November Glossy Box

Saying that though, there are a couple of stand out products and here are the details of the contents:

I’ve written a few reviews on beauty boxes and I’ve found that a few times I’ve unintentionally led with my most favourite product first. So now I’ll intentionally start with my favourite product in the box which is this perfume. I’m notoriously difficult (notorious, I tells ya; they speak of it far and wide..) to please when it comes to scents as I like something strong yet feminine, pretty without being sickly and one that packs a punch without overwhelming. I therefore currently use Jean Paul Gaultier Classique but I really loved this Illamasqua scent (fabulous name too) and as I’m so fussy, I tend not to bother seeking alternative scents as nothing ever appeals, so I’m really excited to have come across this and I’ll start hint-dropping in time for Christmas.  I’m rarely thrilled when these boxes include perfume samples – unless they’re an add on to the contents rather than an actual sample – but I would never have considered trying out this one (I absolutely love Illamasqua make-up, but I’ve never come across a cosmetic brand who released a scent I liked) if it wasn’t featured in this box. Freak retails for £59 for 75ml and the included sample is 1.5ml which is worth £1.18. 

I love, love, LOVE Philip Kingsley and have been using his products for ages. I especially love the Elasticizer but as it’s so expensive it’s one of those products I’ll only buy if my hair is really playing up, or I’ve managed to find a decent discount. This product is a prewash conditioner, named ‘Elasticizer’ because it takes brittle hair back to it’s healthy, stretchy self. I don’t need to try this to know I’ll love it, and the sample included is pretty generous; I’d say about 3 washes worth. 150ml of this retails at £25.50 and the sample included is 40ml which is also available at the Philip Kingsley site, retailing for £7.

I’m not really a nail person, mainly because I play the guitar so I gave up on nice nails quite a while ago, but I like the idea of jazzing up my toenails and I’ve seen a lot of positive things written about nail wraps recently so I’m pleased to get the opportunity to try them myself. I hope they’re as easy to apply as they sound as I am RUBBISH with anything finickity so once I give these a go, I’ll write-up my experience of them.  Included in this box is (I think) a full sized pack of nail transfers, which retail at £6.65. 

I’ve previously used the Dead Sea Spa Magik Mask (against my better judgement as they spell ‘Magic’ weirdly) and I found it pretty good, if a tad tricky to remove. I’m happy it’s a face wash included in the box and not a body wash or lotion as I’m much more interested in trying such products, however, I don’t know if it’s because I blog about these things or just a general thing, but this is one of those ‘meh’ products that I can’t get excited about. You never know, I might be pleasantly surprised…..we’ll see.  Full sized, this retails for £8.80 for 150ml and included in this box is 25ml with a value of £1.46. 

If the above product is possibly a ‘meh’ product then this most definitely is. Foot cream? Why?! I’m sure there are many who would be pleased to receive this and who are avid foot cream fans, but sadly I’m not one of them. Especially as it’s winter now so I’m not hugely fussed about whether my feet are soft or not as I won’t be showing them to anyone other than my lucky, lucky boyfriend.  A 118ml full sized bottle of this costs £19 and included in the box is 15ml worth £2.42. 

The total worth of this box is £18.76.  I will confess that I’ve been a little unfair as I’ve very specifically worked out the value of the products in this box, whereas normally I round up, but at most I’m out a pound or two in other reviews, yet the value of the products included in this box are considerably lower than they have been in other brand’s boxes.  Carmine’s box for this month was worth just over £60.

I really am such a fan of beauty boxes as an idea and a practice, but as it’s such a new thing I think Glossy Box haven’t fully got the hang of it yet; if you’re going to send out very general products, they need to be amazing, but if you’re going to send out less impressive products then they need to be fine-tuned to meet the needs of the receiver. Saying that, Glossy Box are, I believe, the first company to ask questions about skin/hair type and tone on sign-up, so maybe this means that person-specific boxes are in the pipeline. I’m more than happy to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that next month’s box is a little more like last month’s which was great. For more info on Glossy Box, click here.