Tag: Glossybox

My Glossybox for October 2016 has arrived!  This is the final one of my subscription that I kept forgetting to cancel, and at least the box was better this time, a vast improvement over last month’s box.  The  largest product in the box is  a drugstore brand hair product.  I thought Glossybox was supposed to be a luxury-brands sort of box and there’s nothing luxury about a product you can find in every drug store and grocery store.  Oh well, not going to miss this subscription, and the next time I think about signing up for Glossybox?  Someone take away my internet.

• Masque Bar Brightening Sheet Mask – 3 pack / $16.99 – (Product is one mask, value of $5.66)  I took the lowest price I found online via Amazon.com – Target was advertising $42.99 for a three-pack which seems really absurd when Amazon is offering the same for less than half the price.  The product card advertises it as 3 sheets for $10, but I was only able to find it two places online and none of them at $10.  Sheet masks are always fun to try, so this is an okay item for me.  The only thing I’m a little bothered by is that the manufacturing date stamped on mine is from over a year ago (18 Sep 2015).  I’m not sure that these have any true expiration, and it does have preservatives to keep the product fresh longer, but the idea that this has been sitting around for over a year generally doesn’t mean good things.
• Decleor Aromessence Neroli – .5 oz / $31.49 – (Product is .17 oz, value of $10.71)  Again, the value is all over the map – some sites list it for $73, but I found a lot in the mid to low $30 range for the same size.  It contains a blend of oils and is a lot like another product I already use so this is right up my dry skin alley.  There are no outrageous claims that it will make you look younger or erase dark spots, it’s just an awesome moisturizing serum that smells amazing.  The scent is sort of musky (Sandalwood, my favorite, is in the ingredient list!!) with a hint of citrus and honestly really pleasing, plus the product moisturizes well and makes my skin feel soft.  This  is honestly something I’d purchase a full size of, I actually like it that much!
• Emite Lip & Cheek Tint – 6 mL / $19 – (Product is full size)  It’s basically a lip and cheek stain, much like Benetint, although maybe a little bit thicker than that.  The color is a bit darker though and the formula seems to be a bit more like gel and it stains  rather well.  This may be one of the best stains I’ve used before and I’ll definitely be using this regularly!
• Unani Il-Lluminate Milk Cleanser – 200 mL / $18 – (Product is full size)  A quick check of the ingredient list shows it’s an aloe and water based cleanser with no ALS/SLS or parabens, so this sounds like it’s another product right up my dry skin alley!  The formula is a thick cream that smells light and fresh like aloe and cucumbers.  It cleanses well with no foam and rinses off cleanly.  It’s probably going to be my go-to during winter since it’s a gentle cleanser that won’t dry out my skin.  One small gripe though, the label was printed on the seam of the bottle, so I have to imagine these were offloaded to Glossybox because they were misprinted bottles.  The product inside is still the same, but they clearly couldn’t never be sold as-is in a retail setting which makes me feel a little cheated.
• OGX Bamboo Fiber-Full Thickening Root Booster – 6 oz / $7.99 – (Product is full size)  This is an automatic nope based on the ingredients (polymers and acrylates tend to be build-up ingredients and are a no-go for a no/low shampoo routine) and the fact that my curly hair does NOT need volume or thickening.  Glossybox, are you drunk?!  Also, it’s a basic drugstore/grocery store sort of brand and isn’t at all anything I’d consider “Luxury” like Glossybox claims to be.  I’d expect to see this in the Target or Walmart beauty boxes, but in Glossybox?  It just doesn’t fit and isn’t what subscribers consider luxury at all.

Overall, by my calculations, the box is worth $61.36.  If we were going by the product sheet, it would be $73.14, but that’s due to the really wide variation in value on the Decleor oil.  If a product is available for half the price from another retailer, I’m going to buy from that retailer.  I do like the Decleor oil though, sheet masks are always fun to try, and really, I’ll use everything but the OGX product, so it’s not a bad box, BUT Glossybox is still being deceptive and misleading about the products they’re including.  One is clearly a misprint, and the OGX is just ridiculous for the supposed luxury status of this box.  The box costs $21 per month, so no matter which way you calculate it, the value is still great, especially since I’m keeping all but one item, but their practices as of late have left a really bad taste in my mouth, and I have no desire to continue to give my money to a business that doesn’t value my business and thinks it’s okay to offload clearance and discontinued items to be under the guise of a “Luxury” subscription box.  That’s NOT okay.  If this is going to be a clearance box for discontinued cast-offs and misprinted items, say so.  Price it accordingly.  Continuing to charge $21 a box for items that can’t be sold on store shelves is absurd.

I know!  I said I was unsubscribing after last month, but I guess I forgot  and well, here we are, and I’m kicking myself.  The box design by Antonio Soares is pretty, but the contents?  They clearly spent more time on the design.  There’s a repeat product from another box, January 2016, that I received as a bonus box, and the C-Vit looks like it leaked since the bottle is under 1/4th full.  This box just feels small overall – the items are physically small, but it feels like something is missing, even though it’s not.

• Vince Camuto Capri – 3.4 oz / $85 – (Product is .25 oz, value of $6.25 by volume)  The base of florals completely ruins this for me – I think it’s the violet that does it since the other notes are musk, peach blossom and vanilla, but all I get is a super stinky floral.  I tend to like essential oil perfumes better, so it’s not surprising that I don’t like this, but it was so bad that I actually had to go wash it off.
• Sensyses Cleaner – 6.8 oz / $19.90 – (Product is .5 oz, value of $1.46 by volume)  A trial size make-up remover.  Yay?  I’ll use it, but it’s nothing exciting, and I can get better makeup removers for a FAR better price.
• C-Vit Liposomal Serum – 1 oz / $52 – (Product is .1 oz, value of $5.20 by volume)  The back of the packaging actually says, “Not for Sale, Free Sample,” so I’m having a hard time justifying the $5.20 value when this is something usually given out for free.  Not to mention, the bottle arrived less than 1/4th full, so I’m not even getting my full free sample.
• MeMeMe Lip Glide 1 stick / $12.50  (Full size product)  The color I received is, “Playful Peach,” and it doesn’t work at all for my skin tone – it’s way too coral/yellow and those shades don’t look good on me at all.  I gave the last one away, so this one is going to someone else I guess.
• Korres Twist Eyeshadow – 1.4 g / $18 – (Full size product)  I’m going by the price on the product card because it doesn’t seem to exist as a single item anymore online, not even on the Korres website, so this is likely discontinued.  There were some multi packs on HSN and Korres, but that doesn’t count if I can’t purchase one single stick.  I HATE it when subscription boxes do this – if I like it, there’s no way I can purchase another color, and it feels like cheating.  They’re taking dead stock from a manufacturer to pad their box value when there’s basically no value left since the product is discontinued.  Anyway, the color I received is apparently, “Metallic Black,” though it doesn’t say that anywhere on the packaging.  They were probably originally packaged in a box of some sort, with some kind of seal, but that didn’t make it into the Glossybox.  A little more Googling tells me these sticks were a limited edition in Spring/Summer of 2014.  I do love Korres products though, and while the color is too dark to be an eyeshadow, it’ll work great as an eyeliner.
• Model Launcher Eyebrow Pencil – 1 stick / $12 – (Full size product)  I received the color, “Taupe,” which matches my eyebrows pretty well.  There’s a stick end with an eyebrow pencil and a spoolie end to shape up your eyebrows.  I found the pencil to be a really firm formula – it takes a good bit of pressure to get even the faintest line to show up.  I like the idea, but the formula isn’t great.

Overall, the value comes to $55.41.  However, taking out the one free product and discounting the Korres product by half (no one in their right mind would pay for a product that’s two years old), it drops to $41.21.  I do like the Korres eyeshadow even though it’s  two years old and will use that and everything except the perfume and Lip Glide, so my personal value is $36.66, still more than I paid for the box which costs $21 per month.  However, the shady practice of putting in discontinued items and repeat items is really distasteful, and it looks like I missed the cancellation window for the next box, so I’m in for one more, then that’s it.

After the good deal they offered for Buy-1-Get-2-Free, I decided to stay on another month, just in case Glossybox has somehow magically become a box that works for me.  I’m sad to say it hasn’t, although it looks like there’s more of an effort to include paraben-free and cruelty-free products which is nice to see.  At first when I opened the box, I thought, “Oh hey!  This is pretty good!” but when I got to actually looking at the products and ingredients, the initial excitement faded.  I’ll get into why for each product below.

• Too Faced Mascara Melt Off – .23 oz / $17 – (Product is .04 oz, value of $2.96 by volume) I wanted to be excited about this, but you can get the same results with pure olive oil and not  be using a petroleum-based product (it contains  Isohexadecane as the 2nd ingredient which is derived from petroleum).  I’ve used a few different oil blends to remove mascara before, and they’re actually 100% oil – for this product, the first oil is the 9th ingredient out of 16.  Disappointing, really.  You can actually use straight olive oil to remove mascara and it works just about the same.
• Borghese Fango Ferma – 17.6 oz / $72.50 – (Product is 1 oz, value of $4.12 by volume)  It’s a mud mask basically, and I dig mud masks, but unfortunately this contains parabens.  I know Glossybox isn’t an ingredient-conscious or cruelty-free box, but, I expect better of high-end products.  The scent is rather pleasant though and not too terribly overwhelming, sort of a natural floral.  The mud is also a pale lavender color which is different!
• Wella Oil Reflections – 1 oz / $20 – (Product is 1 oz, value of $20)  SIGH.  I was initially pretty excited about this.  Hair oil?  TOTALLY ME.  Then I looked at the ingredients – the first two are silicones and the third is denatured alcohol.  When we get down to the tenth ingredient, we finally find three oils, but they’re so low on the ingredient list, they might as well not even be there (water is listed higher).  So, this product is just barely an oil – it’s actually a silicone-based smoother just like all the other cheap silicone-based anti-frizz products out there.  The addition of alcohol (an ingredient that’s incredibly drying) runs against the hydrating properties of the oils and is listed higher, so there’s more alcohol than oil in here which is really silly.  This is completely useless to me since I don’t use silicones on my hair, and it’s basically lying about what it actually is.  The scent is nice though – sort of a fruity vanilla – but I’ll never, ever use it.
• De Bruyere After-Sun Lotion – 50 mL / $12.30 – (Product is 50mL, value of $12.30)  I love after-sun lotions for hydrating parched skin after a day in the sun (usually post-shower after mowing the lawn).  The scent is a coconutty Monoi and it’s pretty light and perfectly summery.  This, again, contains Isohexadecane though, so it’s not exactly perfect, unfortunately.
• Trifle Cosmetics Lip Parfait – 3.5 g / $18.95 – (Product is 3.5 g, value of $18.95)  I received the color, “Exotic Fruits,” which is a super pale nude pink.  The color is better suited to being a concealer than a lip color for my skin tone, and as you can see from the swatch (linked here), it’s just a wee bit pinker than the skin tone on my inner arm.  I don’t look good in nude shades like this, so  it’s a complete miss for me.
• Invisibobble – 3 pcs / $7.95 – (3 pcs included, value of $7.95)  UGGHHH PINK.  WHY PINK?!  I loathe pink.  Absolutely hate it.  Outside of the color, I decided to give it a try since, hey, if it works, who cares what color it is if I’m using it around the house where no one can see me wearing such a terrible color.  Well, my hair is very  curly,  so  when I tried to pull it out of my hair, it tangled up into such a snarl at the ends that it ended up ripping out a bunch of hair, far worse than a traditional hair elastic  that at least slides out smoothly with no spiral to catch on every last hair at the ends.  It also stretched out like crazy and didn’t manage to hold the whole time (it has since returned to shape, but it’s not as elastic as traditional hair elastics when in use).  So, another nope.  This definitely does NOT work on all hair types.

Overall the value comes out to $66.28 for a box that costs $21.  The value is great on the surface, but when you consider that I’m only keeping three items (Mascara Melt Off, mud mask, and the after-sun lotion) that have a value of $19.38, it really isn’t that great.  This really just isn’t the box for me – the products included consistently  miss the mark for having quality ingredients (ie. ingredients that aren’t petroleum-based, parabens, irritants, silicones, etc).  I know I’m a bit of a natural hippie who prefers more of a purist approach to the things I put on my face and skin, and I should know that this isn’t going to be a good fit, but every once in a while it’s fun to try something new and different.  Well, I’m over it, back to the ones I know and trust to deliver exactly the products I’m interested in!

My first ever subscription box was Glossybox which I ended up dumping since they really didn’t cater much to me.  So why did I subscribe again?  Last month they were offering a Buy-One-Get-Two-Free deal and it seemed pretty well worth it!  For only $21, I got three boxes – one is the current July box above and the other two free boxes  I received were the June Tony Awards box and January 2016’s box.  Everything was shipped together in one box and arrived yesterday, 26 July 2016.  I’ll post the other two below along with their contents, but first, the July Box!

• Fango Essenziali Moisturize Sheet Mask – 1 mask / $7 – (Full size product)  It’s a bigger packet than I expected, larger than my hand.  I do have dry skin, so this should be excellent to try since it claims it’s a remedy for parched, dry skin.  CHECK!
• Glov Quick Treat – 1 packet / $5 – (Full size product)  You can’t tell from the packet what it is, but it’s a microfiber cloth shaped to fit over your finger.  It seems much like the Makeup Eraser cloth I received from the Benevolent Beauty Box this month, but sized for just one finger instead of a whole cloth.  I’m glad it’s reuseable and washable and all, but this teeny little thing seems a little silly when you can have a whole cloth for not much more cost.
• Leighton Denny Miracle Mist – 75 mL / $16 – (Full size product)  I’m honestly pretty interested to see how this works.  My nails are already painted so I don’t need to use it right away, but the idea that it might save me from my impatient self and help nudge my nail polish to dry faster is pretty appealing.
• Too Faced Melted  – .4 oz / $21 – (Sample size product, value of $8.40 by volume)  I already have this exact same product and size from the Ulta 11 Piece Lip Sampler from earlier this year and I have no reason to have two even though it is a nice color, so this is going to be saved for a friend.
• Nuxe Shimmering Huile Prodigieuse – 3.3 oz / $54 – (Full size product)  The most expensive item in the box and well over and beyond covers the cost of the subscription.  I’m not all that thrilled about it since it is basically a sparkly gold blend of oils.  The sparkle doesn’t really show up on the skin since it’s a really fine glitter, but I noticed on the hang tag on the bottle that it can be used on hair too, and since all the ingredients check out, I think I’m going to use this to help give my dry hair a little boost on days I don’t wash it.
• Eyeko Fat Eye Stick – 4 g / $12 – (Full size product)  I received the color, “Satin,” and this product appears to be altogether discontinued – I couldn’t find it on the Eyeko website at all.  The color is sort of a silvery bronze and has a decent shimmer to it.  I’ll definitely use it, but I always feel like when they throw in discontinued items like this that it’s a bit of a cop-out  – if I wanted another color of this, I couldn’t buy it since it doesn’t exist anymore.

This box’s value comes to $102.40 which is pretty damn incredible.  Outside of the liquid lipstick, I’ll use everything in here, and would’ve used the lipstick too if I didn’t have the exact same color already.  Now on to the bonus boxes which I’ll keep short and sweet with no individual reviews, just a product list and value.

Glossybox January 2016 Bonus Box #1

• Royal Apothic Cream Creme – 1.25 oz / $14 – Full size product (in scent, “Venetian Grove”)
• MeMeMe Lip Glide – 1 stick / $12.50 – Full size product (in color, “Playful Peach”)
• -417 Foot Nourishing Cream – 3.4 oz / $18 – Product is 1.7 oz, value of $9 by volume
• Beautiful Nutrition Lemon Rinse – 13.3 oz / $10 – Product is 2 oz, value of $1.50 by volume
• Emite Diamond Heart Primer – 35 mL / $29 – Product is 15 mL, value of $12.43 by volume

Total value of $49.43.  The Lip Glide is the wrong color for me (too coral/yellow toned), the Lemon Rinse has no-no ingredients for curly hair, but I like everything else.

Glossybox June 2016 Tony Awards  Bonus Box #2

• Sinful Colors Nail Polish – .5 oz / $3 – Full size product (in color “After Dark”)
• Tan Towel – 10 towelettes / $27 – 2 towelettes, value of $2.70
• Icona Milano Emotion Allowed Mascara – .34 oz / $19 – Full size product
• LA Splash Lip Gloss – .2 oz / $18 – Full size product (in color, “Red Carpet”)
• Sebastian Whipped Creme – 5.3 oz / $20 – Product  is .9 oz, value of $3.40 by volume
• Sebastian Dark Oil – 3.2 oz / $48 – Product is .06 oz, value of $.90 by volume
• Caolion Pore Pack Duo – 1 set, 1.75 oz / $30 – Product is .4 oz total, value of $6.86 by volume

Total value of $53.86.  I’ve heard terrible things about the tan towel, plus I don’t use fake tanners anyway.  The two hair products both contain no-no ingredients for curly hair, and the mascara contains cyclopentasiloxane which irritates my eyes.  But hey, at least I’ll keep the nail polish, lip gloss, and will try the pore pack?  See, this is part of the reason why I stopped my subscription with Glossybox.. So many boxes had products I couldn’t/wouldn’t use since I’m just not the intended audience.  Oh and the lip gloss appears to be a discontinued item – I can’t find it on the company’s website.

Overall, for $21, I got all that, even if a bunch of the products are complete misses.  Thankfully July’s box had a super high value because if I had received the other two boxes as the primary box, I’d have been rather disappointed.  The first spoiler for August is up already, and I’m interested enough to let the subscrption ride for one more month.  If you enjoyed my review and wanted to send me some referral love, here’s my link!