June Luxe Box

So... long time, no blog. I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not good at staying on top of this whole blogging on a regular basis thing so I apologize for that and I'll try my best to blog more often.

If you live in Canada you're probably aware that Canada Post was on strike for the past few weeks leaving all mail stuck in limbo, hence, my extremely late June Luxe Box post. The really sad thing is that this package was supposed to arrive at my post office the day after the strike began and I think it was at my post office the entire time but I just couldn't get it. If you couldn't tell I'm a little bit frustrated with Canada Post [Canada post rant starts here]. I personally don't see their need for a pay increase when their performance remains substandard compared with postal services in other countries. I really don't see why it should cost less and take less time to deliver something to the US than it does to deliver something within our own country, never mind the fact that our "fast" delivery time is still extremely slow compared with mail in the US and other countries. Puh-lease Canada Post, don't go asking for a raise when it's clearly not deserved. Step up your game and then maybe we'll talk.

Okay, sorry about that. Now it's time to show you what I got in my June Luxe Box! If you don't already know what Luxe Box is I'll link my first post here where I explain how it works. There are a few changes since the Luxe Box has been launched to the public, though. A monthly membership now costs $12 , a three month membership costs $36, and a 12 month membership costs $120. There is no difference in price between a one month and three month membership but those who have ordered the three month and 12 month memberships get their Luxe Boxes shipped out first. The 12 month Luxe Box subscription also has the perk of essentially getting two months of Luxe Box for free. You can order the Luxe Box at http://www.loosebutton.com/. I still have one more month of my original three month subscription to try out before I decide if I'll be purchasing additional Luxe Boxes in the future.

This is what I got...

May Luxe Box

My May Luxe Box FINALLY arrived! For those of you not familiar with Luxe Box, it’s a subscription service that sends you 3-5 deluxe samples of beauty products for $9.99 plus tax per month. Ever since hearing about Birchbox I’ve been really intrigued by this concept and so when I heard Canada had their own version I had to try it.

I’ll get my first and only complaint out of the way early. Loose Button (the company that owns Luxe Box - don’t ask me why they need two names) sent out the Luxe Boxes on May 9th so I was expecting to get my package in the mail within a few days. As early as May 10th I saw on Twitter and random blogs that people had already received their Luxe Box so I was expecting to get mine fairly soon after. Well I just got it in the mail today, a week after everyone else received theirs. This most likely isn’t Luxe Box’s fault, I personally blame the post office in Mississauga. Every time I order anything online I swear that post office holds on to my package for a good week before sending it my way. This shouldn’t be an issue for anyone who lives in the GTA as I’m assuming that your package won’t need to go through the horrid Mississauga post office (I could be wrong) but for anyone living outside of that area expect a very long wait for your Luxe Box to arrive.

Alrighty, on to the actual Luxe Box!

NOTD: Bling in the Spring

Last night I was trying to decide what colour to paint my nails. I was torn between Essie Mint Candy Apple, Essie Lilacism, and OPI Do You Lilac It? but none of them were really calling out to me. I felt like my nails needed a little bling so I decided to pair OPI Glitzerland and China Glaze Medallion (just on the ring fingers) and I actually really like it. Metallics are supposed to be “in” for spring but this almost reminds me a bit of the holidays. Oh well. Anyway that’s it. I just wanted to show you all what’s on my nails today.

Project 10 Pan is OVER!!

About a week ago I realized I had finished project 10 pan and I didn’t even know! I actually ended up using 14 products instead of 10 but the more the better, right? I don’t want this post to be too long so without further ado here are the final items I used up.

1. Essie To Dry For Topcoat

2. Yves Saint Laurent Faux Cils and Dior Extase Mascaras

3. Biotherm Nutrisource Levres

4. Neostrata Smoothing Cleansing Mask

5. Murad Exfoliating Acne Treatment Gel

6. Etival Hydra Boost Serum

Sally Hansen Mega Shine AKA Worst Topcoat Ever

A few months ago I was on the hunt for a new topcoat and decided to give Sally Hansen Mega Shine a try since I'd heard really great things about. All the reviews I saw claimed that this topcoat was like Seche Vite but even better because, as I'm sure most of you know, Seche Vite has the little disclaimer that it may cause birth defects (news flash, a lot of nail polish brands include the exact same ingredient - you're probably already using it). Even though I loved Seche Vite and I could care less about the disclaimer because I'm not pregnant, nor am I planning on being pregnant any time soon, I hated that it turned rock hard only halfway through the bottle so I thought this would be a great topcoat to try since it's supposed to be even better.

Old Products, New Uses

For a while now I’ve been trying to clear out all the products I don’t use or like in order to minimize the amount of makeup and skin care items I own. This means using cleansers I don’t like, wearing powders that are too dark, and applying lip balm that smells like wax. Luckily I’ve managed to find other uses for a few products that I thought were lost causes.

Cover FX 160 Foundation Brush. I originally bought this brush along with my Cover FX Cream Foundation because that’s what Cover FX recommends you apply it with. That was a big fail for me. Not only does this brush shed (think MAC 109), but the actual cream foundation just doesn’t look good when applied as an all over foundation. I can’t understand why they would market such a thick, full coverage product as a foundation. It’s excellent as a concealer and I think it lives up to the hype in that respect, but there are very few people that need the amount of coverage this gives you on their entire face. Hence, the 160 foundation brush became useless.

Insomnia: In & Out

It’s 1am and I can’t bring myself to sleep even though I’m tired. This always seems to happen to me at the end of the semester when I’m done everything and have basically zero school related stress. I’m technically not finished for another 3 weeks but the amount of work I need to do between now and then is minimal, hence no stress. Since I’m just sitting here refreshing Twitter and YouTube waiting for something to happen I figured I’d write a blog post. I’m going to attempt to do my first “In & Out” post but I’m going to warn you that it might suck. Here we go…

IN

Spring! Today it was ridiculously nice outside! We literally had a major snowstorm a week ago and today it was bright, sunny, and probably 15 degrees. I don’t expect it to last but I’m going to try and enjoy it while it does.

Dresses. It’s getting to be that time of the year that I go dress crazy again. I usually live in dresses all year round and just add leggings in the winter but for some reason this winter I ended up with a strict wardrobe of yoga pants. Even though I’m still yoga pant obsessed I’m feeling the urge to go buy some dresses. I have a lot of my old dresses lying around but the one downfall of losing weight is that my old clothes don’t really fit anymore so unless I belt them they just look shapeless.

Project 10 Pan

Some of you may know that I decided to venture out on a project 10 pan a few weeks ago. For those of you not familiar with Project 10 Pan, it’s pretty much a makeup buy ban. The premise is that you must completely use up 10 products before you buy any more and it's a way of using makeup that’s already in your collection instead of continually buying and forgetting about the old stuff *guilty*. A lot of people have different rules for Project 10 Pan and these are mine. I am not buying any cosmetic items (makeup, skin care, hair care, nail polish, etc.) until I have completely used up 10 I already own. I decided to limit myself to 5 skin care products because I tend to go through skin care pretty quickly and I had a lot of items that were already more than half done.

Here’s what I’ve used up so far…

Inglot

Recently, my parents took a trip down to Las Vegas and when they asked us if we wanted them to bring back anything I knew exactly what I was going to get. Inglot! Here in Canada Inglot is really difficult to come by. The only a few stores, all in Quebec, and for the majority of us Canadians that’s quite a long trip and not even remotely worth it for makeup. Some of you might know that I’m on project 10 pan but I figured I would take advantage of my parent’s offer since this was the only time I would be able to get my hands on some Inglot products in the near future.

Inglot eyeshadows are sold in a similar way to MAC eyeshadows. You can buy them in the pan or in palettes. Inglot calls their palettes the freedom system because you get to choose your palette size anywhere from a duo to a 20 pan palette and you can customize which colours go into your palette. I chose to go for a 10 eyeshadow palette which retails for $50 USD. Inglot breaks down the price for each eyeshadow differently depending on how many you buy. With the 10 pan palette the eyeshadows were $4.50 USD each and the palette was $5 USD. Each eyeshadow contains 2.7g of product. To put that into context, a single MAC eyeshadow in pro palette form contains 1.5g of product and retail for $11 USD/$13 CAD plus you need to purchase the actual palette! In my opinion, the quality of these eyeshadows is much better than MAC, and with a significantly better price point I say if you have access to Inglot, stock up.

I wanted to include some photos and swatches so you guys could get a better idea of what everything looks like so keep reading if you’re interested (just for reference I’m slightly lighter than NC15, so the colours will show up similar to if they were swatched on a white background)...

Things I Want

If you watch my YouTube videos you’ll probably know that I decided to undergo the torture of Project 10 Pan. I’m doing well so far and have used up a few products (I’ll update with my progress in another blog post) but I’ve also been adding to my wish list for when I’m done and can buy beauty products again. Here are some of the things at the top of my list.

Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish Hot Cloth Cleanser. I’ve heard so many amazing things about this cleanser. While I love my Origins cleansers I get bored easily and I feel like it’s time to switch things up. Once my two cleansers are used up I think I’ll be placing an order for this cleanser. I’m especially curious about the muslin cloth.