Our first autumnal box of the year is here, and it doesn’t disappoint. It’s a very high value box – the highest, in fact, that I’ve ever had over the 16 months I’ve now had a GlossyBox subscription. This box has a nice set of five full size items with some pampering products, an accessory, a brush, and some interesting new colours for our autumn make-up.
First off is the Bellapierre Shimmer Powder in the shade ‘Whesek’ – this is a cute, ‘loose foundation’ style container with small holes to tip and tap the product out of. It’s a shimmery silver with hints of greys, blues, and whites, and at 2.35 g in weight it’s valued at £12.99. We’ve had some Bellapierre before – in the form of a popping red lipstick, and a nifty multi use lip & cheek stain – and we’re getting what I’ve come to expect from the brand, a really nice, easy to use product with good colour pay off. You really only need a little to get a vibrant colour. Wear wise, since this is a loose powder it does have fallout i.e. the powder drops all over yoh face as you apply it, but it’s not the worse I’ve seen and you do pretty much expect it from this type of product. You can very easily apply it wet – either getting the product on the brush and then wetting the brush, or tipping some powder into the lid and spraying it in the lid, which is how I tend to prefer doing it if I can. Applying it wet removes the fallout problem entirely, and makes for a very different look. Either way it’s a really lovely eyeshadow/shimmer powder – more expensive for sure than a high street single eyeshadow, but it has a bold colour, it lasts well, and is pretty versatile.
Next up is the Marsk Eyeshadow Brush Pro. It’s a nice, pencil sized eye shadow brush, with a smooth, well made feel, and soft, dense, firm bristles in a packed together, rounded tip that’s great for carefully applying shadows, and can be used for blending – though other brushes are better for that job. Tip to end it measures about 14.5 cm, and the bristles measure about 1.5 cm long. It’s valued at £16.70. We’ve had some Marsk before – a nice single eyeshadow pot, similar to the shimmer powder above – and it’s a nice, premium brand. It’s probably not something I’d buy myself, but it’s solid brush that I will use.
The third item in our box, and this is the lovely pampering one – Maria Nila’s Luminous Colour Hair Masque. It’s another Swedish brand like we’ve seen featured in the last few month’s boxes, and it’s really neat to see these new brands and products in the box – they’re pretty exciting. So, this is a large twist lid tub with a plastic seal inside – full of genuinely lovely hair masque. You get 250 ml, which is a fair amount, and it feels heavy – it’s valued at £18.95, making it the highest value item in this box. It’s a really thick, cream consistency masque with a sweet smell which you’re directed to apply to towel dried hair for anything from three to ten minutes depending on how much pampering you need, after shampooing but before conditioning. And of course like most hair products you’re definitely recommended to use them with the rest in the series. It does really feel good, both as you’re using it, and after – my hair and scalp (’cause I can never be bothered with the whole ‘don’t get conditioning type stuff on the scalp thing’ – I just get it on and rub it through) feel nice and pampered, my scalp doesn’t feel dry, my hair feels really nice and soft. It is a bit of a pricier hair masque, but does seem to really work, so if you were looking for a bit of premium pampering I would recommend this – it’s pretty much my favourite item in this box (in close competition with the Nails Inc Polish), I have short enough hair that this large tub is going to last a good while, so I can see the long term effects, and probably talk about that in whatever empties it ends up in – but so far it’s been a much better experience than the August 2014’s Elasticizer – which wasn’t suitable at all for my fine hair.
Our accessory in this box is a set of Invisibobbles – these are described as traceless hair rings, which you can wear without damaging the hair, pulling at the scalp, or splitting ends but they still hold well. The traceless part I’m a bit confused by – I think it means you can wear it without it showing, but my hair is pretty much too small/too short/too fine to wear it like this, and I have to double wrap them anyway. It’s a shame I’ve gotten something that’s a bit unsuitable to use now that I’ve had all of my hair cut off, but I can see how it would work – it’s a squishy, flexible, telephone cord like material with no metals bits, or sharp, single edge to grip the hair – so these could be good to use if you have the hair for it. I can’t really tell you definitively since I can’t really use them but I will keep them to use when my hair grows out. You get three in a box, they seem pretty hard wearing, and are valued at £4.
Lastly, is the Nails Inc Nail Polish in the shade ‘Battersea Park’ – this month was a coin toss between getting this shade, a kind of grey/green Khaki, or a blush pink colour. I’m pretty glad I got the more interesting colour here, I have a lot of pink and red shade nail polishes already from GlossyBox so it is nice to get something more unusual and more seasonal – it’s a cool, bold, autumn colour. And again, it’s what you can expect from the trusted brand – it’s a rich colour that applies well, and dries fast, staying nice and shiny afterwards, and wearing well. You could get away with a single coat for day to day wear – since most people don’t really look that closely at nails – with the colour being so richly pigmented. With two coats you’re totes ‘Instagram close up of my nails’ ready. You get 10 ml, and it’s worth £11, both of which are the usual deal with Nails Inc – I really like the colour, and I’ve already worn it a few times so I’m pretty happy with this. I’d definitely consider buying it for reals.
So, that’s the whole box; five items with one brush, one eyeshadow, a hair masque, a set of hair bobbles, and a nail polish. In total the box was worth £63.64 – making this the highest value box ever, over taking October 2014 (so nearly a year’s previous) box value which was around £60. I really like this box, and all the stuff in it – though yeah, some of it is more useful than others – but it really is worth way more than the monthly cost of the subscription.
We also have a sneak peak for the October 2015 box, our second autumn box – and it’s full size day cream from a luxury French brand – I’m looking forward to this since our French box we had in July has some really lovely skincare things. Until Next Time.