A Late Unboxing Of Glossybox UK - August 2020 - Birthday Edition*

 One of the things that I love about Glossybox is the fact that every month you feel as though you're getting a present! I really look forward to receiving all of my boxes, but over the course of a year 2 boxes in particular always stand out, the December Christmas box, and the August birthday edition.

I know I'm super late with this post, but since Glossybox went all out to celebrate their 9th birthday with a special box design, and some pretty special products inside, I thought that it was still worth sharing my reviews and my thoughts with you.

First up the box itself, and as you can see it really was a show stopper. Hot pink in colour, the box lid featured a tone on tone glossy and matte geometric design, and if the that wasn't enough the box lid was festooned with a huge black and white chevron design, fabric bow.

The pink, black and white colour palette continued on inside of the box with a pink, and white lining,  a sheet of black tissue paper, and hot pink paper shred.

The first item inside the box as per usual was the information booklet. August's booklet was a little bit thicker than usual, but I'll talk more about that later in this post ;) As always the booklet contained a full list and more information on the bits inside the box, as well as talking a little a bit of the whole birthday theme.

Glossybox Skincare Eye Boost Cream - 15ml - Full Size - RRP £16 - £20

The first official item in the box was actually a exclusive sneak preview product, and it was something from Glossybox's new skincare range. Whilst we've seen a few Glossybox branded products over the years, this is their very first official product line.

Created on the back of Glossybox customer comments and feedback, Glossybox have produce a simple, effective and non nonsense skincare range, this is vegan, cruelty free, and nasty free. All of the products contain at least 87% natural ingredients and their packaging is predominantly made from 100% recyclable sugar cane.

The product that subscribers received in the August box was the Glossybox Skincare Eye Boost Cream. Containing ingredients such as eyebright, elderberry flower extract, and red seaweed, this cream is designed to reduce the appearance of dark circles and puffiness.

The pink and black colour palette of the packaging just screams Glossybox, the product comes boxed and it's packaged in a pink, plastic feeling tube.

The cream inside is white in colour, and whilst the texture initially appears to be quite light, it actually feels quite creamy but not heavy or sticky.

It's quite simple to apply you can use it both morning and night, and you just apply 3 small dots to your under eye area and then you just gently pat it in until it absorbs.

As I say it feels creamy, and slightly cool on application, it sinks into the skin quite quickly, and it leaves the eye area feeling hydrated, with a matte feel and a more radiant appearance.

Before

On Application

After

I don't think you can see too much difference between the before and after pictures, but I do think that my eye area looks a little bit more fresher and a bit more hydrated in the after picture - what do you think?

For someone in their early 40's I don't think that my eyes look too bad, I can see a few more fine lines, and a little bit of darkness coming though, so I think I do need to start using products like this and the Sebamed eye product that came in the March 2020 edition of Glossybox on a more regular basis.

Apart for the slightly oily scent I actually really liked this eye cream and I will definitely try and use it up. This eye cream is available exclusively from Glossybox UK where it retails at £16 for Glossybox subscribers and at £20 for non subscribers. As I said earlier the August information booklet was a little bit thicker than normal, and that was because it included more information of their new skincare range, which includes several different cleansers, moisturisers, as well as specialist products such as mist and scrubs, all of which are available individually and in sets exclusively on the Glossybox website. My first experience was a good one so I will definitely consider trying some of the other bits from the brand in the future.

HUDA Beauty Demi Matte Lipstick - Day Slayer - 3.6ml - Full Size - RRP £18

If getting the opportunity to be one of the first people to try a new skincare range wasn't exciting enough, August's birthday edition also included another product from must have make up brand, HUDA Beauty.

Every subscriber received a full size of one of 10 different shades of the HUDA Beauty Demi Matte Lipstick. Containing menthol to plump, the lips, and the exclusive maxi lip complex, which stimulates collagen and hydrates the lips, according to HUDA Beauty this is apparently a creamy long wearing liquid lipstick, with a velvet, satin finish.

Like a lot of the HUDA Beauty products that I've had in the past from Glossybox, this lip colour came unboxed. The product itself is packaged in a plastic tube, with a slanted, doe foot applicator.

Considering some of the other shades that were available, I've got to say that I was pretty disappointed to receive the shade Day Slayer, a brown toned, nude, but I guess that's the look of the draw.

Application was a breeze, this lip colour felt beautifully smooth and creamy on the lips. The pigmentation was superb and the applicator made it really easy to stay within the lip line and even to reshape your lips. With a pleasant coconut scent and taste. it did feel slightly tingly on the lips at first as the menthol did its thing, but it wasn't painful and the tingly feeling gradually disappeared.

Whilst the finish did highlight the lines on my lips, at least at first it had quite a glossy, creamy finish, but it as it faded down it left more of a matter stain, which lingered on the lips for quite some time.

I'm still not convinced on the colour especially since it went on darker than it appeared in the tube, but I do like the formulation. You really do have the best of both worlds, a shiny and creamy without been overly glossy, that you can either blot it down to take away the shine or just let it fade down to a matte stain of it own accord.

It feels pretty moisturising on the lips and it doesn't leave your lips feeling parched or dry. I'm definitely considering buying another shade in the future - I'm thinking Bonnie or SHEro x HUDA Beauty Demi Matte Lipsticks comes in a wide variety of shades and retail at around £18 from various retailers including direct from HUDA Beauty, Feel Unique, Boots, Selfridges and Cult Beauty.

brushworks HD Wonder Sponge - Full Size - RRP £5.49

I don't know about you but I don't really buy expensive make up sponges anymore. I did invest in an official Beauty Blender initially, but ever since then I've bought mainly cheap to mid range sponges and I've been pretty pleased with the money that I've saved. I've had a few different ones from beauty boxes too, so it was nice to get another one in the August box from beauty tool specialist, brushworks.

Their latex free, vegan friendly HD Wonder Sponge really is a multi use product. It can be used damp for liquids, and dry for powders. The large rounded side is great for stippling and applying liquid foundation, you can use the flat side for applying contour creams, liquids and powders, and the pointed tip for precision application blending in smaller areas such as around the eyes and nose.

I've tried a lot of good sponges and this one is a good one - it's a really nice quality sponge, I've used it quite a bit since I got it and I've washed it a few times already and it's still in perfect condition with no splits, cracks or tears.

This sponge has a retail price of around £5.49 from various retailers including Look Fantastic, Beauty Bay, Feel Unique, Beauty Expert and HQ Hair.

Molton Brown Delicious Rhubarb & Rose Bath & Shower Gel - 100ml - Deluxe Mini - Est. RRP £7.33

I've been a huge fan of British beauty brand Molton Brown for many years now. I love their brightly coloured, easy on the eye products, their use of exotic ingredients, the fact that their products are paraben and gluten free, and the fact that since their inception in 1971 they have never tested their products on animals.

I don't buy their products as often as I used to (purely for financial reasons) so I was really pleased to get the opportunity to try a product that I'd wanted to try for a long time, their Delicious Rhubarb & Rose Bath & Shower Gel.

With the aromas of grapefruit, yuzu and lemongrass, as well as vanilla and spearmint, and of course rhubarb and rose, this shower gel comes packaged in Molton Brown's famous and often imitated, understated and stylish, clear plastic bottle topped with a shiny silver top.

The bottle contains a gorgeous, slightly runny, pale pink gel. Mix a tiny bit with water and you get a lovely, softening, creamy foam, that cleanses without stripping or drying, and leaves both your skin and the bathroom smelling amazing.

This shower gel has a gorgeous, revitalising, fruity, zesty rhubarb scent, with a splash of citrus and just the tiniest hint of rose. This definitely more of a refreshing fruity scent, rather than the floral scent that I was expecting but I actually think I love it even more than I expected to and I'm now going to be trying to hunt down the mini travel size bottle that exists somewhere in my stash to keep on enjoying the fragrance.

This isn't the cheapest shower and bath product that you will ever use but a little goes a very long way. This 100ml size doesn't appear to be available on its own, although it does come in a few different gift sets, Glossybox though place an estimated retail price of around £7.33 on this size bottle. The full 300ml size retails at around £22 from various retailers including direct from Molton Brown, as well as Look Fantastic, John Lewis, and Cult Beauty.

Steve Laurant Lip Liner - Vogue - 1g - Full Size - RRP £12.09 / $15

The final item in August's birthday box was another make up item and it was a product from a Glossybox favourite brand, Steve Laurant. 

I'm fairly lazy when it comes to my everyday make up, and one of the items that I tend to skip is the humble lip pencil, but when ever I use one, it always makes look better and I end up wondering why I don't use one all of the time.

I know they had a bad rep over the years and I know it's an extra step to slot into your make up routine but they really can make a huge difference to the appearance of your lips. They can stop your lipstick bleeding, you can use them underneath your lip colour to make it last longer, and if you're feeling super lazy, you can even fill in your whole lips with them and wear them on their own or under a clear gloss.

This cruelty free, and gluten free lip pencil came boxed in a gorgeous, metallic, rose gold tone box, which looked super fancy. Unfortunately the pencil inside wasn't quite as fancy looking with a brown toned barrel and plastic cap.

The shade that I received was Vogue, a pink, wine shade, that looks a little bit lighter on the skin than it does in the pencil.

It wasn't the softest or creamiest pencil that I've ever used but the pigmentation was decent and you didn't have to press too hard to get any colour payoff.

Obviously you can use it as a liner, but since it was a different colour to the other lip product in the box, I decided to fill in my whole lip area with it. It was a touch dry and a little bit patchy but the coverage was decent and it wore well. 

Steve Laurant claim that it's waterproof, and that it lasts up to 7 hours, and whilst I wouldn't quite go that far it did stay put while I had a shower and it also passed the face mask test, with only minimal transfer.

This pencil is available in various shades exclusively from Steve Laurant, where it retails at around £12.09 / $15

So that was the August Birthday edition of Glossybox UK, and in my eyes (and Max's ;) it was a win. I liked all of the products in the box, and whilst I wasn't the biggest fan of the colour of the HUDA Beauty lipstick, I really liked the formulation. As per usual the value was there and I particularly loved the box design and of course the bow. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this box so please let me know what you think in the comments, and don't forget to check out Glossybox UK, to find out how to subscribe for yourself, and to find out more about Glossybox Skincare. Thanks for reading and sticking with me, and I'll see you soon with another post x 

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