Allure Beauty Box is a monthly beauty subscription service that sends deluxe sized product samples and is curated by the editors of Allure Magazine, who choose and test the products themselves. It’s $15 a month and if you sign up for a year-long subscription, you will pay for 11 boxes and get the 12th free. The amount of items sent each month varies and you can earn a “referral bonus box” in each month that a friend subscribes using your personal link.
DEAL: Use this link to save $5 on your first box AND get a new member bonus item!
The theme for April is “Shine On” and focuses on radiant skin.
Each box comes with a mini magazine that gives tips on how to use the products, how much the full-sized product costs, and where to purchase.
I received 5 products this month: 2 makeup products, 1 face product, 1 eye cream, and 1 body product. The items were shipped in a plain brown box that contained a glossy red box inside and there were tissue paper and shredded squiggles for packing.
Ahava Mineral Body Lotion ($10) This highly scented floral lotion absorbed quickly and didn’t leave me feeling greasy. It’s made with both mineral and Dead Sea water with aloe and witch hazel extract for softening the skin. The formula is nice but the scent isn’t for me.
I’ve received so many Dr. Brandt PoreDermabrasion Pore Perfecting Exfoliator ($7.25) samples that I surely own a whole bottle by now! It features a very fine grain and feels like rubbing baking soda all over my face. They suggest rubbing it in for 1 minute, and then letting it sit for 1-2 minutes, but I can’t keep it on for the whole time, it is too irritating for my skin but it is nice about once a month. I’m going to pass it on to my teenager, since she seems to think she has large pores and maybe it will help keep them clean.
Skin & Co Roma Truffle Therapy Eye Concentrate ($22.44) Let me start by saying I dislike perfumed products for the super delicate under-eye area, and this cream has “parfum” in the ingredients. I tried it anyways after reading so many rave reviews. I didn’t notice any irritation, although I didn’t experience any life changing effects either. I even compared the skin on the back of my hands, one treated and one not, and again, no change. It features truffle extract to help firm the skin, hyaluronic acid to draw moisture to the skin, moisturizing sunflower oil, and vitamin E as an antioxidant.
I’d never heard of Tanya Brooks but she is The BrowGal to some high profile ladies such as Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow. If your brows are a big concern then you can even have a consultation over Skype for about the price of dinner. My booklet says I am supposed to have The BrowGal Highlighter Pencil in 02 ($20), which features the shades “Nude” (matte) and “Gold” (shine). Instead, I have “Nude” (matte) and “Toffee” (also matte). There is no actual highlighter and this is different from the wording in the booklet, which specifically mentions the shade “Gold”.
Here’s Nude, which is kind of opaque and meant to cover up stray hairs just under the brow arch between tweezings. It’s extremely soft and when I start blending it just fades away.
Here’s Toffee, which definitely isn’t a highlighter. I believe this shade was added to the BrowGal’s product line for darker skin tones, as opposed to the “Nude” shade for lighter skin colors. I have both shades swatched below and this is terrible for my coloring and I’m disappointed that Allure didn’t send what was clearly listed in the mini magazine. Even the picture in the magazine is confusing because it looks like a combo of Toffee and Gold, so I have no idea what they were thinking!
Now here’s a pencil I actually liked using! Laritzy Lip Pencil in Cabernet ($18) is from a company that used to have their own cruelty-free beauty subscription box and now sells their own line of cruelty-free beauty products. It can be worn alone, as a lip liner, or underneath a gloss. It’s pretty smooth and glided over my skin easily. I preferred using it under a light-weight lipstick.
Swatched from top: Cabernet Lip Pencil, Nude eye product (thin and then thick), Toffee eye product (thin and then thick).
My April Allure Beauty Box had a value of $77.69 and had a pretty good assortment of products. My favorite was the lip pencil but that eye “highlighter” pencil was a flop. My daughter loves the exfoliator and maybe she will like the body lotion too. I’ve seen some spoilers for May and am looking forward to trying a Drunk Elephant product!
Have you tried Allure Beauty Box yet? What did you think of this month’s box?
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