Icon Box is the latest box from Ipsy and it replaces the previous Glam Bag X and BoxyCharm Luxe. It’s a quarterly upgrade and comes with 8 full-sized products worth up to $350. Members get to choose three of their items from a few different options and this upgrade replaces your usual monthly bag for an additional cost. This season I received three products from Anastasia Beverly Hills, a moisturizer from JLO, and more. Check out what I received below!
Alamar Essentials Eye Trio ($18 for similar) I linked to a similar trio of brushes on the brand’s website. The bristles are synthetic and feel similar to other brush brands. This collection is made up of a blending, packing, and lining brush and they worked well to help me apply and blend my eye makeup.
JLO BEAUTY That Blockbuster Hydrating Cream ($59) This moisturizer from Jennifer Lopez is supposed to plump up lines and of course offers hydration. Some of the ingredients are glycerin, hyaluronic acid, shea butter, soybean oil, and dimethicone. It has a bouncy texture in the jar, I keep poking at it because it’s fun, and the added fragrance is rather strong and floral. If you think your skin looks glowy after applying, it’s true – this cream has tin oxide and mica for added shimmer, leaving behind a radiant effect.
RÉDUIT BOOST in Lavender Calm ($169.15) I’m not a fan of this kind of product – a device that’s supposed to push skincare ingredients into the skin and help those ingredients work better. I have a hard enough time believing the claims on the beauty products themselves, so I’m not excited about a pulsed light device. You have to download an app and then scan your products and I don’t have time for all that, and I tend to be a minimalist in the first place, but maybe someone I know would like to try it, but honestly I would have preferred to have received a bottle of perfume or something else.
SKIN INC Body Sculpt Fit Serum ($32.50) Again, I don’t believe the hype on a lot of beauty products, and this is something I wouldn’t buy for myself. It’s a serum that is supposed to “contour, tone, and smooth appearance of uneven skin” and it’s supposed to be paired with some kind of tool that sounds somewhat like the one above. Some of the ingredients are glycerin, alcohol, licorice, and niacinamide to brighten skin and somehow help droopy parts such as the arms and legs defy gravity. I applied it and it dried quickly without feeling sticky and smelled nice, with a hint of citrus.
M·A·C Magic Extension Mascara ($26) This mascara is supposed to act like “lash extensions” by extending the length with 5mm fibers. I did see some difference but I also thought the mascara was clumpy; I prefer my lashes to have definition without bunches of mascara making them stick together. I’m also not a fan of the scent, it’s rather strong.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Satin Lipstick ($25) I received three products from Anastasia this month but none of them worked out for me. This lipstick felt great on my lips but the color, Warm Peach, had an opaque white base and it just sat on my lips, like a too-dark concealer or a too-light bronzer, more camel than peach. (At this point I Googled “why are nude lip colors so bad” and discovered a video from someone named Smitha who says I need a lipliner first.) Ok, I feel a lot better now that I know I have to use a lipliner with nude lipsticks to keep them from looking so bad. I guess it helps to pair with a liner in a similar shade family, but after diffusing it and layering it with the lipstick and topping it with gloss I thought it looked ok, not fab, but ok.
ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS Cream Bronzer ($38) I’m not a fan of bronzer to begin with but this shade, Caramel, is described as “medium to tan with warm undertones” and I’m wondering if that’s the skin tone it looks best on. I did try it out, but only a bit, and it seemed easy to buff it out so I didn’t look overly bronzed. It smelled a bit funny though
ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS Primrose Palette ($59) This may look like an eyeshadow palette with a couple of blush shades thrown in but read the fine print: “*Shades Claret, Deep Berry, Grapefruit, Honey, Mango, Peony, Primrose, Sparkling Amber and Rouge are not intended for use around the immediate eye area”. So, out of 12 pans, only three of them can be applied near the eyes. This usually means that the FDA says the palette can’t be used for that purpose for whatever reason (staining, sensitivity, etc.) and this is a way around that law. Obviously, you can use them however you choose. I went ahead and tried them and liked the color payoff, although there was fallout. The blush went on brighter and darker than I expected. I’m not sure that these are colors I would choose for summer but it worked well enough.
I swatched some of the shades, including the blush and bronzer (shown at the bottom).
My Icon Box was filled with products from some pretty big names, like JLO and ABH. The device was interesting but I don’t have time to try it out right now. The mascara is something I can always use more of, and the same goes for makeup brushes. The makeup colors were not quite right for me, from the pale lipstick to the dark bronzer but I recognize that the brand is popular and probably longed for by a lot of subscribers. The value of my box was around $427, but a lot of that was from the device.
Below is the card that came in the box!
Think of it as your all-access pass to the most-coveted brands, hottest launches, and need-to-try products in beauty. Available as a quarterly upgrade for Ipsy and BOXYCHARM members, the Icon Box includes 8 full-size products (worth up to $350) specially curated by beauty’s biggest tastemakers and celebs. You’ll get to choose three products from a personalized assortment, while the remaining five are guaranteed to be Power Picks or superstar products and brands—which, BTW, includes dibs on exclusive product drops you won’t find anywhere else. Icon Box replaces your regular shipment four times a year (February, May, August, and November).
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