Ipsy November Review

I realized that I didn't actually get any of my reviews up from October, and for that I am sorry. A lot has changed with my beauty box subscriptions since September. I have decided to go ahead and cancel Glymm because it has been consistently weak, in my opinion. I did receive the November bag as my last one, and there really wasn't anything in there that is worth writing about. Another shampoo that I am unable to use, a perfume sample that is incredibly tiny, a teeny soap sample and one or two more items that I can't even remember. With Glymm's price increase it is just not worthwhile any longer.

I also cancelled my Glossybox subscription. I'm actually pretty sad about that decision. I have consistenly liked most of my Glossyboxes (and I really love the boxes they come in), but with their 40% price increase it is just not worth it to me any longer. I find these boxes often come jammed with drug store products and don't deserve the premium price tag. I believe I will be getting the November box as my last one.

I have now been signing up to receive the Natural Beauty Box. However, that is not exactly going as planned. I paid for the October box on September 18th and have yet to see it. They tell me there was a problem processing some of the orders. It should be in the mail this week, along with the free November box they are sending me. Not a great first impression, but I am really hoping it will be worth it once it finally does arrive.

I's also now decided to sign up for an Ipsy subscription (formerly MyGlam). I believe this is only just available to Canadians. When I looked at some of the reviews online it looked really great! It didn't take long for my first Ipsy bag to arrive...

The first thing I noticed about this subscription was the cute cosmetic bag it came packaged in. The bag is a chocolate satin with a gold zipper. I know I don't really need any more of these, especially after being bombarded with them from Glymm, but this one is very cute!

The first item out of the bag was a full sized eye liner pencil from Starlet. I have never heard of this brand before. This came in brown and I think it will suit me well, although I haven't had a chance to try it yet. 

The next item was a replacement for a lip gloss that was included in most other bags. It looked like it was a cute color, but I have received so many lip products in the last few months that I was happy to get a different product. This is eclos Plant Stem Cell serum. I tried this the other night and really liked it. A little goes a long way. It feels nice on my skin, although I think it will take several uses to see what it might do for my face.

I was so excited to pull this next product out of the bag. I was really hoping I would get this color! This is a full size bottle of Nailtini nail polish in the color Millionaire. It is a gold micro glitter with multi colored glitter bars in it. I think this will be so perfect for the holidays. I have never heard of or tried Nailtini, so I can't wait!

This next item looks familiar! Benefit They're Real! Mascara. I received another sample of this in November's Top Box. I think the other option was a brow gel, which I don't think I would ever use, so this is a nice item to have instead.

The last thing out of my first Ipsy bag was so cute! This is a sample of the Balm's new eye shadows in their Meet Matt(e) series. I think everyone got a sample of Matt Battali. The packaging is super cute and it is a generous sample. The photos of the eye shadow didn't turn out, but it is a very dark plum color- Perfect for my green eyes!

Overall, I think this is one of my favourite beauty boxes I have ever received and I am really looking forward to seeing what else Ipsy has in store. Their subscription is $10 a month and it is just shy of $5 to ship to Canada. So at $15 it's right on track with most of the other ones.

Novemeber Top Box Review

I received my second Top Box in the mail this week and I really thought it was quite great. I had spent some time poking around online, so I know there were at least two versions of the box. For the most part I was really happy with the contents of mine. Let's take a look!

Again, I must apologize with the way Blogger posts my photos. I still haven't found the trick to rotating those (even though they are saved the proper way).

The first item I pulled out of the bag was Benefits They're Real! Mascara. I have heard a lot about this mascara and I have seen it pop up in a number of beauty boxes, but this is my first sample of it. In fact, I'm not sure I have ever tried a Benefit product. I'm usually not much of a mascara person, I find that they make my eye lashes hurt. I have been wearing it a bit more in the last little while because I received an amazing sample in one of my other beauty Boxes. I really hope this one is just as good! The full size mascara retails for $29.00. This sample size is worth about $9.60.

The next item out of my box was a full sized China Glaze nail polish. This is another first for me, I have seen all kinds of China Glaze polish, but I have never had the opportunity to try it out. I really love this color! It's part of their Safari collection and I am very excited to try it out. When I was looking at some of the other boxes online I noticed that some girls received a color called I'm Not Lion. It's a very pretty iridescent, gold color. I liked it some much that I placed an order for it this morning. I hope it really is as pretty in real life. The China Glaze polishes sell for about $8-$12 depending on where you find them. This is a full size bottle.

Next up was this bright red lip paint by Pari. I wasn't too sure about this color when I pulled it out of the box. I don't often wear very pigmented lip colors and this one is quite bold for me. I tried it on right away and actually really liked it. It is just as red as it looks but it goes on very smoothly and feels incredible on your lips. I'm hoping I will be able to get some good use out of this at Christmas time. The full size of this product retails for $14 and the sample size is not much smaller than the full size, so this sample is worth just over $10.

The last item I pulled out of the box was this beautiful perfume sample. The tester is for Vera Wang's Lovestruck. I have to admit that I am usually pretty leery about perfume samples. I am very particular on the kinds of scents that I like and some of them really bother me. Top Box describes this scent as a mainly floral scent, with soft hints of fruit and musk. Usually must and floral scents really turn me off, but this perfume is quite nice and well balanced. I could see myself using this on a regular basis. The full sized bottle of Lovestruck retails for $79 making this sample worth about $6.50.

That was it for this month's Top Box, but I really was very happy with it. Can't wait to see what December has in store!

More Befine Reviews

Wow, looks like I have been slacking off again! I am so behind in getting any of my beauty box reviews up. I promise, I am going to try harder in the next little while. I do have to mention though... I have cancelled a couple of my subscriptions.

For those of you that haven't heard, Glossybox increased their price by 40%. Boxes are now $21/month. They did give us the October box for the usual cost of $15. To be honest though, I really wasn't too juiced about this box. It contained a lipstick in a dark brown color, a nail polish that doesn't even show up when you put it on, shampoo that I can't use because of the sulphates in it, and a drug store brand razor. The box just doesn't seem like it is worth the price any more, so I cancelled.

I also cancelled Glymm after receiving the October box. I actually didn't mind this month's box. In fact, it came with the BEST mascara I have EVER used! I'm sorry, I can't remember the brand off the top of my head, but it is amazing! Overall I have just felt the Glymm bags are a little lack lustre and I was getting bored with them. I can't use a lot of the skin care products at the moment because of the Pro Retinols in them. My mom has been benefiting from that fact, but I am just getting tired of so many skin care samples.

I did however sign up for another new box, Ipsy- formerly MyGlam Bag. It looks like this one has only just become available in Canada. It also looks like this subscription in mostly make up! That makes me pretty excited. I am really looking forward to trying this out. I think it was just short of $15 for Canadians.

I have also purchased the October Natural Beauty Box, although that has yet to show up. Hopefully in the next day or so.

I want to go back a couple of months to one of the items that was included in one of the Glossyboxes. They sent us a box that contained 5 different samples from Befine. I tried the mask first and hated it! The cleanser I tried second was amazing. I instantly fell in love with it and have purchased the full sized bottle.

Now I have had a chance to try out the other 2 cleansers that came in that box.

The first one was this Befine Food Skin Care Gentle Cleanser with Sugar, Mint, Oats, and Rice.

This cleanser smells great! Very minty and sweet. But that was about the last thing I enjoyed about this cleanser. The formula is so runny I had a hard time containing it in my hand before I could put it on my face. It's honestly as runny as water. That really turned me off this cleanser and it really had no redeeming properties for me after that. Total disappointment.

Then I tried the Befine Food Skin Care Exfoliating Cleanser with Brown Sugar, Sweet Almond and Oats. This cleanser was even better than the one I had already fallen in love with! It smells like hot oatmeal, sweet and caramelly (if that is a word). The texture is rough like sugar and ground almonds. I love that! I really love good exfoliators. It smells like heaven, and left my skin feeling so smooth afterwards. I instantly bought the full size in this as well. I am hopeful that it will be a little easier to get out of the bottle than it is to get out of the foil packet. The rough texture really makes it stick in there.

Overall, I just don't know how I feel about this company. Their products seems so inconsistent to me. The other item in the box was a nice cream. This was just ok for me. So looking back there were two samples that I loved and 2 that I hated. Not a great track record. The plus is that, of the products I loved... I really loved them and purchased the full size. Wish things were a little more consistent though.

Friday High Five

I thought this day would never come. Ah, Friday, glorious Friday! This has been a very busy week. After having company I find there is always a lot to get done, just to get life back to normal. It was also a full week after a short one the week before. That's always hard to cope with. Really, shouldn't all work weeks be only 4 days? We should start a petition!

1.  Wow! Does our place look amazing! Dan and his father managed to get so many projects done around the house while he was visiting. I never expected them to do so much. They brightened up the guest bedroom by getting rid of the old grey and red color scheme. The room looks so much bigger now with its punchy yellow and blue walls. They also painted several doors in the house, painted the front hall closet door, changed all of our light switches and moved all of the heavy furniture out of the room down stairs and from the upstairs room to downstairs. We are finally in the home stretch and will be able to go look at carpet for the nursery, this weekend.

2. After all the renovations that were done in our home last week (my husband and father in-law worked overtime to get everything done... and what an amazing job they did!) we still need to organizing a lot of things, especially in our new guest bedroom/offices. I have a cupboard in our former guest bedroom/offices, however, it was damaged when we moved and then damaged again when we tried to move it to the other side of the room. The sad fact is, this cabinet will NEVER make it down the stairs in one piece. I have a lot of crafty stuff to store so I definitely needed a new cabinet. I found a really great one at Canadian Tire. We went to pick it up last weekend but the only one they had in the store was really badly damaged. My dad was able to help us grab another one with his truck (since it is pretty large). My parents also helped us take it all downstairs. That was a lifesaver since i'm not supposed to be doing any heavy lifting. The cabinet is still in pieces in the basement, but we should be able to build it in the next day or two. I love storage!

3. I also decided that it was time I got a new desk. The desk I currently have is in really rough shape. I purchased it at a thrift store for a whole $5. It's never been in very good shape, although it has served me well. The thing I really liked about the desk was that it had a lot of storage. I started looking around and found one that I was really interested in at Ikea. Dan and I hopped in the car on Tuesday night to take a look at it. It was disappointing. I thought the desk would actually be a lot bigger than it was. It wasn't very wide and definitely not deep enough to use my Cricut on it.

 See how much storage this desk has? There are shelves inside the cupboard, 2 drawers, not to mention the shelves on the hutch portion. It also has a white board on the back. I thought it would be perfect. Just as we were leaving, Dan spotted another style of desk that I have never given a second thought to. A secretary desk. We spent a few minutes checking this one out and I was very quickly falling in love! Inside both the top portion and the bottom there are shelves that I can fill with all kinds of junk! The front panel pulls down to create your flat desktop and there are more shelves inside that part that will be perfect for holding paper. I really hemmed and hawed over the price. It was about 3 times more than I was hoping to spend. I suppose in a way to justify the purchase to myself, I have decided that since I paid so little for my current desk I should definitely splurge on this one. I think the plan is to go pick it up tomorrow morning. The only downside to this desk is that it is solid wood. I know, you're thinking it's crazy that I would rather have press board than wood. The thing is, with this particular line that Ikea has, the press board has a really nice, smooth, shiny, laminate finish. Whereas, the solid wood is just stained. It's a more dull finish and I don't like that you can see the wood grain. It's a flaw I have decided to live with.

4. Wednesday night a girlfriend of mine invited me to an Arts fundraiser that she had an extra ticket to. It's a good thing that these tickets were comped to her, because they were $200 per person. It was a black tie affair and neither of us knew what to expect. The food at the event was delicious! However, everything was served in very small portions. We were still hungry after we left so we went to grab some dinner. It was a very fun night! Despite the rather dull event, the company was great! We spent hours chatting away. It was definitely a nice way to break up the monotony of the week.

5. Last night Meghan came over for another round of soap making! As usual, we tackled 2 batches. (I really should get a third mold so that we can get more done in one sitting) The scents we chose this week were Lavender and Peach Bellini. We had a bit of trouble creating a good lavender color. A chemical reaction often turns my liquid colors into mud when we add them into our soap, so you never really know what you are going to wind up with. Eventually we did get a nice color. It's maybe a little more grey than lavender but it will do the trick. We also added a little bit of pale purple glitter and lavender buds to the top of the soap, just to make differentiation easier. We had run out of any color that may resemble peach so we had to improvise a little bit with the Peach Bellini soap. We chose to stick with a natural colored base but added in some peachy and coppery glitter. It turned out really nice when I cut it up this morning. And both scents smell amazing!

I hope everyone has a great weekend full of fun and rest! On a side note... just over 50 days until Mexico!

Review Befine Pore Refining Scrub

I thought it was only fair to give you a straight up review of another Befine product that came in my Glossybox last month (especially since I trashed the face mask from them). They certainly have redeemed themselves in my eyes though. For the last couple of weeks I have been using the Befine Pore Refining Scrub with Coconut, Jojoba and Citrus. I don't think I have ever used a product that had created so many positive changes in my skin's appearance. This scrub makes my skin soft and supple and I have noticed that my pores seem much smaller and definitely more refined. I honestly didn't hold out much hope for this product since the mask was such a disaster. I can honestly say this is the one and only Product, out of all of my beauty box subscriptions, that I will absolutely be purchasing full sized.

Friday High Five

Wow, do I ever feel like I am running behind this week! I have been so slow on getting reviews up for the September Glossy Box and the September Beauty Box 5. I will try to get those up in the next week, although we have company coming to stay with us for a week, so no promises. What a great week this was! In a nut shell here are my favourite moments from it.

1. Saturday my husband and I were able to celebrate a friend's son's first birthday. It was a great time and he was so cute! A neighbor of theirs had made him one of the most fabulous cakes I have ever seen in my life. It was a giant green dinosaur complete with a volcano and palm trees. A total work of art!

2. Saturday night my cousin and her husband came over for an Italian themed pot luck dinner and some board games. I don't think we had seen them since Christmas (which is super lame considering we live in the same city). It was great to catch up with them and be able to share our wonderful news. Boardgames were also fun (once we figured out how to play).

3. Sunday was a busy day! Dan and I headed out a our neighborhood park in the morning to snap a couple of shots so that we could announce our pregnancy to our friends and family on Facebook. We got some really cute photos. I think this one is my favourite.

Also on Sunday we joined some friends of ours for a trip to our city's corn maze. We had such a great time there. On top of the corn maze there was so much to do, including  a petting zoo! Afterwards we went over to their place for some dinner.

4. Dan and I were able to book our holiday this week! So exciting! After much debate and consideration we decided to splurge for a really nice 5 star resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. There are medical services on the resort and it isn't far from the city or the hospital, just in case anything should go wrong while we are there (heaven forbid!). I was a little nervous about going somewhere off the beaten path this time. Another nice thing about this resort is that they provide you with bottled water in your room. This is very important for me because I have a tendancy to get get from water very easily. We are very much looking forward to some time in the sun on the beach.


5. Wednesday I had my prenatal check up at my doctor. Dan decided to come along with me this time, and am I ever glad he did! The doctor was able to use the doppler for us to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. It was amazing! I was so impressed with how quickly she was able to find it, especially after reading so many stories online where it took the doctor ages or the never found it at all.

Looking forward to another fabulous week! Dan's dad will be in town for a visit. We haven't seen him since Christmas either, so this is very exciting!

Julep Maven Mystery Box Review- Product Lovers Sept

Julep did something a little different with their mystery boxes this time around. They offered two different boxes- A Polish Lovers box and a Product Lovers box. I opted out of the October Julep Maven boxes because I feel like I currently have more than enough nail polish, however, the product lovers box really got me interested.

I placed my order and it didn't take long before my mystery box appeared on my doorstep. I was very excited to open this baby up!

When I opened the main box I noticed that everything was very nicely packaged in one of Julep's reusable bags (they sent us one of these bags in the August Maven box, I believe). These bags are sturdy and they are a nice size, so I was pretty happy to receive another one of them.

Inside the bag I found 4 products. The mystery boxes were $20 and Julep promised at least $40 or $50 worth of product (sorry, I can't remember which).

The first thing out of the bag was the Julep Fast Dry Topcoat. This retails for $14. I already have one of these topcoats and I love it! A second bottle will definitely go to good use. 

 Next out of the bag was a Julep Brand Glass Nail File. I have ALWAYS wanted one of these, so I was just thrilled to receive one in my box. These nail files seem like they would last forever. I'm not sure if I should keep it at home as my go-to file or throw it in my purse. This file has a value of $6

 Julep Essential Cuticle Oil was the next item out of the bag. I don't think I have ever owned a cuticle oil before, but I can tell you my nails could definitely use one. This oil smells great and feels great on. I have been using it every day since I received my box. The cuticle oil retails for $18.

 The last item out of my mystery box was the Glow On Age Defying Hand Brightener. This product is supposed to reduce the appearance of fine lines and age spots on your hands. I will admit, I don't often sunscreen my hands (even though I know I probably should) so I think this product will come in quite handy. It smells good and absorbs quickly leaving my hands very soft. This hand cream is worth $32.

 The total value of my Product Lovers mystery box was a whopping $70! Definitely not bad considering I paid $20 for the box. I really hope Julep continues to offer these mystery boxes, and even more, I hope the continue to offer the product lover boxes. I was completely satisfied with this box, and I almost wish I had purchased a second one. As always, the Julep products do more than impress!

Friday High Five

Friday again!! And I know I missed doing my High Fives last Friday....oops!

Looking back it was a pretty great week!

1.  A good friend of mine married a Cuban girl earlier this year. Recently they received some great news and she was able to move here with her permanent residency. Dan and I were able to get together with the happy couple to meet her for the very first time last Friday night. It was the perfect beginning to the weekend. What a nice girl!

2. We were able to take advantage of the amazingly warm weather we've been having and host a bon fire on Saturday night. We had quite a few of our friends over for marshmallows and other snacks. It was warm enough that we were out past midnight enjoying the fire.

3. I won! I won! I thought for sure I had saved myself another holiday to use at Christmas time, despite my boss' thoughts that I had used all my holidays up. (Dan and I just booked a week in December so that we can hopefully get away to a sunny desitination). I started the year with 16 days and had one carryover day from last year. For some reason, the computer system at work was not adding in that carryover day so that's what was messing everything up. I am very happy now because that one holiday means i get a whopping 5 days off work at Christmas time, rather than having the weekend off, coming back for one day, and then having two days off.

4. A very exciting milestone this week! We have officially made it to the second trimester! I am still a bit nervous about something going wrong, but that is definitely a good sign of the health of our baby. Last week's ultrasound also made us feel a lot better about things. Baby looked great with a strong heartbeat! And the IPS screening showed excellent results.

5. Dan and I got to go do a little bit of baby shopping this week. That is such a fantastically fun activity! It's still a bit tough because we don't know the baby's gender. So far everything we have gotten has been as gender neutral as possible, but even so, we have managed to find some REALLY cute outfits!

Looking forward to this coming weekend! My cousin is coming over for an Italian pot luck with board games tomorrow night. Sunday we are hitting up the local corn maze with some of our friends.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Glymm September 2012 Review

After much thought, I have decided I will be cancelling my Glymm membership. I decided after I received last month's bag that it just wasn't for me anymore. Glymm's customer service convinced me to stay on for another month by enticing me with a free item in my next bag. (I'm assuming that will be showing up in my October box). At this point though, I don't think that extra item is going to make much of a difference though.

I was finally taken off the waiting list for Topbox. And really, there are only so many subscriptions a person can have and I already have a backlog of products from all of my different boxes. Glymm's samples are consistently small and I just don't think it's worth the money. Not to mention the cosmetic bag they insist on sending each month. Enough already!

Let's take a look at what was included in the September bag.

I had peaked again to see what would be arriving, and I noticed that one of the items was a shampoo. I will admit, my heart sank a little bit. I don't use conventional shampoo in my hair, only sulfate free shampoo. There wasn't very  much information in the other reviews that I had read, so I just figured this was regular shampoo. Boy, was I surprised when I pulled this out of the bag and it was, in fact, sulfate free shampoo! I did a little dance of joy!

Elvolh UltraShine Moisture Shampoo and Conditioner

Glymm says each of these is good for about 14 uses. After trying them out one time I can already tell that I will get way more that 14 uses out of the Shampoo and probably closer to 5 or 6 uses out of the conditioner.

The shampoo is very lathering. I noticed, with even a very small amount, it worked into a nice thick lather and felt really nice in my hair. The condition seemed to soak into my hair very quickly (which I guess is a good thing) but I can see how I would use a lot of this in a single hair wash. 

The next thing out of the bag was very similar to a cream we received from Glymm last month, or the month before. It is Bentaberry Super Moisturizing Face Cream for Girls (I think the only difference between this one and the previous sample was the last one was for boys AND girls.... whatever that means?!) I haven't had a chance to use this yet as I have a huge backlog of face creams. 

  
Next up are Waterprood Makeup Remover wipes from LA Fresh. I have used this brand once before and I will admit, I did really like it. The previous sample I received was acetone free nail polish wipes. I haven't given these a go yet, but I am looking forward to using them.

Last up was a really delicious smelling body cream. It is Villainess Dulce En Fuego Whipped Body Creme. I really like this cream, it is very moisturizing without being greasy. It smells heavenly... like cinnamon and spices. Reminds me of autumn.

I should also mention that Glymm was kind enough to send yet ANOTHER cosmetic bag this month. This time it was a cream colored one in the same style as last month's black one. This is getting old really fast, and definitely doesn't make up for a lack of samples included.

Review Befine Food Skin Care Warming Clay Mask

I don't normally do this, but I wanted to write a review of one of the items I received in the August Glossybox. This came in a package with 4 other Befine products to try and so far this is the only one I have used.

I was tired and sore last night so I thought I would curl up in a warm bath with a good book and a nice mask. The perfect time to try out this new one I received.

The first think I noticed about this mask when I was putting it on was how much it actually warmed. It was a really interesting feeling and I actually quite liked it. The mask felt nice on, it didn't dry out like I thought it might, so I may have had it on a little longer than I was supposed to. It didn't burn my face at all.

However, when I went to rinse it off I noticed that it was quite oily. The mask got even warmer when I added water to it, which felt nice and kind of refreshing, but there was a definite oily residue. It only got worse as I got more of the mask off my face. In fact, I had to wash my hair afterwards. The mask had just touched the edges of my hair around my face but that was enough for the oil to leech into my hair.

Overall I was not happy with this product. The whole purpose of a mask it to clarify your skin and make it feel healthy afterwards. This just made me feel like I washed my face with olive oil. It was gross! The warming effect was it's only redeeming quality, and I know there are tons of other warming masks on the market. I am holding out for better results from the other packets of this.

Friday High Five

It's hee--eeer-ee.... Friday! It was a very nice short week and I am glad to be back here with my friend Friday. Looking back, it was a busy one!

1. Bittersweet, but my husband and I headed out to the cabin for the last time this year. Soon the snow will be flying and you could definitely feel the chill in the air this weekend. It was really nice to spend some time with my parents. We don't get to see them a whole lot in the summer. My brother and soon to be sister-in-law also joined us this time. It was fun having the whole family together. The 4 of us went into the US for some shopping one day, and that is always a good time.

2. Dan and I got to tell my grandmother our news this weekend. She had the greatest reaction. Got a huge grin on her face and said "Oh. My. Goodness!" It was great. This will be her first great grandchild and I think she is through the moon excited. Hard to believe that we will have a little one by the time we make it back out there next year. I think the news also came at a good time for her. She fell and broke her hip in June. Since then she has been living in a rehabilitation home. It hasn't been going so well for her, and over the weekend they had to move her to a different facility. As such, we weren't able to stop in to see her on our way home.

3. This week has been the week of deals! We all know that having a baby is expensive, but it has been my hope to make this as inexpensive as I possibly can. I have been scouring Kijiji looking for good deals, and I have certainly found a few. Including our beautiful white crib that we purchased from a couple for $40. Can't beat that! I love shopping around for a bargain!

4. After not seeing one another for about 2 weeks, my best friend and I were finally able to get together yesterday afternoon. She had taken a trip to Vegas just before we left for our extended long weekend. It was so nice to see her. We went and had a nice lunch, and then I had to stop by the doctors for a bit and we went shopping for a little while afterwards.

5. I am pretty excited for this weekend. We get to see my little brother get married! It is going to be a very small ceremony with just the two of them, my husband and I, and one of her friends. They have decided to do it in the little mountain town I used to live in, so it promises to be a beautiful day.

Glossybox August Review 2012

I was so excited when I got home from work yesterday afternoon and discovered the mailman had delivered this month's Glossybox. This is definitely one of my favourite beauty box subscriptions. It always comes packed with stuff, and this month was no exception.

It occurred to me that I have often mentioned how nicely these boxes are packaged, but I have never posted any photos to show you. I made sure to take some unpackaging photos this time around. The boxes are always a really nice heavy carboard covered in a pretty pink paper. The contents are wrapped in black tissue and then tied with a pink ribbon and sealed with a little sticker with the Glossybox logo on it.

This is my first peek into this month's box, and as always it looks jammed with goodies!












One of the first things I pulled out was a package of Biore Make Up Removing Towelettes. This is a package of 10 so I am happy they gave us so many to try out. Sometimes with these boxes I find the samples are just too small to really see how well they will work for me.

10 towelettes / $3.99

Next up was this fabulous box of Befine samples. There are 5 in all, ranging from a mud mask to exfoliating cleansers and a gentle cleanser. This is the product information;

You hear about the benefits of different foods, when ingested, for your skin and even topically applied. Befine is inspired by the healing properties of food ingredients to create cleansers, masks and scrubs that are paraben free, made with vegetarian proteins and having allergen-free fragrance. A most colourful box holds five samples including:

• Gentle cleanser with sugar, mint, oats & rice this was really runny and lathered to a moderate extent but was effective in leaving my skin feeling clean and replenished
• Pore refining treatment scrub with coconut, jojoba & citrus
• Night cream with cocoa, millet & rice bran practically unscented and rapidly absorbed
• Warming clay mask with cardamom, arnica and pomegranate
• Exfoliating cleanser with brown sugar, sweet almond & oats

 I am really looking forward to trying these out. I loved the packaging on these, although i do think some of them will be tricky to use since there is obviously enough for more than one use.

5x 10 mL / $24

The next thing out of the box I'm not sure I will ever use. It is a gift card to a new website called Trend Trunk. Basically it is a consignment store online. I have a really hard time buying clothing without being able to try it on first. And since I am pregnant I don't think I would be able to buy regular clothing in the next little while. These gift cards supposedly have a value between $5 and $250. I checked mine out and it is a $5 card. So far I haven't seen any girls online who got more than $5.

I am excited to give this next product a try, although I will admit I am still a little confused as to what it actually is. Even the product info wasn't overly helpful. The best I can figure out is that it helps control frizz. (sorry for the photo, I'm not sure why Blogger flips them sometimes. I have no idea how to get them the right way around).

Sebastian Potion 9 Lite
50 ml / $7.25

Next up is a shade of lipstick designed exclusively for Glossybox. This is a Kryolan lipstick in Glossy Pink. Kryolan is made in Germany. I have mixed feelings about this lipstick. It is a pretty shade. I don't wear much lipstick. When I put it on it looked really pretty under the artificial light in my house. Almost like a very pale nude color. However, when I went outside into the sunlight it looked like a really bright pink. Not sure how much I will use this. Also not really sure of the value. (again, sorry about the photo).

















When I was perusing some of the other reviews online I saw that most girls got a really cool glitter mascara. It looked really neat, but then I got thinking... when would I ever use that?! I was happy when I found a tiny bottle of nail polish instead. A girl can never have too many nail polish colors! This is Layla "Smalti" Bijou in shade 107. This is a really pretty metallic blue color. I think I will get a lot of use out of it. This tiny 4.5 ml bottle of nail polish retails for $11.99 so that pretty much pays for my box right there.

Last up we have a sample from Elastoplast. It's an SOS Blister plaster. Apparently this is supposed to help out when us ladies fall victim to miserable shoes. I could see this coming in handy. It is only one blister pad though, so you better hope only one shoe is making your life difficult. A nice bonus though, great to throw in your purse. (also thought the little shoe size wheel inside the packaging was a really cute idea!)

1 unit / $1.20


















Over all another fabulous offering from Glossybox!

Friday High Five

I am totally doing the Friday dance! This week has dragged on and on. That being said, there were no shortage of fun things going on.

Taking a look at the best things from my week.

1. Time to come clean I guess, though by now I'm sure you're already onto us. My husband and I are expecting our first! We are both so excited. It is still really early though, I am only 9 weeks along. It was a real struggle for us to conceive this baby, so I think that makes it even more special. Of course we are still very cautiously optimistic that everything will turn out just fine. We had our second ultrasound last Friday afternoon. Everything looked good! Baby had a heartbeat of 157 bpm. The ultrasound techs thought everything looked good, so that was very encouraging.

2. Saturday evening was a lot of fun! We got to go to Chucky Cheese with some of our friends and their 7 year old son. If you're not familiar with Chucky Cheese, it is a pizza restaurant full of all kinds of carnival and arcade games. We wound up playing there for 4 hours! The time flew by and it was so much fun. We also got to share our news with these friends. They are very happy for us, and their little boy is so excited. It was pretty cute.

3. A baby on the way means a lot of changes at home. We have to move our current spare bedroom down to the basement to make room for a nursery. That also means moving Dan's "Man Cave," so that will lead to some renovations downstairs. We still have really ugly doors in our house (for whatever reason they have never been changed, even with all the renos we have already done). This week we made the decision to get some new doors. Out with the ugly flat brown doors and in with nice new white six panel doors! It was a little bit of a gong show when Dan went to order them the other day so we won't be replacing all of them just yet. A new bathroom door and nursery door are on their way! (at least that replaces the grossest doors ).

4. Yesterday was my, very soon to be, sister in law's birthday. we went over to her and my brother's place for some cake. It was a nice evening to just relax and enjoy some visiting.

5. The excitement is mounting! It is the Labour Day long weekend this weekend so we are heading out of town, likely for the last time this year, and to my parent's cabin in British Columbia. It will be nice to be able to see my Grandma before winter hits. (we don't normally make it out there once the snow flies). Kind of bittersweet though, i guess, this weekend sort of marks the end of summer. The good news is... it has been really hot out there the last week, and that is likely to continue.

Hope you all have a very fantastic long weekend, and all the best for the new week ahead!

August Beauty Box 5 Review 2012

My husband and I met up for some lunch yesterday and I was so excited when he told me my Beauty Box 5 had shown up in the mail that morning. For some reason I had totally forgotten about it and didn't realize it would be arriving right away. I had not gone online to peak at this one! (I think this is my first time for this...oops!)

I was beside myself when I was opening this baby up! I spent a little bit of time this morning checking out some other reviews online, and once again, it looks like my box may be a little different than some of the others. This is one of the greatest boxes I have ever received, and I just have to say that Beauty Box 5 just gets better and better. I was really on the fence about this box before I ordered it, and spent a lot of time hemming and hawing over whether or not I should subscribe. It has very quickly become one of the best boxes I get.

This box was packed to the brim! The little organza bag, that is always included, was so stuffed full that whoever packed the box had to put stuff underneath it as well.

Inside the bag this was the first thing I pulled out. It is Ferro Cosmetics Sheer Crystal Veil (.14 oz $19). I think this is a full sized item. It is a sheer powder that is supposed to refine the look of your skin under or over your foundation. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I am looking forward to it. 

 Next up we have a bit of a repeat. Beauty Box 5 sent me a sample of this Blinc Eyeliner a couple of months ago. That's ok though, I thought this was a really cool product. Once it's on, this eyeliner will not budge! It doesn't smudge or fade and actually slides off when you apply pressure and warm water. This will be perfect to throw in my purse when my other sample runs out. This is one of the items that was different in my box, it looks like most of the other girls received 2 packets of a Freeman mask.

  The other thing I noticed was a little different in my box was that I received two samples of this next item. It's H20 Plus Marine Calm Restorative Eye Cream (.13 fl oz/.5 oz $32) The value of these samples is roughly $16! I like that it is unscented. I think I will give one of these samples to my mom since it is fragrance free.

Next thing out of the bag were three samples of these Blum Naturals Make-Up Remover Towlettes (3 samples/30 pack $7.49). I really enjoyed the blotting papers we received from this company a couple of months ago. These are perfect to throw in my travel bag too.

And last, but definitely not least, the thing that really sets my box apart from so many of the others I saw online, was that I received TWO samples of the Ellis Fass Milky Lips (.95 oz $35). One of these is Creamy Lips the other Milky Lips. These retail for $35 dollars each! I could not believe it. I looked at the color stamp on each one and thought the colors looked really nice. However, when i managed to twist the product up onto the applicators, I noticed that the colors really don't match the color swatch. Both lipsticks are dark browns in slightly different shades. Ordinarily I really do not like brown lipstick, but I watched a tutorial that Beauty Box 5 had posted. In the video they were using these lip colors as bronzers for on your cheeks. I tried it out and they work so great for this! They are the perfect shade for bronzer. I also discovered, that if lightly applied, they really weren't that bad as lip color, either. The packaging on these is really cool and you can really tell they are high end.

This box was full of such amazing value. Beauty Box 5 is $12 /month. And this month it was certainly worth every penny!

August Glymm Bag Review 2012

Let me start by saying.... Wow, am I ever far behind! Sorry about that! I think I am missing a couple of reviews along the way, too. I'll see if I can go back and get those on for you guys.

I received my Glymm bag a couple of weeks ago now. I'll admit, I am still guilty of checking it out online before it arrives, so I already knew kind of what to expect. I knew there were a few allusive bottles of nail polish out there! A lot of girls got laundry wash for their delicates and a sample vial of vanilla perfume. I wasn't really feeling those so I had my fingers and toes crossed for some of the polish.

If you're not familiar with Glymm, it is a monthly beauty box (bag) subscription that costs $12 / month. I wasn't super keen on the July box, so I really had high hopes for this one. Let's take a look at what I had in my bag.

First of all, the bag itself was really cute this month. It's a shiny, silvery black. However, I'm still not sure how I feel about getting one of these each month. I simply do not need them. These bags retail for $12 on the Glymm site, although I definitely don't think I would pay that. 

 The next item I pulled out of the bag was this Mai Couture Blush Papier in Prettyful. These are similar to the oil blotting papers that we received a couple of months ago, but these ones add a touch of color. I actually really like the color I received. One sheet is way more than enough for one application, I think you could probably get 3 uses out of one sheet, at least.

Full size: $19.00 for 50 sheets (approx. uses: 100)
Sample size: 2 sheets
Approx. Sample Value: $0.76

 Next up was a sample of  Naked Princess Naked Shine Luscious Lipgloss. All of the colors sent out were different shades of nude. The color I received was Barely Blush. A very light pink nude, really a nice color. The sample size was pretty small on these but was in really cute packaging. The lipgloss itself is a really nice flavor and goes on beautifully.

Full size: $26.00 for 2.96 ml (approx. uses: 173)
Sample size: 0.24 ml
Approx. Sample Value: $2.11

Next we have a bit of a repeat. I received a similar sample of Vitamin & Sea face mask in one of my other boxes a few months ago. (If I'm not mistaken it was in Glymm). This is a really nice mask, however the last time I used it it started to burn my face, so I think I will be giving this to a friend who can get some use out of it. The packaging is a little different this time, but still really cute!

Full size: $62.00 for 210 ml (approx. uses: 63)
Sample Size: Roughly 10 ml 

Approx. Sample Value: $2.95

Then I pulled this really cute cream out of the bag. I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but I thought the labeling was really cute. This is Bentaberry G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream for Boys and Girls- Regulating Line.

Full size: $22.00 for 30 ml (approx. uses: 70)
Sample size: 3 ml
Approx. Sample Value: $2.20

The thing I am most excited for in this bag is the Coccolily nail polish I received (Yay! I got the nail polish!) This is the most adorable shade (sorry forgot the name and didn't get a shot of it). All the colors sent out were different shades of pink. This one reminds me of bubblegum or cotton candy. It is great! Will be so perfect for spring. This nail polish totally saved this bag for me.

Full size: $12.00 for 15 ml
Sample size: 15 ml
Approx. Sample Value: $12.00

There you have it. I think I will be keeping this subscription for now, however I just got a note from Topbox that I will be off the waiting list and in line to receive the October edition. So I might reconsider things as that date approaches.