Hi all!
This is going to be a monthly post comparing any beauty boxes I receive and try out. Right now I only have two beauty subscription boxes, IPSY and BoxyCharm, but eventually I’d like to get a few more.
I won’t probably go super in-depth in these posts because I lay everything out in my individual reviews, but I think it’s important to compare value for the cost, convenience, variety, and personalization.
What I look for from a beauty box is the same thing I look for from a music streaming service; I want mostly my music, some similar music, and something off the wall once in a while to keep it interesting. I want a good amount of things that I’ve said I like or use a lot, a few things that I’ve indicated I might like or use sometimes, and maybe one item that’s totally out there for me that is a shot in the dark that maybe I have never used before.
Obviously you want the company you’re getting it from to have personalization – at least a little bit, like they should know at least whether you’re fair or deep-skinned and whether you’re low or high-maintenance. I’ve noticed some boxes will avoid these problems by simply not giving out complexion products, but those boxes always felt extra cheap to me.
That being said, let’s talk about the boxes:
IPSY is my guilty pleasure, always has been. I can’t really afford it, and I absolutely can’t afford all the add-ons I get, but I don’t actually care. I get excited when the box arrives, and most of them have been stellar. They seem to pretty much get me: my skin, my makeup habits, my priorities, my undertone, like the products they send and suggest are typically perfect for me.
The June Glam Bag had a great mix for me in terms of items already included. I love highlighters and Fenty is a brand I’ve always wanted to shop, and they gave me a pretty good shade for my skin tone. I already use a hyaluronic acid serum so that was a good safe skincare item to toss my way. I left a good review on my last 5-pan from ND, so they sent another one. That’s awesome. I have never told them I would love to try pimple patches, but that was a great pick for me. Of course the add-ons are my choices, but it feels like they look at those and use them to pick your next boxes. The only miss was the blush, but it was workable and not a total waste.
I was overall happy with the items, the state they came in, the ease of looking them up on the website for my review, the whole thing was seamless. I honestly just love being a subscriber to this brand, the way they make it easy to customize is so nice.
Boxycharm was a bit of a letdown for a few reasons. I definitely didn’t love any of the products I got, and I feel like the one I might have loved was the one that arrived broken. I work for a large shipping corporation, and it’s hard to see the awful packing job that was done there. Also, this might not have happened if the item had been in its unit carton, which it wasn’t.
I didn’t feel like any of these products were picked with me in mind – not like I expect to have a personal shopper putting together my individual box, but like, there’s a quiz you take before subscribing and it felt like I just got a bunch of things that were left over from another box.
Two lip products, a crayon and a gloss, one of which isn’t even listed on the website as a June product, and an oily serum that’s also not listed and not good for my skin type at all. A glitter palette and an excellent primer.
And a broken serum.
I went back through my initial quiz and not only had I listed lip products as very low on my list of priorities, but I had also marked lip gloss and lipsticks as items I’d like to receive “rarely.” Also I had listed my skin as combination, which it is, and listed oiliness as a concern. So for my first box back to this subscription it would have been good to receive at least one thing in my list of mid-to high priorities, or something that would have addressed a skin concern.
Maybe the Sunday Riley might have filled that gap.
I will say their customer service was excellent and like I said in my initial review they’re taking care of the breakage, I hope sending some better products. Also, since I’m not yet super familiar with how to better customize my box, maybe some of this is user error.
IPSY wins for June no contest. It felt more personalized, the products that were sent were from brands I was genuinely interested in, they addressed my skin concerns, and their interface on their website made looking up my products and reviews super easy. I’m going to keep playing around with my BoxyCharm settings and see if there’s ways I can better customize and have a better experience. I’ll post an update when I get my replacement BoxyCharm though and we can see if anything’s improved.
Thanks again for reading! I’ll put these monthly under the tag “BoxBattle.” So you can find them.
~Dani