Beauty subscriptions for two-o-one-seven !

This year i signed up for some new subscription boxes because i've finally found a great and cost friendly way to ship all the products that i get from the US to my small red dot of a country called Singapore. Most makeup products we get down here are quite limited to drugstore makeup like in Sasa or Watsons. And for high end products we only have Sephora or independant online retailers who ship the items in from the US (think of ebay/carousell, who aren't really transparent if their products are inspired/authentic or fakes.) So there isnt really much to try out. 

Hence, i signed up for Ipsy, Lip monthly, Birchbox(only for a month) & Sephora Play from the US. 

Here's a breakdown of what they offer and also how i find them so far;

1. Ipsy : created by Michelle Phan who was originally a youtube beauty guru who eventually started her own makeup line (em cosmetics). "Each month, subscribers will receive a beautiful Glam Bag with deluxe samples and full-sized beauty products. Members can watch and play along with the stylists with the same products that they are using. All for only Usd$10 a month."

Ipsy has a 'queueing' system due to overwhelming subscribers response. The only way to move up the system is if you referred a friend through facebook and recommend them to try ipsy too. I hated the idea of doing that because im on a shared fb account with my husband and i dont really fancy sharing this info with the friends on his side. And i also dont think its fair to recommend a service that i've not yet tried. But i found a loophole which works, and that is to temporarily set the post to private so that no one sees the post and also when they ask you to refer a friend i simply clicked on my own fb account name. And it worked! Now you can give the box a try without feeling forced to let the whole world know that you're trying it out! 

What i love about Ipsy is that they have these few beauty gurus (multi coloured cause thats how the consumers are too!) who show you the items that you might or might not get in your glam bag and they show you the how to's. That way you can have an idea of their uses even if its something that you rarely use or have totally no clue about. They also carry a larger variety of products and ranges from well known to indie brands. They make cute short vid clips that reflects on the theme of the month and their bags are always nicely designed around the theme. 

2. Lip monthly : a relatively new lip subscription box that is not quite known as to who the team or founder is. You get about 4 - 5 full and deluxe sized items, with one item being a non lip product. For the lip products, you get anything ranging from lip glosses to lip crayons to liquid lipsticks. Costs Usd$12.95 a month.
If you wanna save up abit on your first bag just to try it out, use the code "50OFF" to get your first lip monthly bag at half price! 
They work with brands like cargo, hikari, manna kadar, hola neon, sugar, ofra being the most well known. 
I like their products so far but the lack of brand ambassadors and basically a face to put the brand as makes it a bit less pro and believable. I think they would be able to create a larger fan base if they had a few beauty guru to vouch for. They also need more products in the web so users could purchase the products featured from them and also a better point reward system.
What i love about lip monthly is that subscribers can customize the colour choice of 1-2 of their lip products in advance before the next months bag ships out. Its quite thoughtful for consumers to be able to choose the colours they prefer. On a side note, their bag designs are pretty basic and smaller than ipsy's.

3. Birchbox : "Birchbox is a monthly beauty box of five samples tailored to your skin, hair, and style." Costs Usd$10 a month. 
A very popular subscription box trusted by many and also offers a plethora of products ranging from beauty to hair to skin care. Also has a great reward point system where each dollar spent = one point. 10 points = $1 earned. And points can be redeemed for the items  sold online. Hence you get to try, earn & save when you shop!
I decided to give birchbox a try but had some issues with my email and back and forth with the cust service (took a while for them to reply but they solved the issue nontheless) turns out they couldn't let me keep the subscription service cause my forwarder address doesnt count as a official US address although it is in the US. And hence they won't be able to let me keep my subscription. So they refunded me back for the march box i paid and they told me to just keep the box that was already shipped to me. 👍🏾 thumbs up for the way they handled the situation tho i was bummed i couldn't keep the subscription.

4. Sephora play : Comes with 6 samples of deluxe sized products, a Play book of tips and tricks and also a beauty insider play pass for in store learning and tutorials. Costs Usd$10 a month. 
Sephora play is very interesting because you get to try selected products that are new and also available at the sephora store. Sephora items do end up being quite costly in total so the pricing of the subscription box is very affordable and you get a diversity of products. Also, if you stay in the US, the play pass card that you get allows you to get rewarded with points and discounts when you shop at the Sephora stores. Pretty nifty savings there. 
Although there are Sephora stores here in Singapore too, but i realise that not all of the brands that are in the US Sephora are sold here. Another factor is that the pricing here are pretty marked up like hell. And the Sephora here doesn't readily give you samples if you're looking to give new products a try. 
But be warned; subscription boxes are a hit & miss at times. Sometimes, there will be an item that i don't like or ticked off the list that ended up being in my bag because you simply cant expect everything to be catered specifically to you especially when there are thousands of other subscribers with unique wants out there too. Late deliveries are also an issue, i suggest to keep a close eye on tracking info emails sent out by the boxes and also keep checking the main account for the tracking updates too. If you have reached out by email and replies are slow, try to check back via instagram or twitter where they tend to respond faster to. 
I have already started receiving some boxes like my ipsy & lip monthly. I'm currently waiting for the march bags to arrive to my shipping address so i can forward all 4 bags together. I do make an update of the bags i received for the months too, give em a look if you're curious of the products i've received thus far. For anyone just only getting into subscription boxes, hope some of my suggested ones here have attracted you to give it a go. All the best!! 🤘🏽🌺🖤
Xx☠️xX

IPSY METROPOLIS GLAM BAG ✨JANUARY 2017 ✨

IPSY

JANUARY 2017

METROPOLIS

I finally received my January bag in mid february hence here's a belated post on the goodies! So for January i received 2 beauty products, 1 beauty tool, 1 perfume sample and a nail polish. January's bag was a bit of a let down after December's, simply because i got a lippie last month but none for this month ): Heres the deets:

1. Mannakadar beauty Fantasy 3-in-1 blush highlighter eyeshadow. (Full size, rtp usd$19.) A very wearable champagne nude pink shade that i have already tested as a highlighter. The texture is really smooth and colour pay off is really good. Happy to have received this cause i only own one contour and highlight kit and this allowed me to expand my horizon abit. Have yet to try as a shadow and blush tho.

2. SLMissglam Blend Beauty Brush L34. (Full size usd$19.99) This is a very pretty brush that stands out amongst the other brushes in its purple and pink glory that makes it very instagram worthy. Altho i have never heard of the brand, the creator of this is actually quite a well known beauty blogger and makeup artist. This is meant as an eyeshadow blending brush but i actually use it to pat in the Mannakadar highlighter into my cheekbones and it works well! Always happy to receive brushes that can multi task.

3. F.U.N lacquer nail polish in TGIF. (Full size 12ml, usd$11.50) Holosexuals everywhere. Altho i didnt check nail polish as a need in my beauty profile, im happy to receive something thats at least nice and wearable. As oppose to getting a polish thats in freaking pink, im happy to receive a holographic gold base that really is unique in its on way. Thumbs up for this too.

4. NOTE eau de parfum in Pink Peony. (Deluxe size 5ml, usd $6.) This oneeee, i was on the fence about this at first cause i did not really fancy the soft floral fragrance. It has top notes of : bergamot & tangerine. Middle notes of : jasmine sambac, linden flower & peach blossoms. Base notes of : sheer musks, blonde amber & white woods. However, I have been testing it out for a few days by spritzing some on my clothes for the day, and i have to admit that the smell has grown on me. It no longer has an obvious floral scent but i can smell more of the musk, which i love.

5. Model Co blush in Peach Bellini. (Deluxe size 3.5g, usd$9) Out of the 5 items, this is the least that i liked. Mainly because it has shimmer in it and i like my blushes matte. Also because i still have my Zoeva coral spectrum blush palette hence i dont feel like i need yet another coral shade. Miine is still sealed and am planning to give it away.


Overall verdict for January:
🖤🖤🖤

2 hearts down for this month because the perfume and nail polish was something that i liked but not something that i would reach out that often.
Also, because i didnt fancy getting a blush after getting a product which is 3-in-1 too. It wouldve been better if they gave me a lip product or mascara for diversity. Ya know? Ok thats all for January's bag. Take a look at my first Lip monthly bag too if you'd like! Did you guys get the same variation as i did? 

Xx☠️xX