Another Beautycon Box has landed! This is the Winter edition, curated by Dulce Candy, another curator I haven’t heard of before. The theme was, “Winter Essentials,” and while I’d say it doesn’t all really fit in a theme, some of it does, but most of it seems pretty random. I’m really rather sure at this point that I’m not their target audience at all (I’m probably double their target audience’s age) and this is going to be miss after miss, but I’m stuck with two more boxes. Plus, I didn’t realize that they’d be charging $6.99 for shipping every month, so the cost for the yearly subscription is $24.75 per box plus $6.99 for shipping, making the box cost a total of $31.74. I’m not even taking the freebie box into account here since it was a duplicate of a previous month I had already received. Anyway, on to this month’s box contents!
- Skinvolve Body Karate Cream – 8 oz / $39.99 – (Product is full size) It’s a pretty huge tube of skin cream, and bonus points awarded here for being cruelty free as well! The scent is a little heavy, and I honestly doubt the whole skin texture improving stuff, but if it keeps my dry winter skin hydrated, that works for me! The ingredient list is really rather nice, so outside of the scent which is a touch too strong for my linking, this is a really nice product.
- Garnier SkinActive Micellar Cleansing Water – 13.5 oz / $8.99 – (Product is 3.4 oz, value of $2.64 by volume) It’s a pretty simple makeup remover. The directions say there’s no need to rinse, but knowing how sensitive my skin can be, especially my eyes, I’ll still follow-up with a face wash. Nothing ground breaking here, not a product I’d buy for myself nor would I buy again, but it’s makeup remover, so I’ll still use it.
- Kate Somerville ExfoliKate – .5 oz / $24 – (Product is full size) I haven’t had a chance to use this yet, but I’m looking forward to it! The brand itself is cruelty free, but is owned by Unilever, so when you consider that the money flows uphill eventually, they’re not really cruelty free anymore. Anyway! The product is basically an exfoliating mask, so I’m definitely jazzed to try it.
- Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer – .35 oz / $30 – (Product is .08 oz, value of $6.86 by volume) I received this in, “Medium/Deep,” which seemed way too dark for my skin since I’m definitely rather fair. I think with a super light hand, I could make it work, mostly because it smells like chocolate and I really want to be able to use this. Even if it’s too dark for a bronzer, it’ll be just fine as an eyeshadow! This is another brand that’s cruelty free themselves but were bought up by a non cruelty free parent company.
- ColourPop Lippie Stix – 1 g / $5 – (Product is full size) A Beautycon exclusive color, and just what I’ve been asking for all along! This box has time to work up exclusive colors and products, and I’m glad to finally see one! The brand is cruelty free as well, so double bonus points here. The color? I’m not so sure about. It’s a pinky neutral, but it’s just a wee bit lighter than my natural lip color so it makes me look even more pale than I am. The jury’s still out though.. I think this might work better in the summer with really light eye makeup for a sort of natural look. I do like the formula though, creamy, but still mostly matte without being drying.
- Biobelle #BeautyScoop Sheet Mask – 1 mask / $4.99 – (Product is full size) Looking forward to using this! It’s supposed to help fine lines (I’m slipping into my late 30’s, so there are lines, but I honestly don’t care about them – it’s a mark of the times I’ve smiled, tears I’ve shed, lessons learned, etc), but it sounds like even if it doesn’t, the mask will leave my skin hydrated which is just fine for helping dry winter skin.
- Artist Couture Illuminati Diamond Glow Powder – 6 g / $26.99 – (Product is 2.35 g, value of $10.57) It’s a pale champagne colored shimmering powder, meant to be a highlighter. I’m not big on super sparkly highlighters, so I’ll repurpose this as an eyeshadow. Interesting to note that this is from a company created by one of the curators for the Fall box, Angel Merino, so I have to imagine that maybe this missed the deadline for last cycle’s box and ended up in this one? Weird.
- Rimmel London The Only 1 Lipstick – .13 oz / $6.99 – (Product is full size) I received the color, “Cheeky Coral,” but it basically looks like it’s neon pink on me. I kind of like the formula, but the scent and color are pretty off-putting, plus this is an animal-testing drugstore brand that I have no interest in, to be honest.
- Luxie Beauty Highlighting Brush – 1 brush / $24 – (Product is full size) The brush is #522 and it comes in the rose gold color (see also: pink, ugh) and is synthetic, so cruelty free and vegan to boot. I don’t use highlighters a lot, so I’m not quite sure how much I’ll use this, but hey, it’s a brush and you can never have too many of those, right? Plus, it goes well with the included highlighter.
- L’Oreal Voluminous Lash Primer – .24 oz / $7.99 – (Product is full size) The second ingredient in both this and the mascara is Paraffin, so that’s a hard pass for me and my sensitive eyes. Paraffin (I’m assuming wax) is derived from petroleum, and I just don’t trust the ingredient not to irritate my eyes. This is going straight to the trade/give-away pile since I don’t want to take the chance (and I have enough mascara already, really).
- L’Oreal Voluminous Feline Mascara – .27 oz / $8.99 – (Product is full size) Just like the primer above, this is going to the trade/give-away pile because I don’t trust the ingredients. Cheap mascara means eye irritation and it’s just not worth taking the risk and ending up with three days of red, itchy eyes.
- Ali & Jay $50 Coupon – This has a zero value for me because they don’t make clothes larger than a size Large and it’s only for orders over $100. If anyone wants the code, holler.
I’m not counting the coupon in the box value, so the actual product value comes to $142.02 which is I think the highest value for this box that I’ve seen so far. The big value items are the lotion and brush, and they make up almost half of the box value and still well exceed the cost, so that works for me! I’m happy to see a box-exclusive item this month in the lipstick and am also pleased to see the inclusion of more cruelty free brands. Overall, this is a better box with better brands than the last box and more of the direction I’d like to see it go! I’d still not mind seeing less of the drugstore brands and more of the more prestige brands, even if it means fewer items in the box. We’ll see what the Spring box brings us!