Allure Beauty Box: October 2018 | Boxy-Ladies.com

If I’ve said it once on this blog, I’ve said it 15 times, but the Allure Beauty Box is the beauty subscription box I will always recommend to people when they are asking which beauty box is the best. While this one is a bit pricier than some of the others at $15/month, the value usually far exceeds that $15 price tag, and this box is no exception. I do deviate from our normal review template to rant for a bit about some shady things one of the included brands has been caught doing. But let’s be real – this wouldn’t be a Lauren Blog without some sort of rant now, would it?

ALLURE BEAUTY BOX

Price: $15.00/month

Box Type: Monthly beauty box featuring 6 high end beauty product samples (and sometimes full-sized products!).

Why you’ll love it: Top brands, great price, new products that you will love! A great way to sample expensive products without committing to the price tag. Each box comes with an Allure mini-magazine that showcases each product and is as quality as you’d expect from a magazine powerhouse like Allure.

How To Subscribe: Click here! They have a new referral program so def click our link!

Here is the Allure Mini-Mag that they always include. I find this super helpful to get some tips about all of the products they include, much like the full-size magazine.

And here’s everything we got this month! Wow! What a haul this month, eh?

Sunday Riley Good Genes ($105) and Sunday Riley Ceramic Slip Cleanser ($35): As I referenced in the first paragraph, I was going to rant a bit about one of the brands in this box, and, surprise! It’s Sunday Riley! If you hadn’t heard, an ex-Sunday Riley employee posted some company emails where employees were asked to write fake, glowing reviews for their products, specifically their Saturn line, which is aimed at those who are dealing with acne. They were asked to sound relatable and write things like, “I’ve tried everything and this is the only product that works.” “Yes, it’s expensive but works incredibly well in comparison to cheaper masks out there.” You get the idea. But they weren’t only asked to create fake profiles and write fake reviews, they were asked to use VPN technology in order to mask that the fake reviews were coming from Sunday Riley. Their first response was incredibly disappointing to me. One, they acted like they were just asking their employees to write about their own experiences. Obviously, that would be fine. But they weren’t doing that. They were asking their employees to be deceptive and create fake profiles and in order to write fake reviews. Their response really didn’t indicate they wouldn’t be doing it anymore either. To me, it sounded like more of a rationalization, since “another company was writing negative reviews.” I left a comment saying most of this on one of their unrelated Instagram posts, because it seemed like at first, they were trying to bury this story. Their comments are incredibly expensive, but a lot of them are really great, and they should be able to stand on their own without fake reviews, in my opinion. Also, not every product is going to work for every single person, and that’s ok, too! Those reviews are especially helpful, actually, and it sucks they would try to bury them. Eventually they made a brand new post, still very carefully not saying what they were accused of, except that, “They hear us.” But then they said they were going to have a third-party audit their business practices and make the report public, so I’m interested to hear what they say next.

So you might be wondering… am I going to keep supporting Sunday Riley? I’m not sure. I don’t feel as strongly about this as I did about Tarte and Kat Von D. But I wasn’t really thrilled to hear about this either. I love their Luna Night Oil ($105) – it’s become a holy grail product for me. But the Good Genes serum, that I actually got in the box this month – I have purchased the full-size of this and I don’t really care for it. It certainly didn’t make my skin worse, but it’s incredibly expensive and I really didn’t think it did much of ANYTHING for me. The mini-mag and those with more sensitive skin say that this makes skin tingle a bit, but I never felt anything. But that’s ok! Some products work for people and some don’t and that’s how it should be, since no one’s skin is the same. Also, I’ve tried this Ceramic Slip cleanser and I think it smells TERRIBLE. And it also tastes terrible, but obvs you are not supposed to eat it. Sometimes it just gets in my mouth when I’m washing my face and I do not like. I’ll probably use it just to use it up, but I wouldn’t buy the full-size. Anyway, thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Hourglass Caution Mascara ($29): I just got this in the Sephora Play! Luxe Vol. 2 box, so I’m going to copy what I said here: I have tried the Caution mascara before and I like it OK. It doesn’t give me me as much volume as I prefer for my top lashes, but I really like it for my bottom lashes, as one of its major selling points is that it doesn’t smudge. However, the issue with this particular sample mascara is the wand itself. Because it’s so short, and the handle itself is so big and bulky, it’s sort of hard to apply. This obviously wouldn’t be a problem with the full-size version because the wand is much longer, but it is an annoying part of this sample.

Yves Sant Laurent Tatouage Couture Matte Liquid Lip Stain in Singular Taupe 23 ($37): Y’all know I am done with liquid lipsticks because they are so drying and terrible. Every time someone says, “No, but THIS one is actually comfortable!” They are just full of lies. Except when it comes to this one. This formula is so interesting, it’s almost like a stain. Well, it’s actually exactly like a stain. The formula is very thin and it just feels like nothing on your lips. I swatched it on my lips at like 2am on a Saturday night (wild times, I’m telling you), and I wore it for awhile as I finished binging Better Call Saul. (Better than Breaking Bad, in my opinion.) I like this formula enough to where I might actually buy some full-sizes of these. Maybe a red for holiday things, where I wouldn’t have to worry about it moving all over my face. I think I’ll buy some of these during the next VIB Rouge sale. This is really that good. I’ll be wearing the Singular Taupe shade regularly, until I run out or lose it. It’s 50/50.

Caudalie Vinopure Skin Perfecting Serum ($49): I am sort of between serums at the moment, as I am sort of waiting for the next VIB sale before I invest in more skincare because let’s face it – skincare is expensive and I’ll take that 20% discount when I can get it. I’m interested to try this, as I’m pretty sure I’ve tried it before. I remember it being lightweight and nice to wear under makeup. The mini-mag says that it’s actually great for balancing combo

First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream ($30): I remember getting a full-size of this in a POPSUGAR Must Have box back in the day, and I think I have it somewhere in my skincare closet. It’s a pretty thick moisturizer that is great for very dry skin. Since I don’t have the driest skin, I only use this a few times in the winter when my nose gets kind flaky. However, if you have super dry skin and you don’t really know where to start to go about fixing it, this cream is a really good place to start.

bkr Paris Water Balm ($22): If you’ve ever been to Nordstrom or Neimans, you’ve seen the fancy bkr glass water bottles with the silicone sleeves. They are apparently the chicest way to drink water, however, in practice, I don’t really like them so much. Mostly because the neck of the water bottle seemed too small to get ice into, and I like to sip water through the day, so I like ice in there to keep it cool. Anyway, the bkr company decided to get into the beauty game, when they created this lip balm, and also a bottle cap where you can attach said lip balm so it’s always handy with your water. Of course, it has castor oil in it, because why wouldn’t it? However, I tried it on anyway and while it makes my skin incredibly shiny, it’s so goopy and sticky that I wouldn’t enjoy wearing it. I’ll take my Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask ($20) any day of the week! (And it’s cheaper for like 3x the product!)

Just for fun, here are a few pics from my Insta Story unboxing, where Franklin was my model since he would not move out of the way. If you are following us on Instagram, you really should! I’m getting better at instagram stories and posting more frequently! @Boxy_Ladies

Final Grade: A

This was an a GREAT month of the Allure Beauty Box and I’m really glad I’m still subscribed to it! Rant about Sunday Riley notwithstanding, I think the value was really great and I’m looking forward to see what comes next!

If you’d like to subscribe for yourself, click here!

Purchased; All opinions are my own.
Post contains affiliate and referral links.

laurenelectro

A self-proclaimed beauty junkie/hoarder with a serious Sephora problem. This blog is a total rationalization of that problem. Everything is TOTALLY fine. Her free time is a mixed combination of making fun of reality TV with her husband, hanging out with cats and finally trying to figure out how to do her hair.