glossybox august 2012; international superstars

I saw on my blogroll that others had recieved this box today and was slightly surprised that mine hadn't been delivered yet, and then when I got home I realised when I'd cancelled and resubbed earlier in the month I'd put my home address and not my work one! Silly!

However, I wasn't too excited as I'd (as always) peeked through other people's boxes, and I have to say I was not overwhelmed at all.

This month's theme is International Superstars, which I assume is olympics related. It supposedly contains "cult" products from a selection of countries.

Onto the products:

Alessandro Pro White Nail Polish (top right)

Germany

this is a clear polish with UV blue added to it, which is meant to make yellow nails look whiter. Now this is virtually useless for me as I always wear polish, but I may wear it over other colours for clubbing.

I can't work out if this is full size (10ml) or not, but if it is it's worth £7.50.

DHC Deep Cleansing Oil (top left)

Japan

this is a water soluble cleansing oil, which was the only product I was particularly excited about in this month's box. I haven't yet checked the ingredients but it smells a hell of a lot like pure Vitamin E oil. I used it to take my makeup off just now, and it did quite well, although I wouldn't say it did any better than pure Vitamin E if I'm honest, and it left my eyes very cloudy and slightly watery after use.

This is a 30ml sample, full size is 200ml and retails at £18.50

Broadway Nails imPRESS Press on Manicure (far right)

USA

I've had these in a previous Glossybox (February, possibly?), and didn't find them particularly great. They're good for a quick manicure, but really do not last well. The main reason I'd buy them would be for some of the very nice prints they have, like the leopard ones, but these are basically a gold, red and purple water marble effect, which is a) pointless and b) rather ugly in my opinion.

This is a full size product with 24 nails, retails at £7.99

Vera Valentini L'ombre á Paupière Margarita (middle top)

Spain

an eyeshadow palette containing 6 beige/browns and 4 greens. although the packaging of this is VERY tacky and cheap looking, I thought I could put it to some use as I wear a selection of neutral eyeshadows on a daily basis, but the quality of this is just horrific. All of the shadows are incredibly powdery, and give virtually no colour payoff whatsoever. I wasn't expecting the sponge applicatior that comes with it to be particularly great, but I tried to swatch with it and it doesn't pick up any product at all! It really does look and feel like "toy makeup" that I got with one of those plastic doll heads that you used to be able to get and apply makeup on. Awful.

This is a full size product and the RRP is £3.85

Lipcote (bottom left)

UK

Lipcote is a lipstick sealer that has been around for absolutely yonks, I remember my mum using it when I was young. I have purchased it myself a couple of times and never really got on with it; it does keep lipstick on but always wrinkles no matter how wide I keep my mouth after applying it! It seems that they've tried to re-brand this recently, which I remember them doing when I was younger by adding glitter. I had a purple one, it was vile. Anyway, I tried this just now and I still don't much like it.

This is also full size, RRP £3.99

Glossybox Lipstick in Glossy Pink

Glossybox Special

So this is another product Glossybox have manufactured themselves as an "extra" product. It's a kind of dusky pink, which looks horrific with my hair as expected, which isn't their fault. The texture is okay,a little bit waxy, but it smells very very cheap. The packaging is very clunky and horrid. The Glossybox logo is printed on the top but it's wonky, which I find a bit strange... Tbh I wish Glossybox would put more effort into the prodcuts that go into the boxes rather than making their own stuff to grow their brand, it's a bit cheeky.

They claim this is worth £9.50, which is an absolute joke.

I'm sorry to be so negative but I really don't like this box. I've seen people raving about it and I can understand that most of the products are pretty usable for people (including myself I guess), my issue is that Glossybox claim to provide "5 luxury samples. None I wouldn't consider any of these luxury other than the cleansing oil.

Also, sorry for the lack of pictures, but I just wasn't remotely excited enough to take a picture of each product.

I could only afford one sample box this month so went with Glossybox instead of Joliebox, because I did them the other way round last month, but to be honest I really wish I hadn't. Although for some reason I haven't got round to posting any of my Jolieboxes, I have found them highly superior to Glossybox lately, and I'm disappointed I gave up what is probably going to be a better box for this one.

Have you got this box? Am I alone in my disappointment? What's your favourite sample box?

xx

Follow