I guess I should be amazed there wasn't a dry shampoo this go round, but I actually LIKE dry shampoos and find them useful, so that's probably why they neglected to include one this month. There was a BB cream type of product and an eye cream so they covered most of their go-to categories.
For those of you who are yet unaware of the Blush subscription box, let me break it down for you. Every month for $24.95 plus tax you are promised "over $100 worth of products" shipped to you in a fuzzy black drawstring bag which is guaranteed to coat your beauty treats in a fine flocking of black dust. It comes courtesy of blush.com and includes a mix of hair care, makeup, and skin care items. If you want to buy it one time without subscribing it costs $34.95. It is cheaper to subscribe and cancel but they make canceling hard because you have to call their 800 number to do it and they don't answer during non-business hours which seem to be whenever I try and call them. There is occasionally a spoiler which I try to steer clear of but this month I was thwarted because the company who they released the spoiler for found my Instagram photo of last month's box and posted that they hoped I'd enjoy their product in this month's box.
Technically there are over $100 worth of items in this month's box. My best estimate clocked this month's beauty products to be worth around $121.00 IF you estimate the amount the packages say they contain against the full price products on the blush.com trio of sites. The full prices are flat out crazy pants. That's my honest opinion. I can't imagine the woman who would willingly throw $24.00 at a 2 oz. hand cream, but then again, I am one of those nutty individuals who buys subscription boxes so they can try things they could never otherwise afford and then laments the fact that repurchasing the things they love at full price is pretty much impossible. I doubt I am alone in this sadness, but it makes me want to do an activity that my mom always called "saving for good". This phrase roughly boils down to holding on to an item for ages because I am afraid to use it since it is likely expensive and therefor only worthy of a special occasion. Unfortunately for me these occasions never arrive and "saving it for good" becomes literal and I keep it forever.
A perfect example of "saving it for good" comes in the form of the MaryKay eye makeup remover that is sitting in my bathroom cabinet. I recently started using it (and by recently I mean two years ago) even though my sister gave it to me as an Easter basket gift when I was in my first year of college. That was twenty years ago. Miraculously this bottle of eye makeup remover survived cross country trips and multiple moves. It had a safety seal on it and it was intact. I would have chucked it, but I opened it out of curiosity and it actually smelled really nice. It worked to remove a swatch of eyeliner from my hand and it worked fantastically on waterproof mascara. I just never used it because I rarely had any expensive, nice stuff and I didn't want to waste it. Now I want more and they don't make the same formula because it was from their line in the nineties. Again - crazy pants.
Included in this month's box:
Julien Farel Hydrate Restore - 8.5 fl oz (Full size) $33
Nuxe Paris Clarifying Cream-Mask -.54 oz. (Sample) $9?
Miracle Skin Transformer Face Spotlight SPF 20 - .1 fl oz. (Sample) $3.50?
SkinMedica TNS Eye Repair - .07 oz. (Sample) $14?
Jane Iredale Eye Gloss Aqua Silk - .15 oz. (Full Size) $15.50
Lauren B. Beauty Nourishing Hand Cream - 2 oz. (Full Size) $24
Laura Gellar Beauty Cool Lids Cream Eyeshadow Silver Sands - .17 oz. (Travel Size) $13?
Traditions by Nick Chavez Prickly Pear Restoring Mist - 2 fl. oz. (Travel Size) $9
The free gift was a foil packet of something that I can't find. I found it odd I only got one foil packet this month because there are always at least two. Another mystery is the fact that several people get full size products in their boxes that are not inside the black bag as their free samples. The only full size products I ever received like that were Dermstore lip quench lip balms, but they always came when I purchased other products and they shipped together, so I don't know why some people win the Blush lottery but I never do.
I'm happy to try a version of the Julien Farel product that is suitable to my hair type. The last one was for naturally curly or frizzy hair which I thought was an odd choice to send out to a large number of subscribers who don't have that hair type. I've also received products for thick hair in the past which is just weird. I have super fine hair, so hopefully this month's offering will work. I am also happy that the applicator tip will fit the other product because the first time I received something from this brand the cap had snapped off so I wasn't able to try it with any success. This was also the spoiler and the brand who reached out via Instagram.
Speaking of Instagram, I'm really excited to try another Nick Chavez product. He was very kind to friend me and he consistently likes pictures of mine (even non beauty related ones, particularly ones that star my dogs) and he always writes lovely little notes. I have been a fan of everything I tried in his lines for thickening and volume and I actually want to wait for a QVC event and call in sometime when he is on the air. I think he would be lots of fun to talk to. I'm hoping Blush will send a full size Nick Chavez Beverly Hills product at some point.
The tiny tubes with nothing in them drive me insane. SkinMedica products have been featured for two months now and have been 90% air and only 10% watery cream. I understand the product is incredibly expensive, but the dreaded foil packets have more product in them than these baby sized tubes. The Miracle Skin Transformer product also seems under filled, but at least it is safety sealed. This time it has an expiration date of 2016 which is good to see because the last MST product I received from Blush was expired. They did send me a replacement and it was actually a full size product but it was yet another BB cream and I have yet to open it since I assume it will not match my skin tone which sits between milk and pointe shoe pink.
The Nuxe mask is disheartening because it is stamped "free sample". I get terribly annoyed at products that note that they are free that I just paid $24.95 for. The other tubes say "sample, not for resale" and I try to understand that companies write this so you can't return them at a store for cash, but really I hate that saying too. To me it sound like "we'd give this stuff to Ulta and Sephora to stick in a beauty bag you could get just for showing up in their stores" and that makes it less exciting.
Laura Gellar Beauty is a brand I like but I hate the cool lids eyeshadows. The "cooling" sensation translates to "burning, itching, I'm going to scratch my eyes out, get this off of me now" on me. It is also completely identical in size and shade to the one we received in the June box. With all of the wonderful products this company could send to get people interested in their makeup it drives me crazy that they would repeat this poorly reviewed product. It also marked as "sample - not for sale". Boo. Hiss.
I wish I would've received the pink shade of the Jane Iredale Eye Gloss. I am a little leery of trying it simply because I know the other cream eyeshadow was uncomfortable at best, and also I don't know that I can pull off this aqua shade. I'm hoping it makes me look like a sophisticated model type. I am also hoping I drop five pounds from the effort I am exerting typing this blog entry.
I tried the $24 hand cream instead of saving it for good. I put the tiniest dab in the palm of my hand. I bet it was at least fifty cents worth. It felt really nice and it wasn't greasy. The orchid and peony scent was sounding promising, but on me it smells like bubble gum. Really expensive, vaguely floral bubble gum. The safety seal on the package was open and covered in black fuzz when I got it too. I was a little miffed, thinking that someone might have sampled a little of my incredibly expensive hand cream but I wasn't too upset because now I have to go and wash this Hubba Bubba-ish stuff off me. The longer I leave it on the more the backs of my hands are starting to feel itchy. It may be psychosomatic due to the removal of fifty cents worth of hand cream. Also, I must note that this product says "parabin free" on the back. I know that it is a popular bandwagon to jump on, but at $24 a pop someone should tell them those pesky chemicals everyone wants to steer clear of are parabens.
I love getting mystery boxes in the mail and I love beauty products. I also love making fun of them and myself. This wasn't a terrible month. I'll try everything and I will probably like the hair products and the mask, and possibly the Jane Iredale eyeshadow. The big mystery is "will I cancel?" The answer is "probably not". How could I pass up all of this comedic gold?
Hope you all have an awesome weekend. When my YouTube video goes live I'll link it on this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment