Today my darlings is an interesting day. I know I usually talk about fitness, gardening and the general meyhem that is my life but today I am going to talk about Boxycharm.
My February box arrived. And while I decided to post the majority of my subscriptions on IG instead of here this year as i try to sort things out, I am going to talk about it here. Don’t worry it won’t be a product by p[product break down. So, yesterday my Boxycharm Premium came in. There were four fantastic , can’t wait to try items and two that hit my annoyance button. One of the products I was looking forward to trying is skincare and I will use it when I get to it, but the three makeup items in this month’s box I used today for my look. I actually really liked all three. However there are still the other two items.
Now I know subscriptions are always hit or miss. There are always going to be products you are more excited for and products you don’t particularly like. That is just the nature of subscription boxes. This particular box is listed at $39.99 on the site. When all is said and done with the taxes and fees I pay exactly $46.07 for each premium Boxycharm box.

Four of the items felt premium and the other two sent me through the roof. So let’s talk about those. The first of the annoyance items was a single shadow from Dose of Colors. I like Dose of Colors. They have great shadows. I however have this same single shadow from them already. Actually I have three of this single shadow. One came in a $13 IPSY bag, where a single shadow is an appropriate item to receive. The other came as an item in a previous boxy Charm Premium and annoyed me at the time as it felt like it shouldn’t be in a premium box. Perhaps I am wrong, but in the context of subscription boxes I tend to view single shadows as sample sized items. I know you can buy single shadows as single shadows but in a subscription box they feel like, ‘here is a sample shadow so you can get a feel for the formula and perhaps buy the full palette.’ So it felt out of place in the Boxycharm premium to me, and it was a repeat annoyance.
The second item in my box that just hit the annoyance button was the Refreshments Body Cream. It is certainly full sized. It is in fact quite large. IPSY started the refreshments line as a separate service. I tried the items when they were released and they are pretty basic formulas. They actually feel like something I would get my ten year old niece who is interested in beauty. She no longer wants the ‘little girl’ barbie and tinkerbell themed products beauty products, but she isn’t allowed to wear makeup yet and still has a few years before breakouts cause the need for skincare items. That is how that product line feels to me in general. Others seem to like it so more power to them, it isn’t for me.
In general you do get products that aren’t for you in subscription boxes so I would normally just have rolled my eyes, set it aside and given it to my niece. However for the past few months, Boxy has been sending me invitations to join Refreshments. It is usually a first month free thing and this same body cream was offered as a free incentive. And yet here it was counting as an item in my premium box. Somehow that just hit me as one annoyance too many.
And I realized how many little annoyances there had been.
One of the reasons that I stopped posting some of my long term subscriptions is that I wanted see which ones I would keep and which ones I would let go if I wasn’t posting about them. I also found several I want to try out and to do that I needed to let some go (both because they get expensive and because too many subscription boxes equals far more product than I need). I have had both Boxy and Ipsy for so long that to let either go was hard, but this box made it easier, so I have canceled my Boxycharm Box. Perhaps i will return, perhaps I won’t.
I do know that I felt really good when I did cancel it.
I know some of you aren’t into subscription boxes, personally I love them. And I know some of you do as well, so I just wanted to share my thoughts as to why I cancelled my Boxycharm. I will aslo start to post reviews of the newer subscriptions I am trying out. But for now we will move on to todays look, featuring three items from February’s box.

Today’s Look
Primer: Beauty Bakerie Butter Primer
Foundation: Bite Beauty Changemaker Foundation (discontinued – from the use up box)
Bronzer: Milk Makeup Bronzing Stick (sample from the use up box)
Blush: Axiology Multi Use Color Cream in True
Powder: By Terry Hydra Powder (sample from the Use up box)
Eyeshadow: Ciate London Royal Edition
Mascara: Anastasia Beverly Hills Lash Brag Mascara
Lip stick: Ace Beaute Pout perfect liquid lipstick in the shade Manifest
Lip liner: Huda Beauty Lip Contour in trophy wife
Okay, first the Use up box. At the beginning of the month i choose products that I want to use up and clear out of my makeup collection. They aren’t bad products they are just products that are either close to being used up and i want to do a final push to use them up or they need to go for other reason. There are three today, the Bite Beauty Foundation is fabulous, but it is discontinued. I think I have three more uses tops before the tube is empty so I want to clear it out this month. The Milk Makeup Bronzer and the By Terry Powder are both sample sizes. The Milk I want to use up so i can justify purchasing the full size. the By Terry is not my favorite setting powder as it tends to leave white marks that it takes a bit of work to blend in, which I find a little strange since I adore By Terry’s Pressed powder. So I will be using up the last of this and not repurchasing, hopefully this month.
The Axiology Multi Use color Stick is a product I am currently testing out and absolutely adore as a cream blush. As a stick it is really easy to work with. I dot it on my cheeks and then blend out. It belds really well, but do one cheek at a time. Dot it on the cheek blend, switch to the other cheek and blend, then see if you want to build it up more. if you dot it on both cheeks and then go back to blend it blends less well. It will still beldn but you can feel it start to set up. So one cheek at a time. also go slowly because it is quite pigmented. it is very buildable though, so start light and then add to get the pigment you want.
The Beauty Bakery Butter primer was in my Boxycharm It was a choice item actually. You know I love primers and I love balm style primers. I haven’t tried one in a stick format though. This one glides on smoothly with the stick and then I used my hands to massage it in. it is white streaks when you apply it but the whit goes away as it blends. I was very impressed with application and thus far it is doing really well for a first wear. And like all Beauty Bakerie products it is adorable. It looks like a stick of butter with the tablespoons measured out on the side. I know I will be reaching for this often.

The Eyeshadow was also from Boxy Charm as well and it is the Ciate London Royal Edition. I say it and thought, oh it is going to just be blues and purples. Then i opened it and I got really excited to play with it. Too excited actually as i think I layered on a few too many colors. i started nice and soft with the everyday neutral shades and then I saw the bronze. And then i wondered about the blue shimmer and I perhaps did not do the palette justice as I layered shimmers on top of an everyday look, but I couldn’t help myself. And in the end it just ended up looking vaguely silvery and shimmery. It has actually been a while since i have been this excited to play around with a palette. I was like a three year old not knowing which toy to play with first. I’ll temper the excitement and test it out properly, but I did go a little shimmer crazy today.
I opened a new tube of the ABH Lash brag today as well. I used up he older tube and let it go. I opened it because I wanted to compare it with the Uoma beauty mascara actually. they both have similar fluffy wands and fabulous results. But I didn’t remember the ABH clumping quite like the UOMA beauty so I wanted to have them going at the same time since I marked down when I opened the UOMA and can do a timed comparison.
and then we get to the lips. The Ace Beaute lipstick came in the BoxyCharm and the packaging is stunning. It is very black and gold art deco. The wand is really long which was surprising although i should have expected it to be the length of the bottle. the shade did wash me out a little so I blended it with the Huda beauty lip contour (very creamy) and together they made a really nice everyday wearable shade for me.
Over all I am really happy with todays look. I did go a little crazy with the shadows because I just kept seeing ones I wanted to try. Luckily it is just me working at my desk today so no one will really notice. I am going to have fun with this palette though. I do want to mention that the three products I tried from Boxy today I really loved. And that has been what has kept me signed up to the subscription for so long. It is also what kept me ignoring, or trying to ignore, the little annoyances. They are small so it feels petty to complain about them, but like little splinters they get under your skin and cause major irritations. And I think this year, I am less inclined to put up with some of those minor irritations than i have been in the past. I have noticed that applies to a lot of things in my life right now, not just Boxycharm. It is causing some interesting changes to my world and I have to say it feels really good when those minor annoyances are cleared away. I suppose that is my thought for the day, if there is something minor annoying you, regardless of what it is, maybe it is time to stop telling yourself that it is a small thing you should ignore because it is too petty to address. There is a disproportionate amount of relief in clearing it away. At least that has been my experience.
And with that thought I will leave you, it is back to work I go. Have a great afternoon my darlings.