January 2018 Target Best of Boots Beauty Box Review

Ugh, I thought I was done with the interminable month of beauty boxes that was January but no, there’s still the January Best of Boots TargetBeauty Box. I can make this really succinct: there was more than just skincare? Meh to that! Sorry for the shoddy review here but that’s about how excited I was after I was after I opened the box and saw what was inside. I think I was just initially salty because I was so excited when I ordered this box, nearly bursting with anticipation and the letdown when I opened it and saw the actual contents and sizes was palpable. I’ve had a couple of months to get over it but writing this just made my eye twitch at the memory. As I upload this I realized I have gone through many of the products that I've mentioned and I've also lost the pictures I had stored on my phone of them. This is both embarrassing and infuriating and I sincerely apologize for this faux pas.

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.

January 2018 Birchbox Review

 Birchbox is a monthly subscription service that sends out 5 makeup and beauty items for $10. Items range from foil packets to sample size with the occasional deluxe or full sized item thrown in. Birchbox seems best for people who care about brand names and prestige in their beauty products and would like to sample something without breaking the bank.

Bonus Ipsy Post (f.k.a. some of the crap I've accumulated using rewards points, a.k.a. Thank you!)

Holy crap, look at that. Two posts in one night? Hell hath frozen over!

Ipsy's rewards system is pretty heinous but I did find that it does pay off occasionally. Part of the reason I can even redeem anything is because a blogger was kind enough to post my referral link on their site, for which I cannot thank that person enough. The result is the occasional product haul.

Ipsy Review for January 2018

I will just skip the preamble and address the pool noodle sized running shoe in the room. While I appreciate the spirit of January’s bag it is pretty goddamned hideous. I get it: to each his own, but I’ve never appreciated the aesthetic of tennis shoes outside of Converse, Vans or late 90's-early 00's Airwalks (i.e. any stereotypical skater shoe). When I first saw the January bag I first thought “fuck me, it’s a shoe” where elsewhere I kept hearing it was a pool toy. Fair point but seriously, New Balance. At least the bag contents fared somewhat better than the bag itself.

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 December 2017

Well this is unfortunate... I’m backed up enough that it’s come down to doing double posts over the next few days/couple of weeks. What month are we in again?