Glossybox January '13- First Impressions

Hey Everyone, 

It's GlossyBox time again (it seems to get dispatched earlier and earlier or is that just me?) and mine arrived this afternoon so this post is going to be mostly first impressions of the box and products. It was only dispatched yesterday so next day delivery is pretty good going! 

 This month the box is back to the usual pale pink boxes with plain black paper and pink ribbon after the special silver themed box last month. The boxes are really useful for storage (mine are currently home to my nail polishes) but I'm not so much a fan of the black shredded paper used to pack the products. Especially this month as I didn't think the inside of my box was packaged as nicely as it normally is- there was less shredded paper and it seemed to be packed upside down, when usually the sticker is on the top, this month it was underneath. Also I noticed that the larger paper fold out leaflet from last month's box has stuck, instead of the cards that used to be included detailing the products. I really like the change as it includes more extra information than before which is nice. 

When I first opened the box

The products in the box with not very much paper this month!

The products inside

This month's box theme is detoxing from the excesses of the Christmas and New Year period, with the products inside intended to help everyone get back into their usual routine and being a little more healthy which I thought was a really good theme and will most likely help a lot of people do just that, as well as finding some new products to add. So, let's have a closer look at the products included-

I'm going to start with this GlossyBox sleep mask, as it's not included on the information sheet and is just an extra little thing they've thrown in. It's a good idea and fits with the theme of the box but I'm pretty sure I won't be using it as the thought of waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to see terrifies me! (In fact, I recently woke up in the middle of a power cut and thought I'd gone blind because it was so dark but that would be a whole other embarrassing post!)

Next up we have the Elemis Fresh Skin Skin Glow Exfoliating Face Wash which is an exfoliating face wash designed specifically for those in their teens to mid-twenties to help nurture skin and prevent premature aging. It smells really nice and fruity, which is usually something that I like in face wash products although the exfoliating beads don't seem to be very big so I do wonder how well it would work as an exfoliator- I prefer to really feel like a product is doing something to my face. Having said that I was skeptical about the Dermalogica MicroExfoliant for the same reasons and that turned out to be amazing so I'm keeping an open mind for when I properly try this. The sample is 30ml and a full size is 100ml at £12.

Also in the box was a Jason Lips Bee Healthier Lip Balm which is a 70% natural lip balm made with beeswax, peppermint, aloe, shea butter and many other ingredients that are good for your lips! I've used an aloe vera gel from this company before as an aftersun/sunburn product and really liked it so I was interested  to see what the lip balm was like. Also, I'm just a bit of a lip balm addict so this was always onto a winner with me! You can definitely smell the mint in this, and also the shea butter smells a lot like chocolate to me, so this is like a chocolate mint lip balm. The mint definitely tingles your lips but not too much, like the beeswax Burt's Bees lip balm that this reminded me of when I first saw it. The lip balm is basically like most other lip balms- it applies nicely and is moistursing but I feel like it's one of the ones I will find myself having to reapply a lot more than other lip balms that I own. This one does melt really quickly as well which is nice, as it feels almost like a lip gloss and does leave a subtle gloss to your lips but with no colour or tint to it. It's a bit of a meh product for me, simply because I can be quite fussy when it comes to lip balms but for £1.99 for 4.5g it's not too bad really. 

Next we have the Duck Island Limited Body lotion in the scent mandarin and bergamont. Usually I don't like citrus scented products, especially orange scented but this is really nice and reminds me of orange calpol from when I was little. The bottle is really cute and I like the lid which is quite unusual but then everything starts to get a little odd from there on in. The lotion feels very thin, almost watery so I'm not sure how moisturising it would be and I'd feel like I needed to use a lot before feeling any real benefits. I've just been on their website for pricing and to get a link and discovered something very strange. In the Glossybox leaflet it says 2x250ml- £24.95 Shop at Duckisland.co.uk but I've just been on the site and unless I'm being incredibly stupid, you can only buy the small 30ml bottles in cases of 200 at a time and the larger 250ml bottles in cases of 20 at a time. Also there are various products (hand lotion, body wash, soap, hand wash etc) but they are all only in the scent of mandarin and bergamont, which is a bit of a bummer if you don't like it! If anyone can explain to me how this makes any sense, or knows where you can buy less than 200 or 20 bottles of this, please let me know in the comments!!  

Second to last, we have the Monu Aromatic Mask which I'm really excited to try as I love face masks and I've heard of this brand before but have never used any of their products. It contains lavender and rosemary which are what it smells mostly off, which I'm not usually a fan of but with this I think it will make it really relaxing to wear. It's quite a generous sample size at 30ml, when usually you just get one or two sachets but it's quite a hard plastic bottle and the mask is quite thick so may have to cut it to get everything out. I hope that the larger size (which is £24.95 for 100ml) doesn't have the same problem! 

Lastly we have the Premae Skincare Balance Rescue Face Tonique which is a face toner designed to reduce oil and pores, leaving your skin feeling fresh and plump. I'm not sure what to make of this really as I've never really used a toner in the past or really known what they're supposed to do if I'm totally honest! It doesn't even have really much a smell to it so there's not much really I can say. On first impressions this is probably the thing I was least excited about but even then, it's not definitely something I would never use like some of the things I've recieved in previous boxes. Also there's a bit of an issue with the price as Glossybox is saying a full size is 50ml and £27.50, whereas the website they supplied for buying the product claims a full size is 100ml and only £17.50... who knows?! 

I'm not going to work out the maths of the box this month because it's now twenty past midnight and I'm being lazy hehe (maths was never my strong point!) plus there's some issues with the full size prices as I mentioned, so I'm not sure I would be able to work it all out anyways!

All in all, I thought this month's box was one of the good ones and there wasn't a product that I definitely hated straight away, like the Milk Shake hair stuff that I mentioned from last month's box. However I do know that some people got other things in their box- for example my best friend Marion from BeautyGeek90 got all different products in her box and wasn't very impressed with it I don't think. 

Have you recieved your Glossybox this month? Is there anything you got different to me or have you used any of these products previously? Or can you explain to me what the hell is going on with the pricing of the Duck Island body lotion hehe!? Leave me a comment below =D 

Lauren

xx

December Glossybox Opening

Hey,

So, it's time again for beauty boxes and I thought that this month I would make a real effort to take some pictures before I get too excited and mess up all the pretty wrapping so I could blog about it! Also, since I only received my box today, this post is more of a first impressions of the products more than a full review! 

If you haven't heard about Glossybox before, it's basically a subscriptions service which every month sends out five sample sizes of beauty products for you to try and then buy full sizes if you really like it. I think it's a really good way to try out more products for cheaper- usually the cost of the items in the box adds up to much more than the £12.95 it costs. The only thing is you don't know what items are going to be in the box before it arrives so there's always a risk that you won't find anything in the box that you're interested in, but I think that this years December box is one of their best ever! 

 This month's box was a really pretty silver colour with a silver ribbon and black tissue with tiny silver stars. Usually the boxes are a pale pink with a pink ribbon and plain black tissue so I thought this was a really nice change for the Christmas box. Also included is the little note which explains the theme of the box (this one is the 'Festive Celebrations' to treat people for Christmas gifts or yourself for parties) and instead of the usual card it unfolds into a big sheet detailing the products and their full size costs. Also, we recieved some discount codes for other brands which have been featured previously as a little Christmas treat which I thought was really nice! 

The products inside when I opened the box 

 The first product I spotted in the box this month was the Anatomicals What A Complete And Utter Glosser Fruity Lip Gloss Tube because of the bright pink packaging. I really love the cool names that Anatomicals come up with for their products as it makes it a bit more fun and the packaging is always really bright and colourful too. I got the colour/flavour 'I Never Fake Strawberry Milkshake' It comes out as a very pale pink, if not clear and it reminds me of the smell of Strawberry Calpol medicine, but I'm not really a fan of strawberry scented things so I'm not sure about this at the moment! However I think someone who loves strawberry would love it. 

 Next up is the Rituals Magic Touch which is a whipped body cream, with cherry blossom and rice milk. This is a really generous sample size I thought, at 70ml (£5) and a full size is 200ml (£15). It's quite a thick white cream which sinks into the skin really well and doesn't leave any residue but makes your skin feel really soft and moisturized. I think my favourite thing about this product is the scent- it's quite floral but not overpowering. 

 As I mentioned before, sometimes you get a product in your box that you really just don't like or won't use and I think this MILK_SHAKE Conditioning Whipped Cream will fall into that category, for me at least. It's a leave in conditioner for your hair and is like a mouse, but the nozzle is designed to make it look like whipped cream from a can, and it's supposed to smell like that too. It smells, to me, like natural yougurt and it's actually made me feel quite sick just from spraying it onto my hand for a quick test. Now that might just be because I don't like the smell of dairy products to begin with, so I feel like I'm not giving it a fair chance but I can't help it! I'm not entirely sure I can bring myself to put it into my hair even! But that is totally down to my own preferences and not because of the actual quality of the product itself. 

This Seche Nail Lacquer is the thing that I got most excited about when I first saw it in the box as I'd heard that Seche were bringing out a coloured nail polish range as well as their famous top coats and I was dying to get some! This is a grey colour called ''Nouveau' and I really love it. It's a mid-dark toned grey and would be really nice if you wanted to wear a dark colour but didn't want to go all the way to black. I quickly applied it to one nail just to try it out and was amazed that it only took one coat for it to be almost fully opaque when most nail polishes would take at least two, if not three coats to get the same effect. Having said that I think I would apply two coats, just to be sure as I noticed that the tip of my nail seemed to have less colour but that isn't a big deal. I'm not sure what the staying power of the polish is, as I haven't had time to apply it properly but I'm hoping it chips less than my Seche Vite top coat, which as I've said doesn't seem to last a whole day with me! Also it comes in a range of 33 colours so there is bound to be a colour to suit everyone! 

The last product in the box was this Sleek i-Divine Palette in the Ultra Matte V2 colours. I'd heard of Sleek Make Up before but had never tried any of their products and I have to say this palette has left me pretty impressed. The packaging is really nice and all black, with a big mirror and a double ended applicator. At first I thought it was just the usual sponge applicators you get with most eyeshadows but I've just realised it's more rubberised, so I'm not sure what sort of effect that would give, if it's better than the sponge or anything. The pigmentation is excellent in this palette and there's a wide range of colours to create a variety of looks. Also it's only £7.99 for the 12 colours which I thought was a bargain especially since they're such high quality. 

Now for the maths before I move onto the last little bonus item in the box this month-

Cost of Glossybox (inc. P&P) = £12.95

Cost of the Items in Glossybox this month = Rituals Magic Touch (Sample) = £5
                                                                                    Sleek Palette (Full Size) = £7.99
                                                                                    Seche Nail Lacquer (Full Size) = £9.95
                                                                                    Anatomicals Lip Gloss (Full Size) = £3.49
                                                                                    MILK_SHAKE (Half Size Sample) = £7.40
                                                                     TOTAL = £33.83
                                GlossyBox Sample Saving = £20.88

The cost if I'd of bought all full sizes seperately = £36.22
                                             Saving with Glossybox = £23.27

Finally also included in this months box since it was the Christmas Edition was a bonus product of the Glossybox Blusher by Kryolan in the shade 'Glossybox Rosewood'. 

It's in a simple black compact with a clear lid featuring the famous GlossyBox crown logo and is a really pretty light dusky pink colour which I really like as it's quite an everyday blush colour and I think most people would like it. 

All in all I was really pleased with this months's box and think I'll use all the products except the Milk_Shake stuff, which I shall pass on to a friend who didn't receive it in her box to see if she likes it more than I do. That would have to be my least favourite product this month, with my favourite being either the Seche Nail lacquer or the Sleek Palette, but really they're joint first! 

If you received a Glossybox, what were your favourite products or did you get any different ones? Leave a comment below as I'd be really interested to hear some other opinions or other products! 

Lauren
xx