GlossyBox UK January 2016

GlossyBox January 2016: Glossy or Not?

This is my third month as a GlossyBox subscriber and with my first two months being pretty good and the Nars Limited Edition box being Holy Grail level, these things sold out within 27 minutes of the pre release and then proceeded to be sold on ebay for £80+. I was expecting them to start the new year with great things.

January 2016: The Year of MORE box.

So what’s in the box (according to the contents card):

• Unani Dermo Defence Face Mask
• Teeez Cosmetics Oasis Gem Lipstick
• Madara Cellular Repair Serum
• Emite Micronized Powder Blush
• GlossyBox Eyeshadow

So this box is £10 per month plus £2.95 and, according to the contents card the value of this month's box is £50.98 for the four full sized products, half the price for half the product. for the “luxury size” brings in to £69.96 in value according to GlossyBox.

Product	Full sized Value (according to glossy box)	Full Size	Size included	Online Value	My Value
Face Mask	£11.36	100ml	100ml	€15.99	£11.97
Lipstick	£11.93	2g	2g	N/A
Serum	£38	15ml	30ml	€47.00	£16.15
Blush	£20.59	10g	10g	$22.00	£15.12
Eyeshadow	£7.10	3g	3g	N/A
Total	£69.96				£43.24

But sadly after spending a few hours looking for these products none of them you can actually buy in Pounds Sterling and two you cannot buy at all! This is a little disappointing to me as the whole point of these boxes is trying new products with the hope of finding something you want to keep using and will actually buy but sadly none of these are easily available. At least in December's box, the 5 of the products were from brands I had heard of and Essence, Collection and Starskin you can actually buy in shops here in the UK, Talika is always on sales in TKMaxx and So Susan is available from their UK website.

So in to the actual products:

Unani Dermo Defence Face Mask

This time I am always up for a face mask so even though I have never heard of this brand my skin has been craving some extra moisture. The bottle says “The Dermo Defence Face Mask provides skincare, protection, nutrition and hydration while removing impurities. Sounds pretty good to me and the main ingredient (even before aqua) is Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice a fancy name for Aloe Vera.  I am looking forward to giving this a try but when I opened it… No security seal and product was all over the end and in the cap. Not impressed with something I want to put on my face.

Teeez Cosmetics Oasis Gem Lipstick

Like most girls I am a total lipstick addict and was quite happy to see another in the box (previously I have been sent two reds from Revlon and Essence) This time in Coral Onyx, not bad. I wouldn’t normally buy this shade so something to push me out of my comfort zone. Again this is a brand I have never heard of but the packaging is so pretty, it;s a little plasticy but I can get over that. The lipstick does have a light fragrance a sweet almost vanilla scent which is not bad. Can't wait to wear test this one to see what the texture is on the lips, the contents card calls it “a unique satin finish” but the box says “Satin Matte” so for a lip product that contains Shea Butter I am eager to see if it holds up to the promised long lasting 8 hours! Sadly if I do like this lipstick I am out of luck as either it hasn't been released yet or has been discontinued as I cannot find it on the Teeez site.

Madara Cellular Repair Serum

At 15ml this is a pretty decent sized serum GlossyBox says “A cell repairing complex alongside revitalising birch juice (the wonder ingredient the beauty world and buzzing about) to plump skin” Another product with a juice… For all the buzz I haven’t heard about it! So I did a quick google and the beauty world must now be the Daily Mail and Evening Standard reporting on Gwyneth Paltrow's latest drinking fad. Apparently birch sap is the next coconut water, I think I’ll stick to my 2 litres of tap water just as healthy and better for the purse too. But nothing about this being a must have skin care ingredient. Well this Latvian made product replaced water with Northern Birch Juice in this natural and organic face serum. Looking at the stats on the side of the box I am a little dubious 86% of users reported an instant lifting effect (a whopping 26 out of 30, can we have a better consumer sample?) Again this product has no safety seal and product was smeared around the tip. I really think GlossyBox need to pick up their game in this area now. But I’ll give it ago and report back if Miracles happen with this.

Emite Micronized Powder Blush

On opening by box and seeing this wrapped in bubble wrap I was first happy it hadn’t smashed in transit. Slightly confused by very basic plain packaging I would have expected this to be one of the cheaper product (it's reminiscent to me of the makeup you get in Poundland) but lo and behold this blush retails for £20.59 according to GlossyBox. But wait… The contents card calls this a Micronized Powder Blush on the back of this product I have some called an Artist Colour Powder Blush. I checked the Emite website and they are infact two completely different products, come on GlossyBox get it right!! I have shade 108 which is a red based brown. Glossybox calls this “a blush/bronzer hybrid (we’ve coined it a ‘blunzer’)” Well you may have GlossyBox but the manufacturer has not! Blusher does not go all over the face this is far to dark red toned and would only suite a darker skin tone than mine as a blush. Now I will say I tweeted GlossyBox about this unfortunate shade choice for my ridiculously pale complexion (and I will say now I have completed their survey so the send me relevant products) and they replied “We have tried this on all skin types and we recommend using inn with a little goes a long way in mind” I will say here one brown blusher does not suit all! It's not good on my skin tone (MAC NC15). But for those of you with a warm medium to deep skin tone it could work. Just be warned it is very highly pigmented (you really can’t use a little) and it is so powdery kickback goes everywhere even with you finger (hopefully you can get an idea with the swatch below) and it has a musty stale smell and was not sealed on arrival This is a total fail for me.

GlossyBox Eyeshadow

How do you put a price on an own brand item you cannot buy? GlossyBox did and for a powder eyeshadow I think £7.10 is a little steep. Especially as a lot of Glossies are trying to sell theirs on ebay! Now i do like this colour it is quite pretty, it is more mauve brown in person but seems to photograph more silver. This is because there is a lot of pink / blue glitter shimmer in here, hopefully I caught that in my photo. It swatches really well, very pigmented and smooth but on the eye it's quite sheer, transfers and fades, you will need to use this wet (I would suggest MACs Fix+) to get a good payoff and staying power. Again this product's safety seal wasn’t on when I received it and the product was actually open. A tad disappointing but some make up sanitiser and I will get over it.

All in all this has been a bit of a disappointing month from GlossyBox.

Are you subscribed to GlossyBox, what products did you get and what did you think of January’s “Year of MORE”?

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xoxo Lindsay