Welcome to this year's last bellabox review! The theme this month was Eat, Play, Love in the spirit of Christmas and New Year's. I think the idea of the theme is lovely but once again I don't see too much connection between the theme and the items in the box. But anyway, let's get into it!
- Kora Organics Purifying Day & Night Cream (RRP $59.95) - This is a product from Miranda Kerr's skincare range and to be honest I never even knew she had a skincare range out, but clearly she does. I tried this moisturiser for a few days that I had off of work just in case I had a reaction to it (I can't trust new skincare products anymore) and even though I didn't have an allergic reaction to it, I ended up not using it again because it made my skin extremely oily and by extremely I mean it felt like my face was swimming in oil. I've said it before but I'll say it again, I have very oily skin and nothing helps it so there's no way I'll be using this product again. I don't need the extra oil on top of my already very oily face. I'm quite disappointed about it too because it's a full sized, very expensive product. It would have been nice to use it all because it did feel lovely, it was thin and lightweight but it's just not suited for my skin unfortunately.
- Elizabeth Mott It's So Big Mascara (RRP $25.00) - This is supposedly a cult classic product and very popular on Amazon. I can understand the hype and popularity but it's not a holy grail product to me. It's pretty good though, I'll admit that! It has amazing coverage in only a few coats and it leaves my lashes still feeling natural and soft unlike a lot of other mascaras I've tried in the past. It's good for daily use but I think I'll combine it with another mascara for nights out etc. My lashes are just the type of lashes that look amazing for five minutes after applying mascara and then they uncurl and become dead straight again, so I can't really speak on it's curling effect. I doubt I'll buy this myself as I don't want to spend that much on it when I have other mascaras that are quite similar, but we'll see!
- Enbacci Pore Minimiser (RRP $30.00) - I've seriously been wanting a pore minimising cream for a while now but every one I've come across is just too expensive for me to buy straight off without knowing if it works or not, so I was very happy to receive a decent sized sample for this. This has replaced my primer for the time being and I just apply it to my nose, some of my cheeks, in between my brows and my chin and from what I can tell it seems to minimise my pores. I still get oily, that'll never end really, but it does minimise them and that's all I can ask for in a pore minimiser. I'll have to see how it goes to determine if I'll buy the full sized product.
- Keratase Paris Nutritive Nectar Thermique (RRP $45.00) - Firstly, I'm so bummed this was a sachet because secondly, I loved this product. I got about two and a half uses out of this so that was lovely. I don't really have dry hair and I think what this product is mostly aimed at but that didn't matter because it still made my hair smooth and I found that I only needed this one product when I used. Normally I use three treatments on my hair, a thermal styling heatspray, a prep leave in conditioner cream and a repair spray leave in. It's a lot of product, but I don't always use them all at once. Just depends how my hair feels, but this sample was amazing and I'm so upset that it's so expensive because there's no way I'm spending that much for one hair treatment.
- Neutrogena Oil Free Acne Wash (RRP $13.99) - For those of you who have read my constant complaints about that time I had a severe reaction to skincare products, this was what I reacted to. I can't remember if I ever named the product, but this is it. So obviously I didn't use this sample and it's now in my bin. I did email bellabox requesting my allergy information be noted but they said it's not a feature of their website currently but that they'll look into it. I also asked if it was possible to get a replacement product but they said that as I had received the product and the box with no problems, they unfortunately couldn't replace it. I was a bit annoyed to be honest, but fair enough. The samples are set and they can't just go handing out more. I'm sure this product is great and maybe it works for others (do your research before you buy) it's not for me due to the salicylic acid in it.
- Maybelline Superstay Better Skin Foundation (RRP $23.95) - This is another sample that went into the bin unfortunately. I've purchased this product in the past and had several problems with it, firstly it sat on my face weirdly and got caught in all my pores and slightly dry spots which aren't even very dry. Secondly it just didn't stay, as soon as my face became oily (which was a lot quicker than normal under this foundation) it just came off and sat even worse on my face than when I'd applied it. I think the colour selection wasn't that great either, ivory is never ivory on my face. Once again maybe this product is great and works for others, but not for me unfortunately.
There we go! That's all the products for the last bellabox of 2014! I had a love/hate relationship with this box as you can tell, some were good, some weren't so good, but you win some you lose some!
Hopefully you're looking forward to more of these reviews in the new year, because I'll definitely be posting them!
Thanks for reading!
- Melissa.
