Hi! Spring is here! I have more energy for writing and creating and talking.
This month I added an additional box of products onto my Allure Beauty Box. Just for funsies. A little treat.
So I’m not an activist or like, someone who cares much to know the race of the person I’m buying from? If that makes sense? I don’t know, I was just raised that someone’s race isn’t important. Like, not like you can’t be proud of your heritage, just like, your race doesn’t have anything really to do with anything. Am I the only one raised like that? It really feels like it sometimes.
That being said, I think it’s cool to get a bunch of products together from one group of people and be like hey, our community did something cool, we’re proud of it, check it out.
So I ordered the Spotlight on Black Owned Beauty Box for a couple reasons. The price, $49.99 was excellent for the number of products, I think there were nine. Some were deluxe but for the most part these were full sized products. I also ordered it because I haven’t done a lot with the Allure Member Store and I thought I could test out the deals. And lastly, it seemed like a really good variety of products, hair, body, face, etc.
I was actually incredibly happy with this box. I was thinking it wouldn’t be a smart purchase – is any of this a smart purchase though? – but I was so pleasantly surprised to find a lot of excellent products that I did not regret buying. And I’m itching to talk about it and go back over everything.
I’m going to start with the product I do not like at all and do not want to ever touch or use again. There is only one of those, everything else was really good.
This was a cleanser by the brand Rosen called the Super Smoothie Cleanser.
This cleanser is barbecue sauce. It is the same color as barbecue sauce, it’s the same fragrance as barbecue sauce, it’s the same texture as barbecue sauce, and it comes in a bottle like barbecue sauce. It is absolutely barbecue sauce.
Stuff grossed me out, I only used it once. It had little bits in it, and the texture was literally a mix between A1 sauce and barbecue, it’s this deep burgundy shade and poured into my hand like literal sauce. It was so gross. And the texture wasn’t gritty, it was just bits in it, so it wasn’t trying to exfoliate it literally just was lumpy. So it was like congealed bbq sauce you’ve left in the pantry.
I didn’t want to put it anywhere near my face but I had to. It felt just like if I ever were to put barbecue sauce on my face and try to use as a cleanser. Absolutely nauseating.
After I quickly washed it off and wiped my face with a towel, my skin felt soft. Or whatever. >.>
Will not be buying, will probably not be getting anything from this brand, awful impression, sorry.
And now we can talk about everything I liked ^-^
The Danessa Myricks Colorfix Liquid Paints are such a find. The packaging, to start off with, reminds you of paint pigments and they’re adorable. They come in little black boxes with the shade names on them, and then you open it and it looks like a little bottle of paint. The box came with one matte and one shimmer of these, and I’ve played around with them quite a bit and am really happy to have found them.
They are the most unbelievably pigmented liquid products I have ever encountered. I did the tiniest, tiniest dot of the matte on a brush just to see how it compared with liquid eye products, and it was so pigmented it literally just blended all the way out. Like girl, bye. Where are you going? Could not find the end of the pigment. If I want to use these for eyes, I either have to learn to see microscopic product amounts, or blend the first bit onto the back of my hand before going in on the eyes.
But the end result is beautiful for the matte shade. I’ve gotten compliments consistently when wearing it on my eyes. It also seems to last throughout the day, at least as well as my Beauty Crop if not better.
On the flipside, I also tried it as a blush and I felt like I looked absolutely nuts. It is a dusty mauve color that I got, but I applied it unfortunately in the morning before I got a lot of natural light and even went back over it with extra foundation. But to no avail – I got home that night and looked like a rodeo clown.
So maybe we can use this as a blush but only if we mix it with foundation first or put it on underneath.
Now I do not have as much good to say about the shimmer shade, because it didn’t apply as well. My first thought was to put the matte in the crease and do the shimmer on the lid, but it was patchy and didn’t foil very well into a cohesive shimmer. It sort of sheered out and didn’t blend super well. I didn’t play around with it as much because a shimmer isn’t as versatile as a matte for the type of looks I do, but I may try it out as a liner instead of a whole shadow. Like a shimmery liner that comes out over the matte color.
I’d like to buy more of these mattes though, honestly. It looks like they’re $18 for this tiny bottle but I don’t blame it at all, this is a good product. If I could find maybe a lighter shade to wash the crease with and then use this one more for contour, I think I could make some really good looks happen.
Next up we have another product by LYS Beauty, a brand I have become a lot more familiar with over the last year. If you remember from previous posts, they’re the ones with all the triangles in their packaging. I’ve used their primers, powder bronzer and cream blush, and now their Speak Love Glossy Lip Treatment.
It has a removable cap like one of those lip glosses we used to use in middle school, where you just squeeze the tube and it comes out the little hole. For some reason when I saw it on the product list I thought it was going ot be like a lip oil, because it said treatment in the name, but it’s actually just a really nice hydrating clear gloss. It doesn’t pour out a ton at a time and I can control it pretty well.
I’ve been primarily using this at home while I do another type of mask or treatment, when I have my cucumber melon mask on I’ll put this on just so my lips are busy healing too.
It’s also very long lasting. I put it on and as long as I’m not eating or drinking I’m hydrated basically the whole day. So I love this stuff and would definitely purchase it again, especially as we go into summertime.
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| SO FREAKING CUTE OMG ^-^ |
Nice! What’s next. Oh, there was a tiny little dropper bottle from a brand called Rose Ingleton MD that had some kind of serum in it, called the Complexion Brightening Booster. It was a thick, creamy sort of serum, and the packaging was absolutely adorable it looked like it would only hold one little application’s worth of product, but I actually used it several nights in a row. The tiny little dropper worked really well also, which never happens, right?
The product felt incredibly rich and smooth, but I was a little turned off at the size. It was not a deluxe or travel size, it was actually a sample size. Like, so tiny. Three uses. Not enough to really review.
I looked it up though and that serum is esssspensive so I don’t know if I’ll get the chance to really give it a long try.
All I can say is the packaging was adorable and the product felt very softening and conditioning and refreshing. I definitely woke up in the morning and noticed that my skin was soft.
Next! Another new brand to me, I love discovering new brands. This one is called Naturally Drenched, and I received their Restore Hair Moisture Mask. This mask is obviously part of a larger routine they offer, since the directions indicate to use after and before other Restore products.
I have never really understood hair masks, I’ll be honest. I have always used a few shampoo lathers and then a layer of conditioner, but when I was growing up I was taught to always let my conditioner sink in for a few minutes before rinsing. So when these hair masks come out and say hi, I’m like a conditioner, but you should actually leave me in for a few minutes! I’m like yeah, that’s what a conditioner is for.
So I went and looked it up for this review so I can really understand better; a conditioner is something that softens and smooths your hair, preventing frizziness and stuff like that. A hair mask is like an S tier conditioner, it’s supposed to be strengthening and repairing and work with your hair and skin to keep things strong and stuff. So you’re supposed to replace your conditioner with this hair mask once or twice a week.
I’ve used this product a few times instead of conditioner and while the texture is very goopy and hard to work with, my hair after rinsing and drying has never felt so soft. Like, it really does feel like it’s been treated professionally.
It comes in a tin, kind of like a candle you’d get at a farmer’s market? And it’s funny, the packaging literally says something about try to rinse the tin off after use or something, which I thought was weird until I touched the product. It’s a really unique texture, very hard to handle. Imagine like if playdough was drippy. So it’s like sticky to itself but somehow still gets everywhere. It’s so hard to explain. OH it’s like the texture of a jam or jelly maybe. The fragrance is really nice, definitely smells like good hair care.
I am really looking forward to using it more. If I haven’t mentioned, I shower every other day and only do my full body and hair maybe twice a week, so I don’t have as much time to try new bodycare and haircare as I do other things like skincare and makeup. But I will definitely update if I have more to say.
But there’s more hair stuff! I also got a hair serum called the Blue Tansy Treatment Serum by a brand called Adwoa. This is one of those moments I’m grateful that I have a blog not a Youtube, so I don’t have to try and pronounce that brand name ^-^
The packaging for this serum is absolutely beautiful. When I’m done with it I am going to use it to put a flower in or something. It’s a gorgeous blue round bottle with a pump and cap that comes out. It’s the color of cornflower. It might be my favorite color.
The serum itself reminds me of a lot of anti-frizz formulas I’ve tried, specifically the one from Garnier-Fructis. It’s got that very sheer feeling to it. I applied this a few times before bed and have woken up with suuuuper silky hair. It doesn’t really look that different, but it feels so much more smooth.
It also smells really nice, and the packaging says you can use it as a heat seal when you’re styling, so maybe I could do something with that. The serum retails for $36, which for this size bottle I think is totally reasonable.
I definitely plan to look for this brand in the future if it’s available in other boxes.
This is a pretty high ratio of love to hate I think so far. Next up in the box is the Universal Pro-Bio Moisture Boost Cream by Beauty Stat. I have heard of this brand but I’m pretty sure this is the first product I’m actually trying out. And I really like it!
The texture is sort of like shaved ice, but not cold. A little more wet. It reminds me of the bit of the wave at the beach that’s white and bubbly? Is this too poetic? It’s like a thick, almost granular gel cream but not rough. I’m awful at explaining texture. Okay – half melted ice cream. Before it’s gone completely liquid but after it’s done being completely solid.
It feels incredibly cooling and thick on my skin, and I have been primarily using it in the evening. My face just drinks it up, I swear a few minutes later and I want to put on more because it just feels so good but absorbs so quickly. This is what I’d wear under my SPF if I were going to the beach or something.
This is a $50 moisturizer, and in no way will I be spending that much on it I don’t think. But if I can find it for a good deal on Poshmark, I would love to have more of it.
And last up is the Lash Amplifying Mascara from Ami Cole. I have really enjoyed using this mascara, but it didn’t bump out my Beauty For Real one. It has a longer applicator that takes a lot of product with it, but when it applies it does deposit a lot at the base which I have to brush through a little extra. That being said it is a really nice lift and some additional volume for sure, and it does an excellent job clarifying the bottom lashes as well.
It’s just a nice everyday mascara that I’m enjoying, but I don’t think anything will ever come close to my Beauty for Real.
And that’s everything I’m reviewing from the box! There was one other product included, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try it yet. I’ll put an update below this if I get the chance to use it and have any thoughts.
All around these were some excellent finds. Can’t wait to see what other boxes are available in April, maybe I can find something else to try out. It’s the weekend right now and next I need to start working on the IPSY for this month, because tomorrow I make my selections for April and I don’t want to be thinking about two whole separate IPSYs lol. Thank you for reading!
Talk soon,
Dani