January's Luxe Box

Can I just say WOW?

Friday evening at like 8 pm, my doorbell rang.  It was Canada Post delivering my Luxe Box, without me even receiving a tracking number o__O.  The box was also different than usual and I couldn't for the life of me figure out why it was so big....

...until I opened my box.  And can I say OMG.

First, there was two boxes.  The regular black box and a bonus white box.  TWO BOXES, SCORE!

The white box had two items.  A Schick 5 blade razor, which itself retails for 13.99$ and a Fekkai Advanced Glossing Shampoo and Conditioner.  This couldn't have been better, honestly.  I was just contemplating changing my razor blade because of its ineffectiveness and bang a new razor to use, yay!  I also love glossing products for hair and can't wait to try that shampoo and conditioner to alternate with my regular hair products.

Now onto the regular black Luxe box.  

Let me tell you, it. was. PACKED.

The first product I noticed is the one I had picked when they sent out the ''reserve a product in your next Luxe Box email''.  BENEFIT POWDA WOWZA.  WOWZA, SERIOUSLY.  This product is awesome.  It contains three best sellers from BeneFit : Coralista (a coral blush), Bella Bamba (a pink watermelon shimmery blush) and Hoola (a matte bronzer that a lot of paler ladies have been using as a contour powder - again, SCORE!).

I'll put up a separate review for that one, it totally deserves it!

The second product I noticed was the lipstick.  I love lipsticks way more than I do glosses so I was very excited about that one as well.  I didn't know the brand at all and found out that it's from Yves Rocher and retails for only 5$.  That's really inexpensive, as even most drugstore lipsticks sell for 6-7$.  

The packaging is also super cute and girly and I really like it.  The color I received is La Gacilly no 66, which is a pale raspberry pink with shimmer in it.  

The texture is really creamy and it sorts of reminds me of the creaminess of lip butters.  I doesn't have amazing staying power though, but that doesn't irk me at all.  For the price, it's great value and I will definitely look at other shades at their stores.

The third item in the box was a Biosilk silk therapy hair treatment.  It is meant to be used before styling your hair with heat.  I'll definitely use that one up but at the 55$ price point, I probably won't be repurchasing.

The extra item this month was coffee.  I won't talk about that one because I don't know a thing about coffee and I don't drink it.  That will be gifted to someone who can appreciate it more than I do! 

I also received a note from Loose Button telling me that I had been selected to review several fragrances for their MyScent program.  I received 6 samples total, with one being the Lady Million Paco Rabanne I had received the month before.  I really loved L'Elixir by Nina Ricci and L'Infusion Iris by Prada.  I will alternate these two with my favorite perfume, which currently is the one I received in December's Glymm box, YSL La Parisienne.  My boyfriend liked the Paco Rabanne Black XS one best, although we wasn't wowed by any of them.

All in all, great box!  It sure made up for last month's box which was average and in my mind it even makes up for next month's box if it ends up being average as well.  This was definitely something unexpected, Loose Button did an AWESOME job.

December Luxe Box

So I received my Luxe box this morning.  

Funny thing, I was in my bed you know, in my pajamas (ok no, in my underwear) and the bell rung.  I got out of my bed immediately and rushed to the door to let the mailman know I was there.  Because if he thinks I'm not there the package'll just go to the post office and I'll only be able to pick it up tomorrow.  So I rushed to the door to push the button to let him in (apartment, y'know) and told him from the top of the stairs ''well hum leave it there I'm kind of in my underwear...'' lol -__-.

Anyways, so yeah, I received my Luxe Box this morning.  

Same sleek black packaging as last month, it's so pretty. Inside there was a letter from the founders to thank us for making the box such a success. Probably must be related to the several complaints they've been getting on Facebook about their shipping.  Anyways, it's still nice of them regardless.  They even put a complimentary Loose Button chocolate for Christmas, which is cute.  Of course, Glymm had a 10$ off on their store AND Jelly Beans (as they do each month) but we're not comparing... are we?  

The first item I noticed was this Yves Rocher body wash.  Smell is mandarin (mandarine d'Italie in French). I don't know what's the difference between a mandarin and a mandarin from Italy but oh well. I love those citrus smells so I was really happy about that. It's a nice sample and it's a decent size.  I know some people said that they were really happy to get this since they don't have Yves Rocher stores close to their home, but here it's the complete opposite, Yves Rocher stores are pretty much in every shopping center. Still nice though.

Nail polish is China Glaze First Mate by the way. :)

The second item I noticed was the DDF Advanced Firming Cream.  This wasn't much of a surprise because Loose Button had sent us an email in the beginning of the month giving us the opportunity to choose between this eye cream and a hair product. I chose this firming cream because I'm already committed to a hair brand that I love, so I wanted this item instead.  

The texture is very creamy without being watery but still feels light enough to penetrate the skin.  Because of the out-of-this-world price point, I hope this isn't a miracle product.  At 140$ for 48g, this is something I just can't afford.  The sample size is 14g which is very generous.  I'm excited to incorporate this into my skin care routine, even though I'm still young and my skin doesn't have huge firming needs just yet.

The other two products were a little disappointing.  There was a NYX black pencil eyeliner that retails for 4$.  It is a full size product.  I don't know any women who doesn't own a black pencil eyeliner so this is a little disappointing.  A colored one would have been nicer.  Especially since nowadays makeup lovers mostly use gel, cream or liquid liners and the basic black pencil eyeliner just doesn't compare quality-wise.

It was still nicely pigmented though and really black, none of that almost smokey charcoal grey I pretend to be black black.  You can see a comparision swatch with my other black eyeliners here.

The two golden pockets contained two perfume sample vials.  These aren't deluxe perfume sample size like the La Parisienne sample Glymm box gave me this month.  Those two are regular handed out in department stores perfume samples.  Wanna know the worst part of it? They're half filled. So much for ''deluxe size'' samples.

The left one with the black top is 1 million by Paco Rabanne and it's a male fragrance.  It's really musky and powerful and I kinda like it.  I hope the boyfriend will like it enough to wear it.  Edited after: Well he won't wear it, says his grandfather has the same fragrance and that only *old* people wear it. 

The right one with the white top is Lady Million, still by Paco Rabanne.  It's, like the title says, a perfume for the ladies.  And... I... hate... it.  It's really powerful and its muskiness is overwhelming and headache inducing.  

So all in all it was an okay month, it's fine with me, I don't expect to have great months each month.  I just hope the next one is going to be a little better! Then again, last month's box was great so it's evened out now. So, what did you get in your Luxe Box and are you satisfied by it?

November Luxe Box

So along with my Glymm box I've also got a monthly subscription for a Luxe Box.  It's a little pricier at 12$ a month, so my expectations are a little bit higher for this one, since for basically the same service they charge 2$ more.  

It comes in a very lovely black box.

And each box is customized with your name on it.  It's a nice touch :).  I'm just wondering how this affects their shipping efficiency though... is it really beneficial for them to do so?  Sure it differentiates them from the other subscription services out there, but cutting that would definitely cut their costs and make their production more efficient (I presume).  Oh well, we'll have to see if they eventually drop that personal touch as soon as their client base starts to grow.

Again, the first thing I saw when I opened my box was the Essie nail polish.  I love Essie. I think their colors are great, they make great nudes/pale colors and I love their cream finish!

The color I got was Absolutely Shore, a color from their summer 2011 collection that I had being eyeing.  It's a pretty pale mint green.  I unfortunately don't have swatches of it, but next time I put it on I'll definitely take some pictures for you guys! 

I already have Mint Sorbet from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear collection so because of that I didn't originally purchase this shade because I thought they would look too similar.  I was wrong.  Mint Sorbet is a lot greener and brings out the yellow in your skin, whereas Absolutely Shore looks more like a pale whitish green nude color.  It looks a lot better on my NW10-NW15 skin than Mint Sorbet.  

This was a full size item in the Luxe Box so yay!  This alone almost paid for the 12$ box, as Essie nail polishes range from 8.99$ to 11.99$ in drugstores here.  

The second and third items I noticed were the two Benefit items.  I was a little bummed to see two items from the same brand.  But since it's Benefit it's not that big of a deal. So I had a facial exfoliator and a prep lotion/moisturizer.  I haven't used the exfoliator yet because my Clarisonic seems to be doing the job for me so it's sitting in my skin care jar, waiting to be used.


I've been using the moisture prep toning lotion for a few weeks now.  It's a good alternative to moisturizer.  I use it after toner and before makeup primer.  It has a watery texture and sorts of remind me of the Shiseido moisturizing gel-cream.  It smells really nice, it has a manly smell to it sort of - reminds me of the Eau Sauvage man fragrance by Dior - with lots of citrus accents.  I liked the product, but I wouldn't repurchase.  I didn't feel it added anything special to my skin, besides the scent - which fades away after a minute or two.

The last item from the box was kind of hard to see.  It's a glittery eye liner from Lise Watier.  A perfect item for the Holidays :).  

The consistency is perfect for what it is.  It's a little watery but that makes it really easy to apply where you want it and to layer the glitter to get the desired look.  One stroke will give you just a little glitter, but 3-4 coats will give you a black glittered line.  It's a great product! :)  I'm glad I got the black one though...

The brush is really pointy so it makes the whole application process easier.  Because I have a sample size it's kind of a pain in the butt to apply, especially with my huge thumbs, but that wouldn't be a problem with the full size product.

I won't repurchase this shade - or any of them - because I'm not much of a glitter fan, except for special occasions, and there aren't nearly enough special occasions to use it all up.  

As a bonus item I've received a tea (Cactus Fig flavoured - whatever that is) and some tea bags (lol).  Haven't tried them, probably won't, I'm not much of a tea drinker - except for Aveda tea which is oh-my-God-so-good.  But it's kinda pretty to look at, isn't it?  

I'll probably keep it for guests... does tea expire? lol

Overall I'm pretty happy with this month's box.  With Essie, eyeliner and Benefit, who wouldn't?  Can't wait to receive another one!  

*On a side note, I've heard of people getting some expired Moroccan Oil product in their November box.  Luxe Box said they will send out a compensation item in the December box for those people, but that the product was safe for use still.  This doesn't bother me as much as some people, who go crazy on expiry dates, but I find it funny that nobody knew the product was expired before sending it.  I'm not sure how their business model work, but I'm guessing companies provide them with free samples to have visibility for their products.  So somebody providing the samples from Moroccan Oil must have known. I also find it weird that not one employee looking at the bottles or overseeing the production chain noticed the expiry date.  At least they handled it well on the PR front, but you can bet subscribers will be angry if the additional product they receive as compensation is subpar.    

No buy November!

This morning I woke up feeling a little more responsible than I usually do.  I took care of a bunch of things like bills and cancelling services I was currently paying for but not using,  uh Netflix anyone? Dealing with all of this made me all the more proud for not putting it off, so I decided, with this frame of mind, to go on a no buy for November.

No makeup.  No hair products.  No lotions.  Nothing beauty related.  

I do have my Glymm and Luxe box (both subscription services that give you random deluxe sized samples each month) coming sometime in November but that's excluded from the no buy as they are already paid for.  I guess I'm going to be way more excited to receive them as they will represent my only new beauty stuff for the month.

I think the timing is perfect though.  I've had a few :3 hauls recently and I already have a lot of products to try out in different ways and review.  

It will also provide a well-needed relief for my wallet, which will help with my Xmas shopping, yay!

I know it won't be easy as I'm used to ''research for my next purchase'' but I'm going to try my best.  I've also told my boyfriend, which will definitely help for accountability.

So that's that!  Let the no buy BEGIN! 

Is it wrong to place an order online?  I still have more than 3 hours before my no buy officially begins.....

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.... just kidding.  Kinda.


xoxo, MiMu