Beauty Blogger Vox Box 2012

Hey all!

   So in my world it has always been that you know you are becoming a legit blogger when you have the chance to try products for free, and then give feedback about it. The company Influenster is a website that you can write reviews on products, rate them, and qualify for various free boxes of various products. There is a slight process to actually getting a box, but it still is so exciting!! Before anyone goes all twisted, I would like to but a disclaimer in that yes, I received the following products complimentary for use and review from Influenster.  My views are not going to be affected or skewed to favor the brand or products that I have received. So let's have a peek!

The inside of my box!

 There is a card that explains everything you get, along with the prices of the items. What is great is that all the products are either deluxe versions (aka more than one use) or full-sized!

Kiss Lash Starter Kit: 5.99

What excited me about this sample was that it came with the tweezers. I'm not a false lash girl typically because I never have an easy time with it. Let's hope these make them a lil easier! Plus this glue is latex free, which doesn't make a huge difference for me but I have several friends allergic to it.  Who knew that lash glue had latex!? Well at least someone paid attention and made something different!

Goody Spin Pin: 7.29

 I've heard Emily Eddington from Beauty Broadcast do a review on these pins and she said they worked out rather well for her.  I don't have really long hair but am trying to grow it out. These might help me with all my lil loose hairs.

NYC Quad in 08 Dark Shadows: 4.99

I already have an NYC quad and really enjoy it. I would not have chosen these colors personally, but hey better chance to try something new. All colors in this quad seem to have some shimmer in them, which might be a slight con...but I'll have to try them out and see how they look on the lids!

White Barn Candle in Nutmeg and Spices: 3.50

Oh my gosh, this candle just SMELLS amazing.  This is an awesome blend of more Christmas-y scents but still work for early fall.  I can't wait to burn this candle, and might try to pick one up asap.

EBOOST: $28 for 20 packets

To be honest, this is one product I just don't seem to care at all about.  I'm the type of person who drinks her OJ, tea, and uses hand sanitizer.  I'll try it out, but I don't see myself purchasing this at all.

Not Your Mother's Kinky Moves Curl Defining Hair Cream: 6.00

I don't have curly hair, but I might use this on day old curls.  I have heard a lot about this brand so I hope I can find a way to use the product. *fingers crossed*

Vitabath Fragrance Mist in Asian Orchid and Coconut

This is a brand I've never heard of but just one spritz and another thing I'm in love with. This smells like Hawaii in the evenings...to a T! I could not be happier receiving this scent EVEN if I'm not the biggest fan of fragrance mists.

Overall I'd say this is a great mix of new products, new brands, and products that I've been meaning to try.  I will be posting actual reviews as I use these products, but for now...

Have you tried any of these? How were they for you?
xoxo,
Emily

DISCLAIMER: I was sent these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes. I am not affiliated with these individual brands and will still be giving my honest opinion for each and every product. This also includes my experience with the company, Influenster, itself.

Julep Maven October Box

So I had received my October Julep Maven box (much to my surprise) about a week (or two) back. This is just an “unboxing” type of post, I did do swatches but I don't know the lasting power etc.  I do have a slight issue with Julep Maven—my next paragraph will explain the issues if you want to just see what I got and my impressions of it I’d suggest you skip this paragraph—but do have general good things to say about the box itself.  

Of course, everything came nicely wrapped and packaged. There was candy corn...but I ate it before I took this photo (oops)

            My issues: I had gone online in the space of time allotted to skip my box…this is a 20 dollar box and recently I just had been skipping them because funding was low. You have a window of 3(ish) days to skip the month, and yes I went during that time.  I guess it didn’t go through properly because a week later I get the email saying that my box is coming to me in the mail. Sure enough I had a transaction pending on my card account, and it was in transit. In the email they send you, there is a link so you can email the company. I promptly emailed them explaining this issue, and asking them what can be the plan of action. It has been about 2 weeks, and I got NOTHING from the company. Not even a confirmation email was sent, no response at all. Now I usually give a company 3-5 days to respond…nada. Plus I realized, if you want to cancel your box, you have to call in… BUT their hours are the typical 8-5 hours and even shorter on Saturday. So if you are like me and do clinicals, commute for about an hour (one way), have classes and work 9-9 everyday minus Sunday…HOW THE HECK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO CANCEL? I feel like there should be a way to email your cancellation. There’s my rant for the day…onto the box itself.

            Even though this debacle occurred I did find a few bright sides.  This month was about Fall/ Halloween –esque colors and especially crackles.  I don’t know about ya’ll but I wasn’t a huge fan of the crackles and feel like this “trend” is done and over with.  I have the box Classic with a Twist and was really happy that I did not get the crackles, from what I’ve heard on the Youtube community is that a lot of people were opting out due to the crackle. 

The products themselves (again minus the candy corn)

            So what did I get? 2 polishes, 1 bottle of quick dry drops, 2 nail glitters and CANDY CORN. (I’m a total sucker for that stuff, even though I have come to realize that I should not be opening these types of boxes when I’m hungry…I eat everything up immediately!) Anyways.

1.      Boris & Nicole Nail Polish: In the bottle, this color is a gold/pumpkin/ blackened copper color, but this beautiful tone does not really transfer onto the nail. In my swatch you can note that the color is much darker than the bottle.  I’m not sure if you can pick it up in my photo but the base is more of a dark orange-fuschia-red… It is still a pretty color and opaque with just one coat (although I am a religious two coater)  but with one coat, there is more of the pinky tone. Two coats gives you a more golden tone. I’m a little sad that it’s not a lot more like the bottle but it’s still something I would wear. 

ONE COAT: Gwenyth on the Left. Boris & Nicole on Right.

2.      Gwenyth Nail Polish: This color honestly just looks like a nail treatment color.  I would not have picked this out on my own because it just doesn’t look impressive to me. One coat does nothing for the nails…two gives you a barely there pink tone. This doesn’t really impress me at all, but I guess that’s why they sent a suggestion card on how to use both nail polishes. I really don’t know if I’ll actually wear this, maybe as a base coat. *shrug*

TWO COATS: Gwenyth on Left. Boris & Nicole on Right.

3.      Julep Quick Dry Drops: Oh my gosh, I’ve never used quick dry drops but these are amazing. They have a great scent (lavender) and really does help with drying out the polish. One small drop on each nail does suffice. 

Clear Liquid. Does not leave fingers feeling greasy...AT ALL!

4.      Nail Glitters: I got two of these, one is a black with silver and then a deeper pumpkin orange with gold.  These are a little on the chunkier side.  I haven’t used nail glitters before and know you can use them on the tips…but I kinda wish I got a step by step tutorial on how to use these.  If you all know of anyone who does a simple tutorial please link below.  When I tried them out, I still got glitter stuck on my dry portion of nails. 

So overall, this box looks promising and I can say that I will use at least half of the box.  But I will still cancel this subscription just because I don’t want to run into the same issue as this month.  How was your box? 

xoxo, 

Emily