September’s Lip Monthly has arrived. I have to say that while the execution is pretty cute – the bag matches the nail wraps and there’s a purple lip crayon, the products are really lackluster. I’d rather have no theme and the products be awesome which is definitely the opposite way around this time. I believe I have one more shipment left before the end of my 4 month subscription, and I’m not going to miss it.. The first shipment was so great and this one? I’ll use the nail wraps and that’s about it. The product card was yet again stuck to the inside of the bag.
- StarLooks Lip Crayon – 2.5 g / $12 – (Full Size Product) The product card says it’s $19, but I could only find one lip crayon type product on the StarLooks website that was listed for $12. The color is, “Dubl Dubl,” and just about matches the lighter purple stripe on the bag. The formula goes on kind of like an actual crayon or even a crayon-pastel. It smells like cheap plastic and, based on the ingredient list on the website, is a mix of petroleum-based ingredients. The color is terrible, the formula is terrible, and I’m throwing this right away because it’s just plain awful. I try to find at least something redeeming about products that don’t interest me as they are or a way to repurpose them, but I just can’t with this one. It’s a total waste.
- JCat Wonder Lip Paint – .33 oz / $4.99 – (Full Size Product) The color I received is, “Heartadocious.” I thought for something called Lip Paint this would be more like a liquid lipstick, but instead it’s a super runny gloss that goes on nearly clear. It contains parabens and is another cheap, petroleum-based product that I really don’t like a single thing about. Hugely disappointed.
- Model Co Lip Enhancer – 1.2 g / $10 – (Full Size Product) The value given on the card is $20, but it’s on clearance/sale on the Model Co website for $10. Sorry, you don’t get to inflate the bag value by throwing in something that’s on clearance/sale but then list the full retail value when it’s NOT priced that way even on the company’s own site. I honestly don’t use liners ever, and when I do, it’s one of the invisible ones, so this is completely useless for me. The color is a lighter brown, so I may be able to use it as an eyeliner instead, but I think the product is a little too dry/draggy to work as an eyeliner.
- NCLA Nail Wraps – 1 pack / $11 – (Full Size Product) These were clearly custom-made for Lip Monthly this month and I honestly dig the tie in to the bag design – it’s really rather clever. I haven’t used these nail wraps before, so I’m interested to see how they fare against the other ones I use pretty regularly. There’s even a mini emery board inside the package which is a nice touch! And, HOORAY FOR NOT-PINK! I love the simple purple stripe design.
The total value by my calculation comes to $37.99 which is a far cry from the advertised value of $54.99. I’m kind of bummed that for a bag called Lip Monthly, the only thing worth keeping was a nail item, and the 3 lip items were cheap junk made in China that I could probably pick up on sale/clearance somewhere else for even less. Since I purchased the subscription on a really good promotion, the nail wrap set at least covers the cost of the bag, but just barely. After this complete failure, I will not be renewing my subscription. I expected to at least receive one nice, well-known name brand lip product each month from the bag and this didn’t even deliver that. The first bag I got was great, but it’s consistently gone downhill since then.