So we’re finally at May 2015 – this is my 12th GlossyBox, and I’ve now had the service for a full year. It’s been really fun, both getting and trying the stuff, having something new and interesting to write about, and actually recording and producing my own videos for YouTube. It’s all been going surprisingly well! I’m looking forward to getting my year long review of GlossyBox done, but first we’re doing the full written review, and more indepth impressions of the May box. In case you missed it, here’s the original video un-boxing of this GlossyBox done a few weeks ago now. The other cool thing to mention this month is that since I’m now a year long subscriber I received a nice little ‘Thank You’ note and a cute pink note book, which is pretty neat.

May’s box is a regular pink GlossyBox design, and has a getting ready for warmer weather theme in the contents. There are five products in the box this month, three are full size and two are deluxe samples.

First in the box is the full size MeMeMe Enchanted Eyes Dual Ended Eye Wand, and this is in the shade ‘Midnight Storm’.  This is a pretty chunky (thicker than an eye liner, certainly) eye pencil. I really like this format, as they’re pretty easy to apply as either a more eye liner like finish or as a full on eye shadow look. They are pretty creamy, so they can get blended out pretty easily. Using primer, and layering the product helps with this. There are two shades to choose from in the pencil, the lighter end is a lovely simmer-y silver blue, and the darker end is a lovely purple-ly toned blue. There’s no weight measurement on the product, but it seems pretty big and chunky, and it’s a traditional pencil that you just sharpen. It’s £6.95 for this pencil, and you can get it and more MeMeMe products direct from their website.

Next up is the Etre Belle Aloe Vera Moisturising Gel. This is the second time we’ve had Etre Belle, last time was the Lip Lift Peel in the October 2014 Pop Art GlossyBox. It’s a lovely green, clear gel that’s actually pretty thick, and it has a light Aloe Vera like smell. It’s very cooling and moisturising thanks to the ingredients, and GlossyBox suggests using it as a post sun soother. I’ve used it a few times after being out on my bicycle which gives me pink wind swept cheeks and it seems to work pretty well. I think I’ll keep it on hand (since it’s a small ‘hang bag’ size) when it gets warmer and sunnier here – I think it’ll be really useful. Full size this is 40ml, and the price is actually £15.93, which I would definitely say is the only downside to this little tube, it’s a bit pricey for the size and for what it is.

We have our first deluxe sample now, and it’s Zerreau Towel Off Shampoo Foam (apparently it’s pronounced zero). This is described as the next generation of dry shampoo, and it’s very interesting, but not a lot like using a dry shampoo. The deluxe size we got is 70 ml, just slightly less than half of the full sized version which is 180 ml. It’s a slim black bottle with a little pump dispenser on top. The contents inside are just a watery liquid, it’s the pump that does the work – creating a light foam that smells nice and apple like (well, like an apple shampoo sort of scent). The directions state to be very generous with the foam, and to be fair as the pump turns the liquid into foam it actually only uses up a little, so use lots. You then lather your hair a lot like washing it, rather than like working the powder of a dry shampoo through the roots, and then you towel off the left over moisture rather than brush it out. It’s very interesting, you can use a little to give slightly less fresh roots a clean or a lot for a full on cleaner head experience – I’m not sure if I really prefer it over dry shampoo, especially since I can get a great dry shampoo (I really like the Wilkinsons own brand one) for so cheap. Breaking down the price of the full 180 ml bottle that we’re given on the GlossyBox card, the value of the 70 ml deluxe sample is £2.72, however, you can actually buy these 70 ml versions direct from Zerreau, and there they cost £3.99.

Our second deluxe sample product is another new and weird type of product, and it’s the SASS Intimate Perfect Skin Concentrate. This is a post shave balm which is really designed to be used after shaving your privates, but since I don’t shave there, I’ve actually been using it on my underarms. It’s got a lot of different functions listed on the packaging; exfoliating with Salicylic Acid, preventing ingrown hairs with fruit enzymes, soothing and hydrating with Aloe Vera, and minimising hair growth with Kelisoft. This is a lot of claims to make, but most of them are easily verifiable. Salicylic Acid is used in a lot of skincare things now because it can help with skin as a sort of anti-inflammatory, as well as thinning old skin and encouraging new healthy skin growth since it’s also good against bacteria. Fruit enzymes is a bit vauge, but Aloe Vera we know is good for the skin, and the Kelisoft is an interesting product that you can apparently get in deodorants to minimise hair regrowth – though I’m not sure this is something I’ve ever seen in the UK. From my own use, it does soothe the skin a lot, and it does make it feel smooth and clean afterwards, I think the only thing for me is that it’s not really properly moisturising enough post shave because my skin is a little sensitive and can dry out. It’s also nice that the Salicylic acid doesn’t seem too strong, as my skin didn’t react to it like it has with other Salicylic products (the Rimmel BB cream, and the Boots Skin Clear line). This deluxe sample is 30 ml, so while the full size 100 ml version is £12, I’ve valued this sample at £3.60 – unlike the Foam Shampoo you can’t buy this size as far as I can tell. It doesn’t seem terrible value, especially if the hair growth promise is true, I’ll have to see how it works more long term.

Finally, we have our last full size item, and it’s the second make up item in the box as well. It’s the Collection Cosmetics Field Day Lipstick, and mine is in the shade ‘Pink Rose’ – this is a very bright, baby pink type colour, and I’m really not sure it’s for me – maybe I could use it with some other lipsticks I already have. Collection Cosmetics isn’t really a brand I particularly use, but there’s nothing wrong with it – like MUA and Makeup Revolution it’s a very affordable line of  nice enough make up, with most things costing just a few pounds. This lipstick is listed as costing £2.99, and while there’s no listed weight I can see it’s a pretty typical lipstick format and size. It’s a very matte, creamy lipstick that would probably be nice enough for everyday wear, but as I’ve said, I just don’t fancy the colour much.

So, that’s the final item, and with three full size items – two make up and one skin care, and then the two very interesting non-typical products, the box value this month comes to £35.19, which is a pretty typical box value, giving really good value for money from the actual subscription price. So as I’ve stated before I’m going to soon be releasing my year long review of the GlossyBox service, covering stuff like overall what I got, what I used, what it was all worth etc – and that should be up within a week or so. For the June 2015 GlossyBox, as the first month of summer in the UK we’ll be getting some temporary tattoo’s, the more grown up, fashionable version that I’ve been seeing here and there, and I think they look really fun.

Until Next Time.

Here’s my latest GlossyBox unboxing!

So April’s GlossyBox was the ‘Iconic Hollywood’ Edition, with some make up items to create an iconic Hollywood look, and some beauty items that come highly recommended. This box contains three full sized items, and two deluxe sample/smaller sized items, alongside the usual product card and editors letter. Lastly there’s a discount code for FineryLondon – which I’m less fussed about. You can see my original un-boxing here. The box also has a pretty design, with everyone’s box having a lovely picture of Marilyn Monroe on the top, and then a different colour scheme (either green, blue, yellow, or pink), and a chance to get one of four different quotes printed inside.

The first listed product is the Lord & Berry Lipstick Pencil (their 20100 crayon line) in the shade ‘Kiss’. It’s a small pencil format, thick but not as chunky as the plastic case ‘chubby’ style lipsticks you can buy, with a clear plastic lid. You get 1.8 grams for £10 in this full sized product, which so far hasn’t seemed terrible value due to the pigmentation. It’s a nice, strong, vivid colour, and a little goes a fairly long way. It’s a very vibrant matte red, a pillar box style hue as the card states. Since it has a fairly creamy consistency, it can be worn on its own and not feel too dry, or layered over a smidgen of lip balm – though wearing it this way makes it more shiny than matte. I actually really like the pencil, it’s super easy to use, and a very nice colour – bold, but it still seems pretty wearable, and I think I’d be tempted to buy more for sure.

Next up is our first deluxe size/smaller size product, and it’s the Astral Original Face & Body Moisturiser. I say ‘/smaller size product’ because you can actually buy it this size, as it’s just the smallest size you can buy, but it feels very deluxe sample size. This is a very rich, emollient (think E45 cream) style moisturiser with a reasonably strong sort of medicinal smell, it sits on top of your skin and skins in very slowly – meaning it is very residue heavy, but it works well as a moisturiser. Converting the listed price on the card (£3.89 for 200 ml) our 50 ml tub is priced at £0.97, but you can also buy the 50 ml on it’s own, with a price that varies from £1 to a lot less. After my first initial use I was a little sceptical of this moisturiser, but over time it’s grown on me – part of it’s appeal seems to be in using it in whatever way is best way for you. I don’t think personally I could stand to use this as a facial moisturiser, as it’s too slow absorbing and residue-y and this really bugs me – the cream has a lot of other things you can use it for however: it works very well as an intense face mask (putting on a ‘thicker than just moisturising my face’ layer for about 10 minutes) which you can then clean off giving you absorbed moisture without the residue, it’s very nice as an intense body moisturiser for little dry patches, it’s nice enough for moisturising nails and hands, and finally you can use it to remove make up, which I’ve tried out and works pretty good actually. So it definitely has it’s uses, and it’s nice enough. Value wise I can see how this doesn’t feel very ‘Glossy’ – since it seems pretty basic – but that doesn’t mean it’s bad for what it is. I think a larger size might have felt better value. I’m also not sure I’d re-purchase this, because while it is good to have rich moisturisers that are body and face safe, I already have one that I really like that works well, and isn’t residue heavy (my go to Nivea Soft) that is a very similar value.

The second full sized item is the POP Beauty Kajal Eye liner Pen – this is a double ended eye liner pencil, with one end being the product, and the other a nub of sponge to use as a blending tool, and both ends have clear lids. The shade is listed as ‘Sooty Black’ and this eye liner is 0.9 g costing £6.50 – making it a fairly affordable but not dirt cheap eye liner. I have mixed feelings about this eye liner – it has a nice rich black colour when it goes on, but on it’s initial application this can blends out to nothing, and rub away. The nub of sponge on the end is nice enough, though using the pencil heavily and the sponge sparingly seems to work best. I also found the wood of the pencil shaft to be very brittle, which can make it pretty hard to sharpen without breaking it – which makes me worry about how long this pencil will last. It’s not terrible, but I don’t think I’d re-buy this eye liner personally.

The last full size product is the Color Club Nail Polish, a reasonably well known American brand that is more on the ‘budget’ side at £4.10 for 15 ml, which is a pretty big size for a nail polish, and is the same typical size of more premium polish brands we’ve had before. The colour I received is ‘Barely There’ and is a neutral light nude colour. It has a pretty strong scent as nail polishes go, and is definitely less pigmented than the premium polishes – I find four coats to be enough to really build up the colour and not be able to see the white nail tip of my own nail underneath. And as you can imagine four coats of polish takes a fair while to do. I would say you could be satisfied with less, depending on the look you were going for – I think one coat gives a shiny, slightly nicer than natural nails look and is wearable, and three coats is something you could live with. The polish is very easy to use, actually pretty quick drying, and fairly sturdy once on – these are all really good points in its favour. I think the thing I’m actually least into is the colour – I’m not really into nude nails, they look a little strange. So I do think Color Club is worth buying for a good price, but I don’t think I want another nude polish.

And finally the last item in this box, which isn’t listed as being full size is the IDC Scented Garden Country Rose Luxury Body Lotion. One of the things I did try with this product is track down who made it – it’s made by Aquarius Cosmetics, a Spanish company that seems to specialise in cosmetics and beauty items – from what I could gleam from their website they sell sets of bath stuff, and sets of make up to buy for people as gifts. This item does pretty much still feel like something you’d get in a set for Christmas from a discount store. It’s a watery, strong smelling lotion, and is listed as being worth £3.59 for 100 ml. There isn’t really much else I can say – I wouldn’t buy this for myself but then I think this might be a pretty moot point since I’m not sure I’d be able to buy one in the UK anyway.

So that’s all the items in the box now that I’ve had some time to really try them out – I do think I’d use all of the items in this box, but the lip pencil, the astral and the nail polish are the ones I’ve actually been using enthusiastically – the other two items seem a little disappointing in comparison still. The final value for the box is £25.16 – making this the lowest value box I’ve ever had (the second lowest now being August 2014 box, at £29.33 – though that felt like a better box) which still makes this box better value than what you pay for it – £10 plus the postage of £3.25 for me – but this box feels a little underwhelming this month more than other cheap boxes. I’m hoping I’ll be more wow-ed by next months box, especially since it’ll be my 12 box, otherwise it’s also possible that the appeal of these is wearing off for me or something and it might be time to try something new.

Until Next Time.

Another month gone, and another follow up post on last month’s GlossyBox – I feel like I left this one a little late. I’m pretty sure the April box is going to arrive in a day or two, but it’s better late than never. March’s box was just a regular pink box in terms of packaging, and inside we had four full sized products, and a deluxe sample set. You can see my un-boxing and initial thoughts here.

First off is the NAOBAY Moisturizing Peeling. A little bit of a strange title as it feels like there should be another word on the end there but we’ll go for it. The box card describes this as a ‘peeling milk’ – and then gives a little more detail – that NAOBAY is a Spanish “eco-brand.” This is a full size, face wash style tube with a screw cap, it’s 100 ml which is a pretty good size and it’s priced at £13.71. It’s not the most overly priced facial thing we’ve ever had and it does seem like a nice little face item. The thing it does remind me of the most is the St Ives Apricot scrub (I used this in my teens, I think a lot of people did) – it has a light, sort of single cream consistency, and lots of very small exfoliating sandy particles. It has a nice but a bit un-placeable ‘beauty product’ type smell. Using it wise you seem to be able to either use it as a light creamy exfoliator if you lack time or patience, or leave it on as a ten minute face treatment to get the full skin softening effect. My sensitive skin seems quite happy having this on, and I do feel lightly exfoliated and clean while not feeling like it’s dried my skin out. You can find things that are more exfoliating (as this did feel pretty gentle) but this seems like you can use it pretty regularly instead. I’m kind of on the fence in terms of full price purchase. On the one hand it’s always nice to find things that don’t react to my face, and it’s not that pricey for how nice it is, but on the other hand it hasn’t wowed me in a true sense.

Next is the Essence Lash Princess Volume Mascara. Essence is a repeat GlossyBox brand for me, but I actually do like to see them in my box – they’re very nice and really affordable. This is a full size, black mascara with an interesting wand, it’s a very modern curvy twisty shape (the box card describes it as a ‘cobra’ shape) but the bristles feel more like an older style traditional mascara wand than the newer seeming silicone ones. It’s in a nice big, ergonomic tube with a grippy silicone pattern on the wand end – it’s 12 ml full and costs £3.30 – which is a very good price. As I think I’ve mentioned before, I do like good cheap mascara – as I feel less bad about throwing them away (since you’re supposed to throw mascara away pretty quickly.) The wand does actually work really well at coating and fanning out the lashes to create a really lovely volume-y spider-y look. The tip is also pretty good for getting the little fiddly end bits of the lashes. Formula wise it’s…alright. I did notice with mine at least that it was a little bitty, almost, but not too bad. Also while it’s not waterproof (and washes off nice and easily, which I actually appreciate) it wears pretty well over a day for such a cheap full price. If I ever run out of mascaras – which admittedly seems unlikely – I’d definitely buy more of these.

The deluxe sample set that I received was an Dove Advanced Hair Series Youthful Vitality Shampoo & Conditioner set. This set is aimed at repairing and improving the appearance of longer, weaker hair which is a nice idea. Both the shampoo and the conditioner are 50 ml a piece and usually are 250ml bottles that retail for £5.99 – making these samples worth about £1.20 each or £2.40 for the set. They are a nice little set, they both have very silky and moisturising formulas that aren’t very heavy, and I’m certianly more impressed with these that I have been with previous GlossyBox items – looking at you August 2014’s Elasticizer. But like the NAOBAY while it’s not that expensive, it isn’t cheap either, and doesn’t work particularly better than my current brand – Tresseme – which is a bit cheaper per 100ml. So in the end I don’t have much to say, and I don’t think I’d re-purchase.

We’re back to the rest of the full sized items now with a ncLA Nail Lacquer – mine is in the shade ‘I Only Fly Private’ or ncla073. This is a kind of bright but pastel-y pink orange colour (colour isn’t my strong point) and is another larger size more premium price nail polish that I’ve come to expect to like when I get them. This one is no exception. You get 15 ml for £13, and the formula lists on the back all the things it’s free from – formaldehyde, DBP, toluene, camphor, and animal testing – which is always nice to see. Like the Ciate nail polish I’ve had before, this has a lovely highly pigmented formula, so that if you wanted to you could get away with one quick coat. It’s pretty quick drying, but what I found is that when you put on a second coat, it actually seems to go on less smoothly over it’s own nail polish, which is a bit strange. I like the springy, summery colour. The polish also wore pretty well, chipping only a bit on my dominant hand after day and a half or so wear. It’s a nice introduction to a nail polish brand, and like with Ciate, once you’ve tried them I can see the appeal.

Finally, we’re at the item I was most hoping to receive/looking forward to – and that is the Sleek MakeUP Pout Paint, mine was the shade ‘Pin up’ or 157. I haven’t gotten anything from Sleek before this and I’ve heard lots of really good things about that, which is why I was anticipating it so much. The Pout Paints are cute little paint style containers, and the selling point is that they’re very customisable. So each shade can be worn either lightly, which produces a very matte, pretty lip stain. Or building up more and more layers to create a more pigmented, but still pretty matte lipstick look. Or put on all in one thick layer which is more shiny and glossy (not my kind of look, but so what, it might be for other people). The colours are also apparently very blend-able between each other as well, so with a small selection of primary colours and a black and white, you can create a pretty wide variety of shades. I think this is a really cool idea, and while I don’t have any other shades to test this, I can see it working pretty well based on how well the one I have now works. Length wise it wears longer as a dried on stain rather than a more full look, and admittedly doesn’t last super long. Full size it’s 8 ml and costs £4.99. Given the cost and how well they work I’d definitely be tempted to get more.

So, this was another really lovely box from GlossyBox, and another set that works pretty well used together. I think out of all the items I’m most impressed with the Pout Paint and the Mascara – which shows considering those are the ones I’d be pretty sure to re-buy. The nail polish is pretty nice, and the face mask/milk nice enough. Against all of those the hair items feel a little more run of the mill, but it is actually really nice to get this kind of mix of items, some make up, something for skin and something for hair. The total box value was £37.40, which is a pretty decent value, and is in line with the regular month to month value rather than the one off more pricey boxes you seem to get less often. April’s box should be here soon, and I’ll be doing another un-boxing then, Until Next Time.

This month’s (or last month’s at this point) GlossyBox was the lovely limited edition packaged Valentine’s Day edition. It’s a lovely pink and white minimalist box with pretty text – I actually think this is one of my favourite box designs. It’s very cute. This month’s box contains five lovely full size products, and a sweet Valentine’s Day appropriate freebie in the form of a mini roll of Love Hearts – I saved mine ’til the day itself (I may have been looking forward to a free sweet from GlossyBox for a while). I did the unboxing video over on YouTube on the 11th of February.

First , we have a Wilkinson Sword Hydro Silk Razor. It feels a bit silly calling this a full sized product – it’s not like you can get a sample size razor – but go with it. The Hydro Silk is a fancy women’s razor with a big, smooth, ergonomic, slightly squishy handle, and a big, rotating head with five thin blades surrounded on either side by moisturising strips. The strips are supposed to provide hydration for up to two hours after shaving, and this is probably true, but I honestly don’t notice my legs being dry within two hours of bathing. I usually notice the next night. The important bits are that it’s easy to use and it does shave hair. If anything, I would say the moisturising strips are more of a hindrance while shaving, as the strip moistens the actual act of shaving feels smoother and smoother until it’s hard to feel if you’re actually getting all the hair – but a good swishy rinse gets rid of the smooth residue build up. The whole thing costs £9.99, which gets you one handle and one head. I won’t be buying a new one mostly because I don’t see the economy in buying these fancier razors that need to have their heads regularly replaced – it’s a nice shave, but it’s not worth it that much to me.

Next up, is the Marsk Mineral Eyeshadow in the shade ‘Fifty Shades’ – and to start off, yes it’s inspired by ‘that film’, and no I don’t care – I care if the eyeshadow is any good. It’s a small pot of loose mineral powder eyeshadow with a loose foundation style open top. It’s a graphite/pencil grey in colour with flecks of tiny glitter in lots of shades – grey, white, blue – the overall effect is actually quite pretty. Wearability wise it’s a very buildable eyeshadow, just a light wash and you get barely any of the grey solid colour and a little glitter, built up in layers and you get the deep shine grey pencil colour with the full range of glitter colours. As it’s a mineral based eyeshadow it’s packaging also adds that it’s talc, paraben, fragrance and GM free. Oh, and they don’t do animal testing, which is still a good thing to mention, even though I’m pretty sure the EU ban on animal tested cosmetics probably covers that. While I do think this eyeshadow is very pretty – the downside is that it’s proportionately the most expensive item in the whole box. The nondescript pot is just over a gram (1.2g specifically) and even if it is very cute in it’s smallness, it costs £14.49, which is an off putting price.

Our third item is another cutely small full-sized pot – the Royal Apothic Tinties – which is a tinted lip butter. Mine is in the shade ‘Coral’. This little pot feels premium just in the packaging – the box is cute and the little pot is glass with a metallic fancy lid. It’s an oily rather than a waxy formula, with shea butter and oils – and it does feel very good for your skin, and smells lovely too – like sweet almond or coconut. The colour is very subtle – definitely just a tint, but’s a very pretty colour, and the oils make it shiny and pretty on the lips. Like the mineral eyeshadow this item is more expensive for what it is – ten pound (or £9.16 to be specific) for 3.4g of tinted Lip butter is pretty steep – you can definitely get an equivalent item (without the fancy name and look) for just a few pounds. Again, it’s a case of it’s nice…but it’s not that nice.

We’ve got a So Susan item up next (our third item from this brand in a GlossyBox) and it’s the Rose Quartet Lip and Cheek Stain in the shade selection ‘Warm Rose’. This is a little black mini palette with four on the firm side cream tints – with a total weight of 4g, you get just 1g per shade, so it is a small amount – but these little squares are pigmented enough that a little goes a long way. In the Warm Rose palette you get a very “red” red, a bright pink, a coral, and a light baby pink – they’re all on the warm side. There’s enough of a range to suit most people in terms of lip colour and blush, and using the same colour for both gives you a very well put together look. In terms of practical wear for me, I’d say the firmness of the cream makes these a little impractical as a blush – they don’t blend as well as I’d like. Also, for all that it’s a small palette (suggesting it’s been designed as a hand bag item) and it’s not dirt cheap – it doesn’t have a mirror, which it needs, and it has a little brush, which it really doesn’t need. Like all So Susan items, one of the big selling points is that it’s free from lots of things (mineral oil, phthalates,triclosan, sulfates, fragrance), and it’s good for your skin (hypoallergenic and non-comedogenic). It’s £8 for this little palette, and honestly while it’s nice – I’m not as wowed as I think I could be by it – maybe if it had a mirror and lost the brush.

Our last item is from the SuperDrug brand B.Cosmetics – their Defined Eyebrow Kit in the shade ‘Dark’. This is a big compact style container with a wax for shaping the brows and catching/holding the colour, two different shades of brown to choose from, and a highlighting gel to finish the look. This pretty well thought out product has a double sided brush – an brow/shadow style end and a spoolie/mascara end – that is pretty usable, though I would say the brow/shadow brush is a touch too on the firm and plastic-y side. The other point in this kit’s favour is they’ve put in a great big mirror – so you can actually see to put this stuff on your face. Practicality wise, you could actually get away with using this little kit for a lot of things. I found the darker of the two brow shades is too dark for my brows but you can use it gently with the brush as a shadow eye liner to make your eyes more defined. The highlighting gel is a nice bonus, which you could use for both brows and general highlighting, though since there’s only one pan of this it would get used up quickly. Ingredients wise it has a much more standard ‘drug store’/’high street’ list of a fair few things. The brow kit is £9.99 for 3.32g of product, and I would probably consider buying it again.

The Love Hearts – as I said in my unboxing video – are worth about 12p for a small roll with about 6/8 sweets in it, if you want to add it’s value to the box. Mostly, it’s a cute and thoughtful treat.

The final box total, with five full sized items, comes to £51.63. This sits comfortably high on the value side – while it’s not the most expensive box I’ve ever gotten, it is up there – and there’s no question that the contents of my box are worth more than the £10 plus shipping I paid. My overall feeling of this box is actually very happy – all of the items could be used quite well together in a single Valentine’s Day look, and while not a lot of them are things I will re-buy personally (it’s fine to be honest about that), they’re all lovely things to try, and I will use all of them up. My favourite item/s are probably either the brow kit, because it’s so well thought out, or the Tinties lip butter, because it’s so lovely.

In March GlossyBox are selling both the regular box (which I think is just a regular regular box) and a limited edition Mother’s Day box, which I won’t be getting – I’m not really interested in. We’ve also already had a sneak peak for next month, one of the full sized items we will be getting is Naobay’s gently skin peeling facial milk – which sounds interesting. Until next time.

We’re at the end of the first month of this new, shiny 2015. For me, it didn’t feel like it went too slow or too bad. It’s been a bit cold, and we’ve had a few bad weather days here and there, but we’re nearly at February, and February’s lovely looking Valentine’s GlossyBox – so I thought it was definitely time to do my in-depth review of January’s box.

The first box of 2015 was all full sized, more ‘value’ items – hence it having a lower total value than previous box’s – but that by no means makes this a bad box. There are five products to get through, and I’ll just go in the same order as the card in my box.

First off is the MeMeMe Cosmetics Eye Line Pencil in the shade ‘Clay’. MeMeMe Cosmetics is a brand I’ve heard of before – they notably do some very good Benefit dupes – and are available through their own online store only as far as I can tell. This full sized, regular format eye pencil is a nice basic brown, with a very soft formula that does apply smooth. It isn’t fantastic for smudging in my opinion, as the colour thins out quite a lot with just a little smudging, but layering would fix this. It’s smells like a regular pencil, has clearly listed ingredients, and even a use by date printed on the side. I really like it when makeup has this – who really remembers when they bought each individual piece of makeup? The pencil costs £4, which isn’t the cheapest you could get an eyeliner (MUA’s eye pencils are very nice for all of £1), but it’s nice enough.

Next is the Nicka K New York Colorluxe (or Colourluxe – it’s hard to resist adding the u) Powder Blush. This is an interesting item which I think is supposed to be sold as an ‘on the go, throw in the bag’ style item – the product, applicator, and mirror all in a single item. The blush itself is a nice pale pink – the shade listed is Romantic – with no sparkle or shine and suits my paler complexion quite well. However, it smells awful – an unpleasant sour/off smell that was worse inside the actual container, but as I’ve used it more and more you can clearly smell it on the puff. Now, I do get that it’s not like people will smell it, and you can’t smell it yourself when it’s on, but it’s so strange to have a weird smelling make up item. The puff part is good for applying the blush itself, I will give it that – giving a very light coating which you can layer, but go even a little over and you’ll have to find a brush to blend it out anyway – making it not so all in one. Added to this the obvious problem of hygiene – I’m not confident it’s supposed to be removed and washed. Other than that it’s nice and soft. The mirror is a nice touch, though a little on the small side. Overall I think it’s an interesting idea, but not really practical. It’s full sized at 5g of powder inside the applicator, and costs £6.97 (converted from Euros.)

Full sized item number three is from Jelly Pong Pong (apparently part of So Susan Cosmetics, we’ve had nice things from them in the past) and it’s their All Over Glow. The bottle describes it as an ‘illuminating gel’ – usable as a highlighter, or all over. As a highlighter it’s very nice – glowy without seeming greasy. As an all over type product, either used sparingly on it’s own or in a moisturiser to make it easier it reminds me of Boots Seventeen’s Skin Wow Primer – which gives a similar glowly-ness (though the Skin Wow has more obvious glitter pieces in it as well). The gel is in an easy to use tube, which you squeeze out to reveal the quite dark, brown/bronze gel. On first look I was worried it would be too dark for me, but actually it blends out much lighter, and silvery. The only real downside I’ve found so far is it does leave a fair amount of residue on your finders, which dries fairly quickly, meaning I suppose that you’ve lost a little product – but then this drying quality is probably what makes it look and feel non-greasy. It’s full sized at 15 g of product (actually pretty generous) for £10. This makes it the most expensive individual item in the box, but it does feel worth it.

Kueshi’s Natural & Pleasant (or Pure & Clean as the bottle says) Revitalizing Face Toner is another great item this month. I’m not sure how popular toners are anymore, but I use them. I’ve read a lot of people saying they do nothing but this isn’t the case for me. A good toner should do what all those fancy Micellar Cleansing Waters claim to do – clean and soothe the skin without leaving it feeling dry, usually with some added skin boosting ingredients. Kueshi isn’t a brand I’ve heard of before (I use the Simple Toner – the one with Camomile and Witch Hazel) so I didn’t have any expectations with this one. But it’s a lovely toner – it’s very nice on, and while it has a very strong smell (kind of a sweet, generic bath item smell) it’s actually pretty pleasant. The little push top lid and opening works well, a few big drops is all you really need, it dries nicely and doesn’t feel residue-y. I do also like that it’s pink to be honest, it’s cute. It’s ‘good for your skin’ ingredients are listed as Aloe Vera, Camomile, and Calendula. The first two are obvious skin soothers, but I’d never heard of Calendula – and that’s because it’s an alternative name for Marigold. According to Wikipedia (as I still had no clue what use Marigold has) it’s a natural anti inflammatory, and antiseptic. This toner is probably better for my skin than my current one, but it is more than twice the price at £8.34 (converted from Euros) for 200ml. It’s really very nice – but might not be worth the price tag in the end.

The final item is a nice little lip balm from Naked Lips – their Organic SuperFruits Lip Balm to be specific. It’s a very nice idea – a very basic, fuss free packaging, and no colour formula, but full of things that will actually be good for you, right? The ingredients list also takes care to list all the easy to read names of its ingredients, so we can see it’s made with lots of moisturising oils and fruit oils. The brand also makes a point of mentioning how non-waxy their formula is. It’s not wax free (it contains beeswax), but it does sit more on the ‘oily’ side rather than the ‘waxy’ side of how it feels on the lips. This always seems to be the awkward thing about lip balms, because they need to provide moisture, as well as create some sort of barrier to hold that moisture in – so lip balms pretty much always contain oils and wax, which isn’t always pleasant. This one is nice enough to wear, and isn’t the oiliest I’ve ever owned (I mean oily in a bad way, and I’m referring to a Palmers lip balm, which felt awful to wear) – it smells delicious, though doesn’t taste as strong as it smells. One of the problems I have with this type of product is I’m always reminded of that funny dairy advert that talks about milk and yoghurt and stuff being good for your skin with pretty women pouring dairy products all over themselves…but then it says really it would be better if you ate the real thing. It’s a nice enough lip balm, but it isn’t life changing. Full sized it’s 4.25 g, which is about average for a lip balm, and costs £3.89 (again converted from Euros.)

So that’s the last item from the box, and the total value was £33.20 for five full sized items – the cheapest being the lip balm, and the most expensive being the illuminizer. This is the second lowest value box I’ve gotten so far from GlossyBox, my lowest being August 2014‘s at £29.33, which is only £4 or so different, but this January box I can say is easily better. It’s a good example I think of a more ‘value’ box (basically full of bigger, more affordable items) – I really like the toner and the Illuminizer, the eye pencil and lip balm is nice enough, and the only not 100% sure of item is the blush. After having done eight months so far of GlossyBox there always seems to be something worth having each time. I can’t wait to see what’s in the Valentine’s Box. Until then.