Love Me Beauty Box | January 2014

After taking a subscription break from Love Me Beauty for a couple of months (saving the pennies for Christmas presents), I've resubbed again just in time to receive their January box. If you're unfamiliar with Love Me Beauty, they are one of the best beauty box subscription services around at the moment. For £10 a month, plus postage costs (£2.95), you receive a mininum of five high quality beauty products delivered to your door but with none of the 'one use sample sachets' nonsense - a lot of the products in the boxes are full size, frequently make up items and are worth a high value (mostly). Even when it's not a full size product, the sample/mini/travel size is a generous size, e.g. the Pureology mousse in this box isn't full size, but is still 60ml. 

As an extra bonus, and a huge plus point for these boxes is that they offer a choice of boxes for each month (with only a slight variation between them but it's nice to have the options there) and you can select your preferred box in their boutique on the Love Me Beauty website ..but if there's nothing that's taking your fancy and you don't want a box for that month you can simply choose to 'skip' and resume as normal the following month. No nasty surprises or unwanted items!

So, what's in the January box.. (I selected box #3)

Pureology Silk Bodifier | 65ml. £15.00 for 250ml
'Infuses hair with volume, shine and softness while protecting and maximising the vibrancy of colour-treated hair. This 100% vegan conditioning mousse adds fullness and volume without feeling heavy and leaves hair beautifully soft and shiny'.

The only non-full sized item in the box is the Silk Bodifier from Pureology - a brand I've always been curious to try so I'm happy to see it included in the box. If I'm understanding the description of this right, it's a conditioning style mousse. It's also got added benefits for colour treated hair which doesn't apply to me but it's nice to know there's some extra nourishment within it. I look forward to trying this - I'll keep you all posted on my thoughts.

Arran Aromatics Wheatgerm & Vitamin E Soap | £2.75 (full size)

'Exfoliate and polish with this Wheatgerm and Vitamin E soap. It contains natural oatmeal to give your skin a gentle wake up call and cleanse without drying out skin'.

As far as I'm concerned, soap is soap. I don't think I've had enough trial of different soaps to be able to tell a bad soap from a good soap.. But it's a useful item to have and I'll happily place it in my shower to use. I like the idea of it being exfoliating too so that I can scrub and clean in double quick time

Cosmetics a la Carte Divine Lash Mascara in 'Black' | £23.00 (full size)
'Divine Lash comes with a slim tapered flexible brush, perfect for reaching every lash from corners to bottom lashes. This mascara gives a lovely even coating of mascara upon application. With a precise brush, the mascara combs through lashes to create length and definition with the advantage of no clumps'.

A pricey item from A La Carte Cosmetics, and if it's your sort of thing then you've already made your money back on the whole box by receiving this mascara. Personally, it's not for me because it offers a whole lot of length to the lashes, but I'm a volume kinda girl so I'll be passing this onto my mum. The packaging of the tube is gorgeous though and I'm sure she'll love it - If you like lengthening mascaras then you'll love this!

Lord & Berry Eye Pencil in 'Sparkle Black' | £8.95 (full size)

'Add a touch of sparkle to your eyes. Silky and smooth, this creates a glittery and glamorous look, whilst the highly pigmented formula gives a rich colour for ultimate definition. Creates long-lasting dramatic lines, or blend for a sexy, smudged look'.

I think that somewhere along the line I missed out on getting a Weleda product due to substitions, but it's okay because I like Lord & Berry. I'd prefer this if it wasn't sparkley.. but the sparkle is subtle within it so it's still wearable. I found it to be quite smudgy, which can be a good thing if you're going for a smokey kinda look, but hopefully this won't be smudgy enough that it'll end up half way down my cheeks!
 

NYX Single Eyeshadow in 'Earthy Shimmer' | £5.00 (full size)

'NYX pressed mineral eyeshadows are packed with colour, easy to blend and will last for hours. Go edgy or understated effortlessly when enjoying these luscious long-wearing colours from sunrise to sunset. Use this shimmery champagne gold toned eyeshadow as the perfect base to a smokey eye. Alternatively use on its own or as a highlight'.

My menu card is telling me I have the shade 'Sahara', but this is 'Earthy Shimmer' ..with 'shimmer' being the operative word. SHIMMER TASTIC. I found this to be a very dusty shadow, still buttery soft but just crumbley with a huge amount of fall out - it's definitely not a neat and tidy eyeshadow to use. If there's an occasion that calls for heavily glittered eyes then I'll be pulling out Earthy Shimmer.. but otherwise it can just sit quitely and keep all that messy sparkle to itself.

There's five items in the box, four of which are full size and total the value of just under £40, plus one generous sample size can which has a value of £5.70 (..if my maths is correct, which is probably isn't!). I like the size of the small can of mousse; it's pretty much to perfect size to get a feel for a product without having a giant can cluttering up my room (and obviously anything bigger wouldn't fit in the box). I've always been curious about the brand Pureology, but it's a bit out of my price range! Anddd.. brownie points for the colour scheme of this January Box being my favourite colour and for matching my nails! 

Love Me Beauty Subscription Box - £10.00 /month (plus £2.95 p&p) - LINK

In theory, it is a good box and contains good products making it a good value for money box and a nice treat, with quality and useable products inside. However, for me and my preferences it does fall a little bit short and I think that everything just seems 'okay'. This would probably only be because I'm comparing it to the contents of past Love Me Beauty boxes where I've adored every product inside. Examples of past boxes:

- September Love Me Beauty Box Review

- August Love Me Beauty Box Review

If I was to compare this to the standard of Glossy Box at the moment, then this one totally blows it out of the water! Sorry, but if I was subbed to Glossy Box at the moment I'd be utterly devastated!

Would you / have you subbed to Love Me Beauty?

Thanks for reading! ♥

Twitter | Bloglovin | Instagram | Advertise (50% off February advertising packages, prices from £1.00) --- Check out my January Gold advertiser, Elysia, and her amazing blog:

Little Beauty Blogg

♥