This month’s Sephora Play! arrived last week on June 10th, but I’m running a little behind this month! I think this is the earliest I’ve ever received a Play box and it completely surprised me since I hadn’t even received the shipping email (the email came after the box had arrived). My box variant this month was #042 and the theme was, “Your Summer Starters.” Again, not really much of a theme – there’s nothing with SPF or anything that really says summer to me, but these themes are always kind of nebulous and not really followed with the product selection. The bag design is back to that awful cartoonish design that I’m just not into.
- Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick – 6.6 mL / $20 – (Product is 3 mL, value of $9.09 by volume) The color I received is “K-Dub” which is described as a bold fuchsia. I absolutely love Kat Von D, but this color is completely unwearable. Between this and that awful brown lip crayon from last month.. Sephora, are you drunk?! They keep sending the world’s most unwearable colors! This shows up as a neon hot pink on me, and it’s awful. I’m not sure anyone could hear me over that lip color, it’s so loud and awful. I tried layering other colored glosses on top, but it’s just such a bizarre shade and doesn’t play well with others. The formula is great – velvety and smooth without being too drying – but the color makes it a garbage toss.
- Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium – 1.6 oz / $91 – (Product is .04 oz, value of $2.28 by volume) The scent is described as having notes of coffee, orange blossom, cedarwood, and patchouli which is FINALLY a win for the type of scents I like. It’s not at all floral, but musky and rich, and I really dig this. Again, probably not enough to buy the full size since YSL tests on animals, but enough to use up the sample here in short order.
- Ouai Rose Hair & Body Oil – 3 oz / $32 – (Product is .28 oz, value of $2.99 by volume) Wow. A hair oil that actually contains oils, no silicones, and a product from Ouai that isn’t incredibly over-scented! The first ingredient is Sunflower seed oil, followed by a bunch of other oils, but there is still one troubling ingredient, Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate, which was shown in a study this year to potentially damage human DNA and cause genome mutations, so that kind of ruins the product for me since I don’t need a UV-B blocker in my hair products anyway, and especially not one that can potentially cause cancer. The company is cruelty free, but apparently that doesn’t extend to using dangerous, damaging ingredients.
- Benefit The POREfessional Face Primer – .75 oz / $31 – (Product is .1 oz, value of $4.13 by volume) It’s a silicone based primer. Ehh. It’s really expensive for a silicone primer that’s like all the other silicone primers, and I’m just not into them since I don’t really use primers or foundation basically ever. I also don’t have a problem with large pores, so this is a miss for me. Also, the company engages in animal testing since they sell in China, so I refuse to buy anything from this company.
- IGK Rich Kid Coconut Oil Gel – 5 oz / $27 – (Product is .5 oz, value of $2.70 by volume) I was so excited about this at first since this is a cruelty free company and coconut hair oil gel? Sounds like me! Unfortunately, the product list contains a bunch of silicones and acrylates in between the excellent oils, so this is a pass since I don’t use silicones on my hair (I do a low/no shampoo routine and since silicones and acrylates build up in your hair and I don’t use products with SLS/ALS to scour them out, I can’t use silicones either). I’m completely bummed – this product would’ve been spot on perfect without the silicones or acrylates, but, as it is, it’s a pass for me.
- First Aid Beauty Coconut Skin Smoothie Priming Moisturizer – 1.7 oz / $28 – (Product is .34 oz, value of $5.60 by volume) It’s another silicone based primer, but this one has more fruit extracts in it. So, two primers in this box. Yay? This one is a little better of a match since it’s a moisturizer/primer in one, but the company changed their policy recently and are now not really cruelty free, so it’s not something I’d buy (the company refuses to certify that their ingredients aren’t tested on animals, but the end product isn’t tested on animals, so it’s a grey area).
The total value for this month came to $26.79 which is definitely the lowest value box I’ve ever received from Sephora. I mean, the cost is only $10.60 per month including tax, so the value of the products still exceeds the cost, but personally, this box was very nearly a complete waste this month. Another awful, unwearable lip color, TWO hair products I can’t use, TWO boring primers, and the only thing I think I’m keeping and using is the perfume. The duplicate products are getting annoying too – it would be great if we could even things out and have a variety of products in each box instead of two primers or three highlighters in the same month. This is also my 12th month of Sephora Play! and I have to admit that the last three boxes (this one included) have been terrible misses for what I’m interested in, and even worse misses according to my profile for this box. Sephora, I want you to do better. I know you can. Otherwise, I’m going to have to call it quits.