Hey Beauty Fans,  January’s Allure Box, A feast for your eyes, featured an eye shadow palette from doucce filled with 4 eye shadow shades designed to create the ultimate smoky eye look.  The palette is interchangeable and Allure will be sending new shades every few months to pop in the palette and transition your look from season to season.  A few months back we received a bronzy shade from the brand, which will also work in this palette.  Read on for a look at the palette and to check out the rest of this month’s offerings! xx

About:

For $15.00 per month you will receive a box containing 5 or more deluxe sized beauty products from today’s most luxurious brands.

One of my favorite things about the Allure Beauty Box is how carefully it is curated and the awesome little mini mag that is included in each box.  It gives excellent descriptions and tips for each item in the box with a descriptive and down to earth introduction to the boxes content.  I love the beauty director’s honest representation of each product.

The Box:

The Goods:

Doucce Freematic Eye Shadow: $35.00

This compact eyeshadow palette from Doucce is available in 16 ready to wear color palettes with both matte and shimmer shadows, for effortless blending, including the above version created with Allure.  For the same price you can also create your own palette with a choice of 82 matte and shimmer shades to chose from.  The texture and feel of this shadow is nice and silky, they blend pretty well and the pigment isn’t bad..but it isn’t my favorite eyeshadow formula.  Some shades work better than others and my luck was much better with finger application and blending with a brush than it was trying to apply the product with a brush.  I do like the shade selection as it is a good mix for both intense and subtle smoky eye looks and I do think it was a fun idea from Allure to customize a palette and continue to send new shades throughout the year.  I definitely would have preferred they send a larger magnetic palette with 4 shades so we could continue to build our palettes throughout the year, as I do not like having tiny lose eyeshadow singles lying around without a home.

a closer look

the swatches (top with brush, bottom with finger)

…and a subtle day time smoky eye look, using all 4 shades and a lot of blending out.

Sigma E25 Blending Brush: $16.00

This medium sized, synthetic, cruelty-free, blending brush from Sigma is designed to effortlessly blend shadow in to the creases.  Designed with bristles firm enough to get good pick up, yet fluffy enough to cover the lid in one swipe; this brush claims to give you the blend you desire without stiffness or bristle loss.  This was a nice little blending brush and I’m glad that Allure included a brush with a box that included an eyeshadow palette.  I think this is a travel sized version…so I’m not certain what the value of the brush actually is.

Burt’s Bees Lipstick in Blush Basin: $8.99

These lipsticks from Burt’s Bees launched early last year, I believe, and as many Burt’s Bees lip products I’ve purchased over the years, I’m surprised I never grabbed one myself.  The packaging is cute with the honeycomb design and is made from 60% recycled plastic. The product itself is free of parabens, phthalates, mineral oil & petroleum and is instead comprised of ingredients like moisturizing moringa and raspberry seed oils.  The shade is a neutral rosy nude that’s super wearable, creamy and smooth; making it a good fit for those with dry or chapped lips.  This is a great every day shade for me and the formula is nice for my drier lips.  It really does last pretty well on me too, but is a good shade and formula to keep in your bag for re-application as well as hurried, blind application.

and this is what it looks like on..

Oscar Blandi Pronto Dry Shampoo Invisible Spray: Travel Size $11.00 Full Size $25.00

I do not exactly jump for joy when receiving dry shampoo as I own enough bottles of it that purchasing any is not in my foreseeable future, but;  I actually love this particular version.  It has a nice lemon-y scent and no powdery residue.  It’s finish is much lighter, making it a good fit for those of us that have dry hair and thicker hair.  Many dry shampoos are better suited for oily hair that is thinner and gets more limp when washings are skipped, but can make drier hair too opaque and leave it appearing even more dry.  This is a less gunky version that works perfect for my hair type.  While I can’t say if it would be efficient enough for someone with an alternate hair type, it’s the perfect refresher and hair pick-me-up for mine.

Dr Brandt Microdermabrasion:  Deluxe Mini. Full Size $79.00

This is a facial Exfoliator designed to brighten, moisturize & exfoliate.  This is a white cream with super fine, very gritty exfoliants.  It reminds me of ultra fine grained sandpaper. It’s lemon-y cent is reminiscent of a household cleaner and I’m not big on that.  Because the exfoliant particles are so fine it isn’t too harsh and feels pretty nice;  I’ve just never achieved any results from a Dr. Brandt product that have justified the Dr. Brandt price point and they often break me out.  I think I’ve tried nearly every product the brand makes and most products I’ve found to be just ‘OK’, some of them seem to work pretty well right at first, but any time I’ve purchased more it’s like the effect does not continue and I regret it.  I’m not sure what it is, but I’m just not a Dr Brandt fan, but a lot of people seem to really like this product.

(to give an idea of the texture)

Biobelle Facial (sheet) Mask in Beauty Secret: $4.99

These paraben and phthalate free sheet masks are designed to alleviate different skin concerns in just 15 minutes.  I have actually been wanting to try a mask from this brand for a while now and was pleased to find one in this box.  I received the beauty secret which is designed to moisturize and fight signs of aging with antioxidants and hyaluronic acid.  The fit and adherence of this mask were perfect and there was a ton of the essence both on the mask and left over in the pouch.  The scent was fruity, (pomegranate) not too strong and not synthetic smelling.  It felt cool and comfortable.  When I removed the sheet my skin maintained a slightly sticky film from the essence, which this particular mask instructed to rinse off (this is the first I’ve seen this on a sheet mask) Because there was so much left in the packet, I decided to saturate my face with the remaining product and left it on an additional 5 minutes or so.  Afterward I splashed my face with cool water to remove the film.  My skin was baby soft and felt really great, a bit more bouncy, and simply looked and felt altogether better.  This is definitely a mask version I’d like to use for an extended time period to see if I experience further improvement in my skin.  Really liked this mask.

This month’s box was definitely not short on value, with a $35.oo eye shadow palette, a 5.00 sheet mask and a 9.00 lipstick, you’re at a $49.00 value even prior to considering the blending brush, travel sized dry shampoo and the deluxe Dr. Brandt sample.  Certainly nothing to complain about in that aspect.  I liked the box pretty well myself and found the palette idea to be pretty cool, even if the eyeshadow formula is not my very favorite.

Interested?  Check it out!

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-Kelli xoxo