GlossyBox December Review

Finally, we’re at the end of the year, and the last GlossyBox review of the year – the December 2014 box! As always, there is an initial first impressions/unboxing video here, this is the indepth review.

December box overview

Here’s our full overview shot: this month we got four full sized items, one premium sample sized item, a description card, and a preview card, as well as a lovely winter-y box design of snowflakes and red ribbon.

bellapierreFirst off is the Bellapierre Cosmetics Lip & Cheek Stain. I received the shade Coral, which is a lovely red colour, it comes in a little plastic tub with a screw top lid, big enough to get your finger in there and get some product easily, which is good, as these items are often sold on their convenience value. It’s supposed to be able to do two things – stain/colour your lips and or cheeks – easily and prettily. It has a soft, matte lip balm look and feel. There isn’t really a smell. You get 5 grams in total, though it’s hard to tell exactly how long this will last, I do suspect a I’ll get a fair amount of usage. The full cost is usually £12.99, and it’s a full sized item. The price puts it in line with a lot of other ‘Cheek&Lip’ items from other brands, though you can definitely find cheaper.

On me this item works better as a cheek stain, rather than a lip stain. When I say better I mean it makes more of a visual difference – I can notice the product colour on my cheeks a lot more than my lips, as my skin is pale enough and my lips aren’t that light. It is however, overall a nice little item to have – it is easy to use, easy to store and transport, and seems to last on the cheeks at least fairly well. While it might be more honest in my case to simply consider it a cheek stain, I’m not sure how much to blame the product, as this will depend on how pale you are, and how dark your lips are.

Tresseme

Next up is the Tresemme Renewal Hair & Scalp Nourish & Renew Tonic. This is an interesting product actually, I’ve never used a hair tonic before – it’s something that sounds quite old fashioned. It’s a fairly large bottle with a little pointed applicator, so you can get it right on your scalp and hair  roots rather than making a mess of your hair – especially since like a lot of hair treatments I have it states to use it just after washing your hair. It’s a clear, very watery liquid with a nice smell – nice to me anyway, it has the Tresemme hair product smell they all seem to have, which I quite like. You get 150ml in the bottle, and this is full sized, priced at £5.50, making it a pretty affordable item.

So far I’ve really enjoyed using it. The tip applicator does work very well at getting the product on your scalp, though I tend to have less issue with this anyway as my hair is actually pretty thin and fine. The watery consistency actually works to its credit, as you don’t have to be super accurate once you’re at scalp level, as it spreads really easily over your skin. As for the bottles claims of ‘soothing the scalp’ and ‘repair by nourishing’ – actually it does seem pretty good – my scalp has felt a lot less dry and uncomfortable as a result of the dry cold weather. I might actually consider using this again – it’s like a leave in conditioner but for your scalp.

Anatomicals

The third full sized item is the Anatomicals Zap! Zap! Zap! Gets that Chap Day & Night Spot Stick, which I’m going to give mixed feelings on in the end. This is a double ended spot stick with a day formula – which is a clear gel, and a night formula – a white gel, both roughly the same consistency and ingredients. It’s Tea Tree and Witch Hazel based. This is a nice inexpensive item at £3.79 for 7ml (3.5ml per side), and the price is consistent with Boots own version.

Now onto the mixed feelings: the spot stick does actually work, really well actually. It makes an uncomfortable blemish feel soothed right away, and does help it fade over time. And to be fair, the most important thing really is that it works. Sadly, the big downside has to be it’s packaging – my product pictured above is missing the day end, this is because when I dropped it from about hip height (I was sitting down at my side table) onto a carpeted floor, the day end snapped off, meaning it couldn’t be screwed on anymore, and spilled most of the product out. I don’t know whether to assume I got a duff item, but this seems awfully fragile for something that really you’d expect to be able to throw in your bag as a just in case. I might consider buying it again and hope for the best, after finishing the night end.

All That Jazz

The fourth and final full sized item a nail Lacquer (or nail polish) from All That Jazz, in the shade ‘Stella’s – Draped in Pearls’. Like the Ciate polish previously, this is a big sized, more premium priced nail polish – you get 15ml for £9.98. This is a really lovely high glitter polish. It has no colour as such, the clear polish holds within it a variety of glitter from really tiny to quite large visible chunks – creating quite an interesting look. Like a lot of these glitter polishes, you can get different looks depending on how many coats you add, starting off with quite a sparse coating of glitter, to coating your whole nail multiple times to get a full on glitter effect, either over coloured polish or not. This makes it a nice, versatile item to have – unlike having a single colour, you can use it in different ways.

The other thing I’ve liked so far about these big nail polish bottles is that they have nice long bottle tops to hold on to comfortably, and quite long brushes to really get inside the bottle with – so it does feel more and more like these bigger, more pricier ones might be worth it. There are many glitter heavy nail polish alternatives available, though I’ve been mostly tempted by the Barry M ones.

SkinPep

Finally, we have the last item, and this is a sample product from SkinPep. Their Hydra Boost Pure Hyaluronic Acid Serum – this is a clear thick gel, which acts as a moisturiser, or moisturising treatment. A lot like last month’s H20+ Face Oasis, it feels very water based, as it’s very wet and watery on the face, but works in very well and does moisturise very well. We’ve also has SkinPep before in the September GlossyBox, so I know their formulas are fine for people with more sensitive skin, though they are on the pricier side. The full sized item is 70 ml, and is priced at £24.99. Proportionally the 15 ml sample is worth £5.35.

I do find it a bit harder to get a good longer impression on these sample sized items, as you have less to work with over 3 or 4 weeks. It was a nice treatment, like last months H20+ Face Oasis again I used it on the dryer areas of my face, and it did keep them hydrated for longer, though I would say the H20+ gel was slightly better – either way they’re a bit pricey for me to consider buying. It is nice that it wasn’t in a sachet, but a little tube – it’s much easier and nicer to use.

SO, to recap the box, there were five items, four full sized and one nicer sample. The total box value came to £37.62, which is a nice box value, making it neither the cheapest nor the most expensive. I’ve actually really liked this box overall – the Cheek & Lip stain, and the Nail Lacquer are both very ‘party ready’ style items – good for most people at this time of year, and just nice to have in general. Both the Spot Stick and Hair Tonic have actually worked really well as products, and I’ll be very tempted to repurchase them. The only not ‘wow’ item I would say is the Serum, but then it’s only a sample, and it’s still nice enough.

This is my seventh month of GlossyBox, ending the year 2014, I’m still going to be getting them into the new year, and I look forward to the January box. Until then.

Let’s Play Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

So, we’re now doing another horror Let’s Play, the wonderful and sadly much under-rated Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. These days, because it doesn’t run ideally on modern hardware, it’s difficult to find videos of this game looking like it should, or without people complaining that it’s “buggy”.

As an aside, we’re running the game on a machine we’ve specifically kept for Call of Cthulhu – it’s an older Windows PC, running XP, with an old Nvidia graphics card. Otherwise some of the problems you can have are: the rain doesn’t render correctly, the skybox doesn’t render at all, and portions of the game that require the skybox later on to work aren’t playable. There may be more minor problems, but these are the big noticable ones.

Finally, we have the first set of episodes.

Read More

Empties of 2014 so far (not that there’s much of 2014 left)

Similar to my GlossyBox format, where I do a video and a written in-depth review once I’ve gotten over things being new, I’ve been thinking of doing empties reviews – I think this type of review is better suited to writing, as I don’t have to worry as much about length. So, empties.

I’ve been collecting them up in a bag for a while now, (I couldn’t give you an exact start date), and there’s rather a mish-mash of items, but I figured that’s how empties would work. Some final clarification: Not all of these are literally empty, some are being thrown out due to age, and since I’m in the UK these will be items available here.

empties bath

I’ve put the empties into small sections, and first off is bath items:

To the left and right are the new Wilkinsons Fruits bath foams, in ‘Orange & Pomelo’, and ‘Rhubarb & Vanilla’ – these are the replacements of their older, plainer bath foams. The scents are very nice, strong, and fancy – but sadly more impressive in the bottle. The Rhubarb & Vanilla is more guilty of this by far than the Orange & Pomelo, but the scent fades fairly quickly for both once it’s in the water, more so than the previous versions did. But they are nice enough, especially for the money: Each item in the fruits range is £1.50, and they’ve so far always been available in a 3 for 2 offer, making them really cost £1 each.

And in the centre we have the Yves Rocher Exfoliating Shower Gel in Strawberry – this was a freebie (along with a vanilla one) for doing a Yves Rocher order (in regards to Yves Rocher, nice enough items, rubbish customer service). The flavours they have change, but the format remains pretty much the same – it’s a nice, strong smelling shower gel, it lathers well, and exfoliates the skin using natural ingredients (seeds, which is a pretty clever idea). It’s priced at £4.50. I suspect the Body Shop’s body polish items are very similar, as well as the Boots Extracts one.

empties facial wash

Next are the skin washing items:

To the left is the Simple Toner, just the regular one. It’s a nice, basic toner – it cleanses without drying, it smells nice enough, and I like the ingredients. At the time I think Wilkinsons were doing Simple skincare items for £2 each, but it is worth checking either Boots, Wilkinsons, or Superdrugs for whoever has the best price on Simple, as it’s often on offer. I have a new one of this item now.

In the centre is the Boots Foaming Tea Tree & Witch Hazel face wash – a nice basic, gentle wash, but honestly the best thing about it is probably the pump, turning a thin water into a foam that’s very soft and gentle. I don’t actually use this anymore, as I don’t think it was cleansing enough for me, the range as a whole is really good though. It’s currently £3.59 at Boots.

Finally, we have the Simple Moisturising Facial Wash – I liked the idea of it being moisturising, as things are often too harsh on my face, making the skin dry and tight. This is a nice, gentle, straight-forward face wash that works well. Again like the toner, I picked this up when it was on offer, but it’s usually on offer somewhere anyway. I currently have another bottle of this on the go now, but I’m quite tempted to give my old staple – the Body Shop’s Tea Tree face wash, another go.

empties sachets

Next we have sachets – and most of these are face masks (I do love face masks):

First off we have the Skin Pep Brightening Enzyme & Acid Peel, from my September 2014 GlossyBox. This was a nice item, it did chemically exfoliate, and was very gentle. I didn’t notice that much of a difference overall to my skin other than a bit of a thorough cleansing – I suspect I’m not really the target audience for this type of stuff, as it’s aimed at people more concerned with anti-aging, or signs of aging, which is fair enough. I would say I feel the price, which is £3.05 per mask, is a bit pricey, more expensive than the other two masks.

Sticking with the same brand, the Skin Pep Dark Circle Eraser Eye Cream, priced at a higher £6.49, and again – it is a nice eye cream, but feels no better to me than the one I use, so feels overpriced.

Then we have what is very obviously a Montagne Jeunesse face mask – this one is the Fruit Smoothie with Raspberry and Mango. I generally like this brand, though sometimes some masks are better for me personally than others – this is more to do with skin sensitivity and my own skin dryness. This one smelt lovely (the only mask by them I’ve ever had where I’ve disliked the smell was the White Chocolate face mask – it smelt so awful and strong while I was wearing it) and made my skin feel pampered. These face masks can be anywhere from £1 to £2 in stores to pick up, depending on the type, but I actually like to buy the multipacks online, as you get much better value.

And finally we have the newly launched (when I bought it) Superdrug’s own brand of face mask, and this is the anti-aging one – I wanted to try this one because it says it was moisturising, and I was feeling a bit dry. It reminds me a lot of the Nivea face mask that I only ever seem to see in the boxed gift sets – it’s like a very nice, thick moisturiser that you put on like a face mask. It left my skin feeling really lovely, and super soft. These are £0.99 each, but have been on 3 for 2 since they’ve been released as well.

empties facial moistFace care now, with another three items:

To the left we have the Simple Light Moisturiser with SPF 15 – from when I was first trying out Simple during the summer, and I was pretty pleased. It works very well as a moisturiser, and doesn’t leave a residue. The lightness and SPF works well in the warm weather. Right now I have the rich version of this moisturiser, since it’s cold and miserable at the minute, and the humidity inside isn’t always fantastic. Again this was £2, and again, check for those offers.

Next is my absolute favourite moisturiser, Nivea Soft. It’s rich and thick, rubs in well, it works amazingly, it has Jojoba oil, it has vitamin E, it’s nice and affordable. It’s my perfect moisturiser, I have a new one now, and will probably buy it forever unless for some crazy reason they change it. I do use this on my face, but usually only if it’s super dry or has been irritated. I’ll use it on my underarms after shaving, and on anywhere and everywhere that needs a little love. These 200ml tubes are £4.26.

Finally, we have the Boots Tea Tree and Witch Hazel Night treatment gel, again I might use this on nights when my skin is irritated or feeling blemish-y, and it is soothing, but it’s not super wow. And I’d probably be tempted to buy something new. From Boots, it costs £2.99, making it nice and affordable.

empties scentWe have a little short one now on scents, just two things:

First off is my go to deoderant – the tesco everyday value one. This costs all of £0.41, and is great. It’s unscented, which I really prefer, and works very well for the price. It’s very ‘no fuss, no frills, does it’s thing’. Like the Nivea Soft, I suspect I’ll always buy this – scented deodorants never tempt me, and I have had solid ones before – in my experience you never really get to use the whole thing, as over time, in its ‘use as a rub-on item’ format, it gets kind of icky and un-usable.

The tiny bottle is a perfume sample way back when from the June 2014 GlossyBox, and it is the Roger & Gallet – Fleur de Figuier perfume from M&S. It was a nice, sweet, fruity perfume, and these samples do actually last for a while. It’s not the usual type of perfume I get, so I wouldn’t buy the full sized item, but it makes a nice change. This sample was worth all of £0.48, as a proportion of the full size item (£32).

empties hairNow onto hair items:

First off is the Palmer’s Strong Roots Spray – this item was quite disappointing. It does clearly say ‘coconut oil formula’ rather than coconut oil spray, and with good reason – it doesn’t smell of coconut, which is pretty much why I bought it. It smells of mint. The ingredients didn’t feel nice on my scalp, but have that uncomfortable tingly feel you get from items labelled ‘refreshing’. It also doesn’t work that well as a hair care item – my hair doesn’t feel stronger, and it does make the hair limp and greasy looking very easily. In the months since I’ve gotten GlossyBox and received more hair care oils and tonics that work much better, it does put this into perspective – I won’t buy it again. You can get it for £3.49

Next we have two dry shampoos. They’re both 200ml, the Boots one is £2.29, and the Wilkinsons one is £1 but I got it reduced to try it out. The Boots one is actually a pretty good dupe for Batiste Dry Shampoo – it has a very similar light formula, and a pretty similar fragranced feel. It’s a very nice dry shampoo, and cheaper than Batiste, which is usually £2.99. The Wilkinsons one has a very different formula – thicker which does leave more of a white colour – it takes longer to work through the hair and clear out – but it does clear out, which is the important thing. Because it was thicker, it felt like the oil reduction lasted longer than the Boots one. It’s also quite simply the best value for money. They even have a 400ml version for for only £1.75, which I need to get (Boots doesn’t do the bigger 400ml size, though Batiste does at £6.49 – so if you’re really into the dry shampoo, try the cheaper one).

Finally we have the Philip Kingsley Elasticizer from the August 2014 GlossyBox. In the end this was pretty unimpressive, it made my hair feel nice very briefly, but then lank and a bit residue-y for the most part. This is mostly because I have very fine, very thin hair – and it does state this hair will need extra careful rinsing – even with this I don’t think it’s for me, but simply on hair type, which doesn’t seem so bad. If you have thicker hair you’ll have better luck. This sample was £6.08 (£38 for the full item).

empties makeupWe’re onto the last section, and this is makeup! I’ll try to keep it brief, since there are so many little items and most of them aren’t actually empty.

Stuff I didn’t like: The Company eyeliner (but then what do you expect from a free no-brand eyeliner), it was basically useless, not really working, not having much pigment, and the stuff not flowing out of the tip. And secondly, and sadly, Benefit’s They’re Real liner sample – I was surprised by how much I disliked this. I can do the whole smooth eye liner look, I just prefer the smudged look personally, the applicator does work, and it’s a nice idea – but I wasn’t really that impressed with the formula. Maybe it’s just the sample I had, but it was dry, and did kind of cake and crumble. I was expecting more of a gel that you could use and move and smooth around a bit more, before it set, like a gel pot eyeliner with a fancy applicator – so maybe my expectations were just wrong.

Stuff that’s all empty: Boots Seventeen Doll’d Up Mascara, this is a really nice mascara actually. I love the curved applicator, because it works really well with my lashes, the formula was also lovely, at just £6.29 it’s surprisingly better than pricier mascaras.

The rest – makeup that just needs throwing out: A Nivea Pearly Shine lip balm from last winter, very nice in the usual Nivea moisturising way, and a bit shimmery – I have a new metal pot one in Raspberry, but in general the Nivea lip items are lovely. It’s old, and short, and stubby, and drying out. Three lipsticks that have sat in a drawer and not been worn, Rimmel in 210 Fancy, which is a shimmery pink, Rimmel in 160 Rose Passion which is a nice red, and The Body Shop in pink. The Rimmel lipsticks had very nice colour and formula, but they smear within five seconds now, and don’t hold their colour, The Body Shop one on the other hand, is just drying out, and doesn’t glide smoothly. I can’t recall when I bought either of these, and I have some new items now from GlossyBox. A blush from The Natural Collection in Boots, in the shade Peach Melba that I bought ages ago, and never really used. And a Boots base coat nail polish, which is old and gloopy. I don’t really remember the prices of any of these, but they’re all due to be thrown, and won’t have been that much.

So, that’s all my empties for now. I don’t see myself doing these a lot, and I do tend to use a lot of the same staple items anyway, so you’d just regularly be seeing stuff from Nivea, and Simple, so there doesn’t seem to be a huge point collecting it, unless it’s something different – we’ll see. As an aside, GlossyBox really make it easier to throw out old items, as I have new stuff that was pretty good value, but I also suspect it might be a pain in other ways, as I have a number of hair care items now that will take ages to get through.

Until next time.

December 2014 GlossyBox Video Review

An un-boxing and review of my GlossyBox, the UK December 2014 edition – this has actually been up for a while. I just completely forgot to link the video here.

In a few weeks I’ll do a written more detailed, and less first impressions post. Then we’ll have to see what 2015 brings.

GlossyBox November Review

Here is the in-depth written review of the November 2014 GlossyBox to accompany the video first impressions!

Full box

So, here is the full overview, November’s box was just a regular pink box, black paper wiggly bits, plain pink wrapping paper, and a plain black bow. It contained five items.

This month we also have the preview cards in the box again, last months trial of a paperless system seems to have proven unpopular with most subscribers based on feedback.

lollipops

First up is the Lollipops Makeup (or Lollipops Paris as the website now says) eye pencil in the shade 701 Goodbye Moon, which is a very dark black. They don’t actually have any other shades – at least at the time of this article – so I’m not really sure why they’ve bothered numbering and naming the colour.

This is a plastic case style pencil, with the product as a solid stick in the centre you can extend or retract, by spinning the black strip at the bottom end of the pencil. We’ll get the negatives out of the way first – I don’t really like this format. I don’t see personally what is wrong with a pencil format which you simply sharpen. I don’t think the plastic, slightly rattley feel of the body seems very “premium”. I also find it hard to tell how much product is really inside, since the body itself tells you nothing, and the packaging has no weight measurement on it anyway. I’ve also found these types of pencils to be easier to damage, as the inside snaps a lot more readily than in a normal pencil. As a final niggle, the nice eye liner pencil I already have has a built in smudge nub at the end, which I really like – it’s there to use with the pencil if I just want to grab that one thing, and gives you a dedicated smudger – a couple of brands do this, and given the higher than drugstore price of this pencil, I don’t see why it can’t have one either.

On the plus sides however, the pencil itself is actually a nice formula. It’s a nice rich black, it does smudge well (my preferred way of wearing eye liner), and it’s fairly long wearing. The ingredients are also supposed to be good for your skin, with vitamin E, which is always a good thing with something you want to rub on your face. And finally, I do like the cute, pink and girly design on the pencil.

It’s full size (though I couldn’t tell you what size) and retails for €14, which at the time converted to £11.18, and I think is mostly available from the company’s website: www.lollipopsmakeup.fr

bees

Next up we have the Burt’s Bees Lip Shine. And by Lip Shine it means lip gloss really. This is a typical Burt’s Bees type product – it has all natural ingredients, and is pretty good for your skin. I got mine in the shade 060, or Smooch, which in the tube is quite a dark red, but like all of these lip shines the finish, particularly if you use it sparingly, is quite a sheer red colour.

The only downside for this I would say is I don’t really like Lip Gloss (or Lip Shine, or whatever you want to call it) all that much, but I would definitely say that’s a personal preference rather than the product’s fault, to be fair. And honestly, if I had to wear a Lip Gloss, this one is pretty good.

It’s a nice big size, and a tube with a lip style applicator (one of those smooth rounded slanted head things, with a hole that you squeeze the product out of). I don’t actually like to use the end to apply it, but prefer to squeeze it out onto my finger and work that way – it’s a little less messy. The smell is quite nice, and reminds me of fruit jelly sweets, like strawberry laces, I assume because of the natural ingredients. Gloss wise, it is pretty subdued compared to most glosses I think, it’s actually a pretty nice shine. I prefer to use it sparingly, as I don’t like the thick icky feel on my lips, and this works quite well – the colour is more subtle this way, but the feel is more bearable. It doesn’t last as a lip shine for super long, but it does leave a nice sort of moisturising residue for longer. It does feel like it’s good for the lips.

This is also full sized at 14g, and retails for £6.99, you can get it from their own website www.burtsbees.co.uk, but it’s also available in lots of other shops.

umberto

 

Now we have our final full size item in the box, and this is the Umberto Giannini Miracle Worker. This is a very multi use hair product. You can use it as a treatment on either wet or dry hair, you can use it as a styling product, or as it describes as well, as a ‘finishing’ product to neaten your hair. It’s supposed to be really good for dry frizzy hair, and contains argan oil – which is super popular for hair treatment.

So, the negatives. This is the second hair oil/hair treatment item I’ve received so far from GlossyBox, and I haven’t actually used up the last one – it’s only been two months. I don’t really like to swap around between lots of products, but prefer to use just one. It has the added effect, I think, of making the September hair care item, the L’oreal Mythic Oil, look kind of poor in comparison to this. Both of them have the same downside, in that you can easily overuse it, and quickly make your hair look oily or greasy – and while it isn’t, and your hair is probably being nicely pampered and nourished – most people probably feel it and want to wash their hair again.

This is quite a big item, the biggest in the box, so adds pretty good value in terms of the price paid. It comes with a convenient pump, unlike one of the other items in this box (we’ll get to that), it has quite a strong smell that I actually like, it’s very perfumed. The important thing however, is it does work really well. Even just using a little to treat dry hair leaves it feeling silky and soft, and unlike a previous item (L’oreal Mythic Oil, from the September GlossyBox) doesn’t leave a residue feeling in the hair. Because it’s a full sized item, and you use it quite sparingly, it will last quite a while.

As mention before, this is full size at 125ml, and retails at £8 from www.boots.com.

h20

The last two products we have are sample sized. This first one is the H20+ Face Oasis Hydrating Treatment. This is the smallest item in the box, and is a cute little tube of blue gel. It is an oil free moisturiser for the face and neck etc. and says it’s supposed to be good for fine lines. This doesn’t feel like a super targeted product in terms of my GlossyBox profile, as I don’t really care all that much about fine lines.

I would say while a moisture treatment isn’t a super wow type product for me, the only real downside I would say is the price. So far this has been the only overpriced seeming item of the bunch, but we’ll see.

On the plus side, it does work well as a moisturiser. I’ve been using it to treat some of the drier areas of my face, like my jaw line, which tends to dry out quicker than the rest of my face, and sometimes needs a little more moisture. Using this in the morning, it has felt like I don’t need this extra application. It’s very wet (I presume because it’s water based, as it’s oil free) but rubs in very well, and feels nice and cool and soothing actually.

This trial sized item is 8ml, which is just over a sixth of the full sized item at 50ml. This full size costs £27.50, making it proportionally cost £4.40. This does make it prohibitively expensive for me, especially considering my perfectly lovely Nivea Soft (my go to moisturiser) is about £4 for 200ml anyway. So this is nice, but not tempting in the slightest. It’s available from www.marksandspencer.com

monu

Finally, we have the Monu Skincare Refining Capri Facial Oil. This is a little bottle with a screw top, a little over three times the size of the H20+ gel. It’s a blend of oils that you massage into your face – it’s aimed at treating oily and blemish prone skin.

The main problem I have with this, is that I don’t think it works – not for me at least. It’s such a shame because I wanted it to work. I do have oily, slightly blemished sensitive skin, and making sure it is well moisturised does help it, it means the skin doesn’t try and produce more oil itself to combat dryness, which would run the risk of all that extra oil giving you blemishes. For me, keeping the skin gently cleansed, and well moisturised works.

The problem is, as I’ve used this as directed for the three weeks since I’ve gotten it (using just a little big, gently rubbing it in with my hands, using it after cleansing), it’s just consistently given me blemishes – more and more blemishes. As far as I can tell, negative experiences with this brand are few and far between, so it might just be my skin.

The other downside is the packaging, which seems a little trivial compared to the previous point, but it’s just a screw top opening and then you put a little on your hand awkwardly. The full sized item does come with a pump dispenser, which would probably work a lot better, but I can see since this is a little sample why they wouldn’t bother putting one on such a small bottle.

The oil itself feels and smells lovely. It has a very delicious, citrus blend smell, and does feel like it should moisturise and cleanse.

This is 30 ml, just under a third of the full size item at 100 ml. The full size item costs £26 pound, making this size sample cost £7.80. So this is also slightly more on the too expensive side for my taste, but to put it into perspective with the other items this costs roughly the same as the H20+ Treatment gel, but you’d get twice as much – so it could be worse really. It’s available from its own shop www.monushop.co.uk.

So that was the last item. To sum up, this box had five items in total, three full size, and two sample. I paid £13.25 (I prefer having the freedom of a rolling monthly plan) and the total box value is £38.37. This isn’t the most expensive box I’ve ever had which was around £60, but neither is it the cheapest box ever, which was around £29. This hasn’t been a super wow box, but it was a nice box. I’ll use up the nice black eyeliner, and will probably occasionally use the Lip Shine. The hair product and the H20+ gel probably work the best out of everything here, and sadly the facial oil was just a little disappointing.

But, I’m eagerly looking forward to the upcoming December box. We had a sneak peak in this box saying everyone would receive a Bellapierre Lip and Cheek Stain, which sounds super nice, and it’s a nice brand we’ve had before. The box will also be festive looking instead of pink, and should contain five items again, four of which will be full size.

Until next time.