my nail polish addict’s eye.

Oh what a fabulous box for someone who loves nail polish.

image

Moyou London nail stamper and scraper set. With this you can apply funky nail art with the stamper and templates. Something I will definitely be having a play with.

image

Nail Apothecary Cuticle Eliminator – I am quite lucky in that my cuticles are very small and don’t give me any grief. But I will keep this close to hand in case they do start misbehaving.

image

Three nail polishes. Opi, Barry M, China Glaze. Pink, purple, white. They are worth the cost of the box alone!

Really like this box, looking forward to seeing what next month brings.

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, glossybox, make up, reviews, skincare

GLOSSYBOX Vive Le France

ramblingmads

Glossybox has a special edition for July. Join Mademoiselle Glossy on a Parisien adventure.

image

The box is elaborately illustrated and features famous Paris landmarks. Inside is a selection of French beauty samples in a little printed bag.

image

Noxidoxi enhancing serum base – hydrates and protects skin when layered under moisturiser.

Lollipops lip balm delicieuse – protects the lips from UV damage with vitamin E and antioxidants.

Teoxane Cosmeceuticals perfect skin refiner – a night cream to plump and hydrate skin.

Yves Rocher comme une evidence eau de parfum – perfume with hints of violets, rose, lily of the valley and patchouli. I would tell you whether I liked this or not but the tiny lid won’t come off!

image

To be honest – this box was incredibly overhyped and really quite poor in terms of contents – 4 small sample products and a plastic pouch to store them in. Glossybox really needs to try a bit harder. French beauty products are often amazing but this really doesn’t showcase that.

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, lifestyle boxes, my little box, reviews

My Little Road Trip Box

ramblingmads

This month MLB is on the road and comes loaded with travel themed goodies.

image

It’s also really cute, illustrator Kanako has really got into the theme with a gorgeous box and illustrated sheets.

image

As well as the fold out magazine/poster (please go back to a glossy) there’s a travel organizer with pockets for your money, passport and tickets.

image

There’s a illustrated note card and envelope with a handy pen to scribble down your greetings from the road.

image

And onto the beauty goodies.

Travel size Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water, Essie nail polish in time for me time (a pale pink) and My Little Beauty Summer Sorbet body lotion.

image

This month’s box is lovely, though veering more to the lifestyle than beauty box. I know some people will be disappointed with the contents but I quite like it. And it arrived on time! Hurrah!

image

What do you think?

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, lifestyle boxes, my little box, reviews

My Little French Riviera Box

ramblingmads

So, you may remember a post about the missing My Little Box.

image

It finally appeared today, over a month late. July’s box is due to arrive next week.

Anyway, now that it’s here – was it worth the wait?

image

And the answer is… Not really.

These boxes are a bit hit and miss – and this one feels like a miss.

In terms of beauty products it contains

Kerastase Anti-frizz leave in hair milk.

Exclusive blue nail polish picked by designer Sarah Lavoine who curated this box and My Little Beauty body scrub.

image

The lifestyle items are where this really falls down this month.

There are a pair of plastic sunglasses that will never suit me, I know there were several different pairs – perhaps they could have asked us to select them.

image

There are also two plastic printed plant pot holders/covers that you can apparently use to store your make up.
These are really cheap looking and one of them has a hole in the bottom where the stitching is badly done. If this was what delayed the box to start with, I’d rather they hadn’t bothered.

image

Frankly I’m underwhelmed, and since no real apology for all the hold ups and faffing about has been forthcoming, I’m not sure whether to continue with MLB.

Thoughts?

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, make up, reviews, skincare

You Beauty Discovery Box – July

ramblingmads

As always the USP is a chance to select two of the items for your box.

image

I picked Lola Ultra Shine Nail Polish in Stone Grey and Hairy Jayne Hair Perfume in Citrus.

image

Also in my box was a sachet of Emma Hardie primer SPF 30, Nairns Muesli Break oatcake snack pack and St Tropez Gradual Tan in Shower – a current bestseller.

image

As always there are discounts on the brands included and a competition to win a goodie bag of products.

I’m quite impressed with this box, for £6.95 they send a nice selection of things and the option to select some of the items is always good, although you have to be quick, as some items are limited and go fast.

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, birchbox, make up, reviews, skincare

Birchbox – July Birchbag

ramblingmads

This month Birchbox has dispensed with boxes and has instead sent out clear plastic bags in a selection of colours.

To be honest they look cheap. Mine is pink (not my favourite colour) and I don’t see it getting used at all.

image

However the items inside make up for it somewhat.

Benefit Dream Screen SPF 45 – sample sized. Benefit is one of my favourite cosmetic companies, I love their quirky packaging and product names. This sunscreen is formulated to absorb quickly, leaving your skin hydrated and protected.

image

Balance Me Congested Skin Serum – a targeted spot shrinker and break out preventer. It contains chamomile, lavender and aloe.

image

Unani Aloe Vera gel – useful as after sun or just to soothe irritated skin (from bites or the heat).

Pop Beauty eye shadow trio in Peach Parfait – summer smoky eyes, here we come. Instead of dark greys and blacks, it’s peaches and creams.

image

Jelly Pong Pong – Glow Getter Luminizer Gel – a full size facial illuminator for a subtle glow – perfect for fresh summer skin.

Pure Vida lace headband in Aqua – a bit like pop bands, this is a stretchy lacy band, to be honest I only use these to keep my hair off my face when applying a face mask.

image

A nice selection of summer themed products in a slightly disappointing package. 

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, latest in beauty, make up, nail polish, nails inc, reviews, skincare

Latest in Beauty – Capital Beauty Box

ramblingmads

This is absolutely jam packed with goodies, seriously, look at it!

image

There are 10 items in the box, full and sample sized.

image

Dr Organic Dead Sea Mineral Mask – this has popped up in several different boxes over the last few months, and according to my guinea pig/mother (she loves getting freebies from me) it’s lovely stuff. Will have to give this a go myself.

Colab dry shampoo in Paris – beauty writer and my guru in all things skin, Sali Hughes (buy her book – it’s fab) recommended the Colab dry shampoo ages ago and I picked up London in Superdrug, which is practically scent-free. Paris has a floral fragrance that reminds me of those So… and Impulse body sprays that were all the rage as teenagers. Still I’m sure my perfume will mask it.

image

Hawaiian Tropic Satin Protection SPF 30 – I am a sunscreen obsessive, I have Northern European ancestry which means I am so white I’m practically translucent, and slather myself in sunscreen daily. I’ve used this one before and find it works quite well.

Carmex Moisture Plus lip balm in Berry. This has SPF 15, vitamin E and aloe vera. Carmex do make good products, so I reckon this will do the job.

Malin + Goetz trio – a travel sized cleanser, moisturizer and lip moisturizer, all in a handy travel bag. This brand is new to me, but the lip moisturizer in particular attracts me. I have very dry, prone to cracking lips and hopefully this will do the trick.

image

I love perfectly peachy bath & shower gel – possibly the most disappointing item – a sachet of shower gel from a brand that I’ve seen for sale in Poundland –  not exactly too pricey to be more generous. It’s a special packet with advice from Coppafeel about breast cancer awareness – something I doubt most people would read as they shower.

Fudge Urban Hair Art Sprays – spray in hair colour that washes out. I remember having something similar in the 90s. I got Violet Haze, which I don’t see myself using (not exactly office appropriate) but it could be fun for a party.

MUA Mega Volume Mascara – I like MUA but I am very fussy about mascaras so this probably won’t get used by me (my mum hasn’t bought one in years, I keep her supplied).

image

Nails Inc Gel Effect Nail Polish in Soho Place – a turquoise polish from my favourite nail brand, named after one of my favourite areas of London – it’s a win!

And finally, possibly the box’s star item.

image

MUA Eyeshadow Palette in Poptastic – 12 different coloured shadows, which considering I promised to stop wearing the same colour every day is going to come in handy (I am that lazy, making complex make up decisions first thing is too much).

What did you think? Have you bought this box? Do you think you will? Comments please.

image

ramblingmads

beauty boxes, my little box

The ‘My Little Box’ fiasco

ramblingmads

image

One of the beauty boxes I’ve liked over the last few months has been French My Little Box. But things have gone somewhat awry.

The money for the boxes is taken at the beginning of the month and the box shipped about 2 weeks later. Except June’s box, for many, has failed to materialize.

An email was sent out about a week after the payments went out, saying there had been a delay with one of the items for the box and it would be a bit late. I’m not sure why they didn’t just substitute a different item.

A few boxes seem to have made their way across the Channel (for example – Which Beauty Box UK was able to review one a few weeks ago), however an awful lot of people (including me) have received nothing.

Emails to customer services go unanswered, there is no phone number, Facebook comments are ignored (the number of disgruntled customers would scare me if I was them), money has been taken out for July’s box in some cases, but nothing.

I know there was a strike at Calais, but an email to apologise, maybe the promise of an extra item in the next box, something to appease your customers would be great. Instead radio silence and pictures like this:

image

on social media. The insensitive nature of a beach photo in the wake of the Tunisian tragedy aside, as someone who has worked in customer service for years, I can tell you this is not good.

This is how you lose your customer base, as they go to your competitors, and they have plenty (Birchbox, Glossybox, and many more).

On my account, and on many others, June’s box is ‘processing’, not that that seems to mean anything. One lady on Facebook said her account said ‘delivered’ but nothing has been!

They seriously need to look at their supply chain and work out where they went wrong, the switch from Royal Mail to Hermes doesn’t seem to have helped either, and fix it pronto.

***Update – got an email this afternoon from ‘Colette’, the customer services head apparently. Now the claim is that my box got lost in the post but they’ve dispatched another one. Recently MLB switched from Royal Mail (never had a problem) to Hermes (normally a good company) but they’re blaming their problems on the postal system. Still says ‘processing’ on my account so we shall see***

ramblingmads