Glossybox Beauty Box September 2017 – Unboxing and Product Reviews

After two very beautiful and collectable boxes, Glossybox September 2017 has gone back to their iconic pink box design and strangely, I don’t mind. The boxes are still pretty, very sturdy, of high quality and you can use them for storage in so many ways.

This month’s box carried a “fresh edit of grooming stables” theme to match the back to school month, September. This theme fits September well, as fall has just started and our skin care and make up choices will start to change as we slowly transition into winter. How did the summer go by so fast…

This month there were 8 products included (depending on how you count them) and not all of them were cosmetics! This month they included a Kinder Bueno chocolate as well and I have to say I am not complaining!

From left to right as shown in the picture these were: a chocolate, an eye brow tamer, a face oil, a make up sponge, a trio of moisturisers and a perfume. So let’s go in a little more detail as to how each product performed.

Bear in mind that these are my personal opinions and that beauty is a very personal thing, we all have different skin, requirements and biological build which can influence things. What worked for me might not work for you and vice versa, please leave your comments below!

 

Kinder Bueno Chocolate Bar

This was a nice surprise for sure. It’s actually one of my favourite chocolates so I didn’t eat it immediately, I kept it for when I really needed a chocolate, if you know what I mean, and so it tasted extra good.

It is definitely a nice and thoughtful addition to the box but I do hope they don’t make a habit out of putting chocolates in here. Personally, I’d rather have an extra cosmetic item to try out than the temptation of the chocolate every month but I realise that not every one is as much of a gym junkie as me.

As a one off, this was a lovely addition to the box. I ended up having to share it with my partner though. Why doesn’t he get his own Glossybox! Glossybox for men? ManBox or something…interesting right? SCORE =10/10

 

Pixi by Petra Brow Tamer

If you are blessed like me to have thick eye brows this is a very good product for you. It is a clear gel that keeps the hairs of the eye brows together all day long, without actually feeling or looking like there is anything on them. It actually also came in its original packaging which is great.

As I naturally have full, thick eye brows, I rarely do anything with them but exactly because of this reason I do have to “clean” them every time I do my make up and take the foundation off them. This clear gel is perfect for that and it also keeps them tamed, so the hairs don’t move out of shape. I am really surprised about how long it lasts and how natural it feels even when you touch your brows. No one would know that there is anything on them and neither will you!

The only downside of this is that because it is a clear liquid it will get dirty much faster than you will run out of it. As a result, you will have to throw it away way before it is empty. After using it for a few days, it already started to get cloudy (see pictures, especially the one with the black background) and the brush was already starting to get stained with foundation. For this reason, I love that it is a small size, I wouldn’t want to be wasting a big tube every time.

Even though it is annoying that this is a product with a very short “use time” I don’t mind that at all. It works and it works well and that trumps over anything else for me. I am all about quality first than convenience, money, packaging etc.

Speaking of packaging, this is a very standard plastic tube but it feels of high quality and is very sturdy. This would never break if you dropped it on the floor. Strangely, I also like that the branding is very simple and that the cap is light green. It looks good and it works!

The wand is very standard, thick and “harsh” but it works for thick eye brows. The clear liquid has a faint smell, something between a solvent and a glue, but you can only smell it if you put your nose next to the wand or tube. You would never smell it on the brows or while using it.

I am pleasantly surprised with this one. I don’t know why I didn’t expect it to be as good as it is but it was a nice surprise. It even contains Aloe Vera (=soothing, moisturiser, anti-oxidant) and panthenol (=hair conditioning agent, lubricant, moisturiser), is paraben and fragrance free. If it contained some vitamins or hair growing agent it would have been even more special!

This tube contains 4.5mL and is full size. I would have normally criticised how small it is to be a fully size, it’s truly a travel size, but because I will have to throw it away soon when it gets dirty, I don’t mind. As I said above, the less we waste the better. It retails for £12 which admittedly is a little pricey for the size but it works and so I’d pay for it. SCORE =10/10

 

Monu Skincare Firming Fiji Facial Oil

I am a little disappointed to receive this product, as Glossybox is one of the few beauty boxes that has a personal beauty profile for each subscriber and so they should have known that I have oily skin. I moisturise day and night but for my oily skin, oils really don’t work. I have to use gels or gel-creams, as oils tend to just sit on my skin and not get absorbed, ending up even more oily than normal.

This oil is a clear, pale yellow liquid that has a smell somewhere between something floral and a nail varnish. It of course leaves an oily residue and oily shine behind as it does not get fully absorbed by my skin at least. This is a firming facial oil for dry and sensitive skin that contains grape seed oil, apricot kernel oil, hazel seed oil, rosewood oil and other oils and ingredients. I am actually surprised that this is marketed for sensitive skin as it also contains linalool and limonene which are mainly used as fragrance compounds and are known sensitizers. This doesn’t mean that this product will cause you sensitisation but usually as it seems rational, companies avoid known sensitizers from sensitive skin products.

The bottle is plastic but the walls are fairly thin. You can easily squeeze the bottle but at the same time I doubt it would break. The branding is very simple at the same time it does look like a skin care or even hair care product so it is about right.

I don’t have sensitive skin, but I do have oily skin, and as I said this doesn’t work for me. I know it’s a facial oil but I might use it on my legs as they tend to get dry in winter. SCORE = 6/10

 

 

STYLONDON Siligel Blender Clear

This was the preview item from last month and I was definitely looking forward to trying it out. It feels like, well exactly how I imagine breast implants to feel like (I apologise if that’s completely wrong). It is soft but also quite sturdy and you can bend it around to almost any shape you want, although it does spring back quickly.

Personally, I didn’t like this. You will definitely need a lot less foundation when using this, as it doesn’t absorb any, but I found that it was quite difficult and annoying to do corners with it, like under eyes or on the sides, around the nose, on the sides of the nostrils etc. I also felt that I needed a lot more time and patting to blend my foundation but I did get there at the end. I guess with practise maybe you could get this to work but I think it will always take more time than a beauty blender will. Yes you will save money by saving foundation but you will spend more time blending and time is money!

I won’t be using this. I’m afraid it is very difficult to replace the beauty blender and while as a scientist I appreciate experimentation and innovation, I think beauty companies should stop the silicone cushion blending sponges and move on. Let’s try something else please, these are not working. Perhaps a material between a sponge and a silicone cushion but with a shape that allows small corners too?

I do appreciate Glossybox for including this product though, that’s what the beauty boxes should be all about, trying out new products and seeing what works for you. This was a full size product that retails for £5.99. SCORE = 7/10

 

 

Cetaphil Mini Skincare Trio

These three small bottles contain a moisturising body lotion (bottle with green cap), a moisturising face cream (tube with green cap) and a skin cleanser (bottle with blue cap). These are all sample size, which is a little disappointing as you could get them from somewhere else for free, but at the same time there is three of them so I will let that go.

The moisturising body lotion (bottle with green cap) is a white, thin cream that spreads very easily and almost smells of nothing. It definitely feels moisturising but I can’t say that it did anything more special than other moisturisers would. That’s expected though as the formulation is very simple. It contains a vitamin E derivative though which is great. It gets absorbed quickly but leaves a buttery feeling behind.

The moisturising face cream (tube with green cap) is thicker than the body lotion but still a white cream that spreads easily. It feels moisturising, gets absorbed quickly and also leaves a buttery feeling behind. It almost doesn’t smell of anything either. It is marketed for sensitive or dry skin and contains very similar ingredients to the body lotion including the vitamin E derivative. Like before, the simple formulation and lack of fragrance is a formulation that is correctly targeting sensitive skin. It did work for me but as I don’t have sensitive skin, I would choose a much more rich formulation with a lot more nourishing ingredients for my daily moisturiser.

The skin cleanser (bottle with blue cap) is a white, silky looking cream which again almost smells of nothing. I’ve put this through the harshest possible test, against a full face of make up. In all honesty, it really didn’t work well for me, it actually took of as much make up as rubbing a dry tissue on my face did. I don’t think that this is as bad as it sounds though, as this is probably also meant to be for sensitive skin, even though it doesn’t state so on the bottle. As a result, I would expect the formulation to be fairly gentle (it does state gentle cleanser on the bottle) and not very effective for the rest of us. It contains three paraben molecules and overall is made of only 8 ingredients. Very simple indeed. Not for me I’m afraid.

We can’t really judge the packaging and appearance as these are samples. They came with a £3 off voucher though that can be used at Boots to purchase any Cetaphil products. So you get to try them and save some money if you like them. Definitely a nice deal.

I won’t be purchasing these but that’s ok, I don’t think that I am the target audience anyways. I don’t have dry or sensitive skin and so I would choose a much more nourishing formulation. Again, I don’t think that these fit my beauty profile (what happened to Glossybox this month?) but it was more interesting to try them out than the face oil. SCORE = 6/10.

 

Jeanne Arthes L’Eau de Rose Fragrance

This is a floral-rose type of smell perfume. The bottle is made of clear, colourless glass and so it is the actual perfume that gives the light pink colour. The bottle feels “heavy” and looks expensive even though it is actually very simple packaging. It comes with a black spray pump and lid at the top and I actually really love the black-pink contrast.

The smell is light and easy to wear throughout the day. It lasts a while and the smell didn’t change on my skin. Bear in mind that this might not be the case for you though, as perfumes can smell different on different people.

I usually feel disappointed when beauty boxes include perfume samples but since this is a full size one that actually also smells nice. This 30mL bottle retails for £20 which feels a little expensive to be honest. On the other hand, perfumes in general tend to have a large price tag for what they are anyways!

I did like this perfume and I will be using it up on casual/day situations. SCORE = 8/10

 

Overall, I liked the contents of this month’s box. It is very rare that Glossybox disappoints and while I don’t feel disappointed with the contents, I do feel a little concerned as it seems that Glossybox did not take into consideration my beauty profile this month. This month’s box contained 2 items that do not fit my oily skin profile.  For this reason, I have to score the box a little lower, it would have otherwise scored an 8-9. I did like the chocolate though.

Initial box score, in terms of products and first feelings = 7/10

Overall box score after product testing (a sum of product scores) = 7.8/10

Star product = Pixi by Petra Brow Tamer

 

Did you get this month’s Glossybox? What did your box contain? What did you think of the products? Have you tried any of the products listed? Let me know your experiences!

For general Subscription Box reviews see my: Birchbox, Glossybox, Look Fantastic and Cohorted general review posts. For help on how to choose the right subscription box for you check out “Which Subscription Beauty Box is right for you?”.

I am not affiliated with any company or brand. These are my views and experiences.

 

 

This article is from www.bonds-of-beauty.com but you can also find me on:

Instagram @bondsofbeauty

Twitter @bondsofbeauty1

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/bondsofbeauty/

Bloglovin https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/bonds-beautycom-18959593

Blogorama https://www.blogarama.com/blogging-blogs/1287212-bonds-beauty-blog/ 

WordPress https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/64442128

I am also part of Influenster as Bonds B.