Beauty Box 5 Unboxing and Review: December 2013

Have you been Naughty or Nice? Beauty Box 5 is celebrating all sides of the modern woman, so our December boxes contained a little bit of everything, including romantic “good girl” eye shadows and sultry plumping “bad girl” lip glosses. This holiday season be as sweet as you want to be!

HOW IT WORKS
For $12/month subscribers will receive a box filled with a carefully selected mixture of five travel-sized, deluxe-sized and full-sized cosmetic products from luxury, commonly known brands, niche brands, eco-conscious and even vegan brands. Aimed at introducing women to new cosmetic products and educating them on best practices, Beauty Box 5 scours the market to find the best products for your lifestyle.
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NYX Cosmetics Love in Rio Eyeshadow Palette in Sway With Lola – I received this gorgeous trio of romantic eye shadows, and the colors couldn’t be more perfect for me. I normally don’t go for a super bold eye look, and instead prefer more muted or pastel colors to accentuate my eyes, and these three are just what I had in mind for that little pop of color that wouldn’t be too over the top. The shadows are not very pigmented and also not long-lasting, but they feel nice and creamy on the lids, and provide a few hours of wear before they start creasing. I would recommend using a primer underneath if you don’t want to waste too much product trying to built up the intensity.

Body Drench Daily Moisturizing Lotion in Sun Splashed Mango – Body Drench brand makes products designed for tanning, and this lotion is meant to replenish moisture after UV exposure. It contains oils and extracts that help smooth and soften the skin, to make sure you don’t end up looking like a raisin. I enjoyed the fragrance and the way it feels on my skin, but wasn’t too impressed with the ingredient list, so it’s unlikely that I’ll purchase the full-sized bottle.

Ofra Cosmetics Sultry Lipgloss Plumper – It’s super thick, almost like a lip tar, and hence very concentrated – I needed about a rice grain size amount to fully cover my lips. The plumping effect is not immediate, and the lips don’t suddenly begin to sting, like it happens with most other plumpers. I waited about 10 minutes for the full effect, and all this time I felt like my lips were slowly being inflated like a balloon, but I noticed no stinging or pain of any kind. This shade can be worn during the day or night because the color is kind of in-between the work and fun palette. To sum it up, I liked the color, and I loved the plumping part – it was way more pleasant than any other similar products I tried before.

Clean & Clear Morning Burst Hydrating Gel Moisturizer – Blast from the past! I remember using Clean & Clear products when I was a teenager, so it was nice to revisit the brand again. This moisturizer is very lightweight and absorbs quickly, while smelling like tropical fruits. It’s not nourishing enough for me, but I think for someone with oily skin it would make a nice choice.

Every Beauty Flexible Foot Smoother – Using this foot scrubber was fun, easy, and a little bit tickly, and it definitely works better than a regular pumice stone. One side is more coarse, while the other is more fine, and together they made my feetsies look and feel soft again.

As a special bonus this month I decided to share a romantic makeup look using some products from the December box. You can spy the NYX trio on my eyes and the Ofra lip gloss on my lips 🙂

THE VERDICT
This was a very fun box, and quite possibly my favorite out of the three that I have gotten so far. I loved the eye shadows, even though they weren’t very pigmented. Ofra lip gloss was a fun new thing to try, and it worked better than any other lip plumpers I tested. And of course the best thing in the box was the Foot Smoother, which now became my daily shower staple.

Are you a Beauty Box 5 subscriber? What do you think about the December box?