Sunday, October 22, 2017

Target Beauty Box Review October 2017

Every month Target releases a beauty box of makeup, beauty and grooming items featuring brands that can be found in store and online at Target.com. The price ranges from $5-$10 and each box contains between 5 and 8 items, on average, with the occasional shade variance with the makeup item. At $7 this box sold out amazingly fast this month, it was sold out before mine arrived in the mail.


This month's box was full of wonderful items, including three full sized makeup items so it's no wonder it sold out so quickly. This month I received:

 *Not Leaping Bunny certified 

First off Raw Sugar Lemon Hand Wash smells a-may-zing! It smells like sweetened lemonade. I love that the brand is ingredient conscious and even the packaging is made of post consumer materials. My only issue I have is the nature of the packaging. It is a hand wash that is packaged like a body wash in a squeeze bottle meaning if I have to use this I have to wrap my filthy hands around the outside of the bottle. This may be re-purposed as a body wash instead.


The Masque Bar may be one of my least favorite sheet mask brands that I've ever used. Their masks are always so thick and relatively dry. Masque Bar Wrinkle Reducing Sheet Mask was no different. I understand I'm already biased in my general dislike for sheet masks but I just can't help but feel like Masque Bar masks provide even fewer benefits than other sheet masks. This rings especially true since I've actually encountered one or two sheet masks that I hated less than others in the past. In fact, in retrospect, if I were a different person with different skincare preferences, I might even say I... enjoyed them?



Elf Clear Wax Brow Pencil, the ELF product I never had any desire to really try or buy. Fortunately this one arrived when I had some crazy Jack Nicholson eyebrows going on. The right one has been torn between darting right, strafing left or cutting north toward the baby hairs. This isn't something I can see myself reaching for frequently but it's nice to have on hand in case of emergencies, say a swift gust of wind or small forehead gnomes wandering through the brush.


Thanks to beauty boxes I will likely  never need to buy shampoo for myself again-conditioner is a different story. The inclusion of Maui Moisture Shea Butter Shampoo was a pleasant one. This shampoo smells amazing and it provides a decent lather. I did not notice that my hair was any more clean than usual but then I don't really know how I would measure that metric since I can't exactly do the squaky-clean test. I do love the scent and the size of this sample, clocking in at 100mL. I was a little irritated while researching this brand though. They claim to be cruelty free and vegan on their website but nowhere did I find a Leaping Bunny seal of approval, for those of you who may care about cruelty free brands. I hope this company does try to receive that endorsement in the future if they are indeed cruelty free.




Neutrogena Nourishing Eyeliner in Brushed Pewter turned out to be a nice eyeliner shade in a smoky, charcoal almost black. The eyeliner itself comes with a sharpener (yay!) and a smudger that I will likely never use as I feel that the smoky eye look makes my eyes look beady. I also acknowledge the fact that I could avoid this problem if I learned how to properly smoke out eyeliner/shadows. The formula itself is quite creamy and there is some transfer onto the lower water line and a little smudging after application but my arm swatch remained there throughout a full 24 hours of wandering around with kids, cooking and bathing tots. It took some scrubbing the next day to remove most of the remaining arm swatch.


Rimmel Stay Matte Liquid Lip Color in Midnight ended up being the dark horse of this month's box. Target sent out shade variations this month and I got very lucky to receive this beautiful deep purple that most people would probably consider unwearable. The formula is pretty shit: it's patchy, it's streaky, it is matte while not being completely transfer proof, it begins to fade patchily within an hour and it applies poorly over any kind of balm or lip treatment. But oh my god am I willing to overlook that for this beautiful shade. It's a very deep purple that is everything that I wanted my NYX liquid lippie to be, just in a subpar formula. I wore this to work on Friday and got a few nods of approval from my fellow lab nerds. I love that it's a daring shade that isn't too off the wall or socially unacceptable *coughbluegreycough*. I really must find a similar shade in a better formula.


The L'Oreal Extraordinary Hair Rebalancing Clay Shampoo and Conditioner were underwhelming though I do appreciate Target including both items that complement each other. I was able to get a full lather out of the shampoo packet and they smelled like your typical salon products but I just did not notice any real difference in the cleanliness or moisture of my hair.

Swatches of the Neutrogena eyeliner (smudged on far left) and Rimmel lippie
Wearing the Neutrogena eyeliner, Rimmel lippie and Elf Brow Wax

The ELF Brow Wax is trying so hard here...

This was easily my favorite Target Beauty Box in recent months (perhaps since May or June) mostly due to the numerous full sized makeup items and their overall wearability. The total value comes out to about $20.74 and most of that was in the form of the three full sized makeup items.

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