June 2019 Sephora Play Review

Play! by Sephora is a $10 monthly subscription that provides members with 5 beauty samples and 1 bonus item. The samples are never full sized and the bonus is usually a perfume but can sometimes be a foil packet. Wow, I’m doing a terrible job of selling this, guys. The only one benefit of the Sephora box over other similar boxes is all items can be found inside Sephora or available online at www.sephora.com. That is, until the chain discontinues something but that’s not too common.

·         Tarte Foundcealer SPF20 in 42N

·         Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask in Vanilla

·         Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner

·         Biossance Squalane + Tea Tree Detox Mask

·         Belif The True Cream Aqua Bomb

·         Hum Nutrition Hair Sweet Hair Gummies

Tarte Foundcealer SPF20 in 42N

Once again, Sephora tries to match my skin tone and once again, Sephora fails. This time, they failed in the other direction. Tarte’s Foundsealer in 42N is about 2 shades too light for me, which I suppose can be worked with either in a dark room or the deep recesses of winter with some bronzer. The coverage is not my favorite. Like the name suggests, it is supposed to double as a foundation or a concealer. I’m not into high coverage foundations so this was an immediate miss, though I appreciate the opportunity to try it out. It’s too light for me to try to spot conceal with it over my normal foundation shades, but the coverage is definitely there. I will continue to play around with this around the house when I can guarantee nobody will see me out in the wild.

Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask in Vanilla

This was somewhat of a repeat item. I’ve tried (and loved) the original Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask in Strawberry. With its sweet scent, hydrating power, and generic petroleum jelly flavor that discourages me from eating it off of my lips, I intend to blast through my jar this winter.

Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner

Yet another product I’ve tried in the past. I should start off with the negatives first, and keep in mind, this is just all personal preference. I have hooded eyes that are difficult to work with and a pretty low-key preference for eye looks. I do not enjoy wearing eyeliner outside of my waterline and I like liquid liners even less.

That said, this is a fine eyeliner. It’s felt tip, which is more difficult for me to use than a brush tip liner (see Kat Von D’s Trooper Eyeliner) but it’s the finest felt tip I’ve ever encountered. It’s also the blackest liquid eyeliner I’ve ever tried, but I’ve never actually tested its waterproof claim. If I had to have a felt tip liner, this would be my choice.

Biossance Squalane + Tea Tree Detox Mask

I really enjoyed this face mask. It’s interesting in that it never dried down fully like a typical clay mask. It did a great job of moisturizing my skin and brightening my complexion a bit. It didn’t have any lasting effects over time but the immediate brightening was lovely.

Belif The True Cream Aqua Bomb

I’ve tried this moisturizer before and I really like it. The gel formula is moisturizing but not greasy so it’s great for daytime use, especially in the summer.

Hum Nutrition Hair Sweet Hair Gummies

This is generally a wasted sample in a subscription box because one dose isn’t enough to get an idea of how well a vitamin works. The flavor was rich; these were a pleasant gummy flavor. The texture was odd though. They were hearty and I even noticed a little extra texture to them. Now, this is a terrible analogy, but imagine eating rice pudding and noticing a heartier texture to it. IT was something like that, or perhaps a real fruit leather, where it’s heartier than an over-processed Fruit Roll-Up or Gushers snack. I can’t ever see myself paying what this product is asking. I might instead go for Nature Made Pre-Natal vitamins or something to that effect, If I’m looking for a hair/skin/nail multivitamin.

L to R in indirect natural light: Stila Eyeliner, Tarte Foundcealer in 42N

I’m no longer finding joy in subscription boxes like I once did, as evidenced by my posting once every 3 or 4 months now. Maybe it’s the stress of the move and fixing up a house, maybe it’s just an overabundance of items and I’ve found what actually works for me. Unfortunately, FOMO (cook kids’ translation: fear of missing out) is preventing me from quitting anytime soon. I’m slowly trying to whittle things down but damn this compulsive buying!

January 2019 Sephora Play Review

I must preface this by saying one of my kids was eating Sour Punch straws near the keyboard and now my space bar is out of control so I apologize for any elementary formatting errors you may come across in this post.

Play! by Sephora is a $10 subscription that provides users with 5 samples, a bonus item, and 50 extra beauty insider points with a purchase every month. The great part about this subscription: everything offered can be found inside Sephora or online at Sephora.com. The downside: I have never received a full sized item. That said, the samples are typically large enough to allow me to determine whether or not I actually like a product and if it's worth purchasing.

November 2018 Play! by Sephora

Play! by Sephora is a $10 monthly subscription that delivers sample sized skincare, hair care and makeup right to your doorstep. The best part about Sephora’s subscription box is that all items can be found either in store or online. Sephora also sends out 50 bonus Beauty Insider points to be redeemed with purchase either in store or online with each box. These points typically expire by the end of the following month.

November’s box contained:

August 2018 Sephora Play Review

Play! by Sephora is a $10 a month subscription box that provides sample sizes of skincare, hair care and makeup from brands that can be found in Sephora stores and online. It’s a great way to try out brands that are mid range to high end without breaking the bank or risking buying a full size that turns out to be a poor match. Yes, I know Sephora allows returns but I hate returning items that didn’t work out. The way I see it: I gambled, I will commit to that choice I made. I guess to a lesser extent that philosophy can also apply to subscription boxes. My gamble in August included:

January 2018 Play! by Sephora Review

Sephora Play is a $10 a month subscription that sends out sample and sometimes deluxe sized samples to subscribers. Items found in Play boxes can be pre-existing items and cult favorites found in stores or newly released items. Sephora also includes a card for 50 bonus Beauty Insider points with any in-store purchase made during that month. While I love the fact that all of the items sent out in Play boxes can be found either in store or online, I really do wish Sephora would send out larger sample sizes. The foil packets are nothing less than infuriating and many of the samples only provide 2-3 decent uses. That might be why it been so hard to find the motivation to type this. Sorry about the shitty lighting. These were taken in a hotel room at night, and that sounded way shadier than I ever expected. I unboxed these while I was traveling for work, basically.

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