Luxebox August Review

A couple months back I heard of this Luxebox by Loose Button.  Each month you get a box sent to you usually with 4 or 5 samples of beauty products, all for $12 per month and you can either pay for only the one month or you can purchase a subscription and automatically get billed.  And let me tell you, it is TOTALLY worth it. I absolutely love getting samples of different products because I get introduced to more stuff without having to pay for the full product if I don't like it. And the samples sizes are pretty good, sometimes it's the full product they give. Like last month I got a full size eye pencil.

The samples I got this month were Pur Minerals: 4 in 1 Pressed Mineral Makeup, City Cosmetics: City Lips, Proclaim: Cocoa Butter and Body Lotion, and Calvin Klein's Forbidden Euphoria Fragrance.

The 4 in 1 Pressed Mineral Makeup ($31) claims to be a foundation, powder, concealer and SPF 15 all in one. I have never found a powder that I like that gives good coverage and I never liked how powder looks on my skin so I usually stick to liquid. But this powder has great coverage for using very little product and it feels and looks like I'm wearing nothing. So much quicker to dust on than applying a liquid.  However, as a concealer I don't think it works very well because it's only medium coverage, which I was expecting anyways. As for how long the wear lasts, I use a primer beforehand and it lasts just as long as my liquid foundation. Overall, I would definitely recommend this product.

Next is City Lips by City Cosmetics ($35).  This is a lip plumping treatment that claims to increase collagen production in your lips which plumps your lips and decreases wrinkles.  Now, I have never used a lip plumping treatment before because my lips are big enough and I don't want to look like Angelina Jolie.  The good thing about this product is it doesn't have the stinging, tingling feeling I've been told other products have. But it definitely has a slight numb dentist lip feeling.  For me I really didn't notice a difference in the size of my lips, although they did look smoother. I did a comparison of my lips with nothing (top), with regular lip gloss (bottom left) and with the City Lips gloss (bottom right). My opinion is it's not worth the $35.

 
Proclaim's Cocoa Butter Hand and Body Lotion ($8) is supposed to sooth and protect skin brom sun, sind and water.  It contains aloe vera so I'm sure it would work great for sunburns if I had any!  I really like it because it doesn't leave a greasy feeling afterwards. Overall it is a good basic lotion to have for a great price.

Last is Calvin Klein's Forbidden Euphoria ($78) which isn't even released until next month. I am super stoked I get to be one of the first people wearing this fragrance! The smell is very sweet with fruity and floral scents. This is supposed to be a younger version of their Euphoria fragrance and I would agree this would be best suited for girls in their late teens and early 20's. I personally really like it but I don't think it would be a scent I would wear often.

Also, my box came with some lovely earrings by Sheyna Jewellery  ($18). They are pearl moonstone earrings. The site is really cool because you can make your own earring by choosing what you want them to be made out of. Very pretty! :)

Deal Sites

There are quite a few bargain sites where you can either get cashback for your purchases or they have crazy deals on name brand items. The two sites I mainly use are www.ebates.com and www.hautelook.com. Ebates is a cashback site. So you go on and they have links to many online stores like sephora, la senza, garage clothing, old navy...just a bunch of places. When you click on those links they bring you to that website but with a tracking number so anything you order you get a certain percent cashback (ranges from store to store). Every 3 months they send you a cheque for the cashback you collected. I have been using this site for the past 4 months and I love it. Sephora you get 4% cashback and sometimes they'll have special days where it's 8% cashback. So far I have had no problems with the site, I got my first cashback cheque, cashed it, no problem. Also, the site has a link to groupons so if you already buy groupons from time to time why not get a little money back from it!

Hautelook is a site where make-up, skincare and clothing companies have items greatly marked down. Some of the stuff is pretty top of the line like juicy couture, marc jacobs, urban decay makeup, NYX cosmetics, mario badescu skincare, various household decor and also deals on trips.  But they have one day events, so everyday at 11am they have a different list of specials that are going on.

There are other sites similar to Hautelook like Rue La La and Beyond the Rack but Hautelook seems to have brands and items that appeal to me more. Also, I have heard bad things about items not being shipped by Beyond the Rack or it taking months for them to receive their purchase. Basically, it all depends on your own preferences which sites you like the best. My advice is go to the sites that interest you, sign up for e-mails and each day you'll get an e-mail saying what events are going on in the subject line. If you don't like a site just unsubscribe from their e-mail list.

Happy shopping! :)

Yummy Summer Treat

Here's a nice little way to escape the summer heat without having to pay $3 for an iced coffee from Timmies or Mcdonalds!  I went to Starbucks and got their Ice Coffee Tumbler and a box of their Iced Coffee packets.

I found that one packet makes enough for two iced coffees in my tumbler, so I usually just store the rest in a container for the next day. Based on your preferences you can either add milk or cream or just leave it black. I found this little gem at the grocery store the other day.

It's a soy milk flavoured with vanilla chai, which tastes gloooooorious, exactly like something you would get from Starbucks only way cheaper! And voila, you have your own iced coffee which you can take anywhere :)

July Favourites!

So I figured I'd start off talking about some of my favourite products I used this month! First is the "Stella in Two Peony" perfume by Stella Mccartney.

This has instantly become my favourite perfume. I'm partial to floral scents and obviously this is a floral perfume. It's a stronger perfume but still manages to be light enough to use as a day perfume. One of the bottom notes of this fragrance is cedar wood which balances out the peony very well. The retail value is $56 and can be found in any department store but also check out www.fragrancenet.com for awesome deals.

 The next two items are from sephora.com.  First is Nars blush/bronzer trio in "Laguna", "Orgasm" and "Albatross".

The "Orgasm" blush is their most popular selling blush and is what stars like Kim Kardashian wears (if you care about that sort of stuff). It's very pricey, $55, but I think it's well worth it because you get a blush, bronzer and highlight in one. The blush is a pinky/peachy colour which I was a little afraid of since all I ever use on my fair skin is a light rosey pink. But for a summer look I think it works perfectly. I have never tried a bronzer before and this colour is not too dark on my pale complexion, it gives a natural tanned look which I love. The cheek highlight is pretty but very shimmery so I usually only use it for a night look because I tend to get shiny and oily during the hot summer days.

I also purchased Two Faced Shadow Insurance ($18) after hearing many makeup guru's rave about it.

This is an eyeshadow primer and before I had just been using a face primer thinking it all works the same. It does not! This works so much better because it gets rid of the oiliness that can make the eyeshadow wear off the lid and migrate towards the crease. Also, it makes the eyeshadow colour stand out more, just like a paint primer does for walls.  My eyeshadow can last for hours now, and it'll still look exactly how it looked when I first applied it.

And lastly, I was at Lush a few weeks ago and felt adventurous to step out of the normal soaps and bath bombs that I normally get. I decided to try one of their face masks called "Ayesha".

I have oily, blackhead, breakout prone skin. Lush has pretty much a face mask for any skin type. This one is best at clearing and tightening pores. All their masks are kept refrigerated so they feel incredibly refreshing on the skin. After just using it once I noticed my pores were a lot clearer and my face felt softer. I use it about once a week and because they are fresh masks they only keep for about 4 weeks, which is the only downside. I really like that it's all natural ingredients because my skin does not like chemical cleansers anywhere near it. No matter what they always make me break out or make my face more oily. But this mask really helped to calm my skin. I forget the exact price of the masks but they were around $5, which is pretty great if you ask me!