August is sadly over, and while we haven’t had that sunny or indeed summery a summer this year, it still feels like summer ends when August does. On the one hand I love the fall and winter for all the dark colours and winter clothes I can wear, but summer has it’s good points too, right? Anyway – here’s the last summer GlossyBox of the year, the August 2015 UK box. This one is just a regular pink box, with five items inside and you can see my un-boxing here.
It’s a nice understated box, with a high value and some nice items. The cards list it as having four full size items, but really it’s five, the fifth item has the same amount of product, but cheaper packaging, compared to the version you’d buy in-store. I think this totes counts, as we’re really here to try these things out – and more product means you can try it for longer and really see what it’s like (and it’s better for the box value).
First is MeMeMe’s LipGlide in the shade ‘Playful Peach’. This is another neat, pencil format, easy to use product (like the blue eyeshadow pencil received previously in May) this time for the lips, and in a relatively neutral coral shade. It has a creamy matte finish, and it’s about what you’d expect size wise from a lipstick pencil – it’s big enough that you get plenty compared to a lipstick but not so big you can’t carry it around easily. Like other chubby style lip pencils I have it’s not as dry as wearing just a traditional lip pencil or as wet and movable as a traditional lipstick (so you don’t have to blot, set, repeat apply if you want it to last) – I really like these pencils because of this happy medium. It does smell a bit like a crayon if that sort of thing bothers you, but I don’t mind it personally. And like with other MeMeMe items it’s really good value for money at just £6.95 – I’ll definitely be tempted to buy more in another colour, and it’s really nice to try this brand in GlossyBox since it’s an online only store.
Next up is the Manna Kadar Lash Primer – a US brand which is a new type of product for me – it conditions and primes the lashes, and can be worn under mascara. I’ve taken the value of this item as £15.3, rather than the £14.55 listed on the card by converting the US price of $24, but currency rates change over time. You get 4 g in this little tube, which is smaller than your average mascara, but still a nice size. The ingredients it lists are going to be good for your eyelashes, but I’m not really sure if it makes mascara look better with it used alongside it, it just looks different. The lashes are perhaps a touch thicker because they’re already coated with something, but I think they can easily start to look clumpy – so the lash enhancing aspect works much the same way using multiple coats of mascara does. The white colour doesn’t fade right away in my experience but you can put mascara over it pretty much straight away. The other advantage it may have over simply using one product multiple times is the wax in the ingredients, as it could set the shape of your lashes in the same way a waterproof mascara will (the wax in waterproof mascara is what waterproofs it as well). But I can easily see giving lash primers a miss, especially since you can get conditioning mascaras anyway for less money (Sleek Makeup’s I’m Conditional Mascara at only £7.99). You can see some ‘in action’ shots of the Manna Kadar primer below and decide if it’s better or worse for yourself.
The third item in my box is the Emite Artist Colour Powder Blush in the shade ‘108’ – this is a Swedish brand and it’s a lovely big pan (10 g) of soft, smooth powder that is mostly matte, but does have some tiny sparkle in it – it would be a great find – if the colour was for me. The idea behind this from GlossyBox is to use it as a Blush/Bronzer hybrid, and it kind of works. It’s still probably a bit too dark for pale people – you can use it super sparingly but it’s very easy to use too much, and I think it looks almost bruise coloured on me when I do. I have seen some suggestions to use it as an eye colour, which I might try, otherwise it seems a shame that it’s such a big pan that won’t be used up before it expires. Again this is another one where the value changes with price conversion rates, the web price for this is 200 SEK or Swedish Krona, which converts to £15.20 – very different from the cards listed £20.59. Either way it’s a little pricey to justify a repurchase for me, when I tend to be quite light with blush.
Next is the Naobay Calming Face Toner – a Spanish certified eco-brand with cute, fuss free packaging that we’ve had before on GlossyBox (March 2015’s box) – like everything else it’s full size at 200 ml and is worth £10.65. It’s ingredients are 99.13% natural and 12.16% organic – so it’s all about trying to put more things on your face that are good for it, and for the environment. This is a really simple toner which has a light smell, like apple juice, and contains calming ingredients such as camomile. It is a nice toner – cleaning the skin gently while not leaving a residue and I will use it all up, since I actually use toner – but it is more money than I would pay for a toner, and there are cheaper similar (and also eco friendly) products available.
Finally, we have our fifth item, and this is the one that is full size at 100 ml, but comes in cheaper open top bottle – at retails it comes with a pump. It’s the SASS Purifying Cleanser – our third repeat brand this box (we first had SASS in May), and yep – it’s the stuff you put on your vagina. This time it’s a simple intimate wash to use when you bathe regularly. This stuff is interesting, certainly. It has a creamy consistency, and a clear sort of pearly look. My skin felt tingly when I used it, and sure it felt clean and nice, but no more so than regular washing. As other people have pointed out with this brand, a lot of this is stuff you really don’t need – washing with any mild soap is fine. It’s worth £7 and like last time isn’t really something I’d buy for myself at all – but it is interesting to try.
So, that’s the whole box. It’s worth £55.10 – a nice high box value – not the highest ever, but comfortably over the box average over the year. I’m probably the most happy with the LipGlide, funnily enough the lowest value item in the box. Maybe I’m cheap? The rest of it is nice enough, and I’ve honestly never been that unhappy with any box yet – it’ll all get used up, just at different rates.
So our sneak peak for next month’s box – the first Autumnal box, I guess, is a full size hair mask from Maria Nila – which I’m looking forward to, we haven’t had a hair item in a while now.
Until Next Time!