Look Fantastic Beauty Box January 2020 – Unboxing and Product Reviews

First beauty box of 2020! Look Fantastic comes with a new design this year which looks much sleeker even though the visual difference is not really that much!

The bright yellow and green colours of the box, the sleeker design and the “Revive” theme all fit nicely with the begining of the year, January. The box looked fresh, exciting and fun!

This beauty box always comes with a quote under the lid and this month it said: “Revive, Refresh, Recycle” and the products contained actually fit the theme for once! Great start for Look Fantastic!

The Look Fantastic box also always comes with a small monthly Beauty Magazine that has a little more information about the products contained and some other featured products, and a travel size, but full edition, of the ELLE magazine. This beauty box is such an amazing value for money. To subscribe to Look Fantastic and get £5 off your first box click here.

This month’s box contained 7 products (1 extra than usual).

Let’s have a look at the products in more detail. These are short reviews that cover first impressions and experiences from using the products. For full reviews, including ingredient analysis and if I would recommend a product or not, check out: Beauty In-depth Reviews & Ingredient Analysis (all articles here). 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

To subscribe to Look Fantastic and get £5 off your first box  click here.

 

Ecooking Moisturising Serum

This clear colourless serum has a watery texture which spreads easily and is absorbed by the skin relatively quickly. It feels slightly sticky but nothing major and has a slightly strange off-scent that is not bad but neither nice. Atleast the scent comes naturally from the ingredients and not from added fragrance.

The serum contains some good ingredients, like tripeptides but a lot of them are contained in small quantities. Interestingly, the Look Fantastic magazine says that this product contains hyaluronic acid but the ingredient list doesn’t!

The most annoying thing about this product is that it leaves a film behind, so not everything is absorbed into the skin. After a while you can sort of peel off the bits that are left behind and although they are easily removed with a cleanse, it’s not nice.

Although this vegan serum wasn’t particularly bad, it’s also nowhere near as nutritious as others in the market. This 10mL bottle retails for £21.50 and lasts for 12M. SCORE = 6/10

 

Lord & Berry Ultimate Lip Liner in Just Naked

This lip pencil works well, glides easily and stays on the lips for a while. It’s not as buttery as some other lip liners but also not as harsh as others. It’s a mediocre lip liner that works and aparently lasts for 36M!

The colour, Just Naked is a brown, bit darker than what I would call nude but that’s relative to skin tone, so this might actually be nude for darker skin tones. Nevertheless, I still used it with lighter nude lipsticks as it’s often nice for the lip liner to be a little darker than the lipstick, to bring that little contouring and shape on the lips.

This 1.3g lip liner retails for £15. SCORE = 7/10

 

GLOV Moon Pads 

These fluffy pads look cute and feel soft. They are meant to be used for makeup removing and they are reusable as they can be washed.

According to the instructions of the product at the back of the packaging, you can use them either on their own or with a cleanser. I’ve tried both and neither experience was pleasant. There was a lot of friction that is not great for the skin and to make things worse, there was also some scratching coming from the part where the glue is, holding the two sides of the pad together. Even when wet, that connection was harsh and although I tried to avoid it, it was impossible sometimes. I often tried to fold the pads in two, in order to get under the eyes and other corners and this way I accidentally got scratched with the glue line. Not good.

I gave up with using them for cleansing, it wasn’t a great experience at all and even though they are reusable, they are never as fluffy and soft after their first wash. I might explore if these can be used as powder puffs instead.

I am also a bit wary of the whole reusable pad product category, sure you won’t be using as many over the month, so you are saving trees etc but is it really that much more enviromentally friendly when you have to wash them constantly, therefore use cleansers that go down the drain plus use lots of water every day? I’d like to see some scientific data to convince myself one way or the other, maybe I’ll do this experiment at some point.

These pads retail for £7.11 for 3 of them. SCORE = 5/10

 

 

MIO Skincare Skin Tight Body Serum

This body serum claims to smooth, moisturise and firm the skin as well as reduce the appearance of cellulite. I like the careful wording of this product, it might indeed reduce the appearance of cellulite if you use it for a long time (no difference for the first uses) but it will not eliminate it. There is only one scientifically proven way of eliminating cellulite and I’m afraid that’s corret eating and exercising. For all the science info check out: Do cellulite treatments work?

With that being said, some products can minimise the appearance of cellulite and that’s through moisturising the skin. The drier the skin the harsher it will look so invest in a good body moisturiser and forget about miracle products.

This body serum did feel moisturising but has an intense scent of peppermint chewing gum! It contains some nutritious ingredients but also some that are not great for the skin like alcohol, menthol etc.

This 30mL bottle retails for £9 and lasts for 6M. SCORE = 7/10

 

Australian Bodycare Tea Tree Oil Blemish Stick

So, I actually haven’t had a spot in a while now and therefore, wasn’t able to test this product. What a nice problem to have huh?

Anyhow, this is meant to be an anti-microbial, anti-flammatory product that you can put on a spot to speed up the heeling process by fighting bacteria and reducing redness.

It has a strong scent and works by rolling the applicator ball onto the skin. This 9mL bottle retails for £9.99 and lasts for 12M. I won’t be scoring this product since I haven’t used it yet.

 

Sebastian Professional Dark Oil Lightweight Shampoo & Conditioner

This shampoo and conditioner contain very basic ingredients and the shampoo even contains methylparabens if you avoid it. The ingredients in general are very mediocre, despite containing small amounts of Jojoba and Argan oil.

The shampoo is a clear gel and the conditioner a white cream, typically of these products. They both smell nice but differently from each other.

They work ok and do the job but personally I didn’t notice anything amazing or bad about them. They last for 12M and these 50mL travel size bottles retail for £7.92. SCORE = 6/10

 

Overall, the box looked renewed, sleek and beautiful. The products contained were all interesting to try out and although I haven’t found a new favourite, it was exciting to try them all out. 

Initial box score, in terms of products and first feelings = 8/10

Overall box score after product testing (average of product scores) = 6.2/10

Box value = £70.50

Star product = MIO Skincare Skin Tight Body Serum

To subscribe to Look Fantastic and get £5 off your first box  click here.

Did you get this month’s Look Fantastic box? 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 all the details on how Cohorted, Glossybox, Look Fantastic and Birchbox performed in 2019 and which one is worth your money, check out “Battle of the Beauty Boxes – Conclusions from the 2019 Unboxing and Reviews on Glossybox, Look Fantastic and Cohorted”.

For general subscription box reviews see the: 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?”. You can also see pictures from all beauty boxes (2017-current) on my Pinterest beauty box board.

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

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