Walmart Beauty Box - Winter 2015

The last subscription box I received for 2015 will be my first review for 2016! I got my Walmart Beauty Box about 2 weeks ago so it's given me some time to try out a few of the products. The benefits of being lazy...

Walmart has a seasonal beauty subscription service. Once a quarter you will receive a box filled with sample products of beauty, hair, skin care, and more for only $7 (per box). If you'd like to check them out, head on over to https://beautybox.walmart.com/ (as always, I purchase this with my own money and all opinions are my honest ones).

For the samples I think I may have tried all but the cotton swabs. You may be thinking that all swabs are the same but they're aren't! I learned that the hard way once so I'll have to let you know how awesome or craptacular the Swisspers brand is.

Olay Regenerist Luminous Tone Perfecting moisturizer. Yeah, this is one of those products that you see results after 2 months of use. So a one time foil packet isn't really going to do shit. It did fell really really nice on the skin though so maybe I'll go buy some and test it out. Jennifer Aniston has a perfume (in this day, though, who the fuck doesn't?) and the sample in here smelled really nice. Like a soft combo of floral and a little sweet. I might actually want to find some! The Centrum Vitamints chewable vitamins were pretty cool. The consistency is like those old school butter mints (which I love) and the flavor is spearmint. I hate swallowing pills so any chance to get chewables works for me!

Pure Silk Raspberry Mist shave cream was unbelievably thick. I got way too much from just one little squirt (ooooh dirty). I didn't smell the raspberry scent but it was a nice cream. NSpa body butter in coconut scent (in this day, though, what ISN'T coconut scented?) feels nice but the smell is a little artificial coconut candle smell. I'll keep trying it out though. The Pantene hair spray smells awesome! I've only used it once or twice so I can't judge it's holding power.

The only sample in there I COULDN'T try were the color chips from Clairol. It's a pretty cool little package to look at all the colors you can get to dye your hair but I'm off hair coloring for now. Still a neat idea though. The L'Oreal True Match card had a bunch of stickers with their color range on them that you could put on your skin to find your perfect color. None of them really matched me (which is probably why I don't use it anymore) but I loved the idea of it!

I got coupons for all (except NSpa, Pure Silk, Pantene, and Swisspers) as well as one for Women's Rogaine, L'Oreal True Match makeup, and Covergirl eye makeup (Star Wars themed stuff - of which I already own a couple things..SHUT UP).

Even if I don't end up liking or using some of the products I get in this box, I really enjoy getting it each season. There's such a variety of products inside that there's bound to be SOMETHING everyone can enjoy. And for $7 every three months, that's not a bad thing!

Ipsy October/November 2015 Reviews

Here's another double review for you! For those who don't know, Ipsy is a monthly beauty subscription service. For $10 you can 4-5 samples (sometimes deluxe sized, sometimes full) of beauty products. These can range from make up to skin care to hair products. Check them out!  (as always, I purchase this service with my own money and all opinions are my honest ones).  https://www.ipsy.com/

Let's start with October!

The theme for October was Alter Ego (whatever). Not that crazy about the bag. It looks like gold lame on the one side and black S&M vinyl on the back. 5 products came this month but I used some points to cash in on two extras.

Emite Slanted Tweezers: What needs to be said? They're tweezers. I actually needed a pair so it worked out for me but really, ipsy? Tweezers? Looking up this brand on-line, they are Swedish so I had to do a bit of conversion to get a value (read: Googled it). Apparently 200 Krona is about $22. FOR FUCKING TWEEZERS?!?

The Balm Meet Matt(e) Hughes Lipstick: (middle swatch) I've never tried the Balm lip products before and this shit is for real. Extremely long lasting (I ate a meal and some snacks and this stuff still stayed on), smells nice and minty, and it NOT drying at all. It does get really sticky as it dries down but the color doesn't peel or pull off. Does that make sense? Though I'm not crazy about the color - it's a little too warm for me - I'd be willing to spend $17 on a full size. This sample goes for around $3.50

Mica Beauty Cream Eyeshadow: (right swatch) I think I have other stuff from Mica. This cream shadow is a gorgeous gold/bronze shade (though this color is getting very tiresome from Ipsy). It's very pigmented and swatches nicely. Not patchy. I have no idea how it looks on the eyes because I can barely remove it from the back of my hand after 30 minutes of scrubbing with a makeup wipe. I'll need to get an oil based removed to see if that helps. Otherwise, I may never wear it, which would be a shame because it is pretty. It's an exclusive product for Ipsy so I couldn't find it on their site. Their regular mineral eye shadows are a similar weight and got for $15.

Lavanilla Laboratories Pure Vanilla Rollerball: I've reviews a lotion from these folks before and I didn't like the scent. It was way too heavy and artificial. That said, this roller ball perfume is everything I want in a vanilla scent! It's perfection in a tiny bottle! This mini size goes fro $12. I might consider purchasing the larger size at $19 (it's double the amount of the mini) but since I don't go through perfume all that fast I'd have to think on it. 

Ayres Hand Cream: I have a few other hand creams to work through so I haven't opened this one yet. The full size goes for $12.50 (1.4 ounces) so this .7 ounce bottle is about $6.25.

So this whole bag's value goes for almost $59. I'd say that's a steal, even if $22 of it goes for fucking tweezers. Lame.

The extras I got are:

Pixi Eyebrow Trio: It's a little baby palette of powders for brows. The highlight shade didn't swatch at all. The two brown shades take a lot of back and forth to get the damn color to show up. So if you want just a hint of color in your brows, something soft, this could work. But the pigmentation is so shitty I'm not sure it's even worth it. Definitely not worth $6 and not worth the points I wasted on it.

Befine Cucumber Mask: I can't even remember if I've tried this yet. I want to say yes because I wanted to know if the cucumber smell was crazy. And I don't believe it was. Full size (4 ouces) goes for $25 so this 1 ounce sample is about $6.

WHEW! Now let's get on to November!

Theme is Beauty Blast. Who knows? The bag is totally cute and colorful though the materials is similar to a vinyl pool toy. But I'm already over it.

Pantene Blowout Extend Dry Shampoo: I haven't tried this one yet as I have another can of Batiste to work through. But I'm a little nervous. My stylist (current and ones in the past) have warned me off Pantene shampoo products before so I'm not too eager to crack this baby open. Full size goes for $5-7 so this sample is probably around $2.

Tre'Stique Mini Matte Lip Crayon: I got the color Chili Red and I first I thought it was an obnoxious bright cherry color but it's a little deeper on my lips. It's definitely got a blue base so it works out for my skin tone. It feels like nothing is on your lips. Not drying at all and it lasts forever! I forgot I had the stuff on and it lasted through most of the day which included eating at least one meal and some snacks. I can't find the matte crayon alone (it's only paired with a gloss stick) and goes for $28. BUT you can purchase 3 mini crayons for $25 so I'd put this one mini's value at around $8.

Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara: I don't normally buy a lot of high-end makeup. But if something is really good, I seriously consider it. I got a sample of this and while I don't agree it adds volume at all, it does a beautiful job of separating and lengthening my lashes beautifully! I think it's the natural bristle brush - those are my favorite. Not sure if I'd spend $20 on a full size though. I don't know how much is in a full size but I'm guessing this sample of 3 ml is product 1/4 of a regular tube so figure on $5 value.

Absolute NY Nano Liner: I do love a good liquid liner pen. Though they have a tendency to dry out faster than the brush/bottle combos, they are a bit easier to use. I've only swatched this on my hand but it went on smoothly and you can make the line thin or thick. I believe this is full size which goes for $10.

Jelly Pong Pong Liquid Gossamer: I've heard of this brand but never tried it before. This is a liquid/cream product that you're supposed to use all over your face for a luminous look. I can't do that because my pores are as big as New Jersey so this kind of product just accentuates that. HOWEVER, it would make an awesome highlight and I'm kind of addicted to highlighters right now. The color is a gorgeous rose champagne and it doesn't look like there's a lot of chunky glitter in it. I don't mind a little but too much or too big comes off like little kid makeup. This is a full size tube and it goes for $23.

Overall I'm super happy with this month. It's value is probably just under $50 so even though last month seemed to have more value, I like the products in November's bag much better!