Boxycharm August 2017 Unboxing and First Impressions

Hiii dolls!  Today, I’ll be reviewing the contents of August’s Boxycharm!  You can find my review on last month’s Boxycharm here.  Boxycharm is my favorite beauty subscription box that provides 5-6 full-sized items for $21/month.  What I love about Boxycharm is that the value of all the luxury products always well exceed the $21 price.

August’s theme is Beach Please and comes with 5 products.

1. Tarte Rainforest of the Sea: Volume II – $36 (sephora.com)

Crease-free eyeshadow palette with the bestselling creamy powder formula in eight cool-toned shades (excerpt).  The sleek gold packaging with the coral design is gorgeous and feels so luxurious.  I like that it includes a mirror and an array of neutral eyeshadows.  However, I was very disappointed in the formula 🙁 These eyeshadows feel creamy to the touch, but are very dry.  You could swirl your brush in the pans for days and not have any kick up.  This is good if you don’t like fall out with your eyeshadows, but these also lack the pigmentation I’ve come to expect from Tarte Cosmetics.  The Tartelette in Bloom Palette is one of my favorite eyeshadow palettes ever so I was disappointed the quality of this palette was not on par.  I gave this palette two different tries and both times, the eye-look ended up looking muddy.  Unfortunately, this is a hard pass.

2. Royal & Langnickel Moda Pro 3 Piece Brush Set – $26 (beautyusa.royalbrush.com)

This MODA Pro 3-Piece brush set, deatures a pointed brush, chisel blender and a crease brush.  These brushes will achieve enless looks and can be use with both wet and dry products (exerpt).  These brushes feel so luxe and the bristles are super soft.  I enjoy the soft touch grip of the handle for ease of control.  I love using the pointed brush for applying powder bronzer/contour, the chisel blender for blending in cream contour, and the crease brush for applying transition eyeshadow shades.  This brush set is a total winner ?

3. Adesse Gel Effect Nail Polish in Suzannemi – $18 (adesseny.com)

Give your nails the “plump” look of a gel manicure without a UV or LED lamp.  This polish is infused with organic bamboo extract, argan, and shea oils to sooth and rejuvenate your nails while delivering high-definition color, and a super shiny finish, that won’t chip or scratch (excerpt).  I’ve received another nail polish from this brand in a previous Boxycharm (blogpost here) and while the shade was gorgeous, I found that the formula dried out too quickly.  After about 3 separate uses, the polish became goopy to apply.  I love this tomato red shade as well, but I have similar polishes with a longer lasting formula, so I will be passing this along to a friend.

4. Pur Pro Eyelashes in Bombshell – $14 (purcosmetics.com)

Pur 3 D lashes are handcrafted with the finest luxury silk to provide ultra-lightweight, natural-looking, fuller lashes.  These cruelty free lashes are durable, reusable, and safe for contact wearers (exerpt).  These lashes are gorgeous, very long and fluttery.  The thin lash band makes it easy to blend into your own lash line, although for myself, these are anything but natural looking.  I think these lashes are stunning and photograph beautifully, but I would only rock them for photos as they look intense on my smaller eyes, in person ?

5. Aloette Face Paint in Blooming Berry – $35 (aloette.com)

Aloette’s Face Paint is enriched with Jojoba esthers, vitamin E, and other esential oils that will heal and nourish the skin while providing long-lasting, dewy color to the cheeks and lips (exerpt).  The formula is creamy and very pigmented, so a little goes a long way.  I placed a drop on the back of my hand, swirled a Real Techniques synthetic brush, and applied the product to the apples of my cheeks.  It gave a dewy flush that lasted all day.  On the lips, it provided minimal moisture and gave a glossy berry stain.  I like the squeeze-tube packaging and product concept, but the $35 price tag is a bit steep for what this is ?Overall Rating:  I was pretty happy with this month’s Boxycharm so I award it a rating of 8/10 stars.  August’s box had a combined value of $129, far exceeding the $21 price tag.  I was initially so excited with the product selection, particularly the Tarte Eyeshadow Palette, but was disappointed it did not perform as well as I had hoped.  Still, this was a great box and I’m satisfied, at least until next month 😉 My favorite picks of the batch are the MODA Pro Brush Set and the Pur Pro Eyelashes.

Did you enjoy your Boxycharm?  Which products are you most excited to test out?

XO,

Mary Dee

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