Month: February 2019
January 2019 Allure Beauty Box – Thrill of the New
I’m not even gonna apologize for running late on reviews – I been busy as shit.
2019 brings big changes to the Allure Beauty Box – gone is the shiny red box, instead replaced by a generic cardboard mailer. That’s okay though – because now the monthly goodies are coming inside a sleek plastic pouch. No word yet on whether we’ll be getting the same red pouch every month, or they’ll mix up the design – stay tuned.
In this month’s all new pouch: Mally Shadow Stick Extra in “Burnished Bronze”; OUAI Scalp & Body Scrub (Hmmmm, not sure if I’m ready to be picking sugar out of my hair for a month – also includes a 15% off code for theouai.com); Sunday Riley C.E.O. Glow Face Oil; Sunday Riley A+ High-Dose Retinoid Serum (How did they know I’m retinol aged now?); Doucce Relentless Matte Lip Crayon in “Winterberry” (with a code for 25% off at doucce.com); and a pack of 2 Beautyblender Micro Mini Sponges.
And as a bonus this month, each subscriber received a nail polish from NCLA. I got and orangey red called “Call My Agent”.
The Allure Beauty Box is $15/month, but they give you $5 off your first box. They also offer an option for $150/year – a savings of $30. Sign up via my referral link..
Everly
‘Bye Bye Love’ – that’s the only Everly Brothers song I can think of, off the top of my head. Oh yeah, and ‘Wake Up Little Susie.’ All their songs sound the same to me.
Zoya “Everly” is a warm red holographic polish – it reminds me of a juicy piece of wet watermelon. Not all watermelon is wet. One time, my mom put watermelon in the food dehydrator to see what would happen. What was left was akin to chewy a piece of meat gristle. I do not recommend it.
Zoya polishes are almost always a pleasure to work with and “Everly is no exception. This is two coats over Glisten & Glow Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat. I will say – be careful applying the top coat. My left hand is perfect – but I dragged a few bald spots on several fingers of my right hand. Make sure that you have good coverage before you pull out that top coat.
Williamsburg
When I get a new polish in my hands – I just cannot wait to use it!
This is Color Club “Williamsburg” from January’s ipsy bag. It’s a dark, dark, inky blue, with a magnificent shimmer. The pictures do not do it justice. In passing, it looks black – which is a shame. Have you ever had a blue ink pen burst in your pocket? THAT’S what this polish looks like.
This is two coats of “Williamsburg” over Glisten & Glow Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
I don’t have much experience with Color Club nail polishes – this is only my second one, I think. I’ve been fairly impressed with them however, and may look into more.
We went to Colonial Williamsburg a few summers ago, and I don’t remember seeing anything this color. What an odd name for this amazing color.
Lock-it, New & Improved
I was a bit surprised when I saw that Kat Von D was releasing a “new & improved” version of her Lock-It Powder Foundation ($36). I had tried the old Lock-It Foundation a few years ago, but it didn’t work well for me – I picked the wrong shade, plus it seemed to oxidize quickly and just sit on my face. I crossed my fingers and ordered a lighter shade (120 – Fair Linen)…
The new Lock-It formula is now my holy grail powder foundation. I LOVE this formula. It buffs out to a matte finish and my pores almost disappear. It lasts ALL day. The compact is also supposed to be refillable, although I haven’t seen the refills for sale yet. It was well worth the $36…but I still have at least 4 powder foundations I need to use up – an It Cosmetics, a BareMinerals, a Sephora and a Laura Geller Baked. Argh.
I also used this order to pick out my Sephora Birthday Gift. There was a Kat Von D option, but it was foil-pack lipstick samples – um, no thanks. I picked the Drunk Elephant Gift, which includes Protini Polypeptide Cream and Beste No. 9 Jelly Cleanser.
I also used a promo code to get a vial of Kiehl’s Midnight Recovery Concentrate – it smells so good! Sephora is still only giving out two samples right now – I feel personally betrayed. For samples, I picked Bite Beauty Agave Lip Balm & Agave Sugar Lip Scrub and Benefit The POREfessional Matte Rescue (I’m excited to try this version of the product).
Just $906 until Rouge in 2020.
Sephora Play! January 2019 – Your Beauty Future
Ooohhh, this is the first Sephora Play box that has me like, what? Honey, what is you doing?
I hate it when Subscription Boxes try to give me vitamins or food or drinks or shit. We tried to be a good sport – Logan made up a mug of the Four Sigmatic Golden Latte Mushroom Mix with Shiitake & Turmeric. It tastes exactly how I imagined it would taste – HORRIBLE. It tastes like a…mushroom latte. Damn, I still have 2 of these packets left (Sephora gave me three) – anyone want them?
Once I got past that fuckery, the rest of the box isn’t bad. Sephora and Allure are pushing Sunday Riley HARD – I’ve been getting their products every months. This month was Sunday Riley C.E.O. Rapid Flash Brightening Serum – it’s an okay product. Another one of my favorite products is this month’s bonus – a foil pack of Bite Beauty Agave Sugar Lip Balm and Scrub.
Also included in this month’s box: Bite Beauty Matte Creme Lip Crayon in “Glace”; Laneige Water Sleeping Mask (another love); and a Beautyblender Blendercleanser Solid Pro.
Sephora Play is usually my favorite monthly beauty box every month – mushrooms aside. Sephora Play is only $10/month. You can sign up at sephora.com/play.