Hello to all of you beautiful nerds traveling the vast nerd universe! I am back with another post!

Subscription Review Round Up: March & April 2020

It is time for my subscription round up for March and April and man I feel like GB Plus has kind of lost its mark these two months which I will get into once I get to it. Let me start with BoxyCharm!

Disclaimer: This Review Round Up is based on thoughts on the items I received in my boxes and how I feel about them. I am very honest with my experiences so please don’t get mad if you enjoyed these products. Thank you!

BoxyCharm: I feel like Boxy has done very well for itself for March and April but I did have one pet peeve item arrive during this month. I did set aside my Murad Ultra Moisture for Eyes which I will not say the entire name, don’t get why skin care brands have extended names for items, since I am still using my E. L. F. one at the moment and have another eye item in rotation once that’s done. I haven’t used my Hank & Henry pallet as of yet, I did contact them for a pallet description and no answer yet which I may have to contact them again. Farmacy is still unopened since I still have a pack of makeup wipes unopened but will get to this when I am done with those. The Vintage by Jessica lip gloss was good but I did not like the brush. It kept on folding in on itself and I had a hard time putting the wand back into its tube. I prefer doe foot applicators over brush ones any day. And finally the Project Beauty Hair Yogurt Mask did feel good on my hair and it did smell very good. I wished there was more product since my hair was growing a bit slightly and of course it was pretty thick and had to put a lot on to use this product. Hey, at least I got to use it!

April was good until one item and that is that they sent me lashes! You know my stance on them and here is the thing with getting these. If BoxyCharm was looking at people’s profiles and what they marked for certain products, for instance when they looked for people’s skin type for the Benefit Porefessional this month, they should have paid attention to what everyone else has marked or not. I did double check my quiz and on the tools question I marked everything EXCEPT lashes. I know everyone will say that they make your look pretty but wearing them over time damages your actual lashes due to pulling them off every night and also I did not know this but they do block out your eye look and if I went through the hassle of trying a new pallet and blended to my heart’s content and put lashes what’s the point? And another thing is that we have mascaras that do the length, do the volume, and some of them even help with lash growth. So that is one step I don’t do. I was happy with the Benefit Porefessional which is the hydrating one which they did pay attention to me marking dry skin which I do have. I am using my newer E. L. F. Putty Face Primer which I do enjoy due to how creamy it is and I will start using the Benefit one when I am done with that one. The brushes I did enjoy which I prefer using these for more of the smaller areas of my eyes rather than going all over. They are nice but they are small in comparison to the brushes I use in my brush pouch. I will still use these though but for mainly a precise crease and my brow bone. I did enjoy the Zoeva pallet I’ve also received and it was perfect for my complexion. So many people over in What’s Up in Make Up loved my looks that I did with it. Also using the Iconic London Illuminator was pretty good since it was really easy to blend after spreading it with my finger. I just dabbed a little bit and used my highlighting brush from Alamar and there I go!

Ipsy: March and April were also really good for Ipsy Glam Bag and March was the hundredth bag celebration and we got six items and went back to five in April!

I did enjoy the Hanalei lip balm in peppermint and all I have to say is that despite the mint in this product it did moisturize my lips! It’s a lot better than the Suzanne Somers lip balm my soon=to=be-mother-in-law gave me which was also mint but the issue I had with that one is that it never went on my lips unlike this one it went very well on my lips since it was in a stick. Its interesting know that mint is not the best ingredient in lip balms but hey at least this was a good one. With the Girlactic liner I just put it with my work makeup and sorry to say I am getting tired of getting black eyeliner in my boxes. I do love a good black liner but I do like to use colorful ones to match my eye looks time to time and wondering what had happened. I mean Boxy got two colorful liners and wishing I got those instead and they were in pink and blue and wondering what is going on Ipsy! I know black is a universal color that can be worn with any look but you need to get back into the variety game since years ago you gave out other colors. I did enjoy the Hey Honey Propalus Moisturizer since I didn’t go to Omni due to what is going on in the world. It felt really cooling on my skin and I did trade my points in for another tube which I will talk about that with GB Plus and wishing it was not so pricey. Hoping it does go on the 21 Days of Beauty in September! I also enjoyed the Complex Culture All Over Eye Brush when packing on shadow all over my lids. It is very soft for a brush and it does help with blending as I go. But I do feel that it is too big for the crease so that is why it’s a lid brush. The Naked Cosmetics Mother Nature Pigment was okay in my book. I think I felt that I had to dip in twice since it did say it’s best to apply with fingers but with our current situation I needed a brush for this thing. I do have some of the loose pigments around in my room so I will be using those! And finally for this bag is the Sugar Cosmetics Uptown Curl mascara and man this knows how to curl my lashes! I do have this with my work mascaras because I do enjoy a nice curl time to time and it does separate my lashes very well. I hope to try more mascaras from Sugar Cosmetics since they are a pretty good brand and have been enjoying what I’ve tried so far by them.

April is back to five items and man I felt that this was a really exciting bag with what I got! First is the Nomad Cosmetics Tuscany Intense Eye Shadow in Aperitivo was something I was excited about since it was my choice item. I have been enjoying this brand and they are the nicest people on the planet! I’ve been talking with one of the founders since I have been tagging them on Instagram with any looks with their items even with the Berlin Underground pallet and they do love to travel and I can see why the brand is known for being named after destinations. This shadow is from their Tuscany Intense nine shadow pallet which I did purchase for a video I want to do spotlighting this brand since my next choice for May in GB Plus is from this brand too. I won’t reveal it until that arrives. I love how this shadow did go on really smoothly and I do love how they use oils in their shadows as well which I think this was made with grape seed oil but it was a smooth shadow. I am glad I did purchase the pallet and I did get two face items since they did release a new New York Collection to donate to charities helping with the world situation right now. They even have done donations towards the Australian Bush Fires this past year in their summer in Australia. Anyways, glad to get this! I got another item from murad which is their Nutrient Charged Water Gel which feels really good on the skin! I use this on my face before makeup so it would soak in while I put on my eye shadow and gives it time to settle in as I go. I hope this will be on the next 21 Days of Beauty because with what I’ve been trying out from Murad I’ve been liking a lot and I find it better to purchase it half-off rather than full price during the sales at Ulta because you feel that you’re getting good skin care even with sensitive skin and you’re not going into the territory of Sunday Riley prices either. Plus this sample is lasting me pretty well because I don’t need too much for an application. I have enjoyed the LoveCraft lipstick in Fausta because it does go on smooth and I feel like it stays put on my lips and it is just so comfortable to wear! I wish most lipsticks were like this one because I feel how drying most of them can be and it feels so uncomfortable after applying some of them. Next is a brush from Ariceli which I feel like it was really scratchy. When I use a blending brush I expect it being soft as I put shadow on my eyes but this one it felt like straw as I put on the Nomad shadow. I think they should improve this brush and hoping if I get more brushes from these guys that they aren’t as scratchy either. And finally I am really happy that I got a bronzer and it’s from Space Case Cosmetics and I loved this bronzer and how well it applies. It almost feels like a Super Shock item from Colour Pop but it is more on the powder side. It is pretty compact in its packaging and glad that I got to get this and hoping I get more bronzers in my Glam Bag because this is the only one I got so far ever since I got back into Ipsy in 2018. So don’t stop sending bronzers! I put “Love It!” For the do you like bronzer’s question.

Glam Bag Plus: March was disappointing and April was a huge road trip for it. March was the same as the Glam Bag where I got six items as well and here was the weird thing about it. Three of the items I got were right and the other three were switched out for some reason for different products and got replacements. The items that were right were the Glam Glow Tropical Cleanser, which I just started using and it smells nice, the Phase Zero Liquid Lipstick which ran out pretty fast, and the Complex Culture Concealer Brush which was a huge triangle shaped brush head that felt like it wouldn’t fit anywhere. I used it for my under eye powder because I felt it was better to do that than just trying to put concealer. Speaking of which, the items that were wrong happened to be the Hey Honey Concealer in Light to Medium which is not so bad, the Balm Girl Powder Blush Pallet which was good even though I chose the eye shadow pallet not this, and the HEMPZ Body Moisturizer in Pineapple which I always notice when it gets to a certain level in the travel size it is hard to squeeze. I did end up getting the items I was supposed to get and the Coffee Scrub which was messy but it was effective in what it did which helped with some of my dry patches. The Pic Perf pallet was really good where the shadows were really pigmented and the primer was better than that crappy E. L. F. Putty Eye Primer and of course god got another eyeliner. I don’t get why they didn’t say, “Wait a minute!” When they were putting together my box. When I sent the email I explained what was missing and even shown screen shots and was asked what I was missing and had to tell them again.

April was a road trip! When it got to Orlando it was close to drop off date and saw that tracking took it to opposite of my part of the state and caused them to send it back to Daytona and then Jacksonville and then to me! I’ve been living at the same address for close to two years and this happens. Apparently was an error on DHL’s half and my post office according to Ipsy. I did get everything right and have been enjoying the items. I used the eyeliner from Tarte and no bleeding! I did enjoy the blush and highlighter pallet which was easy to use where the blushes were on the bottom and the highlighters were on top. The Ciate mascara did feel good but need to have a habit of putting the lash primer, my lashes did look and feel full with it on though! The Crème Rose did feel good on my legs and slightly helping with the dryness even though the scales are kind of there. I do admit when I squeeze I get too much product and wishing it was in a tub rather than a tube because I think I would need more than just a big dollop with how much dryness I am going through to this day. Hoping to get more lotions as time goes on because having lotions time to time in these boxes does help and give an idea of what’s out there. And of course the lipstick! It looks amazing on me from what so many people have said. I did post a picture yesterday of me who did a look with the blush and highlighter pallet, the lipstick, the eyeliner, and the Zephyr pallet from Eleman and everyone liked it and someone said that Brick should be my signature color due to how it looks with my skin tone. When I was job searching and starting to work I did wear a Rimmel lip gloss close to the color of this shade. I will be definitely keep this in my makeup bag and do love the comfort of this lipstick! I did put a sticker to mark this tube to show what which one it is whenever I need to get another one.

That is it for the review on the products. I would have to say that the Glam Bag kind of beat the other two in my opinion. How so? Well, I feel like that the items were catered to my profile very well for both months even with the choices in how they were built around them. Also, I got to try another Murad product and another Hey Honey product on top of it. Also, I feel like they didn’t throw an item I didn’t like like with the lashes in Boxy this month or screw up the items like with my March GB Plus. I know not all brands are perfect but I feel that should have done better. Now hoping next month I won’t get any lashes nor have any of my subscriptions take a road trip across the state before I get it and get squished on top of that. Next post will be a new Accessibility post! Stay tuned!