Glossybox vs Boxycharm

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Signing yourself up for a monthly subscription box can really help to bring you out of the mundane repetition of life, mainly because opening up your monthly subscription box is basically like having Christmas every single month!

One of the most popular debates in the beauty community is between Glossybox vs. Boxycharm. Both of these subscription boxes are $21 a month and contain between 4-6 products in every single box. Which team are you on, Team Boxy or Team Glossy?

Bottom Line Up Front: After MONTHS of testing both boxes and comparing them head to head, I have to say that Glossbybox is the CLEAR winner here. They offer more value, higher quality products, and just continued to delight me EVERY month. You can read the gory details below, but just wanted to get to the point! Be sure to check out the latest Glossbybox promos here.

Boxycharm

(Cost: $21 a month/ A total value of the August Boxycharm: $102.00)

Boxycharm is a monthly beauty subscription box in which you will receive between 4-5 full sized products. Sometimes there are months where Boxycharm will send out additional items in their boxes so that you’ll get 6 items in your box!

In the Boxycharm subscription box, you will receive nail care, hair care, fragrance, makeup, skin care, and more. Currently, Boxycharm only ships out to Canada and the United States.

In my August Boxycharm subscription box, I received six items in my box!

What I got in my August Boxycharm:

  • Laura Lee Los Angeles ‘Party Animal’ Eyeshadow Palette- $19.00
  • House of Lashes ‘Siren’ Lashes – $9.00
  • Smashbox Be Legendary Lipstick in shade ‘Action’- $21.00
  • Wander Baggage Claim Gold Eye Masks – $13.00
  • Bang Beauty Chocolate Eyeliner- $22.00
  • Adesse Sweet Almond Cuticle Oil- $18.00

First item: Bang Beauty Chocolate Eyeliner (Value: $22)

The brown eyeliner is something different in this subscription box! A few months ago, I received a black gel eyeliner from The Pretty Vulgar in my Boxycharm, so I’m glad that they switched things up by sending out a brown eyeliner rather than sending out just another black gel eyeliner.

While I’m not someone who wears a lot of eyeliner, Boxycharm did send out a tip to use this gel eyeliner as brow pomade! Personally, I will be using this chocolate gel eyeliner as brow pomade and as a base for my go-to brown smoky eye!

I also really liked the feel of this eyeliner, as it’s in a glass container and doesn’t feel like cheap plastic. It has a nice weight to it, which makes it feel luxurious (and expensive)!

Second item: House of Lashes ‘Siren’ Lashes (Value:  $9.00)

I’ve always wanted to try out lashes from the House of Lashes, but never really got around to it. There are two things that I ALWAYS love getting in my subscription boxes: makeup brushes and eyelashes. I absolutely loved the lashes that Boxycharm sent out in an older box from Battington Lashes, so I have high hopes that these ‘Siren’ lashes are also going to be a winner in my book.

These lashes are cruelty-free and are crafted from human hair or synthetic hair blends, which makes them safe to use for those who only use cruelty-free or vegan makeup!

Third item: Wander Baggage Claim Gold Eye Masks (Value: $13)

There’s one thing that I dislike about some beauty subscription boxes- receiving foil packets. I hate it when brands try to cheap out the box and send out a foil sample. Most of the time, you’re only ever going to get one use out of the foil packet, which won’t give you the opportunity to see if you actually like the product or not.

Thankfully, I’ve never had this problem with Boxycharm! When Boxycharm sends out face masks or eye masks, they always send more than one of the same product.

In the August box, they sent out THREE of the Wander Beauty Baggage Claim Gold Eye masks. Personally, this makes me feel like Boxycharm actually cares enough about their customers to make sure that they aren’t feeling cheaped out by their box. Not only that, but you get three chances to see if these eye masks work for you or not!

Fourth item: Adesse Organic Infused Sweet Almond Cuticle Oil (Value: $18.00)

I’m not someone who is passionate about nail care, so this wasn’t a big winner in my book. However, I can tell you that this nail oil smelled amazing! From a different perspective, I think that it’s really awesome that Boxycharm sent out something that you don’t really see in other subscription boxes.

A lot of other companies send out nail polishes and call in the day, but Boxycharm chose a different route and sent out an age-defying nail treatment!

Fifth item: Smashbox Be Legendary Lipstick in ‘Action’ (Value: $21.00)

Every Charmer received a lipstick from Smashbox in their August box, but the formulas and shades were all different, so different boxes had different lipsticks.

Smashbox indeed wasn’t playing around when they said that their Be Legendary lipsticks were loaded with pigment! I was able to take one swipe of the ‘Action’ lipstick on the side of my hand. I got a lipstick that was loaded with pigment, has a creamy texture and didn’t feel drying.

This is a purple lipstick, which fits within the ‘Life of the Party’ theme for the August Boxycharm. Boxycharm typically sends out lipstick shades that are more natural and daytime appropriate, but it makes sense that they didn’t do that with this box!

Sixth item: Laura Lee Los Angeles ‘Party Animal’ Eyeshadow Palette (Value: $19.00)

When I first saw that every Charmer was receiving the Party Animal palette in their box, I was excited because I loved how bright and fun all of the shades are in this palette.

The shades I have swatched (in the order of the top of my wrist to my forearm) are:

  • Issa Party: Matte bright yellow/green
  • Damage Control: Matte bright turquoise blue
  • Karaoke: Matte cobalt blue
  • Dranks: Matte bright orange
  • Bottoms Up: Matte hot pink with glitter
  • Hungover: Metallic iridescent deep purple

After I swatched this palette, I also played around with these shades and created an eye look. After I wiped off the swatches and the eye look I created, I noticed that my skin, my fingertips, and my eyes were all stained. I used several different makeup removers to try to remove the staining, but the staining wasn’t fading.

I went over to the Laura Lee Los Angeles website to see if anyone else was having problems with the staining of this palette, when I stumbled across a statement on the bottom of the description for the palette, which reads:

“(WARNING: Bottoms Up, Hungover, and Dranks contain a colorant that is not approved for the eye area in the US, Canada, and Brazil.)”

This can be solved (or the staining reduced) if you set your eyes with translucent powder or by using an eyeshadow primer or a concealer base.

Out of all six shades, I found that Hungover was the only pan that held the most consistency. All of the matte shades were rough and dry feeling, which is to be expected since they’re matte shades. On the other hand, I also know that there are countless other luxury brands that I’ve tried that create buttery feeling matte shades. Hungover was a soft, velvety feeling pan, but it kind of spread apart from the pressure of my fingertip while I was swatching.

As you can see from the swatches, there were some shades in the palette that were patchy. Karaoke was the worst in terms of patchiness, but Damage Control and Bottoms Up also gave me this problem too.

After I shut the lid of the Party Animal palette, I opened it back up a few hours later and had noticed that the Issa Party had broken after I closed the palette lid. I didn’t drop the palette; I didn’t move it anywhere else, I didn’t set it down on a different table. The only thing I had done with the palette was shut the lid, so it was really disappointing to see that by closing the palette, I had chipped a pan. I’ve never had this problem before with another palette from Boxycharm.

Final verdict for the August Boxycharm:

With a total value of $102, I only spent $21 to get this box in my hands. Another way to think about it is I paid for the Smashbox Be Legendary Lipstick and the other five items for free. Personally, Boxycharm is my favorite subscription box ever, but I do have to say that I wasn’t super in love with the August Box.

Here’s what my thoughts are on the August Boxycharm box:

Pros:

  • I received products from brands that I’m familiar/big name brands.
  • The value of the box was over $100
  • None of the products in this box were broken
  • I got a little bit of something in most beauty categories: skin care, makeup, nail care. The products in this box just weren’t strictly makeup and just weren’t strictly skin care. I got a little bit of everything.

Cons:

  • If you’re on a strict budget, you may have felt like you wasted your money on this box since two of the products were focused towards clubbing/partying.

Glossybox

(Cost: $21 a month/ A total value of the August Glossybox: $95.20)

Glossybox is a monthly beauty subscription box that contains 5 beauty samples, with two of those beauty products being full-sized. I’ve always heard that Glossybox is a great box to get if you’re really into skin care, but I did receive a few items in my box that weren’t just focused on skin care. Let’s see what I got!

I really want to show you all of the efforts that Glossybox put into their packaging!

What I got in my August Glossybox:

  • VDL Lumilayer Primer Fresh- $10 (for 0.4 ounces)
  • Grow Gorgeous Haircare Scalp Detox- $34 (full sized product)
  • NCLA Nail Lacquer in ‘I Been Drinkin’’- $16 (full sized product)
  • SETZ Blot + Translucent Powder- $2.40 (for three packets)
  • Monu Eye Cool Gel- $30 (full sized product)
  • Ren Clean Skincare Keep Young and Beautiful Instant Firming Beauty Shot- $2.80

First item: VDL Lumilayer Primer Fresh (Value: $10 (for 0.4 ounces))

This was the very first thing that I pulled out of my Glossybox, so this really was the honest first impression of Glossybox that I had. This is an illuminating primer that has just the faintest amount of shimmer to it. As someone who wears full-coverage all of the time (that’s me!), you will find that the luminosity and the glitter are covered up by your full-coverage foundation.

The biggest complaint that I have about this primer is the packaging. As you can see, it’s in a nail polish bottle, and it doesn’t have any way to get it out of the bottle. It doesn’t come with a brush; it doesn’t come with a dropper, it doesn’t come with a squirt cap. There is literally no way to get this primer out of the bottle unless you’re hitting it on your palm (which is what I had to do).

I enjoyed the feeling of this primer on my skin because it was very lightweight and it didn’t make my skin feel tacky!

Second item: Monu Eye Cool Gel (Value: $30)

I LOVE the feeling of this cool eye gel. Glossybox gave their users a tip to put this cool eye gel in the fridge before applying the gel to add an additional cooling effect. I applied this cooling gel underneath of my eyes, and I was a little bit surprised because I was expecting to feel an instant cooling effect (that’s the way the other cool eye gels that I’ve tried have worked).

With this cool eye gel, I put it on my face, and I felt the underneath of my eyes slowly start to cool down. It was a minty fresh sensation too, nothing that was too cold feeling and nothing that made the underneath of my eyes burn. I also didn’t experience any eye-watering while using this gel, because it felt so gentle on my skin!

Third item: NCLA Nail Lacquer in ‘I Been Drinkin’ (Value: $16)

This nail polish is a stunning bright watermelon pink, which I personally feel like it’s a great transition color for summer to fall! I applied this nail polish on my toes, and I normally use only one coat of Instant Dry nail polish. I had to apply two coats to get a full coverage paint on my toes, and it took a little while to dry (compared to me Instant Dry), but it was well worth the wait. My toes are now gorgeous!

Fourth item: Ren Clean Skincare Keep Young and Beautiful Instant Firming Beauty Shot (Sample value: $2.80)

This is not a full-sized product, which is why the value of this sample is $2.80. I was a bit confused on what this product was supposed to offer me, so I read the Glossybox tip section or this serum. I read that you can apply this elasticity serum in your skincare routine or on top of makeup.

That’s right. I said on top of makeup. I tried applying this serum over top of my makeup (I was wearing the Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation), and it made my foundation break up and become patchy. I really don’t understand why the suggestion would be made to apply a skincare item on top of makeup but to each their own!

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that this skincare item didn’t leave my skin feeling sticky or tacky, as that is a problem that runs into with a lot of serums. I also really like that it wasn’t heavily scented, so I could still breathe when I applied this serum to my skin!

Fifth item: Grow Gorgeous Haircare Scalp Detox (Value: $34)

Oh, a scalp detox? That’s really fancy! To let you in on a little secret, I used to have really bad problems with dandruff when I had darker hair. Now that my hair is lighter, it’s not as easy to tell if I have dandruff or not. However, I know I still have a lot of dead skin on my scalp and I physically feel that on my head every time I wash my hair.

This scalp detox is a full-sized product, and I’ve never even heard of an exfoliating scalp detox. There are exfoliating beads in this scrub, which felt really amazing on my scalp! I did have problems getting all of the beads out of my hair with just a rinse, but that problem was quickly solved once I washed my hair with my normal shampoo.

It also had an amazing scent that was more on the musky/cologne side. It wasn’t overpowering by any means, but it definitely did leave behind a cologne scent that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Sixth item: SETZ Blot + Translucent Powder (Sample value: $2.40)

These were also another interesting twist in my Glossybox! I was also really excited to learn that I could pick up more of these blotting sheets at my local Walgreens, which means that I really don’t have to go too far out of my way to pick up more of a fresh new product that Glossybox introduced me to.

Inside of these packets contains a little bit of translucent powder and a blotter. There are several reasons that I felt like these were really interesting and useful:

  • The packaging and the blotting sponge are entirely recyclable
  • You can use the blotting sponge to blot away extra oil on your face, even if you used up all of the translucent powder
  • I have a large face and I found that there was even a bit of translucent powder left over after I really went in and de-greased my face. If you have a smaller face, you may even have enough powder to do a complete cover up or have enough powder to do several touchups throughout the day.
  • I also really liked that I was able to stick the sponge back into my purse or pocket because of the protective plastic cover that came with the sponge. That way you can carry around one blotter around with you all day instead of carrying your entire makeup kit with you!

Final verdict on the August Glossybox:

For this being my very first Glossybox, I have to say that I’m very impressed. While I’m not a huge fan of skincare, there were still several items in this box that had me feeling excited! I really liked how I didn’t just receive skincare, but I also got makeup products, nail care, and hair care. I feel like I got my money’s worth in this box and that I was introduced to a great selection of products, so I’m pretty happy with this box!

Pros:

  • I was introduced to products from brands that I’ve never heard of and products that I didn’t know existed.
  • There was really a lot of time and effort put into the packaging of this box, which made it feel handmade and like someone put a lot of love and attention into making my box.
  • I got a little bit of everything! I got two makeup products, a nail care product, a hair product, and two skin care products. Two in each category, which makes this box extremely well rounded (and thought out, in my opinion).

Cons:

  • I don’t feel like it would’ve taken that much time to write in a tip on how to get the illuminating primer out of the bottle. It was challenging to get the product out of the bottle, which makes me not want to use it. That is sad too since it was a nice feeling and looking primer on my skin!

August Glossybox vs. August Boxycharm- who won?

Both the August Glossybox and Boxycharm had their pros and cons, but I personally believe that Glossybox won. The products in Glossybox are items that you can use on a daily basis and with the nail polish, it’s something that you can wear to your office job (even if it’s just on your toes).

While the overall value of Boxycharm was more than Glossybox, several of the products that I received in my Boxycharm aren’t items that I would use every day. The theme of this month’s Boxycharm was ‘Life of the Party’, but the lipstick that I received and the eyeshadow palette were some of the most expensive items in the box. With those items being some of the most expensive in the box, they aren’t something that I would necessarily reach for to use every day or even every week.  Whereas with Glossybox, everything that you paid for in the box are items that you can use every day!

Who do you think won this month- Glossybox or Boxycharm?


Glossybox vs Boxycharm: September Unboxing

It’s that time again, Battle of the Boxes Glossybox vs Boxycharm. These are two of the most popular subscription boxes in the community and for good reason. Both of these boxes run subscribers $21 a month and are jam-packed with makeup, skin care, hair care, and nail care.

The biggest difference between the two subscription boxes is that Boxycharm always sends out full-sized products, while Glossybox sends out a mix of full-sized products and sample sizes. If you’re looking for a monthly beauty subscription box that’s a couple steps above Birchbox, Ipsy, or even Sephora Play, Glossybox and Boxycharm are the two boxes that bring the most value to the beauty subscription box game.

If you’re looking to hop on board rather quickly, let’s take a look at what my September Glossybox and my September Boxycharm are offering!

Glossybox

What it costs

($21 a month/Total value of my September Glossybox: $48.52)

What I got in my September Glossybox

  • Stylondon 9 Color Eyeshadow Palette in ‘Eaton Square’- $15
  • Context Micro-Derm Regenerator- $8.75 (sample size)
  • MoodMatcher Twist Stich Lip Color- $10
  • Wild Garden Body Lotion in ‘Pretty and Wild’- $8.95
  • Lapcos Daily Skin Sheet Mask in Charcoal- $3.50 (for one sheet mask)
  • Freeman PSSST! ORIGINAL Dry Shampoo in Citrus- $2.32 (sample size)

Every month, Glossybox comes packaged in this black floral print box and on the inside of the black floral print box is the famous pink Glossybox box that we all know and love.

As soon as you remove the lid off of your Glossybox, you’re greeted with a pretty bow that holds down the pamphlet that is inside of every box. After untying the ribbon that holds down the pamphlet, you are greeted with pink tissue paper and a Glossybox sticker that is concealing all of the contents inside of your box. Tear and sticker and you’ll see everything that you got in that month’s Glossybox!

Compared to Boxycharm, I always feel that Glossybox puts a lot more time and effort into their packaging. Not only does the packaging on the inside of the box look a lot neater, but my Glossyboxes just feel more personalized, almost like a gift, because of the carefully wrapped bow and neat packaging, including the tissue paper, the crinkled paper underneath of the products of the box, and sticker.

Not to mention that the box that Glossybox comes in is made from a sturdy cardboard so that you can totally reuse for makeup storage! Boxycharm boxes aren’t very sturdy, so they’re more of a one and done type of deal.

This is everything that I got inside of my September Glossybox! My box was jam-packed with products, so let’s see if any of them are worth the hype of Glossybox.

First product: LAPCOS Daily Skin Sheet Mask in Charcoal

Product value: $3.50 for one sheet

This is the first full-sized product that I pulled out of my box; the LAPCOS Daily Skin Charcoal Sheet Mask. This charcoal sheet mask contains salicylic acid, charcoal extract, and tea tree oil to help remove toxins from your skin and to help minimize the appearance of your pores.

I was a bit nervous about this mask before I opened it up because I usually hate the smell of products that contain tea tree oil; the scent of tea tree oil isn’t a scent that I get along with, so most products that I use that contain the oil are usually products that I end up disliking.

When I pulled out this sheet mask, there was a very faint scent to it that wasn’t overly powdery or overpowering. I’m not a huge fan of sheet masks, but this sheet mask wasn’t horrible! I didn’t notice any difference in my pores after I used this mask, but my skin did feel really smooth.

Second product: Wild Garden Body Lotion in Pretty and Wild

Product value: $8.95 (full-sized)

I absolutely love this lotion! I’m really picky about the types of lotions that I use on my body because I’m looking for a lotion that’s not only fast absorbing, but has a scent that I like, isn’t too strongly scented, isn’t greasy feeling, isn’t too thick, and isn’t too expensive.

Have you ever heard of Goldie Locks and the Three Bears? Yep, that story is basically me with lotions. This lotion is lightweight, fast-absorbing, but does feel a little bit greasy. I did enjoy the scent of the lotion, as it wasn’t overpowering and wasn’t too powdery or floral scented. Glossybox says that this lotion has mandarin, vanilla, and rose in the lotion, but I only picked up the sweet scent of vanilla and mandarin.

After applying this lotion, I did have to wash my hands off because there was a greasy coating left on my hands after I put the lotion on my legs and arms. However, I was able to put pants and a shirt on after I applied my lotion and I didn’t feel like I had this gross, slimy coating on my skin underneath of my clothes.

While this lotion doesn’t hit all of my check marks, its certainly one of the best lotions that I’ve ever gotten in a subscription box (full-sized too!).

Third product: Freeman PSSSST! Organic Dry Shampoo

Product value: $2.32

I’ve never tried any dry shampoos from Freeman, but I’m literally so excited that I got a citrus-scented dry shampoo! I’m always looking for citrus-scented perfumes, lotions, and dry shampoos and I’ve finally found one thanks to Glossybox!

I have dark hair and I was nervous about this dry shampoo because I was worried white streaks were going to show up in my hair where I sprayed the dry shampoo. I didn’t have any problems with this dry shampoo leaving white streaks, clumps, or chunks in my hair; it didn’t even look like I had applied any dry shampoo to my hair.

Not only did this dry shampoo absorb the oil in my hair, but it also did a wonderful job of giving me some (desperately needed) volume. I’m so impressed with this and considering the full-sized product only costs $6.99, you can count on me having a stock up of this dry shampoo!

Fourth product: Context Micro-Derm Regenerator

Product value: $8.75

This is the only other sample size product that I got in my September Glossybox, the Context Micro-Derm Regenerator. The cost of the full-sized product is $35, but the sample size that we have is valued at an estimated $8.75. This micro-derm regenerator is both a cleanser and a gentle exfoliator, that has antioxidants that help to protect your cells. The Context Micro-Derm Regenerator also helps to polish your skin by removing dead skill cells, which will leave your skin feeling soft!

I use the Context Micro-Derm Regenerator every morning in the shower and I feel like it does do a good job of getting the excess oil off of my face first thing in the morning. However, I don’t really feel like this does a good job of exfoliating my skin. After using this cleanser and exfoliator, I still have a lot of dead skin left on my face. The beads that act as the exfoliator in this Micro-Derm Regenerator are very small (which is good) but they dissolve very quickly, so I don’t feel like the beads actually exfoliate my skin at all.

Personally, I’ll just be using this as a daily cleaner, but I’ll be using another product to exfoliate my skin. The exfoliating properties of this cleanser just don’t cut it for me.

Fifth product: MoodMatcher Twist Stick Lip Color

Product value: $10

Another full-sized product in our September Glossybox- yes! Better yet, this is a pH reacting lip color. In other words, this is a lipstick that reacts and matches the pH of your lips, giving you a lip color that’s unique to your body! The only negative thing that I have to say about the MoodMatcher Twist Stick Lip Color is the packaging looks and feels very cheap. If I didn’t know anything about the brand, I would assume that this is a color changing lipstick from the dollar store. The packaging is a cheap feeling plastic and isn’t all that impressive, which is sad because the formula itself is very impressive!

I would also like to warn you that if you are someone that hates dealing with lipsticks that stain, I would stay away from this. I swatched this lip color on the back of my hands and on my lips and I found that it stained both the back of my hands and my lips for the rest of the day – I had to scrub to get the staining off.

Depending on the pH of your lips, you’re going to get a different shade of pink every time. Even compared to the back of my hand, the shade that I got on my lips and the shade that I got on my hand were two different shades of pink.

I put this on my lips to see if it would pass the kiss test (I kissed my forearm) and it didn’t pass the kiss test. Basically, this lipstick isn’t transferring proof, but it did leave color on my lips all day because it slightly stained my lips.

You can see the difference in the color of my swatch on my hand and in the color that I got on my lips by comparing my kiss print and the swatch on my hand. This is such a cool, fun product that I’ve always wanted to try and I’m so glad that Glossybox gave me the chance to try it out!

Sixth product: Stylondon 9 Color Eyeshadow Palette in ‘Eaton Square’

Product value: $15

The last product that I pulled out of my September Glossybox is a full-sized eyeshadow palette from Stylondon! I’ve never heard of Stylondon before, but I was honestly so excited to see how the swatches of the shades went because the colors in this palette are GORGEOUS.

The biggest complaint that I had about this eyeshadow palette was how scratched up it got in my Glossybox. Like I talked about earlier, all of the products that come in Glossybox are cushioned by the crinkle paper. The crinkle paper is dusty, so there are some products that will sometimes have black dust on their exterior.

In this instance, the crinkle paper left tiny scratches on the exterior of my eyeshadow palette. Personally, I don’t feel like this is really a big deal because at least none of the shades inside of the palette are cracked, de-panned, or shattered. But, if you’re really particular about how you want your makeup products to look when they come to you, I can totally see how this would be bothersome to you.

Also, this eyeshadow palette doesn’t come with any shade names, so I won’t be able to name any specific shades when talking about the formula and/or pigmentation of a certain shade.

This eyeshadow palette has two matte shades and seven metallic shades. You can find the two matte shades as the first two shades on the bottom row (left to right) and the metallic shades in the rest of the palette. After I finished swatching all of the shades in this palette, I can honestly say that I’m really, really impressed with the entire palette, especially considering that it only costs $15. A common problem that I run into with a lot of eyeshadow palettes is that there isn’t any consistency in the shades.

Usually, metallic shades will do really well but will have a lot of falling outs. The light metallic will be the shades that perform the best, but the darker metallic will be patchy and have an increased amount of fall out. The matte shades are usually the shades that are a total flop and don’t end up having any pigmentation, will be incredibly patchy and aren’t very blendable.

Stylondon didn’t give me any of those problems! All nine of the shades gave me equal pigmentation, were equally as blendable, weren’t patchy, and didn’t have an excessive amount of fall out. Personally, my favorite row is the middle row because I just love all of the colors in that row. But the pigments were so buttery and applied like a dream!

I’m so shocked at how consistent everything in this palette was- even if you aren’t a fan of Glossybox, you need to go get your hands on this palette. It’s so amazing!

Final thoughts of the September Glossybox

So, Glossybox costs $21 a month and the total value of the September Glossybox was $48.52, which is a little over double the value of the cost of this box. The overall value of this box isn’t super impressive, especially since Boxycharm is also $21 a month but always promises to deliver over $100 value in every box.

The September Glossybox sent out a wide variety of products in several beauty categories, but I also love that they sent out products that aren’t outrageously priced. I feel that all of the products in this box fit comfortably into the price range that they’re priced at; for example, I’m glad to see that they included a $9 body lotion rather than sending us a lotion that was of the same quality as the lotion that we received, but was priced at $36.

I’m so happy with everything that I got inside of my September Glossybox, but the product that I’m most excited about is the Stylondon 9 Color Eyeshadow Palette in Eaton Square- it’s just such amazing quality! The product that I’m the least in love with is the Context Micro-Derm Regenerator; I feel like this is more of a cleanser than it is an exfoliator.

Let’s see what Boxycharm included in our September box!

Boxycharm

What it costs

($21 a month/Total value of my September Boxycharm: $119)

What I got in my September Boxycharm

  • Pretty Vulgar Nightingale Smokey Eyeshadow Palette- $35
  • Laura Geller Baked Blush-N-Brighten- $28
  • Alamar Cosmetics Ojitos Brush Set- $18
  • Lorac Pro Liquid Lipstick in ‘Dusty Rose’- $19
  • Butter London Stroke of Wow Roll On Liner- $19

Every month, Boxycharm sends out boxes that look like this and contain between 4-5 full-sized items. Unlike Glossybox, Boxycharm only sends out full-sized products and is always sending out palettes of some sort. Most of the time, I end up receiving eyeshadow palettes, but I have received contour palettes, blush palettes, and highlight palettes in previous Boxycharms.

Usually, I get a lot of high-end, luxury brands in my Boxycharm that you can find at Sephora or on the expensive side of Ulta. However, I have received affordable Indie brands such as Colourpop in some of my Boxycharms, but most of the time I end up receiving products from high-end brands (which is amazing!).

Unlike Glossybox, Boxycharm sends all of their products in a flimsy cardboard box, wrapped in a singular layer of foam. Most of the time, the card that I receive in my Boxycharm comes bent in half. The foam layer that protects all of the makeup in my Boxycharm just always seems to be sloppily thrown into my box.

Personally, this doesn’t really bother me too much. But, compare the first impression that you have to unbox both of these boxes side by side and you’ll see that Glossybox feels so much more personalized like you’re getting a gift from a friend, whereas Boxycharm feels impersonal and more like a subscription that you paid for.

September’s Boxycharm theme was ‘Wildflower’, which is an interesting theme that I’ve never seen in any other subscription boxes, so I’m excited to see what Boxycharm thought to put inside of this month’s theme!

First product: Laura Geller Baked Blush-n-Brighten

Product value: $28

I’ve never tried a product from Laura Geller, but it’s been a while since I’ve received any blushes in my Boxycharm! While I personally would never pay $28 for a blush, my Boxycharm only cost $21 and I already pulled out a product that literally covers the cost of the box! I don’t know too much about the Laura Geller brand, so I took to the little paragraph that Boxycharm writes out for each product to learn more about all of the benefits this $28 blush is going to bring to my life.

To sum up, what Boxycharm wrote about this blush, the Baked Blush-n-Brighten blush by Laura Geller is originally created with liquid pigments and is baked to perfection in Italy for 24 hours on terracotta tiles. Once it’s done baking, it’s hand-finished and built into a dome shape.

This blush formula does have a glowy finish to it but isn’t shimmery enough to look like a highlighter. It has a lamination the blush that brings glowing color to your cheeks but isn’t going to compete against your highlighter in terms of shimmer or glow. Personally, I feel like this color is a little too bright on my skin for the upcoming winter and fall months. On my skin, this shade of blush comes up as a very bright peach, but I’m certain I’ll absolutely love the color of this blush for spring and summer!

Second product: Alamar Cosmetics Ojitos Brush Set

Product value: $18

Alamar Cosmetics is a brand that I’ve absolutely fallen in love with, thanks to Boxycharm. I never would have heard of this company if it weren’t for Boxycharm, but I’m constantly reaching for the eyeshadow palette from Alamar Cosmetics that I received in a Boxycharm a few months ago.

I have never seen green makeup brushes with a rose gold accent, so these brushes certainly stand out from the rest of the brushes in my collection thanks to the coloring of this trio. The bristles for these brushes have been made with 100% synthetic fibers, which not only means that these brushes are vegan and cruelty-free, but that they also pick up the product so much better than natural hairs.

In this trio, you have a packing brush, a fluffy blending brush, and a flat tight liner brush. The packing brush can be used to apply concealer, to pack on pigments onto your lid, or to clean up your winged linger or around your brow with concealer. The fluffy blending brush you can use to set your eyelid with, to blend out transition shades, or to blend colors together. The flat tight liner brush is perfect for applying color directly to your eyes, especially on your top lash line or for smudging out the color on your bottom lash line.

Not only are the brushes super cute and colorful, but they’re really soft and a breeze to work with!

Third product: Lorac Pro Liquid Lipstick in ‘Dusty Rose’

Product value: $19.00

I have never tried any products from Lorac Cosmetics, but I was introduced to their brand when I saw their Pirates of the Carribean collection take over Instagram. I didn’t know that Lorac Cosmetics even had lipsticks, I thought they were a brand that focused more on the eyes. But, I will be the first to tell you that I have been missing out on the beautiful formulation of this lipstick! The formula applied smoothly, almost like a lip gloss; when I put the first swatch of this down on my hand, I thought it was a lip gloss.

I gave the lipstick a few minutes to dry and a highly-pigmented matte lipstick transformed on my hand. I applied the formula on my lips to see how it felt, but I was honestly just as shocked as when I applied the liquid lipstick on the back of my hand.

The formula was so creamy feeling, was incredibly light-weight feeling, and wasn’t streaky when I did apply it to my lips. It didn’t bleed out from my lips and I didn’t have any sort of lip primer or lip liner on. My biggest complaints about this lipstick are is that the formula isn’t very long lasting and it isn’t kiss-proof/transfer-proof.

The shade ‘Dusty Rose’ is absolutely stunning and has already become a stable in my everyday Fall makeup routine!

Fourth product: Pretty VularNightingale Smokey Eyeshadow Palette

Product value: $35

I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about the Pretty Vulgar, so I had high hopes for this palette too. My first initial impression of this palette was that it was one of the more interesting packaging concepts that I’ve ever seen on an eyeshadow palette.

When I opened up the lid to this palette, I was a bit disappointed to see the shades in this palette. As a side note, when I first opened up this palette, I didn’t know that it was supposed to be a smokey eyeshadow palette. My first initial impressions of this palette were that it was boring and not very creative. Personally, I feel like I’ve been very disappointed in the eye palette selections Boxycharm has been making for their last few boxes and this eyeshadow just added to that disappointment.

When I read through the booklet that Boxycharm sends out, I did read that this eyeshadow palette was created to help you create the perfect smokey eye. Boxycharm says that there are 12 highly-pigmented shades, including shimmer, satin, and matte shades that are soft in texture but have an easy blending and a long-wear formula.

After swatching and wearing this palette, I have to say that this is an even bigger flop of a palette than the Laura Lee Los Angeles Party Animal Boxycharm sent out a few months ago. First of all, these eyeshadows aren’t soft and were very rough feeling, almost as if this was an eyeshadow palette from a cheaply made drugstore palette. Don’t get me wrong, the metallics were great, but they were the only thing that I slightly enjoyed about this palette.

Besides the rough texture of this palette, the mattes and satins were very powdery. Even when I swatched the shadows, I had powder fly over into another pan, which just mixed the colors together. This is especially prevalent in the ‘Flip Out’ pan, where you can see the grey pigments from ‘Silver Spoon’ being left in the pan. This color transfer didn’t happen because my fingers mixed the colors up, but really just because the color from ‘Silver Spoon’ was so powdery, it flew into ‘Flip Out’.

As you can see from swatches, the metallic and the satins are pretty good. I mean this is more of just your basic eyeshadow palette, so I don’t really understand why this palette costs $35- but to each their own. The mattes were patchy, powdery, and didn’t blend out well at all on my eyes. The satins also didn’t move around very well and weren’t at all blendable. What I had put on my lids, I was stuck with.

Another overpriced eyeshadow palette from Boxycharm that was full of disappointment. I really hope Boxycharm sends out a better palette next month. I give The Pretty Vulgar points for the unique packaging idea!

Fifth Product: Butter London Stroke of Wow Roll on Liner

Product value: $19

I was so excited to see this in my Boxycharm because I know it’s a product that’s newer to the beauty community. Earlier this year, MAC Cosmetics released a roll on the liner, were inside of having your typical brush for eyeliner, there is a little wheel that you use to apply your eyeliner with.

Basically, it’s like a little pizza cutter wheel on the end of your eyeliner applicator. There is a rubber catcher on the inside of the inkwell that helps to remove the excess liner so you won’t have any problems with gloopy liner coming out on your wheel

When I applied this liner on the back of my hand, I did have problems with the liner bleeding out into the fine creases on my hand. However, I put this eyeliner on my lids and it didn’t transfer anywhere. I gave the liner a couple of seconds to dry before I opened up my lids all of the way (I have hooded eyes, so eyeliner always transfers) and it was dry! No transfer, no smudging- it literally dried so quickly.

I literally had the easiest time applying my winger liner because the roller didn’t catch, snag, or drag on my lids. In two quick motions, I had perfectly even, super bold, dark eyeliner. The staying power of this liquid liner is absolutely insane, it literally took some scrubbing with micellar water to get my perfect winged liner off of my eyes!

Overall, the September Boxycharm didn’t really win me over. I was really happy and impressed with the quality of the liquid lipsticks from LORAC and I was so happy to get a unique eyeliner from Butter London in my box, especially since it’s a product that’s so new to the market.

I wish Boxycharm would expand the brands that they’re sending (they did send me the lipstick from LORAC, but that’s the only brand in my Boxycharm that I’ve never received before). I also wish Boxycharm would switch up their formula a bit and maybe try sending out something new, refreshing, or exciting. Need a second opinion? Read more at Ipsy vs Boxycharm.

September Glossybox vs September Boxycharm: who won?

While Boxycharm did deliver higher value than Glossybox did, I personally feel like Glossybox won my heart for September. The eyeshadow palette is really what broke Boxycharm and is what made me end up choosing Glossybox.Who do you think won this month?


Glossybox vs. Boxycharm: October Unboxing

October Boxycharm

(How much is it? $21 a month/Total value of the October Boxycharm: $128)

What I got in my October Boxycharm:

  • IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara- $24
  • Dermovia Lace A Peel Black Bamboo Charcoal Peel-Off Mask- $30
  • PUR The Complexion Authority Midnight Masquerade Palette- $38
  • Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick- $20
  • Briogeo Don’t Despair Repair Strength + Moisture Leave-In Mask- $16

Boxycharm is a monthly beauty subscription box that will run you $21 a month and in each box, you get 4-5 full-sized products. Just as my personal thought, Boxycharm is the best subscription box in the world of beauty, but I have noticed that in the last couple of months (ever since Boxycharm introduced Boxyluxe), the overall quality of the monthly Boxycharm boxes have gone downhill and have been way less exciting.

Every month, Boxycharm changes up the theme for their boxes and send out products in their boxes that pair along with that month’s theme. For October, Boxycharm’s theme is ‘Alter Ego’ which is a creative theme that hints at spooky-ness with a gentle undertone of the spookiness of Halloween.

Boxycharm is a great subscription box to have if you are really interested in expanding your makeup collection. In most of my boxes, Boxycharm sends out products from high-end brands (PUR Cosmetics, IT Cosmetics, MAC, Tarte Cosmetics, Cover FX, just to name a few), but I have received products from indie brands, such as Colourpop and Alamar Cosmetics! More recently, Boxycharm has also sent out an eyeshadow palette or a contour palette in every single one of their boxes, so if you’re a palette junkie who is looking to quickly expand your collection, I would highly recommend looking into Boxycharm.

First product: Briogeo Don’t Despair Repair Strength + Moisture Leave-In Mask

Product value: $16

The first thing that I pulled out of my October Boxycharm was the Briogeo Don’t Despair Repair Strength + Moisture Leave-In Mask, which is a leave-in conditioner that helps to both moisturize and repair your hair. This leave-in conditioner has a combination of coconut oil, B-vitmins, Argan oil, algae extract, and biotin to help encourage hair growth.

There has been a good period of time that’s gone past since I’ve seen any Briogeo products in any of my subscription boxes, but the Don’t Despair Repair leave-in conditioner is the product that I see the most often in my subscriptions. I really love the scent of this conditioner; it has very bright tones and doesn’t have an overpowering powdery scent that a lot of other hair products often have.

As for this being a leave-in mask, I haven’t noticed any difference in my hair after I put this spray in my hair. This is the first full-sized product I’ve ever gotten from Briogeo, but I haven’t had any success for this product working as intended with my hair. I do really love the scent of this conditioner, so I am putting this product in my hair just for the scent of it. But for this making any difference in the health of my hair, I haven’t noticed any difference.

Second product: PUR Cosmetics The Complexion Authority Midnight Masquerade Palette

Product value: $38

The PUR Cosmetics The Complexion Authority Midnight Masquerade Palette is another mediocre palette that I’ve gotten in my Boxycharm, which isn’t all that surprising, considering that a good majority of the palettes that Boxycharm has sent out in the last couple of months have been disappointing.

With the majority of the palettes that Boxycharm has sent out in the last few months, The PUR Cosmetics The Complexion Authority Midnight Masquerade Palette included, I feel that the palettes are more of a hassle than they’re worth.

While I do think that the PUR Cosmetics The Complexion Authority Midnight Masquerade Palette is a little bit better than the palette that was sent out last month, I did get a vibe from this palette that reminded me of child’s play makeup. The eyeshadow part of the palette fits in perfectly for the spooky vibes that Boxycharm built for October’s box, which I think perfectly fits in for Halloween!

However, the glitter in the blushes in this palette, combined with the massive amount of fallout that this palette had (for both face and eyes), just really makes this palette not anywhere worth $38.

Since I’m already this far into dissing the PUR Cosmetics The Complexion Authority Midnight Masquerade Palette that Boxycharm sent out, I also want to say that even if the powders didn’t have these problems, I do think that the packaging looks extremely cheap. In addition, there isn’t a whole lot of powder in the pans of this palette to make it anywhere close to being worth $38. If you do the math, that means that it basically breaks down to $3.80 for each pan and I think that the highlighter is maybe (heavy emphasis on maybe) the only product in this palette that is close to being worth the $3.80.

I just want to take a quick moment to touch back on the subject of the packaging of this palette; the exterior of this eyeshadow palette is absolutely stunning, but I feel like PUR Cosmetics focused most of their attention on designing the exterior of the palette rather than any other part of the palette. The interior packaging was very cheap looking and was very comparable to the packaging of child’s play makeup. There wasn’t anything about the interior appearance of this palette that made me feel excited and there definitely wasn’t any sort of ‘wow’ factor.

As for the face section of this palette, PUR Cosmetics put in two blushes, one bronzer, and one highlighter. All of these shades have a shine to them, so pairing the bronzer and the highlight shade together in the summer would give my skin a gorgeous sun-kissed glow. The blushes are also very reflective and have some glitter in them; my fair skin doesn’t pair very well with either blush shade.

For my personal preferences, the bronze shade is a little too orange for my skin, but that’s a problem that I normally run into anyway. However, I never really have a problem with blushes not pairing with my skin, so these two blushes are the first blushes that I’ve run into in a little while where I’ve had this problem. I also really don’t like the glitter and shimmer that these blushes have; I personally just feel like these blushes look cheap and won’t pair very well with a lot of skin tones.

As for the eyeshadows that are in this palette, they really aren’t that bad at all! I think that the shade range in the palate is really fun and unique. It’s definitely something that I haven’t ever seen before!

The pigmentation for the eyeshadow formulas has great pigment and didn’t give me too much trouble when it came time to blend everything. I did have a big problem with how much fallout I had with all of the shades, especially the black eyeshadow. I do think that the eyeshadows in this palette are nice, they most definitely aren’t nice enough to make this palette anywhere close to being worth $38.

I also think that either PUR Cosmetics or Boxycharm needs to do a better job on clarifying whether or not the face pigments are eye safe. I looked all over the Internet to see if the face shades were safe for eye use, but I couldn’t do anything. I did have problems with a rash on my arm after I swatched this palette, so I would highly recommend being cautious with this palette if you are someone with sensitive skin!

The PUR Cosmetics The Complexion Authority Midnight Masquerade Palette is just another mediocre, overpriced palette that Boxycharm sent out in October box. I hope Boxycharm starts sending out good palettes in their boxes again because this is just going to be another palette that is going to sit at the bottom of my drawer.

Third product: Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick

Product value: $20

Link to Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BoZXx3pFPpg/

Every Charmer (Boxycharm subscriber) got one Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in their October Boxycharm and all of the shade options that were offered in October’s box are pictured above. Reading through the comments that users left on Instagram, I saw that a lot of people complained about the shade range that Boxycharm was offering in their October box.

There were a lot of brown shades pictured and since Boxycharm doesn’t give you the option to choose what colors you’re interested in receiving, there were a lot of subscribers expressing their concerns about receiving a color they weren’t interested in.

I think that the shade range Boxycharm offered for the October box was a great shade range for fall, so I wasn’t too worried about receiving a shade that I wasn’t interested in using in my box. I love how highly pigmented the lipstick that I received it! I literally can apply two swipes of the lipstick on my lips and I have a full coverage application. Kat Von D is a cruelty-free makeup brand, which is another lovely bonus to this lipstick!

I love my Kat Von D Liquid lipstick. I think it has amazing staying power and isn’t excessively drying feeling and isn’t too tacky. I received the shade ‘Bow ‘n’ Arrow’ which is a soft brown shade that pairs exceptionally well with my everyday fall makeup!

Fourth product: IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara

Product value: $24

IT Cosmetics is a brand that I don’t think I’ve ever received in any of my Boxycharm boxes, so I was really excited to see that Boxycharm introduced a different brand to their box. I love trying out new mascaras and playing around with different types of applicators, so I was really excited to see what the T Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara was going to do for my lashes!

I tried out this mascara on my naked lashes (no primer) to see what type of effect this formula and applicator would have on my lashes. The IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara is claimed to give your lashes a boost of volume and some extra length, with an ultra-conditioning formula packed inside of this uniquely shaped tube.

On my left eye, I have applied two coats of the IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara, while on the right eye I don’t have anything on my lashes. I applied two coats of this mascara on my lashes and didn’t see too much of a difference in my natural lashes. I typically only apply one coat of mascara on my lashes because I always pair falsies on top, but I wanted to give this mascara the chance to see if it would give me the false lash effect that the model shown on the packaging had.

I didn’t get enough of a change in my lashes from this mascara to make me want to not wear false lashes. You can definitely tell that I’m wearing mascara, but there isn’t a drastic change in the volume of my lashes. The IT Cosmetics Superhero Elastic Stretch Volumizing Mascara did give my lashes some additional length, but this is what my lashes normally look like when I’m wearing mascara.

I also discovered that this formula took a really long time to dry. I have hooded eyes so when I opened up my eyes all the way after I applied the mascara, I got smears of mascara on top of my lids. I even waited the same amount of time that I normally wait to open up my eyes after applying mascara to make sure that this wouldn’t happen, but if I had been wearing eyeshadow, this mascara would have gotten on top of my eyeshadow and ruined my look.

I’m happy that I got a full-sized mascara in my October Boxycharm, but I wasn’t very impressed with the actual mascara itself. I hope to see more of IT Cosmetics in upcoming Boxycharm boxes!

Fifth product: Dermovia Lace A Peel Black Bamboo Charcoal Peel Off Mask

Product value: $30

The Dermovia Lace A Peel Black Bamboo Charcoal Peel Off Mask is the product that I’m the most excited about in my October Boxycharm! It’s such a unique idea that I’ve never seen before and it’s so much fun to use.

This is a face mask kit that has a detoxifying charcoal peel paste and two lace compression masks. I think $30 for two masks is really expensive and is way above a price range that I would feel comfortable spending on a mask, as it breaks down to be $15 a mask. I also wish that Dermovia had included a silicone spatula to use to apply the charcoal mask onto your face. Since I didn’t have any silicone spatulas laying around, I had to result to using my fingers, which was really, really messy.

On cleansed skin, you are supposed to apply the detoxifying charcoal peel paste and apply a lace compression mask on top of the peel. There are sections of the lace mask that are cut out for you to be able to slide the mask over the back of your ears, as well as a section of the mask for you to be able to strap the mask onto the back of your neck so the mask doesn’t slide around your neck and chin area.

As a tip of caution, I would highly recommend shaving your face before you try out this mask. If you have a lot of peach fuzz on your face, this mask will pull on all of the peach fuzz that you have on your face (which is really painful). I shave my face weekly to get rid of all of my peach fuzz for a smoother makeup application, but I could definitely feel where I had missed some spots shaving this week.

I was expecting to see some miraculous change in my skin after using one of these masks (considering the price tag), but there wasn’t really any huge difference in my skin after I peeled off on my lace compressions. It did leave my skin feeling a little bit smoother, but it wasn’t impressive enough for me to want to go out of my way to purchase this mask, especially considering the price tag. This mask didn’t pull out any congestion from my pores and it didn’t pull out any blackheads, which wasn’t very exciting. I made sure that my skin was completely clean and that my pores were open before I applied this mask to try to get the best results possible, so I was disappointed that nothing really happened with my skin after I used this mask.

It was a lot of fun to see something new and exciting in my Boxycharm! This Dermovia Lace A Peel Black Bamboo Charcoal Peel-Off Mask was something very different for Boxycharm and it definitely cut through the boring formula that Boxycharm has been sending out in their boxes. Not to mention that this mask fits perfectly in with the spooky vibes in the October box!

Final thoughts on the October Boxycharm

The October Boxycharm was another disappointing box from Boxycharm. Boyxcharm absolutely used to be my favorite subscription box, but I feel that ever since Boxycharm introduced Boxyluxe to their subscribers, the overall quality of the monthly Boxycharm boxes have gone down hill. There wasn’t really any sort of ‘wow’ factor in this box and there weren’t really any products in this box that had me super impressed. It was nice to see a brand that I haven’t seen before in any other of my Boxycharm boxes, but I wasn’t really impressed with anything in this box.

October Glossybox

How much is it? $21 a month/Total value of the October Glossybox: $48.32

What I got in my October Glossybox:

  • Tocca Montauk Candle- Salt Air and Cucumber- $5.04
  • Nails INC Victory Place Nail Polish- $15 (full-sized)
  • Royal Apothic Lip Scrub- $14 (full-sized)
  • Georgette Klinger Rose Clarifying Toner- $6.59
  • Pai-Shau Supreme Revitalizing Mask- $7.69

I always love the packaging of Glossybox so much more than Boxycharm because with Glossybox, it feels so much more personal. The way Glossybox wraps up their boxes with a different colored ribbon each month carefully lays the tissue paper, and color coordinates the crinkled paper in their boxes, really just makes the overall feel of each Glossybox so much more personal, like a friend giving you a gift, than Boxycharm does.

First product: Pai-Shau Supreme Revitalizing Mask

Sample value: $7.69

The Pai-Shau Supreme Revitalizing Mask is a hair masked that is said to help bring bounce and volume to your hair, which is what I mainly look for in my haircare products! The Supreme Revitalizing Mask has a blend of five different types of tea, which help to nourish, strengthen, repair, and exfoliate your hair all at once.

This is a sample size, but it’s one of the biggest hair mask samples that I’ve ever received in a subscription box! When I first opened up this hair mask, I noticed that the scent of this mask was very comparable to the scent of a masculine cologne, which is something that I’ve noticed about all of the hair care samples that I’ve received from Glossybox.

I put this mask in my damp hair and combed it through my hair. After I used this mask, the heavy masculine cologne sent stayed in my hair, which I wasn’t absolutely in love with. Even after I used my regular conditioner, the scent of the hair mask stayed in my hair. However, after my hair dried, I noticed that my hair was a lot softer and shinier looking than it was before I used this mask. I’m not in love with the scent of the mask, but I definitely saw a difference in my hair after using the Pai-Shau Supreme Revitalizing Mask!

Second product: Nails INC Victory Place Nail Polish

Product value: $15

Third product: Georgette Klinger Rose Clarifying Toner

Product value: $6.59

This is a sample size clarifying toner, which is blended with Witch Hazel, Aloe Vera, and antioxidants, from Georgette Klinger. This clarifying toner helps to dissolve the dirt inside of your pores to give your pores a deep cleaning, while also helping to maintain proper pH balance and hydration on your skin.

The scent of this toner isn’t just rose but is a mix of rose, lavender, and jasmine flower that were all mixed together in this formula. I love the rose gold packaging on this toner, it’s definitely very chic and it really stands out from all of the other skin care products that I have laying out on my vanity.

Personally, I’m not a huge believer in the power of toners, as I’ve never really had any success with the dozens of toners that I’ve tried before. However, I read in the note on the magazine that Glossybox left that this toner is great to use for getting any grease or oil buildup off of your face throughout the day. During the summer, I usually just use astringent to wipe off my sweat and grease, but astringent is too drying to use on my skin in the cooler months, so I usually blot it away with a tissue.

However, having this toner to use throughout the day to wipe off the extra grease really made my skin feel so much cleaner! I also noticed a huge decrease in the blackheads that I had in my T-Zone, which is where I primarily focused this toner on. I really don’t like the scent of rose, but I didn’t find this toner to be overpoweringly powdery or floral scented. While I’m glad that this toner isn’t overpoweringly floral scented, I’m still not a huge fan of the scent, which isn’t a huge deal breaker for me because I actually got results using this toner!

I also think that the sample size that Glossybox sent out is really nice! There’s a lot of toners available and even though I’m using it three times a day, I’m not even halfway done the bottle. I’m actually really impressed with this toner and plan on purchasing it once I’m done my sample size!

Fourth product: Tocca Montauk Candle in scent Salt Air and Cucumber

Product value: $5.04

I have never, ever received a candle in any subscription box I’ve ever had in my life, so Glossybox really put in something different in the October box by including a candle! I would maybe expect to see a candle in a lifestyle box, but it was really surprising to see a candle in a beauty subscription box.

This candle has a salty air, cucumber, and seagrass blend and when I smelled this candle, it honestly made me feel like I was right on the beach! The cucumber added a light and refreshing scent to the combination of salty air and sea grass, but I’m so in love with the scent of this candle.

This isn’t a full-sized candle, as the sample size that I got in my October Glossybox was 1.7 ounces. A full-sized candle is 10 ounces and costs around $42.00. Glossybox left an additional tip when talking about this candle, stating that you could use the glass container as a jewelry holder or as home décor after you burn through the entire candle. I’ve always ended up putting my candle jars into recycling, but I’ve never thought about upcycling my candle jars. It’s such a creative thought and I also thought that if neither of those ideas sounded good to you, you could also use the jar as a holder for your Beauty Blender or any blending sponge!

I’m normally very picky about what scents I like, but I’m so in love with how relaxing the scent of this candle is!

Fifth product: InvisibobleSprunchie

Product value: $8

While I don’t think it would be possible to send out sample sizes of a hair band, Glossybox has this InvisibobleSprunchie marked as a full-sized product. I have never received a scrunchie any subscription before, so Glossybox has sent me another unique product that I’ve never seen before!

A sprunchie is a combination of a scrunchie, but instead of a hair-tugging hair band on the inside a scrunchie has a spiral hair ring inside of the hair band, that helps to prevent pulling and tugging. This “sprunchie” was definitely a lot more comfortable to wear than a regular hair band or an actual scrunchie, but my favorite part is the mauve velvet fabric that was used to create this sprunchie!

Considering the color and the velvet fabric, I also think that this sprunchie makes a super adorable fashion statement!

Sixth product: Royal Apothic Lip Scrub

Product value: $14

I have to say that Glossybox has really sent out a handful of unique products in their October box! Unfortunately, the Royal Apothic lip scrub was a bit of a fail for me. As soon as I put this lip scrub on my lips, I started having an allergic reaction. I don’t know what in the product I had a reaction to because there isn’t an ingredient list, but I do know that the flavor of this lip scrub is plum. I’ve never had a problem with plums before, but I wasn’t able to exfoliate my lips with this lip scrub because of the allergic reaction I had as soon as I put this product on my lips.

I think that the packaging for this lip scrub is really cute and unique, but I don’t find that it’s very practical. The packaging for this lip scrub is packaged in a tube, very similar to a tube of paint, which is super unique! But when you puncture the protective layer, a whole bunch of the lip scrub just pores out and gets all over everything. Even after I wiped away the majority of the lip scrub that had poured out of the tube, there was still a lot that had gotten into the cap, and squished out when I put the cap back on the tube. I also found that the cap was very dirty looking and I don’t think it’s from the paper filler in the box.

Final thoughts on the October Glossybox

The October Glossybox box wasn’t the most impressive box that I’ve ever seen from Glossybox before, but I was impressed with the new types of products that they sent out in this box. A candle, lip scrub, and sprunchie are products I’ve never seen in other beauty subscription boxes, so it was nice to see Glossybox come up with something that was creative and unique.

Glossybox sent out two hair products, one candle (that doesn’t fall into any sort of beauty category), one nail product, and two skin care products. For $21, you got a $48 value out of the box, which is basically double the value of what you paid for.

October Glossybox vs October Boxycharm- who won?

I think that this is a tough choice because I don’t think either box was that impressive.

With this month’s Boxycharm, you paid $21 for a total value of $128 in the box. In the October Boxycharm box, I got one hair care product, one skin care product, and three makeup products. On the other hand with this month’s Glossybox, you paid $21 for a total value of just over $48 in the box. In the October Glossybox, I got two skincare samples, one hair care sample, one hair accessory (that was considered a full-sized product in this box), a nail polish (full-sized), and a candle.

While I do feel that the October Boxycharm was disappointing, I do feel like Boxycharm won over Glossybox. For both of the boxes cost the same, you get a much larger value out of the October Boxycharm than you do with the October Glossybox.

Which team are you on- October Boxycharm or October Glossybox?


Glossybox vs. Boxycharm: November Unboxing

November Boxycharm

How much is it? $21 a month/Total value of my November Boxycharm: $113.99

What I got in my November Boxycharm:

  • Cover FX Glitter Drops in ‘Nova’- $44
  • ACE Beaute Grandoise Palette- $24.99
  • Luxie Luminous Eye Set- $21
  • Farah Galaxy Gold Tweezers- $12
  • Bodyography Makeup Brush Cleaner- $12

Each month, Boxycharm sends out boxes that will arrive in your mailbox looking like this and contain between 4-5 full-sized items. Unlike Glossybox, Boxycharm only sends out full-sized products and I’m constantly getting some type of palette in my box. For the majority of the time, I get a lot of eyeshadow palettes, but in the last six months, I’ve received contour palettes, highlighting palettes, and blush palettes in my Boxycharm boxes.

Most of the time I get a lot of luxury brands in my Boxycharm, brands that you can find at Sephora or on the expensive side of Ulta. However, I have received more affordable, indie brands inside of my Boxycharm, but they’re more popular brands, such as Colourpop.  I don’t know how Boxycharm can send out so many high-end brands and products in their boxes for only $21 a month, but that’s the magic that I love from Boxycharm.

One downside that I’ve noticed with Boxycharm in comparison to Glossybox is that Boxycharm sends out their products in a flimsy cardboard box, wrapped in a singular layer of foam. Most of the time, the card that I received in my Boxycharm box comes bent in half. The foam slice that comes in my box protects all of the makeup just seems to be sloppily thrown in my box, making my subscription feel impersonal.

This doesn’t really bother me too much, but if you compare the unboxing of my November Boxycharm and November Glossybox, you’ll notice how the packaging of my Glossybox is a lot more personal and gift-like than what you see with the packaging of my Boxycharm.

The theme for the November Boxycharm is Goal Digger and all of the products that were picked for the November box were chosen by Boxycharm.

First product: Bodyography Makeup Brush Cleaner

Product value: $12

My November Boxycharm is off to a wonderful start with the first item that I pulled out being the Bodyography Makeup Brush Cleaner! I keep talking about how I feel like my Boxycharm boxes were starting to feel very stale, with the same brands and same types of products put on repeat in the last few boxes.

I have never received a makeup brush cleaner in any of my subscription boxes and I’ve never received any products from Bodyography, so it’s double-whammy with this makeup brush cleaner! Not only is this a makeup brush cleaner, but this cleaner also disinfects your makeup brushes with the use of orange peel and gentle cleansers.

I’m so happy that this brush cleaner comes in a spray bottle instead of a bottle that you need to pour the solution from, as it’s so much more convenient! As you’ll see in a little bit, I also got makeup brushes and an eyeshadow palette in my November box, so I’ve been using this brush cleaner to clean the brushes that I’m with this palette to keep the bristles stain-free.

I haven’t really noticed any scent from this brush cleaner, which I don’t mind at all! I love the spray bottle version of this brush cleaner, as it makes it so easy to just spray the formula onto the bristles, wipe, and let my brushes dry. I love how I can be lazy and not have to clean my brushes every week now thanks to this handy brush cleaner! I’m absolutely obsessed!

Second product: Farah Galaxy Gold Tweezers

Product value: $12

I have to say that I wasn’t jumping for joy that I got a pair of tweezers in my Boxycharm, but I think that these are the cutest pair of tweezers I’ve ever seen! In all honesty, I was expecting to receive a pair of lashes, as that’s what I saw that a lot of other charmers were receiving in their boxes, so that’s what was I was really expecting to receive.

These Farah Galaxy Gold Tweezers are dual-ended tweezers, with both sides of the tweezers being designed with surgical stainless steel. The flat side of the tweezers being designed to remove thick, coarse hair and the pointed side of the tweezers being made to tweeze away thin, fine hairs. I love the gold splatter paint design on the tweezers, as it’s very unique!

Third product: Luxie Luminous Eye Set

Product value: $21

I’m so in love with the gold theme going for ¾ of the products that I got in my November Boxycharm! Instead of the term ‘gold digger’, Boxy used a play on words with ‘Goal Digger’ as this month’s theme, but most of the products in this box as gold- so creative! The Luminous Eye Set brushes from Luxie have gold glitter all over the handle of the brushes, which is so cute and super festive!

I received four travel size brushes in the Luxie Luminous Eye Set, which is a limited-edition collection as this set is a Boxycharm collaboration with Luxie. In this Luxie Luminous Eye Set, there are four synthetic eye brushes; there is one Luxie 141 Mini Round brush, a Luxie 121 Mini Tapered brush, a Luxie 111 Mini Flat angled brush, and a Luxie 131 Mini Angled brush. The Luxie 141 Mini Round brush is recommended to be used for smoking out your bottle lash line, while the Luxie 121 Mini Tapered brush allows you to blend color into your crease.

As for the Luxie 111, Mini Flat Angled Brush is the perfect brush to pack on cream products onto your lid or to blend out any harsh lines. Lastly, the Luxie 131 Mini Angled rush has the perfect shape to seamlessly add a pop of color onto your lid or to make that brow bone pop with highlight.

I love the handle of these brushes, but I’m really in love how easy these brushes are to work with. I do think that these brushes would be perfect to travel around with and still be able to achieve a variety of different makeup looks, but I’ve been loving using these brushes even when I’m not traveling.

I love how small the bristles are, which really allows me to go in and pack color into exactly where I want it. The brushes themselves are lightweight and are very comfortable to hold, but the size of the bristles has really allowed me to go and create flawless eye looks! I didn’t even know that I needed travel size makeup brushes to up my makeup game, but I’m so grateful that Boxycharm sent these travel size brushes from Luxie so that I was able to discover that for myself!

Fourth product: Cover FX Glitter Drops in ‘Nova’

Product value: $44

Cover FX is another brand that I really love, but it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the brand in any of my subscription boxes. The Cover FX Glitter Drops in ‘Nova’ is a holiday exclusive shade, but seeing these glitter drops in my Boxycharm was a lovely surprise. I got the shade ‘Nova’ from the Cover FX Glitter Drops and I wouldn’t have picked this shade out for myself as it’s a little dark, but I can’t wait to use these drops all over my body in the summer sunlight!

The glitter in these drops are absolutely gorgeous, I love the hints of blue, pink, and green that I got from the glitter, while the finish of the drops still had that high impact reflective finish. Boxycharm says that these glitter drops can be used alone, underneath makeup, over top of your makeup, or mixed in with foundation (or moisturizer) to give you a luxurious, glittery glow.

While the finish and the glitter of the glitter drops are absolutely stunning, I’m also in love with how the formula feels on my skin. I expected these drops to feel heavy, greasy, and gritty, as that’s the experience that I’ve had with other glitter drops, but it was the exact opposite with these glitter drops from Cover FX!

I also used these glitter drops onto my eyes and didn’t have any problems with glitter transferring and getting into my eye. I do think that the glitter drops are so much more stunning when you can see them in a large area, as that’s when you can see the multi-dimensions of the glitter. Packed into a tight space on my eye, it just looked like I was wearing a wet gold metallic, so the glitter really didn’t show up too well when I used these drops for eye makeup.

But when on larger areas of my skin, these drops were lightweight, breathable, and felt like I was just putting on a lightweight moisturizer on my body. The glitter wasn’t gritty or sharp feeling but just blended into my skin with little effort. I do have to say that I would like to find a more efficient way of blending these drops onto my skin, as I just used my hand to rub the drops onto my arm and face, but as I did that I noticed a lot of the glitter transferred over to my hand and stayed there.

Fifth product: ACE Beaute Grandoise Palette

Product value: $24.99

Yes, finally an amazing palette in my Boxycharm! The last couple of months, the quality of the palettes that Boxycharm has been choosing has started to go downhill and I’ve been complaining about it a lot. But the ACE Beaute Grandoise Palette is an absolutely stunning palette and for it being just under $25, I’m really shocked to see an affordable and high-quality palette in my box! It’s like Boxycharm did a complete 180 compared to the last couple of boxes (and palettes) that they’ve sent out.

First, the packaging of this palette is palette is so classy and luxe looking. It’s has a solid cardboard cover and back, but the only small downside is that this palette doesn’t come with a mirror. The gold on the packaging does have a metallic finish and the Grandiose Palette name is on the spine of the exterior of the palette- so chic!

The shade names in this palette are:

  • Jasmine
  • Clove
  • Myrtle
  • Cinnamon
  • Patchouli
  • Rose
  • Poppy
  • Primerose

All of the shades in this palette are absolutely gorgeous (I’m head over heels in love with this palette)! The only shade that I had any problems with was Cloveand that was because when I put my brush into the shade, I had problems with a lot of kickback from that pan. It wasn’t anything that I couldn’t handle and it wasn’t super excessive, but I did have to remove the loose powder to avoid it mixing with the other pans in this palette.

All of the shades in this palette were highly pigmented, blended out like a dream, and were buttery to the touch. The metallic shades in this palette are absolutely gorgeous, but what I’m really impressed with in this palette are the mattes! Poppy, Rose, and Cinnamon were the shades that I was expecting to have problems with patchiness, but instead, all three shades were highly pigmented and weren’t patchy!

When I did my eye makeup with this palette, the mattes blended out seamlessly (thanks to the help of my Luxie Luminous brushes) and I didn’t have any problems with excessive fallout. I did have a little bit of fall out with Clove and Poppy, but it wasn’t enough fallout to leave streaks across my under-eye area or completely ruin my face makeup.

My favorite shades out of this palette are Myrtle, Poppy, Cinnamon, and Rose, as while warm tone palettes have been extremely popular this year, these shades aren’t hues that I’ve seen in any other palette. The ACE Beaute Grandiose Palette is such a gorgeous palette and is worth way more than $25! At $25, it’s an absolute steal and seeing a palette that’s this luxe in my Boxycharm has re-instilled a lot of my hope for Boxycharm!

Final thoughts on the November Boxycharm

Yes, Boxycharm! You did amazing this month! I’m absolutely blown away by the quality of all of the products that I got inside of my November Boxycharm. The only product that I questioned the value of at first was the Farah Galaxy Gold Tweezers, but even the tweezers have a unique flair to them and are totally special looking!

I’ve said a few times that I’ve noticed that the overall quality of Boxycharm has started to go downhill after Boxyluxe got introduced to the world. Next month (December), Boxycharm will be sending out their second ever Boxyluxe box, so I’m really happy that the November Boxycharm wasn’t terrible. This month’s box was overall a really nice and creative box from Boxycharm and I hope more boxes like this will be sent out in the next few months.

Let’s see what the November Glossybox has in store for us!

November Glossybox

How much is it? $21 a month/Total value of the November Glossybox: $89.56

What I got in my November Glossybox:

  • Steve Laurant Lip Gloss in ‘Eggplant’ – $22
  • Robin McGraw Revelation Georgia Moisturizing Hand Cream by Robin McGraw- $20
  • Cirem HCR 3-in-1 Sheet Mask- $22
  • Kenra Shaping Spray- $3.56
  • Lauren B. Beauty Reparative Cuticle Oil- $22

First product: Cirem HCR 3-in-1 Sheet Mask (set of two)

Product value: $22

The two Cirem HCR 3-in-1 sheet masks were the first items that I pulled out of my November Glossybox! The packaging for these face masks is so engaging and one of the most unique packaging styles that I’ve ever seen for a face mask. This HCR 3-in-1 facial sheet mask will revitalize, refresh, restore, and give your skin a hydration boost with the help of retinol, Vitamin C, and Hyaluronic Acid.

I absolutely love the size of this face mask! Most of the face masks that I use will barely reach to the top of my forehead and the edges of my ears, but this face mask was big enough to reach across my entire face and my neck! I typically apply a different type of face mask on my neck when I’m using a sheet mask, because most of the face masks I use don’t even come close to touching my neck. I’m so happy that this face mask was large enough to give my neck some love!

I also really enjoyed the scent of this mask, as I wasn’t really expecting this sheet mask to have any sort of scent to it when I pulled it out. The overall scent of this mask was a little heavy on the floral side, which got to be a bit overpowering when I had the mask on for a little while, but it wasn’t too overpowering to where I had to take the mask off.

I also ended up putting the sheet mask back in the bag because there was so much extra serum left in the bag when I first took the mask out. The first application of this sheet mask left my skin with a lot of excess serum on it, but the second time that I applied the same sheet mask that had soaked up the excess serum that was left in the bag, it wasn’t as oversaturated feeling.

After using this sheet mask, my skin felt very hydrated and my skin had a wonderful glow to it! My skin looked so much healthier, and as someone who doesn’t really believe that sheet masks really work, I’m so very impressed by how different my skin looked after using this Cirem HCR 3-in-1 sheet mask.

Second product: Robin McGraw Revelation Georgia Moisturizing Hand Cream

Product value: $20

Robin McGraw is a brand that I’ve never heard of before and it’s been a long time since I’ve received any sort of hand cream in any subscription box. I was really expecting this hand cream to smell like Peach because of the peach-colored packaging and the ‘Georgia’ product name (as in Georgia Peach).

I was really confused when I smelled the hand lotion and there wasn’t any trace of a peach scent, but when I read the little excerpt that Glossybox wrote about this hand lotion, I found out that this lotion is actually named after Robin McGraw’s mother. This lotion has a combination of mango butter and antioxidant-rich milk.

I really don’t like using hand creams because they usually take a long time to absorb, feels greasy, and using hand cream makes it really hard to grip anything until after the cream absorbs into your hands because everything becomes slippery. Glossybox states that this hand cream is lightweight, is fast absorbing and leaves skin feeling smooth but not slippery.

I disagree with all of the statements that Glossybox made about this lotion, as I had all of those problems with this lotion. I also really didn’t enjoy the scent of this hand lotion, as it had a very similar scent to a heavily floral perfume. Also, when I originally pulled this lotion out of my Glossybox, I thought that this was just a sample size of a full-sized product. It turns out that this is actually the full-sized product. For $20, this is a very small amount of lotion and I honestly don’t think it’s worth the money.

Third product: Lauren B. Beauty Reparative Cuticle Oil

Product value: $22

This is another full-sized product in the November Glossybox, but I’m not very excited about it because I feel like it’s another overpriced full-sized product in this month’s box. This is a reparative cuticle oil from Lauren B. Beauty that has accustom blend of fourteen plan and flower oils that help to heal and revive cuticles.

Inside of this cuticle oil, there are amino acids and the oils inside of the cuticle oil hydrate and soothe the cuticle area for healthy looking and feeling skin. One thing that I did enjoy about this reparative cuticle oil was the dropper tip that came in this tube, as it allowed me to easily apply and rub the cuticle oil on my cuticle oils. I’ve also had cuticle oils that have had a brush applicator, but I feel like the dropper tip was a lot easier to use and wasn’t as messy as the brush option.

I found that this cuticle oil took a really long time to absorb into my skin, so this is a product that would be better used at night. I also found that it was difficult to control how much oil was coming out of the tube, which left me with big pools of oil around my fingers. I do think that the packaging for the Lauren B. Beauty Reparative Cuticle Oil is really cute, but this is another disappointing product in my November Glossybox.

Fourth product: Kenra Shaping Spray 21

Sample value: $3.56

Glossybox subscribers either received a Dry Oil Control Spray or a Shaping Spray 21 from Kenra. I’m really glad that I got the hairspray option instead of the dry shampoo, as it’s not very often that you see hairspray samples in subscription boxes. This is the only sample size product that is in the November Glossybox, which I’m kind of sad about because this is definitely my favorite product in the entire box.

The full-sized hairspray is valued at $19 for 8 ounces, but I really love how I was able to sculpt my hair after I applied this hairspray! I normally pin my hair up in a poof, so I always carry about a can of hairspray in my purse for touchups throughout the day. I absolutely love the smell of this perfume and this travel size sample fits perfectly inside of my purse!

I can easily fix my hair and re-spray this hairspray without having hairspray flakes or my hair looking crunchy. The Kenra Shaping Spray 21 doesn’t have any alcohol in it but also has a special ingredient in the formula that helps your scalp to retain moisture, helping to keep your hair shiny and healthy looking.

This hairspray doesn’t last as long as the hairspray that I normally use, but I love the scent of it and I love how I can still style my hair even after having already sprayed my hair with this hairspray.

Fifth product: Steve Laurant Lip Gloss in ‘Eggplant’

Product value: $22

The Steve Laurant Lip Gloss in ‘Eggplant’ is the last product that I received in my November Glossybox and it’s a makeup product, which is a change from the other hair care, nail hair, and skin care products that I received in my box. Steve Laurant is a brand that I’ve been introduced to through Ipsy, so I am familiar with Steve Laurant’s lip glosses.

The lip gloss that I received is in shade ‘Eggplant’ which is a deep burgundy color, a perfect color for any sultry or glam makeup that you’re planning for Thanksgiving! I really love the other lip glosses that I’ve received from Steve Laurant, but I’ve only tried their clear lip glosses. The formula for this lip gloss is very sticky and patchy, which I found to be really surprising because I haven’t had any problem with excessive stickiness with the clear glosses from Steve Laurant.

The actual shade of this lip gloss is really pretty, but I had to apply several coats of the gloss on my hand to get a solid swatch of color. The applicator is your typical dough foot applicator and isn’t anything special or unique. I would be okay with having to apply several swatches of this lip gloss to get a solid coat of color on my pout if this gloss was high shine, but this lip gloss isn’t very shiny.

For $22, you can get better lip glosses from drugstore brands in very similar shades. I wasn’t impressed at all with this lip gloss and it was more of a hassle to try to get this lip gloss to work for me than what I would expect out of a high-end lip gloss. I’m happy to have received a makeup product in my Glossybox, but this isn’t a makeup product that really has any quality to it.

Final thoughts of the November Glossybox

This month’s Glossybox was really quite a flop. It was surprising to see that most of the products inside of this month’s box were full-sized (four out of the five products were full-sized), but really the only two products that I actually liked in this box were the sample size hairspray and the face masks. Besides the hairspray and the two face masks, I feel that everything else in this box is extremely overpriced. I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the lip gloss, cuticle oil, or the hand cream. While I do think that the packaging for all of these products was really cute, I know you can purchase the lip gloss, cuticle oil, and hand cream from different brands at a much more affordable price and get a higher-quality product.

November Glossybox vs Boxycharm- who won?

Boxycharm absolutely killed it this month! For both boxes being $21 each, you got $24.43 more value out of the November Boxycharm ($113 value) in comparison to the November Glossybox ($89 value). Not to mention that I love all of the products that I got in my Boxycharm whereas with Glossybox, there will only be two products that I will be continuing to use from this month’s box.

Who do you think is the winner of this month’s battle of the boxes- Boxycharm or Glossybox?


Boxycharm

Boxycharm vs Glossybox December 2018 Unboxing

Glossybox

  • How much is it? $21 a month
  • A total value of my December Glossybox: $122.50
  • What I got in my December Glossybox:
  • Becca Cosmetics Liquid Crystal Lip Topper Glow Gloss- $22
  • Luna by Luna Translucent Powder- $22
  • Copper + Crane Radiance Mask- $45
  • Jafra Luxury Lip Liner in Victoria- $14
  • Kryolan Highlighter in ‘Cashmere’- $19.50

The packaging for the December Glossybox had me so excited! Inside my Glossybox, I received a gift card from Velvet, which is an eyewear company. A nice bonus to have inside of the December Glossybox that was completely unexpected! Also, I think this is the first box that this has ever happened with me, but everything that I got inside of my December Glossybox is full-sized!

First product: Luna by Luna Translucent Powder

  • Product value: $22

I have never received a full-sized translucent powder in any subscription box that I’ve ever had! I’m familiar with the Luna by Luna brand, but I’ve never tried out their translucent setting powder. I have to admit that I thought that this was a sample size translucent setting powder, as the container only holds .17 ounces worth of product, whereas other popular translucent setting powders on the market have 2 or more ounces worth of translucent powder.

After seeing that this was a full-sized product, I was a little shocked to see the price tag that came along with such a small amount. When I applied this powder to my face, I quickly realized that I didn’t need a lot of this powder to set my foundation. I didn’t use this powder to bake my face, as I’m not really a person that bakes my foundation, but I do set my liquid or cream foundation with a setting powder. A little bit of this powder on my face set my face, kept my skin looking matte, and didn’t change the color of my foundation.

I have very oily skin, but my skin doesn’t produce as much oil in the dry and cooler months as it does in the humidity. Since it’s the middle of December, my skin isn’t producing too much oil, but still leans on the greasier side. Using this translucent setting powder, I didn’t have to touch up my face throughout the day to keep my skin from looking too greasy. Glossybox made a little statement about how the formulation of the translucent powder from Luna by Luna has ingredients in it to absorb excess oil throughout the day, which I believe is a part of the reason why I didn’t have to touch up throughout the day.

For as little powder that I used to set my face, this translucent powder will definitely last me a month or two with everyday makeup applications. I was also impressed that there wasn’t any heavy scent with this powder, which is different than a few other popular translucent setting powders that I use to control my oily skin!

Second product: Copper + Crane Radiance Mask

  • Product value: $45

The Copper + Crane Radiance Mask was a mask that I was expecting to not really work with my skin, especially because I don’t normally find success with face masks that a lot of other people enjoy. Copper + Crane is a brand that I’ve never had any experience with, but I’m absolutely obsessed this peel off radiance mask!

This peel off mask has minerals and anti-pollutants in it that help to detox your skin, leaving your skin with a healthy glow after you remove the peel from your face. I wasn’t expecting too much from this mask, but after three uses, I have noticed a subtle difference in the appearance of my acne scarring. All of the scarrings on my face hasn’t disappeared, but I do notice a difference in how dark my newer acne scars and redness looks. I didn’t think that I would ever voluntarily spend $45 on a face mask, but I’m absolutely hooked to the results I see and feel on my face after using this mask.

Not to mention that the packaging for this face mask is so luxurious looking! The packaging for this mask looks very expensive, which matches the price tag that comes along with this Copper + Crane Radiance Mask. The most exciting part of this mask is the color of the actual peel off mask itself, which is a stunning metallic copper! I’ve never seen a mask this color or with such unique packaging, but the Copper + Crane Radiance Mask has both!

The only problem that I had with this mask is that if you don’t apply a thick enough layer of this mask, it’s really hard to peel off. But even with a thick layer of this mask, it only takes about fifteen minutes to dry down enough to peel off, so I would highly recommend making sure that you’re applying a thick enough layer to make peeling easier!

Fourth product: Kryolan Highlighter in ‘Cashmere’

  • Product value: $19.50

For as popular as highlighters are in the beauty community, I don’t get very many highlighters in my subscription boxes. I have received a few highlight palettes throughout this year’s collection of subscription boxes, but it’s been a long time since I’ve received an individual highlighter. This is a cream highlighter from Kryolan, in shade ‘Cashmere’, which has a subtle champagne golden glow to it.

I’m not someone who purchases a lot of cream highlighters, mainly because they don’t pair very well with my oily skin. For my winter makeup routine, I think that this cream highlighter gives my skin that gentle ‘inner glow’ without looking cakey or making my skin look greasy. This is a buildable highlighter, so it takes a few swipes to get an opaque finish.

I personally don’t feel like this highlighter is blinding enough to wear on my full-glam days, but I do enjoy laying my highlighters, so I apply this cream highlighter as a base on my cheekbones and I set it with a powder highlighter to get a more intense glow. For the days that I’m wearing more natural makeup, the Kryolan Highlighter gives me the perfect subtle glow!

Fifth product: Becca Liquid Crystal Lip Topper Glow Gloss

  • Product value: $22

I literally gasped when I pulled out this Becca Liquid Crystal Lip Topper! The packaging is so stunning and ties right into the holographic design of Glossybox box. Becca Cosmetics is a brand that I don’t see very often in my subscription boxes and I only ever really see beauty YouTubers using the highlighters that Becca Cosmetics sells.

This Liquid Crystal Lip Topper is severely under-rated and gave my lips such a strong glow game! The kaleidoscopic pearls in this lip gloss gave my lips a holographic shine, without feeling drying (thanks to a combinations of hydrating oils) and wasn’t sticky at all! Glossybox says that this lip gloss has a faint scent of coconut and vanilla, but I didn’t pick up on any scent from this gloss.

As with everything else inside of the December Glossybox, the Becca Liquid Crystal Lip Topper is a full-sized lip gloss. This gloss is translucent and isn’t filled with huge chunks of glitter, but instead has micro-fine glitter in it to give your lips a gentle glow. I didn’t find this lip gloss to be excessively sticky, although it was a little thick feeling on my lips. I did like that I was able to build up coverage of this lip gloss by applying several layers, but I have found that I love this lip gloss the most when I use it as a lip topper! The holographic shine of this lip gloss is a lot more prevalent when I top a dark lip sticks, but if you’re looking for a natural looking glow, it does a great job giving your lips a nice shine when topped on a natural lip color. In my opinion, this is the best product in the December Glossybox and I’m so excited that I got a full-sized product and not a sample size of this gloss!

Final thoughts on the December Glossybox:

Glossybox did an absolutely amazing job with their December box! This month’s box has an estimated value of $122 and having only paid $21 for everything that I got inside of this box, I know I most definitely got my money’s worth. I’ve never received a box from Glossybox that contained nothing but full-sized products, so having this month’s box being nothing but full-sized products is a first for me!

I’m also absolutely obsessed with the packaging of the actual box itself; I feel like Glossybox is the only subscription box that I have that went all out for December with their packaging and the quality of the overall box.

I’m so happy with the quality of everything that I received and it was really nice to see some not-so-commonly-found brands inside this box. This box was a breath of fresh air with the assortment of brands and the unique products (have you ever seen a copper face mask?) that were inside of this box.

Great job this month, Glossybox!

BoxyCharm

Each quarter, BoxyCharm launches a special Box, called Boxyluxe, and guess what? December was the case! So, there’s no Boxycharm unboxing review for this month but you can check my Boxyluxe unboxing. It’s worth it.


Boxycharm vs glossybox
Boxycharm vs Glossybox January 2019 Unboxing

We’re starting off 2019 comparing the January Boxycharm vs January Glossybox, so start placing your bets on who you think is going to win the battle of the boxes this month! Let’s see what these boxes have in store for us.

January Boxycharm

  • How much is it? $21 a month
  • Total value of my January Boxycharm: $110

What I got in my January Boxycharm:

  • Briogeo Roscaro Milk Reparative Leave-In Conditioner Spray- $12
  • Ora Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick- $20
  • Tarte Limited-Edition Rainforest of the Sea Highlighting Eyeshadow Palette Volume III- $36
  • Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Face Mask (two pack)- $24
  • Billion Dollar Brows Universal Brow Pencil- $18

Just as a bit of a spoiler alert, don’t get your hopes up about the January Boxycharm box if you’re hoping for a refreshing box after their second release of Boxyluxe. The January Boxycharm wasn’t refreshing and isn’t really any different than the basic formula that Boxycharm has been sending out these last few months.

In case you read past the spoiler alert, the theme for the January Boxycharm is ‘Boxy and Chill’ and the design on the card that Boxycharm sends out is fun and interesting, definitely very different than a lot of the most serious, boss-babe centered boxes that they are done in the last couple of months.

First product: Tatcha Luminous Dewy Skin Face Mask (two pack)

  • Product value: $24

Tatcha is a brand that I’ve heard so many wonderful things about from popular beauty bloggers, so I’ve always been inclined to try out their masks to see if they really do wonders for your skin. Tatcha is also a brand that I have ever seen featured before in Boxycharm, so I am glad to see that Boxycharm is slowly starting to add new brands to their boxes.

One thing that I do really like about Boxycharm is that when they send out skin care products (which only ever happens to be masked), Boxycharm doesn’t cheap out and only send one mask. At the minimum, I’ve always received at least two masks in my Boxycharm box, which means that I at least get the chance to see if I truly like the masks or not. Most of the time I at least receive three masks, so only having gotten the two masks in this month’s box is along the lines of being at a bare minimum for Boxycharm.

Second product: Briogeo Roscaro Reparative Leave-In Conditioning Spray

  • Product value: $12

Boxycharm is known for being a subscription box that sends out nothing but full-sized products in all of their boxes. Boxycharm never, ever sends out samples sized products- right?

I have sad news, as in the January box, Boxycharm has sent out a sample size of the Briogeo Roscaro Reparative Leave-in Conditioning spray. The full-sized (standard size) of this leave-in conditioner is 8 ounces, while the sample size that we received in the January Boxycharm was only 2 ounces, which is only a quarter of the size of the full-sized version.

This leave-in conditioning spray that subscribers received in the January Boxycharm is valued at $12 by Boxycharm, which isn’t an accurate value. For the full-sized value of the 8 ounce bottle being $24, the 2 ounce bottle is actually valued at $6. Not only am I extremely disappointed in Boxycharm trying to pull the wool over their subscriber’s eyes by sending out a sample size product in a box that claims to only send out full-sized products in their boxes.

Secondly, I think it’s even sneakier that Boxycharm is inflating the value of the leave-in conditioner, making their subscribers thinking that they’re getting a higher value out of the January box than what subscribers are actually getting. This is super sneaky behavior and it’s totally unacceptable that Boxycharm is now lying to their subscribers.

Not to mention that I literally just received a leave-in conditioner from Briogeo in a box that I received two or three months ago, so I got a repeat product in this month’s box. The leave-in conditioner isn’t terrible, it doesn’t have an overpowering smell, but it’s not something that I love either.  Boxycharm is supposed to be above other subscription boxes (Sephora Play, ipsy, Birchbox) because of their higher pricing, but I receive so many conditioner samples in my other subscription boxes, it’s so disappointing to get a repeat product of something that’s not really all that great in my January Boxycharm.

Third product: Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick in ‘Havana Nights’

  • Product value: $20

Boxycharm is off to a really, really poor start for January, so I did have hope that things would start to pick up from here. This Ofra Cosmetics liquid lipstick is described as a matte liquid lipstick that not only delivers long lasting color, but also perfectly outlines your lips. Boxycharm states on the card that they sent out that this liquid lipstick ‘stays put all day with minimal transfer’ while also being extremely comfortable to wear.

The shade ‘Havana Nights’ is a very pretty color and the dark red shade of this lipstick will fit in perfectly with my lipstick arsenal for my dark, winter looks. I am someone who enjoys wearing dark lipsticks, so I was honestly pretty excited with the color that I had received in my January box. When I was looking Boxycharm’s Instagram, I read that there wasn’t a set shade or a set brand that they were going to send out in their January box. It was like what Boxycharm had done with a previous box where they had just sent out an assortment of different shades from an assortment of different brands so every subscriber received a random shade.

I was really excited to try out this lipstick because I haven’t really had too much exposure to Ofra cosmetics, and the last time that I had received Ofra Cosmetics in any of my Boxycharm boxes was when I signed up for Boxycharm almost two years ago. I was nervous when I open up this lipstick because when I pulled out the wand, I saw a giant clump of lipstick just sitting on the dough foot applicator, so I was initially worried that this lipstick was going to be excessively drying and clumpy.

If you want the short version, this Ofra Cosmetics lipstick in ‘Havana Nights’ is just as disappointing as everything else in this box has been so far. While I did enjoy the shade of this liquid lipstick, the formula of this lipstick just had a really long dry time. I left this liquid lipstick dry down on my hand for a couple of minutes just to see how the formula was going to set, what the finished look like, and if it was really transferred proof.

I gave this lipstick around five minutes to dry and when I went to go swatch my hand, the lipstick completely smeared. The formula never really dried down into a matte finish like I was expecting it to, because of what Boxycharm said in their note, but this liquid lipstick did have more of a glossy finish. This liquid lipstick isn’t really what I expected it to be in the sense of it drying down like a liquid lipstick actually does, but instead, it’s more of a highly pigmented lipstick. It has no staying power whatsoever, even with just one quick swipe of my finger moving over the swipe, there was a ton of transfer.

Before placing any final judgment, I did go ahead and decide to try out this liquid lipstick on my actual lips for an all-day wear test. I basically got the same exact result is what I was expecting to get after ice watch this lipstick on the back of my hand. I had to touch up this liquid lipstick so much throughout the day because it just kept wearing off of my lips. Every time I ate or drank or moved my mouth, I literally had those lipsticks transferring onto something else; even throughout the day as I was speaking, I would get little lines on the bottom of my chin from the lipstick moving onto my actual face. The formula never dries down into a matte lipstick as Boxycharm said even on my actual lip instead it dries down more in a sense of what lipstick does but not a full-on actual liquid lipstick.

For this being a $20 ‘long lasting’ liquid lipstick from Ofra Cosmetics, I really could not find any reason to justify the price tag that comes with this lipstick. Boxycharm used to be a subscription where I would be introduced to new brands and new at standing quality pieces of makeup that really blew me away, but this is the third product that I got in the January Boxycharm and this is another extreme disappointment.

The quality in this liquid lipstick is just not there and I’m so surprised that Boxycharm actually thought that this would be a successful formula to put inside of their box. I know that all the subscribers each got a random lipstick from a random brand so I hope that other subscribers out there had a more successful experience with the lipstick that they received in their boxes. However, I know that there are other people out there who also received the same lipstick and the same as shade that I got, so it makes me really sad to see that so far, the January Boxycharm has been a total flop.

Fourth product: tarte Rainforest of the Sea Volume III Eyeshadow + Highlighting Palette

  • Product value: $36

I will admit that I was honestly really excited to see that we were going to be receiving a product from tarte cosmetics in the January box. I absolutely love tarte cosmetics; I feel like a lot of their products really break up the monotony that I see with a lot of makeup brands. But, I will admit that the tarte rainforest of the sea collection is not a favorite of mine. I received the tarte Rainforest of the Sea Vol 1 eyeshadow palette in a previous Boxycharm and it really just wasn’t something that I loved at all. I feel like the tarte Rainforest of the Sea Eyeshadow Palettes are very boring, they’re very bland, and last time I wasn’t very impressed with the blend ability in the Volume I eyeshadow palette.

I was really excited to see what the Rainforest of the Sea Volume III eyeshadow palette had in store for me, because I had honestly no idea that tarte had released a second and a third volume of the Rainforest of the Sea collection. Upon opening the Rainforest of the Sea Volume 3 eyeshadow palette, I saw that this eyeshadow palette was basically exactly what I had received in my January Boxycharm from 2018.

I know that this palette isn’t exactly the same as the volume 1 palette, but in terms of changing up the color or the color scheme in this palette, the volume 1 eyeshadow palette that I received in my January 2018 Boxycharm is very similar to the eyeshadow pot that I received in my January 2019 Boxycharm.

Despite being unhappy with the color selection of the volume 3 palette and how similar it was to the volume 1 palette, I did have hopes for tarte having changed the blendability and the formula for the new release. On the card on the card that Boxycharm sent out with the January box, it says that this tarte eyeshadow palette is limited-edition. Now at first, I thought it was really fun that Boxycharm that had sent out a limited-edition eyeshadow palette in the January box, but again this was before I even open up the pallet to see what it look like, sorry I was kind of surprised to see that it was very similar to previous releases that we had seen from tarte Cosmetics.

Before I go any further, I do want to take a second and mention that I have seen several YouTubers and beauty bloggers question the authenticity of this tarte eyeshadow palette. If you look closely at the pictures I have shown you up close of the pallet, you may notice that there is a drastic difference in the filling of each individual pan in this palette. The shade that I noticed happy biggest problem with being under filled was the dark brown pan in this palette, but all of the shapes in this palette were under filled or overfilled, so I could really definitely see drastic differences in what pans weren’t exactly filled all the way.

I know that’s tarte is a high-end brand, so tarte selling this eyeshadow palette for $36 isn’t too surprising, because that’s what they normally sell these smaller size eyeshadow palettes for. However, I was very surprised in the poor quality and the poor attention paid to this eyeshadow palette, especially seeing that I wasn’t the only one who had also run into the problem of my pans in the pallet being unevenly filled.

I know that this problem definitely falls more into tarte’s hands than it does on Boxycharm, but because of the overall poor quality of the other products that I had received into my January Boxycharm, it was really not too shocking to see that this pallet was poorly put together. I do wish the Boxycharm had paid better attention to the quality of their products that they were putting out in this month’s box.

Put aside my feelings for how poorly constructed and generic this palette is, I’m also very confused at why this eyeshadow palette only has one matte shade. I personally think that this eyeshadow palette would have gone over a much better if it had been marked as a highlighting palette and not as an eyeshadow palette, because all of the shades are very similar and very reflective.

As to be expected, I did have a lot of problems with the dark brown shade having a lot of fallout, but even the gold and some of the lighter cream shades had a decent amount of fallout. I personally have stopped trying to use this eyeshadow palette as an eyeshadow palette, because it really does wasn’t working for me in that sense, but I do like some of the shade in this palette for highlighters. That’s really the only way that I have found this eyeshadow palette to truly work for me. I don’t think that this pallet is worth anywhere near the $36 that it’s being sold for, so while I am happy to see one of my favorite high-end brands in my January Boxycharm, but the quality of this eyeshadow palette isn’t what I expect to receive in my Boxycharm boxes.

To try to end this section of the review off on a positive note, I did really enjoy the exterior packaging on the tarte Rainforest of the Sea palette. At first, I thought the design on the outside of the palette was supposed to be peacock feathers, but looking at the palette again, I realized that the pattern is supposed to be mermaid scales. The packaging is very fun and definitely sticks out from the rest of the palettes I own!

Fifth product: Billon Dollar Brows Universal Brow Pencil

  • Product value: $18

The last product that I received in my January Boxycharm is from Billion Dollar Brows, their Universal Brow Pencil. I am so excited to have received a brow product my Boxycharm because it’s been such a long time since I had received anything like that in any of my Boxycharm boxes.

I also like that this brow pencil has a spoolie on the opposite end of the actual pencil itself. The retail value for this eyebrow pencil is $18, so while I was a little surprised by how high the price tag of this brow pencil is, it’s really one of the biggest brow pencils that I’ve seen in a long time.

The formula itself is super creamy and just glides onto my skin.  I received a darker brown shade and because I am a natural brunette, this brow shade was a perfect match for my brows. I don’t know if everybody received a brow color based on the beauty profile that they submit to Boxycharm or if subscriber just received the same brow shade, but for me this Billion Dollar Brows Universal Brow pencil is the only win in my January Boxycharm. I have been using this on a daily basis and I have noticed that on parts of your face where you don’t have a lot of real hair, this brow pencil does lift pretty easily, but I have found that setting this brow pencil with some brow powder on top stops the lifting up from happening.

Final thoughts on my January Boxycharm

My January Boxycharm was absolutely the worst box that I’ve ever received from Boxycharm.  I was really expecting Boxycharm to put out a stellar box to start 2019 off right, especially to try to make a good impression on all of the new subscribers who received a Boxycharm for Christmas. The only product that I think is semi-decent in my January box is the brow pencil, but even at that, I still that the brow pencil is overpriced.

I’m so disappointed in Boxycharm lying and misleading their subscribers, but I do hope that Boxycharm makes up for it in February. Hopefully, my January Glossybox will make up for all of the disappointment that the January Boxycharm caused!

Let’s see what I got in my January Glossybox!

January Glossybox

  • How much is it? $21 a month
  • Total value of my January Glossybox: $151.05

What I got in my January Glossybox:

  • Sleek Makeup Highlighter Palette- $14.99
  • Avant Skincare Deluxe Hyaluronic Acid Vivifying Face and Eye Night Cream- $120
  • Kocostar Lemon Slice Mask- $5
  • Zea Beauty Wipes- $2
  • Differn Adapalene Gel 0.1% Acne Treatment- $9.06

December Glossybox was absolutely outstanding and I was one of the best boxes I had ever received from Glossybox before. Glossybox isn’t one of my favorite subscription boxes, because it is at the same price ranges Boxycharm is, but with Glossybox you get a mix of full size and travel-size samples.

In my personal opinion, I have received a lot more skin care items that I have makeup with Glossybox, and as a makeup lover, I prefer to receive makeup samples over skincare samples. I am so impressed with the overall quality of my January Glossybox, especially after looking how poorly made my January Boxycharm was. Spoiler alert: Glossybox definitely kicked Boxycharm out of the race for this month.

When I first opened up my January Boxycharm box, I received a coupon for a free Beauty bag that was for the $145 from a store cold skin store called Skinstore.

First product: Kocostar Lemon Slice Mask

  • Product value: $5

The first thing that I received side of my January Glossybox was the Kocostar Lemon Slice Mask. I absolutely love the packaging of the lemon slice sheet mask I’m also really excited that I’m being introduced to a new skincare friends I’ve never had any exposure to. This is a full-sized skin care item, or is it $5 for one sheet mask.

I personally wouldn’t go out of my way to pay $5 for a single use sheet mask, I do feel like the overall quality of the sheet not very impressive. As soon as I opened up the sheet mask, I was greeted with a lovely lemon scent that wasn’t too overpowering and didn’t have any faint artificial scent to it. As somebody with severe acne scarring, I often am told as a piece of beauty advice to rub lemons on my face, to help fade the dark marks and scarring caused by my acne.  However, the high acidity levels in lemons would cause a pH imbalance on my skin, causing further agitation and dryness, which would increase my breakouts.

I’ve used brightening sheet masks before and I’m never really found that any brightening sheet mask that I have used have immediately changed the hyperpigmentation in my skin. What I really love about this lemon slice back is that this is a full sheet mask that will constantly slide off of your face, but is instead little slices that look like lemon that you can spot treat your face with.

Having this mask on my face was very cooling, which I was not expecting, especially for something that is supposed to help brighten my skin and get rid of my hyperpigmentation. As someone who has sensitive skin, I was totally expecting this mask to make my skin look and feel irritated. Instead after I use a sheet mask, my skin looked very hydrated and I didn’t have any problems with the spot treatment masks causing my skin to burn will become red while in use.

I think that the sliced fruit appearance of this sheet mask was so fun and so different than any other mask that I’ve ever used before, so totally made me want to go out of my way and pay $5 for another sheet mask from this brand. I’m now totally obsessed!

Second product: Sleek Makeup Highlighting Palette

  • Product value: $14.99

Sleek makeup is a brand that I haven’t been exposed to very often through my makeup subscription boxes, so I was very surprised to see that I had received a full-size highlighter palette in my January Glossybox. I don’t really receive any highlighter powders in my subscriptions, so it’s even more of a rarity to receive a full-size highlighter palette. I am so excited that this isn’t it natural highlighter palette, but it’s something more exciting with a mix of whimsical colors, alongside with daytime appropriate highlighter shades.

Two of the highlighters in this Sleek makeup palette are powder highlighters, while the other three are cream highlighters.  The two powder highlighter shades in this palette are the more daytime appropriate shades, while the three cream shades are what I would define as ‘Instagram makeup’ highlighters.

I think the packaging for this highlighting palette is really fun, as I don’t have any other highlighter or eyeshadow palette in my makeup collection that has a simple silver reflective packaging. Opening up this highlighter palette and the first thing that I noticed was how clear and large the mirror on the top part of the palate was; I really wasn’t expecting to see something like that in a rather affordable highlighter palette. Also, considering that this palette is only $15, I wasn’t expecting to be receiving super high-quality formulas.

I will admit that I’m not entirely blown away by the quality of the cream highlighters, as they aren’t very blinding, and I am somebody who likes an insanely blinding formula. On the bright side however, the cream highlighter shades are totally buildable without accentuating fine lines, texture, or pores. I was able to build up all the three cream shades to create a blinding makeup look and I didn’t have any problems with the cream formula becoming cakey.

As for the powder highlighters in this Sleek makeup palette, those shades are much more day time appropriate and are easier to wear if you aren’t somebody who is into Instagram makeup. The powder formulas are much more opaque than the cream formulas, which means you won’t have to use as much product to build up your glow than you have to use with the cream formulas.

I love every single shade in this highlighting palette from Sleek makeup, but my favorite shade is deep blue highlighter. This isn’t the best quality highlighting palette that I’ve ever seen before, however I do feel like that this palette fits comfortably within the $15 price range. This isn’t an overprice palette by any means, and the exterior packages certainly makes the overall feel of the highlighting palette much more luxurious and high-end. I don’t really have a problem with this highlighting palette except for the cream shades aren’t super glow-y, but for $15 I do think that this is a really nice palette with a unique color range.

Third product: Zea Beauty Wipes

  • Product value: $2

The first sample sized product that I received in my January Glossybox are these beauty wipes from Zea.  Zea is another skincare brand that I’ve never had any exposure to and it’s not very often that I receive makeup wipes from my subscription boxes, so I’m always excited to try new makeup wipes.

I was a bit nervous to see that these makeup wipes contained rosehip oil, as I find that floral fragrances are extremely overpowering, so I can’t really use skin care products or makeup products that contain a heavy floral fragrance.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that these makeup wipes didn’t have a strong fragrance to them. I did find that these makeup wipes were very rough on my skin, especially around my eye area which isn’t a problem that I’ve ever had with other makeup wipes I tried out before.

When using these to remove makeup around my eyes my eye area and underneath my eye area, my skin did burn a little bit. So, I decided just to keep the use of these makeup wipes to my face and my neck. The packaging for these makeup wipes is cute and simplistic, but it’s always nice to receive exposure to new skin care brands in my subscription boxes.

Fourth product: Avant Skincare Deluxe Hyaluronic Acid Vivifying Face and Eye Night Cream

  • Product value: $12-

I was very worried when I pulled out the Avant Deluxe Hyaluronic Acid Vivifying Face and Eye Night Cream out of my January Glossybox, because at first, I assumed that this was going to be a charcoal face mask. As Glossybox does give subscribers the option to fill out a beauty profile for the box, I wish they had the option to list ingredients that you are allergic or sensitive to. My skin is very sensitive to activated charcoal which means that I can’t ever use any activated charcoal masks that I receive in my box. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this wasn’t an activated charcoal mask, but was actually a hyaluronic acid face and eye cream.

I have never received an anti-aging product in any of my Glossybox boxes before so this Avant skincare sample was a new type of product for me to see in my Glossybox subscription. This eye and face night cream contains Maris aqua, acid, and vitamin B3 to help work on reversing the signs of aging. Receiving a new types of skin care products (especially full-sized products) in my subscription boxes is always amazing, as I know the anti-aging skin care is extremely expensive to invest in, especially if you don’t know what brands are going to work best for your skin. This cream wasn’t in the strongly scented and that had a very hydrating feel to the cream, which I especially noticed in my eye area.

Fifth product: Differn Adapalene Gel 0.1% Acne Treatment

  • Product value: $9.06

The last product that I received in my January Glossybox is the Differn Adapalene Gel 0.1% Acne Treatment. In my Glossybox beauty profile, I have marked that my skin that has problems with severe cystic acne, pores, dark spots, and excessive oil production. I love that I always feel like Glossybox listens to my skin care concerns and sends me out products that help me to address the concerns that I have in my skin.

Differen gel acne treatment is a spot treatment that I’ve always wanted to try out for my skin, but I’ve never been able to find it in any stores that I frequently visit. Differin gel adapalene gel 0.1% acne treatment not only can help prevent breakouts, but can also help clear up existing blemishes, which is exactly what I’m looking for in any spot treatments that I purchase.

I also thought it was very thoughtful of Glossybox is to let their subscribers know to not stop using the different gel when their skin clears up come up, but to continue using it on their skin on a daily basis, because this spot treatment also helps to prevent future breakouts.  I’m so happy that I’m finally getting the opportunity to try out the Differn Adapalene Gel 0.1% Acne Treatment, as this is it something but I wanted to try out for a long time. It’s something that I definitely need for my cystic acne breakouts.

Final thoughts on my January Glossybox

I’m so impressed with the overall quality of my January Glossybox, because while I do feel like the Glossybox subscription focuses more on skincare and haircare, it is very refreshing to see a makeup product for a brand that have never seen anywhere else before.

January Boxycharm vs January Glossybox- who won?

I’m so disappointed in every single aspect of my January Boxycharm; the fact that Boxycharm lied to their subscribers, inflated the pricing of the sample size that they sent out to make it seem like it was a full-sized product, and filled their January box with lackluster makeup products. I think that it was really impressive of Glossybox to send out a full-sized skin care product in their box, even though I was disappointed to find out that my January Glossybox was missing a product.

Which box do you think won for January- Glossybox or Boxycharm?

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