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: 

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.

September 2018 Ipsy Review

Ipsy is a $10 monthly subscription service that provides members with 5 beauty, skincare or hair care samples that range in size from sample to full sized. I’ve been subscribed for over 2.5 years and it is still my favorite subscription box. I can tailor my bag to fit my needs by completing a profile and reviewing items I receive while maintaining that element of surprise since I am not specifically picking any item. This can lead to the occasional disappointment but that is what keeps the gamble fun. September was a pretty strong month. I received:

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.

December 2017 Sephora Play Review

I loved the December theme so much. I’d already been in a very Art Deco leaning Streamline Moderne mood so the undeniable Gatsby vibe of this box made me giggle. Even the curation of the box seemed to add to the pre-war vibe. *squee!*

Also, sorry about the lack of price points. I'm seriously backlogged and while I haven't lost interest in blogging, I've been a bit bummed about the shit photo quality that I haven't had funds to fix, on top of being tied up with a mother-in-law, kids, and 6 days of work a week at 8-10 hours. End Rant. BoopBeepBoop. 

Birchbox Review for September 2017

I was just sitting back washing my face and masking (something I haven't had time to do for most of this month) and I had a quick feeling of what bliss is. My husband is out working, the kids are in bed (and actually quiet), my mother-in-law is visiting her other son and his wife for most of the evening. I have found silence. And as I type this I hear the door and slowly whither inside. It was sweet while it lasted. But in my short reverie I decided I'm going to color with Lizzie when I wake up tomorrow.

What does any of this have to do with a Birchbox review, you ask?

This!

Sephora Mini Haul

I've been on the hunt for a good primer for a while now. My first experience with a moisturizing, non-silicone based primer was the Too Faced Hangover Primer. That experience was so bad that I started questioning my need for a primer in the first place. In my hunt for a new primer I recently hauled two Smashbox Try-It-Kits from Sephora and I've spending the past week or few playing with the things I snagged. Being in desperate need for an eyeshadow primer and wanting to find a new foundation primer I grabbed the Smashbox Try it Kit-Primer Authority and grabbed the Try-It-Kit: Bestsellers while I was at it (for a couple of backups and things I might use).

In my past experience, most primers don't really do too much for makeup longevity, only pore filling. I am a staunch advocate for silicone based primers for myself since I have cavernous pores that each support small villages of miners, but even then there is a specific, almost lubricating quality (if you work with graphite you will know what I mean) that I look for. I like clear, thick yet spreadable pore filling face spackle that mattifies and is almost entirely unlike lotion or any type of moisturizer. A common top ingredient I've found in these primers is Cyclopentasiloxane, a huge no-no if you are trying to avoid silicones in your beauty routine, but then I'm not. In this case  Cyclopentasiloxane serves the purpose of filling in large pores beautifully and fortunately Smashbox did not disappoint with their quality and ingredients list.