Since I’m slowly catching up on reviews [remember, I had family staying over for almost all of September], I want to start with the box that arrives among the first – Allure Sample Society. This month everyone received a very precious full-sized product, and as soon as I saw the spoiler for it, I knew I would love it.
HOW IT WORKS
For $15/month Sample Society will send its members 5 deluxe-sized samples from beauty brands like stila, Murad, Sisley, Alterna, Butter London, and Too Faced, and a $10 off $50 monthly discount code to BeautyBar.com. As a bonus all new members receive a complimentary one-year subscription to Allure magazine (a $12.00 value). There is no official word about that anywhere, but the magazine just randomly shows up in your mailbox one day. Click here to join Sample Society. You can also buy some of the past boxes here.
Restorsea Revitalizing Eye Cream – First of all, woah, full-sized eye cream that retails for $85? That’s quite impressive for a $15 box! My Mom and I are very close and I love treating her to fancy pampering products, so this eye cream went right into her gift stash. For all I care, Allure could have filled the rest of the box with Lip Smackers and I would have been happy anyway. 🙂
I read a few reviews to make sure this is not one of those products that everybody seems to be allergic to [Benton essence, anyone?] and found out that it works well for dark circles, but doesn’t seem to do anything for fine lines. In my opinion, finding an eye cream that will actually improve the look of dark circles is a lot harder, so even though it doesn’t live up to manufacturer’s claims, it still seems to be a decent moisturizer.
LORAC POREfection Mattifying Face Primer – As a happy member of the combination skin family, I’m always on the prowl to find the best makeup primer. Lorac promised “to minimize the appearance of pores and fine lines for a silky-smooth, poreless-looking, matte finish.”
Unfortunately, this primer didn’t seem to work for me. The skin looked matte for about 1-2 hours, but after that I had to touch up and blot so much, it’s like I had no primer on at all! I tried it a few more times with the same end result.
Alterna Caviar Repair RX Re-Texturizing Protein Cream – Oh Sample Society, why do you insist on sending us so many Alterna products! Aren’t there any other nice hair care brands worth trying? While I am utterly bored with seeing this brand in my sample boxes [since last year we’ve sampled Alterna products at least four times], I surprisingly loved this leave-in hair treatment.
I chopped off all my split ends recently, and my hair looks a lot healthier now, so I’m trying to take better care of it. However, even though my split ends are all gone now, the frizz is still there and has to be managed. This cream is really helpful in smoothing the surface right before I blow dry, and even helps my fine hair feel thicker and heavier. Bottom line: I really like it!
Tarte Brazilliance Maracuja Self Tanning Face Towelettes – I don’t use self-tanning products, so this cute box with three towelettes is useless to me. My sister loves tanning, so I’ll just give her this package.
I really don’t have much more to say about this sample, because I didn’t even try it, but Tarte is known for their great good-for-you cosmetics, so I hope she likes it.
Givenchy Dahlia Divin – After seeing all those glamorous ads with Alicia Keys on TV I’ve been meaning to try this fragrance, but as it always happens, every time I was at a store that carries it, smelling it was the last thing on my mind.
While this particular fragrance is not something I could pull off, I would certainly love to smell it on someone else. It’s a very rich, very floral bouquet, that dries down to woodsy, slightly sour base, and it seems to last all day on my skin. I’m impressed that Allure included these samples in our boxes, because this fragrance was only officially released this month.
THE VERDICT
Let’s see here… My September Sample Society box contained five products: one of them I’m giving away, three didn’t work out, and only Alterna leave-in cream will be used [although I could really go without any more Alterna products for a while]. Despite all that, the box left me with a good feeling, and I think the reason was that full-sized eye cream. Want spoilers for October? Check out this post.
| Product | Retail value |
|---|---|
| Restorsea Revitalizing Eye Cream | $85.00 |
| LORAC POREfection Mattifying Face Primer | $3.20 |
| Alterna Caviar Repair RX Re-Texturizing Protein Cream | $9.26 |
| Tarte Brazilliance Maracuja Self Tanning Face Towelettes | $9.00 |
| Givenchy Dahlia Divin | $3.25 |
| Box Retail Value | $109.71 |
I’m surprised they included all of those goodies-even if some didn’t work out. Seems like a decent sub service.
Agreed. Ever since Allure officially took over the reigns at deciding what products go in the boxes, every month has been very impressive, and included only the hottest seasonal items. I’m certainly glad to see that, because at one point in the past I received a box with five different moisturizers in it! Who would curate something like that, haha? 🙂
It sounds like a great box. Too bad that it wasn’t perfect for you but I think that’s part of what makes these boxes so great- you get to try before purchasing the full sized products.
I have that Lorac primer, too. I do not like it either.
I do love that Alterna cream!
I need that eye cream!
I would have LOVED this box. I groove on Alterna and the Protein Cream is an HG product for me. The Lorac primer surprisingly, works great for my very dry skin and that eye cream helps dark circles??? *pant-pant*
That Alterna cream sounds great.
That looks like a really good box!
The eye cream sounds helpful with the diminishing of dark circles.
Wow! They threw in such a generous full size considering it’s so expensive!
i used to get these on a regular basis!
A meh-box but for $15, I’m sure those are eye candies to some!
I think this box would have made me happy but like you I probably wouldn’t use majority of the items personally.
hmmm… I would expect a little more for $15, but it’s okay I guess.
Oh, I do not need tempting with another subscription box.. this one looks great, though!
I have been on the fence about this box for a while now. I think if I drop Ipsy this will be the subbie service I grab. And like you I am over conditioning masks in sub services. If I get one more….
I know what’s the deal with conditioning masks? The full size eye cream is definitely impressive.
for me this would be a so-so box.
Anytime I get Tarte in a box I’m a happy camper!
Wow, it’s one of the best I’ve seen so far
Wow, there is a ton of stuff in this box!
The full size eye cream is nice but self-tanners….would’ve been better maybe for summer?
nice! i want a sample of that perfume!