Monday 12 September 2016

First impressions of a beauty box - Look Incredible Sept 2016 deluxe box

***Important update at the end of post***

Beauty boxes have been around for a while now, they arrived on the scene when I was blogging the first time around (yes this is not my first blog!) but its only been now that I have taken the plunge and subscribed to a beauty box.

If you are not familiar with the concept, the idea is that you subscribe to receive a box of beauty products once a month. There are many websites that offer this, all have different types of products but the one thing in common is that you don't know what you are going to get. Each month a box arrives and inside there are beauty surprises! kinda like receiving a nice little present through the post.

The idea is that you try things that you wouldn't normally try, there might be samples of new products, old faves, full sized items - depending on the box its a mixed bag. With so many different boxes it was hard to choose but after a bit of investigating, I discovered that the Look Incredible box only supplies full sized products - no samples. now I don't have anything against samples, I welcome them, I just don't like rubbish 'barely one application' type samples. You know the sachet types where you have to squeeze it to death to get anything out, half of it then ends up on the floor, you get pissed off and throw the packet across the room - you know the drill. 


Lookincredible.co.uk offers two boxes, the standard at £18.99 plus p&p and the deluxe at £35.00 which includes postage. The difference between the two is that you are supposed to get more higher end products in the deluxe compared to the standard box. Me being me, I didn't go for the standard box oh no, my go hard or go home mentality kicked in and I signed up for the deluxe box.

I subscribed at the end of August, payment then comes out on the 1st of the month and you then receive your box between the 5th - 10th of each month. So I patiently (impatiently) waited for the 5th to arrive and from then on I stalked the postman. nothing. 6th, nothing. 7th, nothing. OK its the 8th it should be today! I did order deluxe, nothing. 9th everyone and its dog are putting up Instagram pics of their box and what they got, today's the day! nothing. 10th - it finally arrived. 

Now this is one of annoying things about the box - there is a time frame where you have to avoid social media otherwise your surprise will be spoilt. I had to squint whilst scrolling through my Instagram just in case i saw anything, hubby thought I had a migraine, I had to explain my Insta-squint.

I have filmed a chatty video of me opening and reviewing this box - if you fancy a watch click below! if not carry on reading underneath.


Opening the box is tres tres exciting, its like a kid at Christmas - fingers crossed that you haven't got the naff Xmas present that you don't want but your mums really excited about!

The box is nicely packaged with a ribbon tied around it, the quality is good and overall it is pleasing to open. Inside there is a little bit of stuffing and some items are bubble wrapped. Not too bad but one of the boxes was a little squashed - I know its only a box but these details niggle me slightly.

So whats inside???? 

Too Faced Selfie Powders Palette - £32.00 
This is the fun item in the box. A palette of three finishing powders designed to brighten, bronze and illuminate the skin. I don't think I would've purchased this one but I think I am going to have fun playing around with this. I like the too faced brand so I am looking forward to trying this one out. This has been valued at £32.00 on the leaflet, I have found this online for £24 excluding p&p


Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Tint in the shade Lovely - £18.00 
This is my first Tarte product so this is another item I am looking forward to trying out. The colour is a soft pink, its the kind of shade I would pick for a lip balm/stain product. There is something I don't like about it - you will have to watch the vid to find out what it is as I don't want to type it out..... 


Too Faced Bulletproof eyeliner in the shade White Lie - £19.00 
There's always one duff item in the box, this was mine. I don't do white eyeliner - I am firmly in the 90's with my black eyeliner on my waterline and that is where I intend to stay. I feel like they were trying to get rid of the naff colours and put white in this box. The blurb says you can create a smokey eye with the sponge - you can't create a smokey eye with a white liner - i'm going to have a play around but I am not convinced with this one. Its reduced to £17.10 on the Too Faced website...


Bare minerals deep cleanser - £20  
This is my favourite item, I would actually buy this and it was something that was on my shopping list so I am happy with this. Deep cleansers are perfect for my oily skin type so I am looking forward to trying this out. 



Overall thoughts *see update below*

I loved receiving a box of goodies in the post, the anticipation of what you are going to get is really fun. Receiving items that you wouldn't normally buy opens your eyes to new things and I think I am going to have fun experimenting with new stuff. I can't fault the box itself, the quality is good and the ribbon around the box is a nice touch. As for not liking an item - well its always pot luck, that's the nature of the beauty box game.


 OK now I have said what I like here's what I don't like, the over all value of this box is £89.50 - I paid £35 for this and received four items, seems OK right? yes, until you look at the standard September box. The price of this box is £18.99 plus P&P - the value of this box is £80.00 and there's 5 items inside. So I paid an extra £13.50 and only got an extra £9.50 worth of stuff....this doesn't make sense. When you pay more and go deluxe you expect more, whether that be more items, higher value or faster shipping - I just expected something else. My box in fact arrived later than others who ordered the standard box. 
Now this leaves me with a dilemma, I preferred the items received in the deluxe box and I was happy enough with the value of the goods. But when I compare to the standard box it makes me wonder why I bother paying more. 

****Important update****
After finishing this post and filming the video I looked up the bare minerals deep cleansing foam - they state the value at £20.00 however Look Incredible are selling it on their website for £11.99??? also I could not find this available anywhere else - it seems to be replaced with Pure Plush cleansing foam! have they sent an old product in a deluxe box??? this made me want to investigate further...

Deluxe box

Too Faced Selfie palette - they are selling it on their website for £21.50 not £32.00 as stated as the value on the info in the box
Tarte Lipsurgance - £18.50 - the only item that's the same price as what's listed
Bullet proof liner - £17.10 - on the Too Faced website 
Bare minerals cleanser - Selling it on their website for £11.99 - interestingly it says reduced from £15 - but it states its worth £20 on the info in the box. I can't find any reference to this ever being £20.00 on the internet, I can only find it being £15.00 as the full price. 

True value - £69.09 (although I can forgive the discount on the Tarte LipSurgance - its the items that are cheaper on the Look Incredible website that's annoying)



I was going to say I don't want to judge it on one box - and that I would subscribe to one more deluxe box. However after investigating a bit more and looking at true prices of whats been sent I am not happy. How can they say that, for example, the Bare Minerals is worth £20 when you can buy it on their website for £11.99? 

If we also bear in mind that the value difference between the standard and deluxe box was £9.50 - if the true value of the Bare Minerals Cleansing foam is £15.00 (not £20) that means the difference between the two is reduced to £4.50 - JUST AN OBSERVATION....

Did you receive the deluxe box this month? what are your thoughts?


x

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