Friday 25 October 2013

Her Fashion Box September


Her Fashion Box just keeps getting better and better! Seriously. I haven't been this happy with a subscription box in a long time and I've had them all (well the ones that are available in Australia), Bellabox, Lust Have It, Glossybox (before it got taken over by Lust Have It) and now HFB and Violet Box.

SEPTEMBER'S CONTENTS:
  • 1x Clutch
  • 1x ID Bracelet
  • 1x Real Gold Plated Ring
  • 2x Maybelline New York Color Show Nail Colour
  • 1x Designer Brands Chubby Lipstick Crayon
  • 1x Designer Brands Kohl Pencil
  • 1x C2 Collagen Firming and Moisturising Facial Mask
  • 1x Pure Tan Pure Moisture Coconut Body Creme
As an added bonus for completing the survey for August's box I received an extra Pure Tan sample of 100% Coconut Oil.


MEMORIES OF McQUEEN CLUTCH ($39.95)


 Her Fashion Box created this clutch as an homage to the Alexander McQueen bauble clutch and I gotta say it is BEAUTIFUL (even though it's nowhere near as beautiful as an Alexander McQueen - lol). I'll definitely be able to use this clutch on a night out unlike most freebie bags it's not hideous!

THE MIDAS TOUCH RING ($24.95)

It's another accessories WIN for Her Fashion Box. I love, love, love, love, love yellow gold and this ring is just beautiful. The rings that were featured in this month's box are all real gold/silver plated and for once it actually FITS my man hands. The bonus? It matches my wedding/engagement/eternity rings.

ANDROGYCHIC ID BRACELET ($29.95)

I really wish they had gold plated the ID bracelets too as when you look at it it has more of a silver look to it rather than a yellow gold. It's still a nicely made bracelet BUT it doesn't have anywhere near as much yellow tone to it than it should. 

MAYBELLINE NEW YORK COLOR SHOW NAIL COLOUR ($5.95EA)
ICED QUEEN 310 & ONYX RUSH 430

(L) Iced Queen (R) Onyx Rush
 Iced Queen is a lovely pastel purple nail polish that glides on smoothly and dries relatively quickly. It's the perfect shade for spring!


When you take a quick glance at Onyx Rush you are more than likely to deem it as just a simple black nail polish, but if you look closer you'll notice that there are the tiniest little flecks of blue/green/purple glitter within the polish itself that it appears almost cosmic like.

It was really hard to capture in a photo but in these macro images the glitter is showing up as silver/white flecks. Once the polish is dry, however, it is harder to see the reflection of the glitter.

These polishes are simply beautiful and go on like a dream. They are super pigmented and two coats of polish is more than enough to get the right finish. This is a superb product and definitely worth checking out next time you're in a Priceline, Big W, Target etc.

DESIGNER BRANDS CHUBBY LIPSTICK CRAYON
KISS & TELL RED ($7.99)


This Designer Brands Chubby lipstick crayon is smooth and creamy in consistency and is relatively easy to apply. This lipstick is a little too waxy/oily and I find that the lipstick moves so easily. I prefer more matte/dry formulas.

All in all it's not too bad for only $7.99 and if I desperately needed a lip colour and didn't have much cash I'd definitely consider buying one of these.

 

DESIGNER BRANDS KOHL PENCIL BLACK ($4.99)

Unlike the lip pencil, this Kohl pencil is definitely not worth it. Kohl pencils are meant to be very pigmented and easy to apply and unfortunately this was the direct opposite.

As you can see in the picture below the stripe on the left hand side is after only one stroke. There is little to no pigment in the pencil and I had to press down really hard in order for the pencil to draw on my hand. On the right hand side of the image is after 10 strokes. When I layered the colour on top of itself it drew on the hand a lot easier and I didn't need to press down so hard.
Macro image
When it came down to actually applying the pencil on the eye it actually hurt and my eyes started to water pretty hard and really quickly. The pigment in the pencil is also very patchy and rubbed off really easily (which is something that you don't want in an eye pencil). I would suggest skipping this pencil and spending a little more to get a better quality one.

 LONVITALITE C2 COLLAGEN FIRMING &
MOISTURISING FACIAL MASK ($29.00/5 MASKS)

I'm still not a fan of the fabric facial masks and definitely prefer the traditional masks. I feel that having just one sample wasn't enough for me to determine whether or not this mask is for me or not.

 PURETAN PURE MOISTURE COCONUT BODY CREME ($12.95)

This cream smells DELICIOUS! What I love about it is that it doesn't have an overpowering scent like some of The Body Shop body butters/lotions have that sometimes make me feel nauseous.

I feel like this cream absorbed immediately in to my skin and it felt soft to the touch almost immediately. Once summer hits Australia I'll be looking to stock up on this!

Overall, this month's box was quite good! I especially LOVED the accessories this month and the fact that the ring included fits me is a big bonus as I big fat man hands with sausage like fingers - lol. I hope Her Fashion Box keeps continuing on delivering great boxes and can't wait to see the next one!

Thursday 24 October 2013

Violet Box September


 Okay. I'm not going to sugar coat this review. This, by far, is THE WORST box I have received so far. REALLY. I'm not over exaggerating either.

I'll start with the good things for this month's box.

 

NS-5 CUTICLE & NAIL COMPLEX ($9.95) - Full size

 This cuticle cream feels luxurious and is quite emollient. However, as I already have good cuticles I can't comment on whether it does repair the skin. It has no overpowering fragrance and is in an easy to use tube. NS-5 Cuticle gets a tick in my book but I won't be buying this once it runs out (if it ever does) as I don't really need it in my manicure routine.

 

SINFUL NAIL POLISH ($4.95) - Full Size


 I've seen this nail polish range at my local Priceline and Target over the past couple of months and have always been intrigued to try it but as I have quite an extensive range of polishes I hadn't bothered to buy any as they didn't have anything that was unusual or a colour that I didn't already have.

Surprisingly this polish was quite pigmented and also had a nice shine to it. Given that it is a cheap line it really impressed me with this and it wore well with minimal to no chipping. This is one polish that I will definitely use once summer hits us!

Now for the bad.... and I mean REALLY BAD!

 

THE VINTAGE COSMETIC COMPANY
FLORAL SLANTED TWEEZERS ($14.95) & EMERY BOARD ($4.95)


 The emery board has quite a lot of texture and even though in the description it states it's for "soft, weak and fragile nails" it still worked on my strong, hard nails so it wasn't a complete disaster for The Vintage Cosmetic Company. However, the tweezers are a WHOLE OTHER STORY.

 Okay, these tweezers are terrible. I've had cheap tweezers that I have picked up for $2 that do a better job than these and when I saw that they these retail at $14.95 I had to stop myself from laughing so hard.

These tweezers have NO GRIP and are absolutely useless. USELESS. What is the point of a pair of tweezers that do not have any grip? It took 4-5 goes to even feel a tug on the hair and it didn't necessarily guarantee hair removal whereas my Revlon Diamond Grip tweezers that I picked up two years ago for a little more than the RRP of these ones pick the hair and tweeze on the first go. So either I got a pair of dud tweezers or The Vintage Cosmetic Company need to remake this product.

 

ELEVEN AUSTRALIA'S MIRACLE HAIR TREATMENT

 There was not enough of this product to make a proper assessment as there was barely enough for one application. My tube was pretty much empty. On the plus side it smelt nice, but that's pretty much all I can say about it.

 

TIMELESS TRUTH Q10 CAVIAR NOURISHING MASK ($7.00)


I did not notice a change in the feel of my skin, or appearance of my skin after using this product but I didn't think I would considering it was only one mask. To be honest, I felt like I wasted my time even trying this.

Overall this month's Violet Box screamed cheap and nasty. I hope they up their game and give us some thing great in October's box cos otherwise I'll be cancelling my subscription soon enough.

Her Fashion Box August


When I first opened August's Her Fashion Box I was so blown away with what we received! This was the first time that I really thought that HFB was DEFINITELY a keeper and that I would subscribe to their services for the long haul!

Here's what we got:
  • 1x Fashion Scarf
  • 1x Fashion Belt
  • 1x Ardell Brow Perfection Stencils
  • 1x Ardell Brow Defining Kit (full kit)
  • 1x MeMeMe Beat the Blues Highlighter (full size)
  • 1x L'oreal Mythic Hair Oil (travel size)
  • 1x Press & Go Press on Manicure
  • 1 x Lash Curler (extra gift) 

As an added bonus for responding to their July survey I also received a Honey & Beau pouch which was featured in the July box. It says on the little slip that I received a different print but I got the same one as the one in July which I don't mind because I LOVE this print - it goes with everything!

 

FASHION SCARF ($24.95)


I'm not really a scarf person so I won't be wearing this while out and about. It's interesting to see that in the catalogue it's in black and white but the actual scarf is in colour. Not quite sure where they were going with this....definitely a fail for me.

 

GILDED GRACE BELT ($24.95)


I actually really like this belt and because it is stretchy it fits us plus size girls. Definitely one to wear over a dress or a peplum skirt/shirt/dress.

 

ARDELL BROW DEFINING KIT ($24.95) &
BROW PERFECTION STENCILS ($9.99)


As I am a makeup artist I'm always so particular about brows so I was absolutely ECSTATIC to see this appear in the box. After attending many many workshops I find I'm quite good at free handing brows but I've never tried stencils so this was an interesting experiment for me.


The kit came with a brown palette with three colours to custom blend and a natural highlight shade, a duo brow brush and a brow grooming pencil (wax) to help keep your brows in place.


For my experiment I decided I would try using the stencils to see how easy it would be for the everyday consumer to use.

The stencils come with four different shapes: Delicate, Elegant, Glamorous and Classic.


 I actually found it quite hard to use these stencils as there was too much plastic at the bottom of the stencil and found it was hard to position on my face whilst holding it at the same time as placing the brow product on to my brows. I think with practice this would become easier. I also would have preferred for the stencils to come in maybe two designs but in different widths (ie; thin/medium/thick) as not everyone has the same brow height.

Overall I found it to be quite fiddly and it took me longer to do my brows with the stencils rather than freehand.

The other thing that I did not like was the consistency of the powders as I felt they were a little chalky and I had to load my brush up quite a few times just to get a bit of colour on the brush.

I really thought I was going to be won over with this brow kit.....BUT unfortunately it didn't sway me in its favour. I definitely prefer doing my brows freehand.
(L) No product (R) Brow Stencil

 

MEMEME BEAT THE BLUES HIGHLIGHTER ($18.95)


 Anyone who has seen my beauty work knows how much I LOVE highlighters and illuminators as I think they add extra dimension to the face and I just love the dewy skin look, so when I saw this I almost jumped out of my seat because I am always looking for something new to add to the kit.

UNFORTUNATELY, it was a mega let down. Once you rub this in, all that it leaves behind is glitter. No shimmer. FAIL! I can see that they tried to match this with Benefit Cosmetics' High Beam but unfortunately it falls short of achieving the same results.

All the little flecks in this image is glitter. As you can see there is no shimmer/reflect

 

L'OREAL MYTHIC HAIR OIL


 After using Moroccan Oil a while back I have really been turned off hair oils as I find it just builds up in my hair and then eventually causes my fine hair to just be so limp and lifeless that I gave up on using oils. I do, however, like using them on special occasions on a night out and I want my hair to look glossy but I tend to stay away from using it everyday which seems to work well for me.

Mythic Oil smells quite nice, not too overpowering, and is really thin in texture so it didn't weigh my hair down. Even though it feels nice in my hair I didn't find anything super amazing about this product so I probably wouldn't go out and buy another bottle once this one has finished. Generally I find most hair oils to be about the same and haven't found anything that wowed me yet.

I would love to know if you have found a hair oil that has worked miracles for you! Comment below.

 

PRESS & GO PRESS ON MANICURE ($14.95)


 I have pretty strong nails and so I generally don't need to apply fakes nails/gels/acrylics so this product didn't excite me (not to mention that I'm not a HUGE fan of pink). I really would've LOVED it if they included one of the more arty looking designs in this month's box.

I opened it up just to see what sizing was like as it states that there are 12 sizes included in the packet so that you would be guaranteed to find a fit. Unfortunately, these nails were not wide enough to cover my nail beds so even if they had sent a design that I liked I wouldn't be able to use it except for on my pinky nails.

All in all I feel that August's HFB had great impact on unboxing but once I actually tried the products I wasn't actually all too happy about them. Still a great subscription box but I think they need to think bigger and better when it comes to the cosmetic lines they include in the box.
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