September Glossybox

I received this box a couple of weeks ago but various incidences cropped up that have delayed my posting.  Apologies.

The box itself is different from the usual light pink colour as this one is a Karen Millen inspired box and there was an accompanying event that Glossybox subscribers were invited to.  I'd love to have gone but I'm not the biggest fan of travelling to London and I'd not long previously been up there for a injection through my tailbone (yummy!) so wasn't feeling up to it which is a shame.

This is certainly a striking looking box and, even though I like to keep my Glossybox boxes anyway, this one will certainly be kept to use to store things in.

An offer of £25 off, presumably when you spend £150 in store.

The usual, helpful card of product info inside.

First up on the list is the ModelCo More Brows Fibre Gel.

This is basically a mascara style eyebrow gel that you apply by brushing it through your brows.  It's very useful as it applies colour and allows you to shape your brows at the same time rather than having to apply gel or wax, brow powder or pencil and brush your brows into shape.  The colour is Light to Medium and you can also get it in Medium to Dark so the colour I got was the lightest available.  It is a very versatile colour though and I had no problem in getting it to blend in on my brows.

It applies as a gel-type formula and dries in around a minute.

As you can see, the colour looks like a greyish brown but is certainly not too dark for lighter brows.  For a brow-phobe I found this to be a really good product to use as it was easy, gave great coverage and was really effective.  It certainly takes the stress away from using powders, gels, waxes and pencils.  It was easy to get a light coverage too in case, like me, you're worried about having fake looking eyebrows.

The card says that this retails for £14.95 for 3.5ml from the ModelCo site but the site says that it's £9.95.  I would definitely think about getting this again and there were quite a few mid price range cosmetics and more on their website so worth a look.

Next on the list is the L'Oreal Professional Mythic Masque.

This masque is designed to replenish and nourish your hair and leave it looking glossy.  It certainly seems to contain some very good ingredients like avocado, argan, grapeseed and cottonseed oils which is encouraging.

This is to be used after shampooing and applied to towel-dried hair, left for three minutes and then rinsed.  If your hair is very damaged, like mine, then you can cover your hair with a shower cap or clingfilm and even wrap a towel over the top of these to create some warmth and allow the masque to really sink into the hair.

I haven't had a chance to use this yet but, as I've said before, with damaged hair like mine, I'm always keen to try different products out to see if they live up to their claims. 

The card says that this retails for £15.50 and I'm not even going to attempt to link the site they give (a where2getit site with a looooong link) but I Googled it and found several hits.  Feelunique.com have it for £15.30 and offer free postage for orders over £10 here.

Third on the list is the SkinPep Enzyme and Acid Peel.

This comprises of 2 sachets of Brightening Enzyme and Acid Peel and a Dark Circle Eraser.

The first is used on wet skin and the company recommend that 3.5ml is the perfect amount to use which is the full amount of the sachet provided.  Massage the gel over your damp face and neck for 1-2 minutes, leave for a further 1-2 minutes and the rinse thoroughly.  The gel can be used up to twice a week and continued use can enable you to leave the gel on for over 5 minutes.  Skin should feel smoother during massaging but a deeper effect can be obtained with longer usage. 

The gel retails for £89.99 for 180ml, £29.99 or 30ml, £14.99 for 15ml and £3.99 for the 3.5ml sachet and can be purchased here and there is a useful instructional video on the page.  For anyone put off at the idea of chemical peel type products, the site also offers a sensitive skin version.

The second is the eye gel, applied to the under eye area much like most eye creams and gels.  The regular size of this product comes with a strange plastic applicator thing which you use to massage the gel into the under eye area.  The site recommends that you keep it in the fridge which is always a good idea for eye gels as it adds to the soothing feeling. 

There is a huge amount of information on this product on the site which includes stating that the gel reduces dark circles and supports collagen and encourages blood circulation. 
This comes in two sizes, 15ml for £49.99 and the 2ml sachet for £6.49 here.

I haven't used these yet as I like to use sachets of products on occasions when I can make the most of the results.  I'm not sure how I feel about these and the prices are quite high but the reviews on the website seem to be very good.  I think the proof will be in the testing and then I'll think about the prices.  Maybe.

The Nails Inc Westminster Bridge Matte Top Coat is next up.

These isn't much to say about this as it speaks for itself.  A matte topcoat instead of using a glossy topcoat or having glossy nail polish on.

 

I like matte topcoats and already have one that I bought from a clothes shop as there was a display near the till.  I like the idea of the different effects you can create with matte topcoat and sometimes the effect can be amazing, especially with polishes with micro glitters in.  I've often found myself adding glossy topcoat to matte polishes but I often forget to try mattifying a glossy polish.  

One great effect I used matte topcoat for was with the Models Own Speckled Egg range that I'm wearing in my header photo.  I loved that the colours reflected the colours you get with Cadbury's Mini Eggs but the shells of those are matte.  I broke out the matte topcoat I already had and applied it over the polish and was really happy with the results.

 The picture quality isn't great in the second photo but hopefully you can see how cool the matte effect was here (eew, my cuticles!!! - sorry!).

 

Getting this polish in my Glossybox has inspired me to try more matte effects over my regular polishes to achieve different looks and I've got a few new polishes that this would work well with.  I like Nails Inc too but I admit that I don't always reach for them when choosing my next polish.  I recently swatched all my polishes and the Nails Inc wheels had some great colours so I'll try to make sure I wear them more.  You can get this for £12 from the Nails Inc website here.

Lastly is the Ultrasun UK Extreme SPF 50+.

This product is a SPF 50 sun protection cream that you apply once a day, 15 minutes before going out into the sun and is water-resistant which means that you have excellent sun protection for the whole day.

The website states that this is perfume and preservative free, with no mineral oils or emulsifiers.

This is only a 15ml tube so it won't go that far on me but I look forward to trying this product out as I am always worried about sunburn and the damaging effects it has on the skin.

You can get the full size 200ml of this for £20.00 from ultrasun.co.uk here.  The company also offer a SPF30 cream and a face cream with a SPF of 50 and other variations of these creams.

Overall, I'm fairly pleased with this box but not overwhelmed by it.  The Glossybox site shows a great range of September products and ones I would have found really great to try.  I like the brow gel and the hair masque, sun cream and matte top coat are very useful.  The skin peel makes me slightly nervous but I'm willing to give it a go, as long as I have a basin of water ready in case my skin gets irritated.  You can subscribe to Glossybox here.