Tag: Lip Monthly

I’m a little late posting this, but October’s Lip Monthly arrived October 25th.  There was a snafu with their new system and it sent out blank tracking numbers at first which they later corrected, but this usually arrives earlier in the month and there was no communication about the delay.  On top of that, while they were transitioning websites, I knew my subscription was going to auto-renew in October, but I was unable to log into their website during the transition.  Luckily, my card couldn’t be charged since it had expired, but even when I was finally able to log in, the site wouldn’t let me cancel – it just kept coming up with “error” when I hit cancel.  I emailed customer service who was able to cancel the subscription, but I feel like it’s a little unsettling that the company went through and tried to renew my account when I couldn’t log in and their site wasn’t working, but couldn’t be bothered to contact me in advance to let me know to email customer service.  The whole subscription has been a comedy of errors and bad products and I couldn’t even imagine renewing at this point.  So, here’s my  last bag.

• Laritzy Lip Pencil – 1 stick / $18 – (Product is Full Size)  The color received is, “Roseberry,” which is a pinkish nude.  I guess this can work either as a lip liner pencil or as an all-over stick since the formula is surprisingly creamy and smooth for a lip liner.  I actually like the color which I didn’t expect looking at the name – anything dusty rose never works for me, but this tips enough over to berry to actually be rather flattering!  Bonus, this product is cruelty free and paraben free.
• Cargo Essential Lip Gloss – .08 oz / $16 – (Product is Full Size)  The color received is, “Sahara,” which is a gold glitter lip gloss.  The formula isn’t bad for a gloss – it’s on the thinner side and doesn’t feel that sticky.  There’s no discernible scent or flavor either, and the glitter is subtle enough so that I don’t look like I’m 12.  It actually goes really well over the lip pencil!
• Be a Bombshell Lipstick – 3.8 g / $6 – (Product is Full Size)  The color received is, “Charmed,” which is a warm toned brown.  This arrived with a big fingerprint smear of the product on the outside of the tube.  As for the inside, the lipstick had separated from the base and was stuck inside the cap.  I eventually got it back out of the cap, but it’s basically a damaged product that looks like it was opened before which is pretty gross.  And, brown is apparently a pretty awful color on me, plus the product contains parabens, so this is an automatic nope for me.
• Dirty Little Secret Baked Highlighter – 3 g / $14 – (Product is Full Size)  The color received is, “Sunkist,” which is a warm gold color.  I honestly thought this was an eyeshadow at first since the color is way too dark to be a highlighter and is probably more suited to be a bronzer on my skin tone.  Even if it doesn’t really work as a highlighter, it’ll be great as a gold eyeshadow, so that’s fine for me!

The total value comes to $54 which is great considering I paid just under $10 per month for this subscription.  It’s neat to see cruelty free brands included this time and I do like the Laritzy pencil, DLS highlighter, and Cargo gloss a lot which makes this a pretty decent bag.  My first shipment was still better, but this is a far cry better than the prior shipment.  I definitely won’t be renewing and while this was fun, the customer service and transparency just isn’t there with this company, and I’d rather spend my money with a company that communicates better and doesn’t try to renew my subscription when I can’t even log into their site to cancel.

September’s Lip Monthly has arrived.  I have to say that while the execution is pretty cute – the bag matches the nail wraps and there’s a purple lip crayon, the products are really lackluster.  I’d rather have no theme and the products be awesome which is definitely the opposite way around this time.  I believe I have one more shipment left before the end of my 4 month subscription, and I’m not going to miss it.. The first shipment was so great and this one?  I’ll use the nail wraps and that’s about it.  The product card was yet again stuck to the inside of the bag.

• StarLooks Lip Crayon – 2.5 g / $12 – (Full Size Product)  The product card says it’s $19, but I could only find one lip crayon type product on the StarLooks website that was listed for $12.  The color is, “Dubl Dubl,” and just about matches the lighter purple stripe on the bag.  The formula goes on kind of like an actual crayon or even a crayon-pastel.  It smells like cheap plastic and, based on the ingredient list on the website, is a mix of petroleum-based ingredients.  The color is terrible, the formula is terrible, and I’m throwing this right away because it’s just plain awful.  I try to find at least something redeeming about products that don’t interest me as they are or a way to repurpose them, but I just can’t with this one.  It’s a total waste.
• JCat Wonder Lip Paint – .33 oz / $4.99 – (Full Size Product)  The color I received is, “Heartadocious.”  I thought for something called Lip Paint this would be more like a liquid lipstick, but instead it’s a super runny gloss that goes on nearly clear.  It contains parabens and is another cheap, petroleum-based product that I really don’t like a single thing about.  Hugely disappointed.
• Model Co Lip Enhancer – 1.2 g / $10 – (Full Size Product)  The value given on the card is $20, but it’s on clearance/sale on the Model Co website for $10.  Sorry, you don’t get to inflate the bag value by throwing in something that’s on clearance/sale but then list the full retail value when it’s NOT priced that way even on the company’s own site.  I honestly don’t use liners ever, and when I do, it’s one of the invisible ones, so this is completely useless for me.  The color is a lighter brown, so I may be able to use it as an eyeliner instead, but I think the product is a little too dry/draggy to work as an eyeliner.
• NCLA Nail Wraps – 1 pack / $11 – (Full Size Product)  These were clearly custom-made for Lip Monthly this month and  I honestly dig the tie in to the bag design – it’s really rather clever.  I haven’t used these nail wraps before, so I’m interested to see how they fare against the other ones I use pretty regularly.  There’s even a mini emery board inside the package which is a nice touch!  And, HOORAY FOR NOT-PINK!  I love the simple purple stripe design.

The total value by my calculation comes to $37.99 which is a far cry from the advertised value of $54.99.  I’m kind of bummed that for a bag called Lip Monthly, the only thing worth keeping was a nail item, and the 3 lip items were cheap junk made in China that I could probably pick up on sale/clearance somewhere else for even less.  Since I purchased the subscription on a really good promotion, the nail wrap set at least covers the cost of the bag, but just barely.  After this complete failure, I will not be renewing my subscription.  I expected to at least receive one nice, well-known name brand lip product each month from the bag and this didn’t even deliver that.  The first bag I got was great, but it’s consistently gone downhill since then.

August’s Lip Monthly finally arrived!  I’m not a big fan of this one at all, to be honest – the colors are pretty off for me, and even the bag isn’t one I’ll keep (ugh, pink AND flowers, c’mon).  When I opened the bag which was delivered Monday, August 22nd, the product card was stuck to the vinyl inside the bag and left behind orange residue from the card on the bag.  The colors?  Two are soft, dusty rose colors, one is a neon salmon pink, and the only acceptable one is the red stain.  For as much as I loved what I got in July, I’m wildly disappointed in this month’s shipment.

• Hikari Dual Color Stick – .23 oz / $15 – (Full Size Product)  The color I received was “Dusk” which is basically a neon salmon pink and not at all like its namesake.  It’s bright, BRIGHT-bright.  This isn’t a color I can wear since anything that has even the slightest yellow tone doesn’t look good on me, but it’s honestly SO bright, I can’t see how this would look good on anyone who isn’t in an 80s music video.  It didn’t look that bad in the tube, but on?  HUGE NO.  The formula is nice and the stick is huge, but as a lip color, it’s not for me, and I really don’t use blush since I have pretty red cheeks to begin with.
• Lord & Berry Lip Liner – .03 oz / $19 – (Full Size Product)  People still use lip liners?  I thought we had those invisible ones now and the colored ones were a thing of the past.. anyway, any sort of dusty rose sort of color isn’t for me, nor do I EVER use lip liners, so this is going straight to the trade/give-away box.
• Manna Kadar Liplocked Priming Lip Wand – .09 oz / $24 – (Full Size Product)  I’m honestly not sure what color I received since it isn’t printed on the product itself.  It may have been on the safety seal band, but I’m at a loss!  Looking at the colors online, it’s probably “J’Adore” since it’s a pinky nude which fits the color description.  It looks like this pretty closely matches the other Manna Kadar Liplocked gloss I received last month though, so the two should work together pretty well.  It’s a thick crayon sort of product and goes on very matte.  I actually tried the Hikari color on top and as long as I went really lightly with the Hikari, it wasn’t too bad!  The color is just a shade darker than my natural lip color, so it would definitely work best as a primer.
• Seraphine Rosy Cheeks – .35 oz / $20 – (Full Size Product)  It’s a lip and cheek stain, and the formula is almost like a cream gel consistency.  I received the color, “Bloom.”  Thicker than other gel stains, but thinner than liquid lipsticks.  It’s got a pretty strong floral scent which to me smells a lot like roses.  Again, not something I’d use on my cheeks since they don’t need to be any redder, so I tried it out on my lips.  It didn’t really stain much, but instead it clumped together and went on really unevenly.  I thought maybe I just needed to start with freshly exfoliated lips, so I did that and tried again, but it was exactly the same.  When I rubbed the gel into my lips with my finger to better distribute it, it ended up all coming off on my finger instead.  What little did stay on my lips was uneven and didn’t stain very much.  I was hoping for a nice classic red stain to wear under lip balms and glosses, and it’s there, but it’s much more subtle than I expected.  I think my finger is stained more red than my lips.  The company does advertise that they’re cruelty free and vegan, and that this product is 95% natural, so that’s pretty awesome.

The total value of the bag comes to $79 which is great when you consider that the bag cost me just under $10 for a 4 month (buy 3 get 1 free) subscription.  When you consider that I’m not really wowed by any of the products, for $10 it’s still okay, and I will use that Manna Kadar primer for sure.  I really wish the company had a way to set preferences for colors so the value would consistently be worth it every month.  I know that dusty rose and salmon/corals don’t work for me but berry and cool reds do.  I know I don’t like lip pencils, but I love trying new stains (even if they don’t quite knock my socks off).  Beyond that, for a subscription called “Lip Monthly” having two products be dual-purpose lip/cheek products isn’t really that fantastic for variety’s sake.  I probably would’ve appreciated a little more variety in color too since the lip liner pencil and Manna Kadar are basically the same color (though that might be intentional).  Anyway, two more months left, here’s hoping next month’s is better!

I decided to try out  Lip Monthly since they had a special running to get four months for just under $40 which meant the first bag was free.  I didn’t realize that the first bag would be a duplicate of an old bag – May’s bag, seen here on My Subscription Addiction.  I like everything in the bag, and it’s a really great bag, but I felt like it was a little dishonest to say that my first bag would be free, and instead of sending July’s bag, send out May’s instead as the ‘free’ bag.  I can’t say this inspires any kind of faith for the remaining three months of the subscription.  But anyway, on to the contents..

• Jor’el Parker Fango Mud Therapy – 1 oz / $3 – (Product is sample size)  I didn’t even realize that this is a Harvey Prince product until I went to look it up.  I do like mud masks, but like all of Harvey Prince’s products, this is HEAVILY scented.  Also troubling is that there’s no ingredient list on the product nor is there an ingredient list on the website.  I did end up finding one elsewhere and  while it’s pretty basic, it’s nothing terribly special either.  I’ll still give it a whirl one of these days, but the scent is honestly overpowering.  Also!  The product card lists the value of this as $10, but I found it on the Harvey Prince website for $3 as the sample size.
• Dirty Little Secret Lipstick  – 3.8 g / $10 – (Product is full size)  On the website, this looks like a perfect scarlet red, but even in the tube it looks more berry colored, almost a little violet.  Fortunately, it goes on more towards the berry-red spectrum for me and looks surprisingly great on!  It’s not too bright either and is probably my absolute new favorite color which I wasn’t expecting when I opened the tube.  Honestly pleasantly surprised by this!  The formula is somewhat matte, but doesn’t seem to have a lot of staying power.  Still, I like the color that much that this is a big win for me.
• So Susan Jello Shot – 4.5 mL / $24.95 – (Product is full size)  It’s BRIGHT orange in the tube, but the second I put it on my lips, it turned this sweet shade of pink and stuck around forever.  I can’t see using this on my cheeks but it makes for a fantastic lip stain, and yet again, was something that I was a little skeptical about, but ended up being probably the best lip stain I’ve ever tried.  It seems like the pink color can vary based on you skin chemistry and temperature, but my pink was a pretty steady Hello Kitty pink-pink.
• Manna Kadar Lip Locked Priming Gloss Stain – 5 mL / $24 – (Product is full size)  At first glance, the color, Lucky, looks a little bit like a dusty rose tone which never works out on my skin, however, once I put it on, it was basically the perfect neutral for my lips.  Most neutrals completely wash me out and make me look like a corpse, but this has enough red/pink in it that it almost nearly perfectly matches my natural lip color.  So, score again for a product I never ever would’ve thought to pick up that ended up being a total winner.  The formula isn’t a gloss or stain like the name implies – it’s definitely more like a liquid lipstick than anything else, but the website says it contains a stain, primer, and pigment  all in one.

The total value comes to $61.95 which is pretty fantastic when you consider this bag cost me just under $10.  I’m honestly a little torn.. while I’m a little bothered by the lack of transparency on the website about the ‘free’ bag being a previous month’s bag, I’m honestly super happy with the three lip products and will give the mud mask a go because I do love a good mud mask.  On their Facebook page, they mentioned that they chose the May bag as the free bag because it had great customer feedback, and I see why, but I am a little disappointed that I’m not getting the actual July bag though I’ve not yet seen anyone post that one online.  I feel like I need to repeat myself because I DO like the bag, but the misleading advertising is troubling.  I’ve still got three months left, so we’ll see how things go.