Beautycon’s Spring box is here and right off the bat, I have to say this is a HUGE improvement over the last three boxes I got from them. It’s much more up my alley, has some great cruelty free brands, and has a huge eyeshadow palette which is SO nice to see. There’s even a special just-for-Beautycon item in this box, the brow powder set. The theme for this quarter was, “Spring Essentials,” which, as usual is not so much of a theme. Winter’s box was, “Winter Essentials,” so.. There are three curators this time – Sayria Jade, Dacey Cash, and La Demi – and just like all the other curators, I’ve never heard of them before. They’re all relatively young, so again, this is probably just an age gap thing since Beautycon mostly targets an audience nearly half my age.
- Cargo Around The World Eye Shadow Palette – 1 palette / $34 – (Product is full size) Hey! An eye shadow palette! I think I was all but begging for something like this, so I’m pretty jazzed to see this in the box. The palette is a neutral oriented set of colors in a range of mattes and shimmers which is nice since it will probably suit everyone. There’s a small dual-end brush included (eye shadow end and an angled end), and the palette itself is cardboard with a magnetic closure and mirror. Cargo might not be a super luxury brand, but it’s a nice, affordable, cruelty free brand that falls right in line with NYX and e.l.f.
- OGX Orchid Oil – 4 oz / $7.99 – (Product is full size) SIGH. The first ingredient is cyclotetrasiloxane which is a silicone, an ingredient I don’t use on my curly hair. The oil part of this product doesn’t even come in until ingredient number 5 out of 15, so it’s primarily a silicone based product. It’s pretty heavily fruity scented too, so between the ingredients and the scent, this is a nope for me.
- Luxie Powder Brush 516 – 1 brush / $22 – (Product is full size) It’s a synthetic brush, so it’s cruelty free and vegan. I don’t mind getting brushes in boxes and after getting a few of these, I have a really nice inventory of a number of different brushes I may not have bought otherwise! Now only if it wasn’t pink…
- The BrowGal Brow Brush – 1 brush / $14 – (Product is full size) One end is a spoolie to brush your brows and the other is a firm, angled brush to fill in brows or apply eyeliner. I really like the angled brush end since it’s a very thin brush and works perfectly on brows.
- The BrowGal Convertible Brow – 1 set / $35 – (Product is full size) This is an exclusive set of colors put together just for Beautycon. The regular BrowGal eyebrow sets are sorted by hair color (dark, brown, and light), and this one looks like it combines one from each to give a good range to fit a wider range of hair colors. Both the middle and the right one are pretty good matches, but the left is far too dark. I get that putting these together on one brow palette makes it fit a wider range of people and so that you can custom blend a color, but now I have a pot of brow color that’s useless to me. I do like the formula – it’s a thick powder that almost feels like a gel and goes on super smoothly. From what I can find, the brand is cruelty free as well!
- Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse Or – 1.6 oz / $36 – (Product is .33 oz, value of $7.43 by volume) I’ve gotten this before from Glossybox, and it’s a dry oil with a gold shimmer. I still haven’t used up the one I already have since the oil is super glittery and it’s just not my thing. I keep meaning to drag it back out to use on my hair, but then it gets gold glitter all over my hands too. The oil blend is nice though and definitely not greasy at all.
- IBY Beauty Mineral Blush – .12 oz / $16 – (Product is full size) The color received is, “Peach Sheen,” which is almost a coral color with a gold shimmer. I just don’t like shimmery blushes, and the color doesn’t at all work with my skin tone. But, like all blushes, this can be used as an eye color too, and I think it’ll work out just fine as an eye shadow. This arrived with the pot having come unglued from the compact, but that just saves me the time I would’ve spent depotting it anyway, so that’s okay for me!
- Garnier SkinActive Micellar Makeup Removing Towelettes – 25 towelettes / $6.99 – (Product is full size) We received the liquid version of this last cycle, so this is almost a repeat item, but in a different delivery method. They’re okay – nothing spectacular and not cruelty free. I prefer to use a natural oil based makeup remover so I don’t have to scrub away at eye makeup, but I guess it’s nice to have these for travel.
- Dirty Little Secret Matte Lipstick – 3.2 g / $14 – (Product is full size) The color received is, “Rust,” which I was a little worried would tip over into the warm/orange zone and look terrible on me. Surprisingly, it’s almost like a deep raspberry/strawberry color – really hard to describe, but I LOVE the color! This dries nice and matte and has great staying power too. What a nice surprise. The company is cruelty free as well, so this is an extra big winner in my book.
- NYX Bright Idea Illuminating Stick – .21 oz / $7.99 – (Product is full size) The color received is, “Rose Petal Pop,” which is a bright pink color. I’ll admit that I’m not big into highlighter and illuminator type products since I just feel like they don’t look right on me. This is SUCH a bright pink that I can really only see it working as a blush, and it would be a nice color for that if it weren’t for the gold shimmer. I really do like matte blushes only, but I like the color on this so much that I may have to give it a go. NYX is cruelty free, but their parent company is L’Oréal who does sell in China and tests on animals. While NYX is still committed to cruelty free beauty, the parent company is not, so it’s kind of a grey area.
Also included in this box was a little rose sticker that matched the product card and outer packaging. Overall, the box value comes out to $165.40 which is really pretty amazing when you consider that the box cost me a total of $31.74 including shipping. This one in particular was a big hit with me since they included a number of cruelty free brands and I feel like they listened to some of the feedback about the last batch of boxes. Not only do we have a nice eyeshadow palette, but there’s also an exclusive-to-Beautycon item and fewer drugstore brands. The value for the cost is pretty incredible and it’s nice to see this box deliver something so nice, finally! I think I have one more quarter left on my subscription, so we’ll have to see how that one goes before I make a decision on renewing for another year. I’m kind of on the fence about it since I’d like to swap this sub for the Vegan Cuts quarterly box, so we’ll have to see!