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Hi everyone!
I have a lot of thoughts about Boxycharm* this month. Don’t know what Boxycharm* is? Well, it’s the best subscription box out there. For 21USD a month, you get a guaranteed 4-5 full sized or deluxe samples from amazing brands valued at a minimum of 100USD. Yep. It’s pretty rad.
So, let’s start with the November box and then go from there.
The theme this month: Sweater Weather
Luxie Beauty Quad Eye Travel Set (32USD)
Oh man, I was excited for this. I had received a Luxie brush in an ipsy bag a couple years ago and still love it. This is a travel set, so while the brushes themselves are full sizes, the handles are shorter than normal, so it does take some getting used to. The bristles are super soft and each brush does a great job. I can’t believe they gave us four brushes! Exciting!
Cover FX Illuminating Setting Spray (31USD)
Another item I’m excited about. With my dry skin, I am always drawn to illuminating products. This is especially well timed because I just ran out of my current favourite setting spray by Pixi. The spray is incredibly fine. You can barely feel it it’s so fine. There is a very itty bitty fine glitter in this spray, so be sure to really shake this baby really well. If you don’t, you may find you end up with big glitter chunks on your cheek. It gets rid of any powdery look you may have and really sets everything down. I haven’t played with it enough to tell if it really helps make my makeup last but I’ll report back if I do notice anything significant. I love the glow it leaves, though I can see some people not being into the glitter. For me, I really have to get up close and in there to see anything, but this may not be your setting spray if the idea of spraying glitter on your face is horrifying.
KNC Beauty Collagen Lip Mask (15USD for 3)
Ok, so, I’m one of those people that love the whole masking experience but aren’t really sure there is much real benefit to doing them. This is especially the case for weird masks like this one. I have insanely dry lips with eczema around them. I didn’t think this lip mask was going to do much for me, and I was right. While it was fun to use, it did sting while it was on. The serum is really runny and wet, so I ended up dumping it everywhere when I opened the package. Because it’s so thin, it didn’t feel like it really stayed where it was supposed to be long enough to really be effective. Will I use the rest of these? Sure. Do I expect any results? No.
LAQ A &CO Cloud lips in Storm (17USD)
I was intrigued by this when I pulled it out of the box. I ended up with the darker wine shade and was fine with that. I’ve been digging the moody dark colours lately. The item is described as long wearing and matte, so I had high hopes. Sadly, this was just a mess. It applied very sheer and patchy, almost like a balm. Because of the shape and size, I found it really difficult to get a precise application, which is a pain in the butt with such a dark colour. I really had to layer it up to get decent coverage and found it never set down in any way. It moved around and even after blotting, it transferred quite a bit. I didn’t find it matte at all, and don’t see myself reaching for this.
Winky Lux Kitten Palette (25USD)
A palette. Another freaking palette!!! I am so pleased by this. Firstly, the colours are really pretty and perfect for winter. Secondly, the packaging is super cute though it does lack a mirror. I’m fine with that considering how affordable this is. I did a couple of looks with the palette and then swatched it, so I have a pretty solid impression of it now. First, here are the swatches I did:
So, off the bat, I’ll say I’m impressed with the formula, especially considering how affordable this palette is. The mattes aren’t too sheer or chalky, and they apply pretty smoothly. The shimmers are pretty but I will say that they get chunky easily and may need some work for blending. You can really see the chunks in the browny bronze and gold shades. I like the colours that were included here. There’s a light matte, a transition shade, and a couple of darker colours for deepening. The shimmers are pretty and make this palette pretty versatile.
And now for the looks:
I had to play with the gorgeous gold shade, so it is the colour on the lid here. Next tme I would use it wet and put it on a glitter glue I think, as I found it didn’t have the umph I was expecting. Definitely use your fingers or a wet brush with the shimmers.
The shimmery pink shade on the top row was a nice surprise. It gave a really cool inner corner glow that I didn’t expect. Dipping into these colours, I saw a lot of fallout. The palette got dirty pretty quickly. When applying, I ended up with quite a bit of fallout on my cheekbones and undereyes, especially with the darker mattes. Keep this in mind and maybe do your eyes first when using this.
I was really excited to do this second look, especially after watching the Boxycharm instagram live using this palette. For this one, the star of the show was the gorgeous duochrome pink/mint shade in the middle row. I used this all over the lid and LOVE it. One thing I noticed here, however, was that when I really packed that shade on, I ended up with literal chunks on my eyelid. I really had to blend things out to get them smooth again. BTW, I’m wearing the LAQ A & Co Cloud lip here.
Overall, I would be happy paying 25 for this palette, so I have to say I am super pleased with this month’s box. A definite win, Boxy!
Now, on to something that I’m not happy about. Some of you may have heard about something new Boxycharm was going to try out. They were talking about it a lot on their social media and that seemed to get the hype going. I’m talking about their winter limited edition box.
So, where as the normal box offers 4-5 products worth a minimum of 100USD for 21USD, the Limited Edition box promised 8 items from prestige brands at a value of 200USD for 45USD. Boxy decided to do a preorder. They intended on sending out a link with tracking for the November box but the link got posted online early. Despite not knowing what was going to be included, and at a complete shock to Boxycharm, people went NUTS when this was released. The site crashed and the box sold out immediately.
People were pissed, many people freaked out because non-members were able to purchase and a lot of people ended up with multiple boxes by accident due to site glitches and on purpose because no limits were set.
So, my reaction to this was “Well, it’s a good deal but at the end of the day, it’s just makeup. Hopefully Boxy is better prepared next time.” Unfortunately, a lot of people disagreed and felt personally let down by Boxy because…I just don’t know. In the interest of full disclosure, my sister bought herself and me a box. We were both super excited that she was able to get through.
Anyway, we have all just found out through this notice that the company had a plan to deal with this.
THIS I have an issue with. I don’t really care so much about my box, though now I won’t be able to review those products for the blog.
My issue comes from from my extensive background in customer service and retail. I understand how this was a really tough situation to be in, however this reaction is not cool to me for a couple of reasons. Firstly, unless you clearly set a preorder limit of one box per customer or Boxy subscribers only, it doesn’t really seem to fair to impose those limitations AFTER the fact because you sold out quicker than you expected.
Selling out is good. Look at the trends of limited edition items in the beauty industry right now. Look at Kylie. Limited access is a thing, and selling out is the goal. If you want EVERY charmer to have one, then don’t make a limited edition box.
They always have a wait list going, so I don’t think losing a few subscribers would do any significant harm. Especially when these unsubscribers are likely to freak out over something else down the line and unsubscribe then anyway. Boxycharm responded very politely and very well on social media, so I don’t think anyone with any ounce of logic or chill would still be so upset as to dump the box now.
There are people out there who bought extras as a gift for friends or family and this would have been a great way to introduce boxy to new clients. I get being afraid of losing subscribers, but they are running that risk now by altering orders now and risk losing those potential new customers as well.
I dunno, the whole thing is nuts. I’m just shaking my head and hoping that all this drama calms down because I just want to try out awesome products and write about them. What are your thoughts about the limited edition box insanity? Do you agree with boxy’s solution?
In Among the Heather 