December 2012 Glossybox Review

We haven’t reviewed a beauty box for a while as we haven’t been that impressed with the latest offerings, however we thought that as it’s Christmas, we’d share the December Glossybox. Hopefully all the subscribers have had theirs now so it won’t be too much of a spoiler! She Said Beauty sent out a box in December, and then announced it would be their last, as they have decided to stop their subscription box service and stick to the online forum they do best. In our opinion, that’s no bad thing as their boxes haven’t been up to standard lately.

The thing is, beauty boxes are actually quite a difficult offering to have. They’re a great idea, and when done well they’re fab. However, it seems that many companies really struggle to hit the mark. With companies like She Said Beauty and Feel Unique being great at their main revenue streams, yet unsuccessful at beauty boxes, it seems subscribers have very high standards!

We think that sometimes beauty boxes get confused about what subscribers want, and likewise, sometimes subscribers have unrealistic expectations as to what will be arriving on their doorsteps. The aim of beauty boxes is to bring subscribers the latest in beauty, things that they probably haven’t tried before, from up and coming, emerging brands. That means that we don’t expect full size products all the time, although they are a nice bonus, but we definitely don’t want sachets and tat! We need to be able to actually try enough of the product to entice us to buy the full size products, which is what the box firms need to be explaining to their brands. Perhaps this is why only dedicated beauty box companies seem to succeed? It takes a lot of time and effort to build those kind of relationships, not just something that you can add on as an aside.

Anyway, moving onto Glossybox this month. We were really pleased with this Christmas box, in silver instead of the usual pink.

Containing six products instead of the usual five, and most were from brands we haven’t tried before which is great.

From left clockwise: LA Science Follicle Stimulating Shampoo, Rituals Magic Touch, Seche Nail Lacquer, Ayuuri Purifying Neem Face Wash, Glossybox Blusher, Sleek True Colour Lipstick

LA Science Follicle Stimulating Shampoo – Full Size £14.99 (30ml Inc)

These are sachets, which as we’ve already said we’re not keen on, however there are three included, all of which feel like they hold a decent amount, so we’re looking forward to using these. A little tip for using sachets is to stick a pin in them rather than ripping them open. It stops the product from drying out and being wasted.

Rituals Magic Touch – Full Size £15 (70ml Inc)

This is a good size miniature worth £5. We have loads of body creams to use up, but we’ll get round to trying this soon as it smells lovely.

Seche Nail Lacquer – Full Size £9.95 (Full Size Inc)

We’ve not used this brand before, but the shade, Lumiere, is a gorgeous, shimmering rose gold/peach colour which we can’t wait to try.

Ayuuri Purifying Neem Face Wash – Full Size £4.95 (Full Size Inc)

Another brand we’ve not come across. There were two different face washes in the boxes this month, the other being Tumeric & Bergamot, however the purifying seems like it will suit our skin type well, so we’re happy! The price is very reasonable as well, so if we like it it will definitely be something we’d consider buying ourselves.

Glossybox Blusher (Box Exclusive)

We’re not normally a fan of own label freebies, but this blusher, in Glossy Rosewood, is created for Glossybox by Kryolan and we love their products so have high hopes for this one.

Sleek True Colour Lipstick

We’ve used other Sleek products before but haven’t tried their lipsticks before. This shade, O.M.G, is a really lovely orange-toned red which we really want to try out.

There were also lots of discount codes included, for products that have been featured throughout 2012, which is great for anyone wanting to purchase full size products they’ve already tried.

 

Did you get a Glossybox this month? What did you think? If you subscribe to any beauty boxes, let us know which ones and what you love/hate about them! 

Glossybox is a monthly subscription service costing £10 plus £2.95 P&P. You can subscribe here for a monthly, quarterly, six month or yearly subscription. And as a little treat for our readers, you can receive 20% off your first box by using the code AFFJAN20.

*Disclaimer* We pay for our own subscription to Glossybox and our review is 100% independent. 

 

Our Top 5 Favourite Products this week….!

Here’s our round-up of our favourite five products from all that we have featured in the last week……

Magnetic Attraction

We featured three magnetic polishes in our review of this fab trend – and we loved all three of them! Take a look here…..and here!

Tools of the Trade

Finally we’ve managed to find some really good quality brushes that are really reasonably priced!

Read it Now!

Nurture your Skin with Nurture’s Nourishing Rescue Balm

Perfect for winter skin this balm is great for saving you from dry, sore skin. 

Read it Now!

YSL Shocking!

Want long, dramatic lashes? We really liked YSL Shocking, take a look and see why…

Read it Now!

Sleek Contour Kit

If you want to define your face with the fabulous trick of contouring, it’s so easy to do with this palette!

Read it Now!

Sleek Contour Palette Review

If you missed our article on how to Conquer Contouring, you can take a look here. One of the products we mentioned was the Sleek Contour Palette, so we thought we’d tell you all about it….

Firstly, like all the Sleek palettes, we love the classic, simple black exterior. Handily the palettes are wipe clean too, so product-covered paw prints don’t ruin it.

With a larger dark contour shade, and a smaller highlighter, we should be able to use this to shape and define our face. The darker colour is flat so it has no shine or shimmer to it, which is handy for contouring, the highlighter is quite light and also doesn’t have as much shimmer as other highlighter which is great if you want to highlight but not look like you’re twinkling all the time!

Both colours blend really well both with fingers and brushes. We like to apply the darker shade using our Real Techniques Contouring Brush to the areas we want to “hide”. Then we buff it in with the Buffing Brush and it gives definition without looking stripey or unnatural. The highlighter is easy to apply too, and is great for the nose, forehead and brows. We did find that if you want to give your cheek bones a little extra sharpen, using a liquid or cream highlighter gives it a bit of an edge.

For the brilliant price of £6.49, we think this is a definite must buy! You can purchase it from here.

Conquer Contouring!

Professional makeup artists and those with die-hard cosmetic addictions have long known about using contouring to shape the face, but 2012 can definitely go down in history as the year the word got out and contouring went mainstream! Not so long ago you would’ve had some very confused faces looking at palettes they had no idea how to use, but not any longer. Now celebs like Kim Kardashian are posting pic of themselves mid-makeover, and beauty blogs and tutorials are becoming ever more popular, this is a trend that we predict will be followed by the masses.

So, what exactly is contouring and why do so make makeup artists swear by it? The idea is that you can highlight areas of your face that you want to make more prominent, and fade out those that you don’t. No longer are chiseled cheekbones the stuff of dreams or only achieved on a starvation diet, when done correctly contouring can sculpt your face perfectly. When applied badly, you do run the risk of being mistaken for a clown, so beware this trick does take a little practice!

Look around most beauty counters now and you’ll see that they have their own versions of countouring products. Before you make a purchase, there are a couple of things you need to think about. Firstly, make sure you buy a flat bronzer, one with gold or shimmery tones is not right for contouring. Secondly check you’ve got the colour right. Although you need your contouring colour to be dark enough to make an impact, you don’t want to go too dark and like you’ve run amok with some shoe polish. And finally, which ever product you chose, check how well it blends. As with most makeup tricks, the key to contouring is to blend, blend, blend!

Some of the products you might light to take a look at are:

Mac Pro Sculpting Creams – As the name suggests, these contouring colours come in cream form. You can select from five shades, three contour colours and two for highlighting. £17.50 each.

Sleek Face Contour Kit – A powder kit designed specifically contouring, with a flat bronzer and shimmering highlighter.There are three shades to choose from; light, medium and dark. £6.49.

Smashbox Step by Step Contouring Kit – A three-piece kit containing two very blendable contour colours as well as a highlighter & brush. £35.

Now you’ve got the right kit, you’ll want to go ahead and use it. The first thing to do is decide which areas of your face you wish to accentuate, and which you want to tone down. By contouring, you can make your face slimmer and more defined, as well as detract attention from your less than favourite features. If you already have razor-sharp cheekbones for example, you probably don’t need to worry about contouring them, but you might want to focus on slimming your nose. If you have a perfect looking nose already, then you might want to sharpen your jaw line. It’s all about making the trick work for you.

Essentially, all you need to remember is that you use the darker colour to shade and “hide” areas, and the highlighter to, funnily enough, highlight! Follow the guide below for a starting point:

The key things to note here, is the contouring used around the nose, cheeks and jaw.

• By highlighting the middle and using the darker shade in two lines either side, you’ll create the effect off slimming the nose.
• When trying to give the illusion of supermodel cheekbones, use the dark shade to draw a stripe across the hollow just under your cheekbones. You can then apply the highlighter on the actual cheekbones to accentuate them even further. We also like to add in a bit of blush just on the apples of the cheek, and then blend it lightly up the cheekbones in between the contouring shades.
• If you have a rounder jaw line that you’d like, applying the darker shade along the jawbone will help sharpen it up and give your face a more sculpted look. Likewise, if you have a strong jaw and want to soften it up, apply highlighter along the jawbone and you’ll be surprised at the difference.

Always apply your contouring creams/powder after your foundation and concealer and we know we’ve said it already but BLEND, BLEND, BLEND! You don’t want to be looking like these two:

 Remember, there’s no excuse for bad makeup!

Let us know what your favourite contouring products are, and we’d love to hear if you’ve got any other tips for us to explore.