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.

BUTTAAAAHS : The New Revlon Lip Butters

So I'm pretty sure you've seen them or heard about them or even bought them.  The Revlon lip butters.  Om nom nom, BUTTAH!

I bought three shades.  This was actually the item that broke my no buy November, which I was very successful in - up until I saw the lip butters the 25th of November.  I was good for almost a month though ;).

You see, the US got them at least a month before we did.  Everything is always released weeks if not months later here in Canada.  

The first shade I bought was Cherry Tart, the one on the right.  I liked the consistency so much I went and purchased two other shades about 2 hours later.  

Pictured are Peach Parfait, Berry Smoothie and Cherry Tart.  The packaging is classic Revlon, but I like that the lids are different colors depending on the shade so it's easier to sort 'em out.  

So here are the actual sticks.  The application goes on really smoothly, as you would expect from a product that has butter in its name.  They're creamy and oh so delicious.  They retail for about 7.99$ a pop and there's 20 shades total.  In my drugstore they had a display of the whole 20 shades, with only 2 lipsticks of each shade.  

So if you see 'em and you want 'em, HOLD ON TO 'EM.  Because they will be gone sooner than later.  They are a permanent line though so your drugstore will eventually have them in their permanent displays... but who knows how long will that take!

Here are some swatches on my pale skin, the set on the left is one swipe, whereas the right group shows three swipes to build up color.  You can see Peach Parfait, Berry Smoothie and then Cherry Tart.  

Peach Parfait shows up nicely on the lips, it's definitely a MLBB shade.  It's very sheer and shimmery, like most of the butters.  Of the three I bought it's my least favorite shade.  

I actually bought it because of this...

She's supposed to be wearing Peach Parfait... well it sure doesn't look like that on me LOL.

Berry Smoothie is my kind of shade.  It's a plum shade that leans towards fuchsia.  It has great pigmentation and is on the cooler side, which I love.  It's my favorite shade of the bunch and I feel even though it's one of the more ''daring'' colors of this collection, it still has great wearability.

Finally, there's Cherry Tart.  I thought it would show up more red on the swatches, but it looks so close to Berry Smoothie, it's kind of hard to tell the two apart from the pictures. But you can see that it's more on the dark side, with more hints of red, but still looks very much like a plum lippie.  It's the most pigmented one.  I even had to tone it down a little when I first tried it on, because I was at work at the time.  

I don't think I'll purchase any more shades, because I got the ones I wanted, but it's a great formula that I recommend to everyone, especially lipsticks noobs.  The application is almost fool prof and the lasting power is not all that great so if you make a mistake it's not like your lips are stained all day.  

Points down for wearability because you need to apply every 2-4 hours.  Taste and smell is ok, definitely not a turn off or anything. 

Did you get some buttahs? 

Can you remember them saying : BUTTERRRRRRRRRR!

My current fave lip combo : Rimmel Edition!

I thought I'd share my favorite lip combo of the moment with you guys today.  It's definitely a Rimmel edition this time since both my lipstick and lipgloss are from that brand.

Sorry if the pictures are kinda blurry -__-..

Pictured : Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in Pink Blush (5.79 $CAD)

The packaging itself is pretty boring.  A lot of people have been comparing this color to Viva Glam Gaga by MAC (17.50 $CAD) so it is a cheaper alternative.

And here is a swatch on my NW15 skin.

Like I said, this did come out a little blurry (sorry :3) but you can see that it is a very cool, very light pink color.  Because my skin is already filled with pink undertones it doesn't look too weird on my lips, but I can see it contrasting A LOT on someone with warm undertones.

This lipstick does tend to stick in your lips fine lines if you don't apply a lip balm beforehand.  Then again, this problem can be avoided easily so it's not a huge deal.  

It's not a sheer lipstick so the color will look very matte on your lips, which I love for that kind of color.  It makes a statement on its own and draws attention, without being a full red or plum lip.  I call it my Barbie lippie.

It doesn't have a super long staying power so you do need to reapply throughout the day.  Also, the smell and taste isn't all that nice, but I didn't find it nauseating or unbearable.  

If I ever run out of this product I will probably try out the Viva Glam Gaga from MAC just to see if it's better quality, but based on the color alone, this is a great purchase.  Then again, depending on your skin tone and tolerance to drawing attention to your lips, you may not want a lippie like this.

Rimmel Lasting Finish Lipstick in Pink Blush - Return on investment: 76%

Pictured : Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Fashion Icon (5.98 $CAD)

Now, I usually pair this lipstick with my Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Fashion Icon, which I got in a past haul (read my Walmart haul here).  It's a beautiful deep coral pinkish color and I loooove it.  

When I was browsing the lip products that day, I had my eye on Revlon's ColorBurst lip gloss in papaya, which was the same color, but looked a little sheerer.  

Again, swatches on my NW15 skin.  Left is the Rimmel Lasting Finish lipstick in Pink Blush and right is the Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Fashion Icon.  As you can see, the lip gloss isn't shimmery and it's more pigmented than most lip glosses.

And here is the final result with both products on my lip.  I find that the coral tones from the lip gloss balance the coolness of the lipstick and it gives me a really gorgeous glossy pink.  

The staying power of this lip gloss is not all that great - it is a drugstore lip gloss after all.  But the color itself is fabulous and not a lot of drugstore brands carry something like it.  

I have nothing particular to say about the smell or taste, they feel pretty generic and without fragrance.  The packaging is nice, I guess.  Nothing really special there.

All in all, I feel this lip gloss is a must for every skin tone.  It's also really versatile as on its own it's more orange/coral but if you layer it, it sorts of becomes a chameleon.  

Rimmel Vinyl Gloss in Fashion Icon - Return on investment: 85%

xoxo, MiMu