May 2019 Sephora Review

Play! by Sephora is a $10 monthly subscription that delivers 5 beauty products and one bonus item right to your doorstep. I’ve been a subscriber for too many months to count but I do like this box as it’s one of the least disappointing subscription boxes I receive. A contributing factor to the lack of disappointment is the fact that I can find all of the items offered in store or online. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule but that’s due mostly in part to my tardiness posting my unboxings. Case in point: 

March 2019 Birchbox Review

Birchbox is a $15 a month subscription that offers 5 to 6 beauty related items. Birchbox is historically my least favorite subscription box of the ones I’m subscribed to but they’ve been trying to turn it around since they announced the price increase with more curated box options, additional samples, and new brand offerings. I believe my March 2019 box was before they announced the price increase and so it still features only 5 items. I also feel that I must defend my subscription by stating that I locked in my price at $10 a month for an annual subscription prior to the price increase. 

Glossier Haul Review

I just put most of an ass of effort into this post only to have my computer restart on me and lose the entire thing. Times like this make me want to weep in a corner with a lamp, pencil and composition notebook.

Back in May I posted a small(ish) Glossier haul over on Instagram. I had been hemming and hawing over Glossier for some years now. My initial response was one of guarded cynicism back I first noticed them a few years ago. After years of brainwashing through both Instagram and YouTube I found myself intrigued by the brand’s aesthetic which could only be described as a healthy mix of minimalism and an inflated sense of self-importance. My God, does Glossier’s brand aesthetic resonate with me! 

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A post shared by Morgan (@stunted_giraffe) on Apr 11, 2019 at 4:52am PDT

December 2018 Birchbox Review

Birchbox is a $10 monthly subscription that offers 5 (sometimes more) skincare, hair care and beauty samples in a cute little box that will contribute to further clutter and hoarding in your home. Birchbox likes to focus on mid-range and prestige brands so their samples are often on the smaller side. If an increased fire hazard sounds like a great idea to you, here’s a referral link. December’s box was one of the better boxes I’ve had in a while:

October 2018 Sephora Play Review

Play! By Sephora is a monthly subscription box that delivers skincare, hair care and makeup items that can range from the house brand to high end right to your front door. Sample sizes are always on the small size, sometimes deluxe size, but the value is usually there (for me). The boxes aren’t anywhere near as personalized as Ipsy bags. In fact, I would say its level of personalization is about on par with Birchbox for me. There are a ton of repeats within a calendar year but if you like the brands and items Sephora ships then this box would be a good call. If you are a frequent Sephora shopper, each box has 50 bonus reward points that can be redeemed and put toward a future mini not unlike the items found in each box).

Play! by Sephora Review September 2017

Sephora has come into the beauty box scene nearly two years ago with their own Play! by Sephora box and of the three months I've received so far I can't really complain much. The cost is $10 a month plus tax and like Birchbox and Ipsy, Sephora sends out a number of box variations each month. Unlike Ipsy and to a lesser extent Birchbox, Sephora does not have a very broad range of boxes, even though they state boxes are tailored to your personal profile you set up upon applying. What they're really saying is "We have 3-9 pre-curated boxes each month and whichever box you hit the most benchmarks for is the box you're getting." Unfortunately, this means if skin tone was rated as most important by Sephora that month than you may end up with a box that is tailored to your skin type (based off of what you fill out in the profile) but the skin type (oily/combination/dry) may be completely off. It's a gamble I'm willing to take (so far) with this box because I do love that the samples, while not the largest, are not foil packets and all samples are from brands that can be found in store or online meaning the labels range from mid-range to high-end. This month's box was one of the stronger ones. Items included:

• Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow in 5 Deep  - $8.00
• Ciaté London Liquid Velvet Moisturizing Matte Lipstick in Diva - $5.85 V, CF
• Sephora Collection Contour Waterproof Eye Pencil in Black Lace - $4.00
• Fresh Lotus Youth Preserve Face Cream - $6.30
• DevaCurl Melt into Moisture Matcha Butter Conditioning Mask - $4.57
• Living Proof No Frizz Nourishing Oil -$3.20

V = Vegan
CF = Cruelty Free

August Birchbox Review

Birchbox is a $10 a month subscription that sends out a box with 5 beauty samples. Samples range from beauty to skincare, hair care, fragrances and the occasional snack or lifestyle item of which I have yet to receive. It's August 31st and I'm just now getting around to reviewing my Birchbox because according to the company's site they partnered with a new shipping company and shit met fan. Full disclosure: It's not my favorite subscription box but if you're into poorly matched lip shades and tiny samples of high end brands I'll just drop my referral link right here.

 

• Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel in 5 Deep
• Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream
• Etat Libre d'Orange
• Glamglow Thirsty Mud Hydrating Treatment 
• Stila Cosmetics Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Perla
• Oribe Shampoo and Conditioner for Brilliance And Shine

I loved the box design itself this month. It reminded me so much of home and my heart did swell just a little bit seeing the sunset and palm trees. Up to this point I didn't really realize I was homesick.

Homesick

I'm perfectly fine with my broken, bushy brows but I found myself falling into the Benefit Brow craze. Fortunately I scored the Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow this month and I must say I do like it. I got the shade 5 deep and it's a really nice, cool toned match for my brows. I was a bit concerned that it would pull more red than ashy and look strangely warm and brown against my face but my fears were all for naught. I really really need to go get my brows threaded but at least now I feel confident enough to get them done a bit thinner to fit my face shape and my ginormous glasses. Last time I got them done I was not assertive enough and ended up with a straight brow. While I do like the straight brow style on Cara D, mine looked nowhere near as glamorous in part due to my huge Maurice Moss sized glasses.

The Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream is the second Dr. Jart+ product I've received and so far they're not really scoring many points with me. This moisturizer is a fairly thick cream that is full of ceramides, waxy fatty acids that help the skin maintain moisture and is also a component of vernix caeseosa (or baby cheese) on newborn babies. Cool beans, I can respect that. Except I have combination leaning toward oily skin so... no dice. Unfortunately this cream is just a bit too thick and tacky for my taste but I imagine it would work wonders on somebody with normal or dry skin. My biggest hangup is that it has that thicker tacky consistency after application which drives me insane (yeah, I know it's probably more mental than anything) so it's definitely an evening cream for me.

I received another perfume this month called Like This. It is a collaboration between the brand by Etat Libre d'Orange and Tilda Swinton, whom I've had a total girl crush on since Constantine. This fragrance has a very deep, woodsy, musky, almost gourmand scent to it. I'm not sure if what I'm smelling is gourmand or floral though because the scent tends to evolve on me rapidly for the first 10 minutes then gradually over the next few hours. It definitely has a deep autumn scent to it (love!). The info card describes it as having notes of ginger, rose and pumpkin. Omg I just want to roll in a pile of leaves with every sniff.
 

I received Glamglow Thirsty Mud H this month! Please excuse my excitement but teeny samples by this brand were part of the reason I had subscribed to Play! by Sephora so I was too excited to receive this tiny sample in my Birchbox instead of say, another dry shampoo. This is a wash-off mud mask that you apply to a damp face and leave on for roughly 20 minutes. It contains hylauronic acid, raw honey and ginger and smells amazing. I applied this before bed and my skin felt calm and refreshed and moisturized without that tacky post-moisturizer feeling I get. It did take quite a while to wash off though so if that's a point of annoyance this mask might not be for you.

For the love of fuck I wish Birchbox would either take my skin tone into consideration or just stop sending me colored lip products entirely. I had been eyeballing Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipsticks for a while on Hautelook while never biting the bullet and buying one. I got the shade Perla, a rosey "nude" shade. My husband worded it best: "I imagine a manatee floating dead, absorbing all that water. Turning sort of sickly purple/gray with hints of what used to be pink. That's what your lips look like in that color." Mind you, this is after I attempted to fix the color with a nude toned NYX lip liner in the shade Coffee. It smells the way fondant tastes. It applies a bit patchy on my lips and requires at least two coats. The downside to this is that after the second coat the lipstick begins to pearl (no pun intended) a bit on itself. It has a very offputting fragrance that smells almost exactly what cake fondant tastes like and has a bit of a sweet flavor to it as well. The formula is not transfer proof and it dries to leave a powdery finish on my lips. Overall this product was a resounding no with me but I wonder if I would have given it a higher rating if I were able to at least wear it for an extended period of time.

Stila Perla swatched in very shitty lighting

Left: Stila Stay All Day in Perla alone, Right: Stila Stay All day on top of NYX lip pencil in coffee

Too cool that I got two bonus foil packets this month. It feels like that has been happening more frequently, actually. This month's foil bonuses were Oribe Shampoo and Conditioner for Brilliance And Shine. I'll be honest, I didn't get a chance to use these yet because my box came in  after weekly wash day. Please somebody explain to me though why the full size of the shampoo and conditioner are $49 and $52 respectively? Is it the brand we're supposed to be paying for or are these comprised of some form of infant tears and unicorn farts? I would also love to meet the people who are willing to shell out that kind of money for a shampoo and conditioner because I will take that opportunity to ask him or her to buy me a latte.

Am I happy? Yes and no. I could absolutely do without shipping delays and poorly matching shades. I hate the liquid lipstick shade (as I often do because I highly doubt they take my profile's skin tone into consideration) but I did get Glam Glow, Oribe foil packets, a questionably nice smelling perfume and Benefit Gimme Brow (score!). I accidentally ended up with two boxes this month. I had sent an email around August 21st saying I never received my box and my shipping hadn't updated since the original notice on August 9th so they apologized to me and sent a replacement box. My original "lost" box arrived 4 days ago while my replacement box just showed up in the mail today. Oops. My one comfort is that I'm not the only person who has had shipping issues and concerns. I've also been toeing the line about whether or not I wanted to cancel but I believe this shipping issue is the last straw. My subscription is up for renewal in December but I think I feel more comfortable moving to a monthly plan from my current annual subscription. Shipping delays and vendor changes make me pretty nervous.