Starbox: February 2014

I loved my Starbox so much more this month then last month.

FYI, Starbox is the subscription box service of Starlooks. I had gotten some Starlooks samples in one of my Wantable boxes and was curious about their products, so I subscribed to their service.

Starbox is about $16.00 per month, and they sent you ONLY full-size products of their own brand. There's usually 3-4 products per month, and there tend to be several different colors of whatever product they send.

I've found their customer service is great. When I had my billing issues due to the Target Credit Card Scam and had to contact them, they responded right away, and they were very nice and helpful.

I wasn't too pleased with their January Box, but I give each subscription at least a three month chance before I cancel it, and I really liked what I got in my February box, so I'm glad I kept with it.

This is this month's box. It's gold with a holographic logo. I like holographs.

First look inside of the box.

Item number one... A Hairband? They advertise this as something to use when you're putting on makeup to keep your hair out of your face, when you do your makeup, but to me, it's just a simple hairband. Value: maybe... $2.00?

A Starlooks Cream Shadow in Phaser. It isn't even on their website since it's a brand-new product. I'll price it to the same price their long-wear eyeliner pots are because they're of similar design, so about $12.00

It's a very creamy shimmery lavender color with some hints of silver. This is it on my hand with no primer or anything. I don't wear much purple eye makeup, but this is a color that I could get into because of the silver sheen, and it's eye makeup and I like eye makeup.

Starlooks Pigment in Wall Street, worth about $12.00.

I love it. It's black with silver sparkles in it, just like my favorite oil slick 24/7 eyeliner from Urban Decay. I wore this yesterday, and a little bit goes a long way. It also had GREAT staying power. It lasted through me sweating through the Houston Zoo, a shower because I was sooo damn sweaty from the zoo, and a night out at the pub with my friends without me ever having to reapply it. I used it as a highlight color and I loved it.

Starlooks Lipstick in Drew, worth$12.00.

I'm not really a lipstick type gal, but I can get by with this. It's so pale that it barely leaves any color on my skin, which makes it more like a lip gloss to me, and it's a very neutral color that I would wear, if I ever feel like wearing lipstick. So I'll keep this, in case the opportunity ever arises, where I want to wear lipstick because it is a "me" color.

swatches of all three products.

So, I was ever so satisfied with my Starbox this month, and I'm excited to see what they'll include in the next box.

I paid about $16.00 for this box, and got $38.00 worth of makeup from this box, which is more than half of what I initially paid. So the price is worth it.

I really hope I get some of their eyeliner pencils in an upcoming box because I am eager to try those out. I really like their eye products a lot.

Starbox is a good subscription box. You always get more than what you put into it, and the quality of their products is really good, so check them out, if you're so inclined, they always send a variety of different products every month, so there's always something new to try.

Nerd Block: February 2014

Nerd Block costs about $20.00 per month, and they send you a box full of nerdy stuff. There are different themes per month, this month seemed to be space themed, and you get all sorts of little toys, and a tee-shirts, it's like a toy subscription for adults.

This is my second month with Nerd Block, I wasn't very impressed this month, but I just wasn't into the theme. It's nothing against them. I really liked January's Box, and I'm looking forward to March's box.

Here's the Nerd Box, in all its' glory.

This was this month's tee-shirt. I have no idea what the fandom is... It's sort of looks like a combination Futurama and Transformers, but don't quote me. I'm happy it's black. I'll approximate the cost of the shirt to $10.00 because that's how much shirts tend to go on websites like teefury.com and such. I do really like getting a new nerdy shirt every month, I hope in an upcoming month, it's a fandom I recognize.

The first item was an ET Collectible Minature Figurine. According to a google search, it's worth about $1.00

I'm very happy I got an ET figure :) and it's a normal looking ET figure. I still have nightmares about that movie, when ET was sick, and turned white, and the government agents all went into the house to get him.

A Smurf Tag-Athon Collectible Game Figure. They look to be worth about $3.00.

 

I got Baker. I'm indifferent to Smurfs. I used to watch it when I was little, and I remember a pretty epic family dinner, when none of us could remember the name of Gargamel's cat, Azrael.

Minimates Star Trek Figures of Kirk and Khan. They seem to go for an average of $12.00 within the interwebs.

I'm not really a Star Trek fan, so meh, to me. I only like Next Generation and Q.

Power Rangers Megaforce Mashems. They tend to go for about $6.00.

I got the yellow ranger. True Story, I used to be OBSESSED with Power Rangers. I had the biggest crush ever on the green ranger. This makes a good stress ball, at least.

random stickers... worth maybe $1.00?

HALO Action Figures worth $5.99

I don't play HALO, Justin doesn't play HALO, so neither of us have any interest in this.

Here is everything together.

So not my favorite box from Nerd Block, but only because I wasn't into the fandoms. But all the figurines I got, they'll make great D&D tokens.

Wantable: Febuary 2014

 For y'all that are new, Wantable is a customizable makeup subscription. It's a bit more pricey than say Ipsy or Birchbox, it's $36.00, per month, and you fill out a survey, that customizes the products you'll receive. Products that you love, you're more likely to get, products you like, you occasionally get, and products you dislike, you never get. I like it because for the most part, you get things that you might actually use, and they're also always full-size products. 

As always, I'm impressed with Wantable's customer service. They charged me twice, last month, and gave me a 10 dollar off credit, and they totally applied it without me even having to remind them.

I was sort of upset with Wantable last month because they send me a million trillion lip products, and I don't really like lip products, so this week, I took my like for lip products and moved it to dislike, so there was no chance of me getting any sort of lip product.

I liked my box this month however:

Here it is.

As always, they include a piece of paper with all my loves/likes/dislikes, and they give you a list of items they sent you, and how much each one costs, which I like since it saves me a google search.

This is the box revealed.

My first item was a Rainbow honey nailpolish in Oni, it's a very glittery bronze gold color, and definitely a color that will be worn in my collection. Retail Value is $10.00

A Mistura Beauty Retractable Brush worth $18.82 [what a weird cents number after that dollar sign]. The brush is cool, I like how it retracts and gets bigger or smaller, but I'm not sure what I'll use it for. I don't really wear blush or foundation, or any of the makeup that you would use a brush such as this for, but I suppose it's a nice tool to add my nonexistent collection of makeup tools.

A Be a Bombshell Eye-Base in Chrome Sweet Chrome, worth $14.00

I really like this color. It's a very me color. I love any sort of silver eye makeup. This product can be used as an eyeshadow, a base for eyeshadow, or even an eyeliner. It's a color that will definitely be worn. Silver eyeliner was always my thing, especially in college, and post-college before I got a real job, although sometimes I still wear silver eyeliner to teach, and nobody's said anything yet :x Silver is my favorite color.

This is it swatched on my hand with no sort of primer or anything.

A Bella Donna Liquid Eye Pencil in Black, worth $25.00.

I really like the point of this eyeliner, it's very sharp and precise and I could get it very thin on my hand when I swatched it. I've never heard of this brand, and liquid eyeliner is something I'm not at all that familiar with, I tend to prefer pencil eyeliner, but a black eyeliner is always welcome in my collection.

Golden Rose Mascara in Perfect Lash Mascara Blue, worth $10.99. 

It's very blue. I don't think I've worn colored mascara since high school days, and that before the millennium. I love Golden Rose as a brand. Their black eyeliner that I got in my first ever wantable box back in December is my go-to mascara. I'll be very curious to try this, and see how it looks. I have very blue eyes, so it might be interesting to see.

Overall, I love this box. I got 3 eye products, 1 nailpolish, and a tool. Those are definitely the types of things I want to see in my monthly boxes, especially eye products, I love me some products.

The overall value for my box was: $78.81

That's a hell of a lot more than I paid.

I was very pleased with my product selection this month. I thought Wantable did a great job. I highly recommend them. Again, they're on the upper price spectrum of subscription boxes, but I think they're definitely worth it, for the very personal selection of products designed for you, to their full-size products that they send.

So check Wantable out, if you're so inclined.

Glamour Doll Eyeshadow: February 2014

Glamour Doll Eyeshadow is an indie company that makes loose eye shadow pigments. They have really cool colors, and their shadows are a really nice quality. They have a Of the Month subscription service. They're limited though. They open up every 8th of the month, and there are different options, from 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, etc. You can only subscribe to them on that day, and their subscriptions sell out fast. I was lucky enough to snag a 2 month subscription, and I'm really hoping I can snag a subscription, next month, and continue to get their products. The prices are based on how long the subscription is. I think mine is like $7.00 per month, but don't quote me.

This was this months bag, a nice pink silky bag, that's perfect for Valentine's Day. 

Inside the bag was this: sugar baby candies that I've already eaten [yet I haven't touched any of my Valentine's Day Chocolate, at all], the pigment of the month, and a "Shimmer Serum."

"Shimmer Serum" is, and I quote: " a slightly sticky liquid filled with micro fine glitter & inspired by mythological creatures. Appears white in the vial, but shows up a dazzling shimmery gold, when applied to the skin. Can be used on bare skin or over shadows."

The color I got was: Centuar's Wisdom

I attempted to blend it on my hand to show off, but it was very clear, and the gold only shows up a tiny bit. I personally like this product. It reminds me of the glitter roll on tubes that I totally rocked at sleep-away camp in the 90's, and I'm excited to see what it looks like over shadows. 

This month's color was Reckless Devotion, a pale shimmery pink with copper and gold shifts.

This is it swatched on my hand.

I normally don't really like pink, but I like this pink. It's pale enough that it can almost appear as a neutral, and I like the gold shimmer in it, although you can barely see it in my picture. This pink will be worn.

I highly recommend Glamour Doll Eyes. They're very affordable, for those beauty product lovers, on a budget, and their stuff is very high quality. If you're into bright colored eye-shadow, they're really a great place to check out.

Ipsy February

It seems like all my February subscription boxes have been coming early... Or maybe it's just that February is a really short month, so it seems everything is coming quicker than usual. But in my mailbox today, was February's Ipsy bag.

Ipsy is a $10.00 a month subscription makeup service. It's much more makeup oriented than say Birchbox. You sign up, there's a waiting list. The waiting time is about a month, but if you connect it to your facebook account, you tend to skip the line and become a member quicker.

You get 5-6 makeup products per bag, some are full-size, some are deluxe size, some are sample size. You also get a cute makeup bag every month. Your matches are based on a quiz, and they match your products based on a profile. I find Ipsy tends to send better products for me, than other services.

The bag was pink and Valentine's Day friendly, this month. I don't like pink. I was pretty sure it was going to be filled with pink and red and purple girly makeup. So I didn't really know what to expect... But Ipsy spoiled me this month.

My first sampler was Überliss RituOil, which is supposed to help with damaged hair. February seems to be the month of hair oil. A full-size is $19.50, I got a sample, which is worth about $9.25, because it's about a half of a regular size. So I guess this can technically be considered a deluxe sample. I have horribly dry hair with awful split-ends, so any product that will make my hair slightly less awful, is worth a gander in my book.

A 9 Pan Shadow Compact in Behind Blue Eyes from Jessie's Girl, full-size, worth $3.99.

I'm very excited that my entire palette is ice blue colors, medium blue, and silver and gray colors. These are all colors that I would wear. I am so happy I didn't get the Tickled Pink one, or another color combination. This combination is so me. I've never tried Jessie's Girl products before, but I always love eye shadow, so I'm very happy with this. I didn't swatch all the colors because I'm lazy though. 

 

Mally eyeliner in Starshine. Mine is full-size. It's worth $15.00... 

It has a nice tip, similar to the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner crayon tips. It's also waterproof like 24/7 is.

The color is a beautiful sparkly silver... I CANNOT WAIT TO WEAR IT, I LOVE SILVEREYELINER!!! It comes out nice and thick too, which is awesome :)

A full-size Zoya Nailpolish in Odette. Worth $9.00. It's an orchid color. It's a light pink purple color. I've heard lots of good things about their nailpolish, and I love purple polishes, so I'm excited to try this one out.

A Pop Beauty Plump Pout in Peony Petal. I think mine is full-size, which retails it at $15.00. I'm meh about lip color.

It's also a very dark and thick pink color and not something that I think I would wear. But I really can't complain... It's the one product I wasn't excited about in my bag, and it's only one product.

Math time. My February Ipsy bag was worth: $52.24 AND THAT'S WAY MORE THAN I PAID FOR IT!!!

I really really really liked my Ipsy bag this month. It wasn't all pink and girly... YAY!!! And I'll use most of the products, minus the lip product. 

For $10.00, Ipsy is really worth checking out :)