In late December 2013, I signed up to join the waitlist for Topbox, a monthly beauty subscription that sends a variety of full-size and sample items from high end brands like Benefit, Lise Watier, Esté Lauder, Shiseido and much much more. I've heard rumours that the waiting list can take up to six months to activate but much to my surprise I received an email early February alerting me that they were ready for me. Thus my subscription commenced!
A regular Topbox comes to $12 ($13.56 with taxes) and comes with four items. For March they were also offering a $10 ($11.30 with tax) top up option to add a 'mystery item' to your box. I'm a gambler, so I took the bet! I paid on February 19 and the day I received my shipping on March 15, my box was already waiting for me at my house. Here's my box for March, 2014.
In March 2014, I received:
- Belvada Blackhead Facial Mask x2
- Benefit Benetint 2.5ml deluxe sample size
- Epic Blend Hemp Vanilla lip balm full size
- Estée Luader Pure Color double-sided kajal pencil full size
- Cover FX Anti-Aging Primer ($10 add-on) full size
All day I was following the 'great March unboxing' on Instagram and Facebook, and saw some sub-par boxes (in my opinion) being opened by other subscribers. But I stayed strong and I was really pleased with my products.
The Benefit Benetint is a great rose-tinted lip and cheek stain that offers a light, healthy flush on your cheekbones on a touch of red on your lips (I actually had a full-sized version of this but traded it with a friend not too long ago), I'm more of a Chachatint girl, but it's a great size to pop in my makeup bag. This product is valued at about $8 USD
The Epic Blend Hemp Vanilla lip balm is familiar because I received it in my January Beauty Box 5, but I am a HUGE fan of the application and flavour of the Coconut Hemp version so I'm sure this will come in handy later on. This lip balm is worth about $3.49 CAD
The Belvada Blackhead Facial Masks are the only dud in the box. Reports came in rather early on that this is an EXTREMELY harsh product that many Topbox subscribers found very hard and painful to remove, and Topbox is currently investigating why. In my opinion, it sounds like they don't actually even MAKE the product, some intrepid Redditors did some research! They don't even offer this product on their website so I can't even estimate how much it cost.
Then my final product (I saved the best for last) was an Estée Lauder Pure Color dual-sided kajal eyeliner!
My favourite product in the regular box is the Estée Lauder Pure Color Intense Kajal EyeLiner Duo because one of my first and favourite eyeliners was an Estée Lauder pencil. It gives great pigmentation, glides on so easily, is easily smudgeable but also stays relatively well on the lid without 'raccooning' like some other intense liners. I've used this product for the last week or so and I'm in love. This pencil also has brown and black so I can tailor my liner to my colour of the day. This product is approximately $22.00 USD.
My final item in the box was my $10 add-on, the CoverFX Anti-Aging Primer. Don't let the term 'anti-aging' fool you, this is a solid primer for anybody at any age, with many reviews highlighting how well this product works for people with sensitive skin, as a great base for makeup, a nice pore minimizer and with a silky finish. I haven't used mine as I'm currently making my way through a Benefit POREfessional, but it looks like I'm set with primer now for a good little while! This product is worth $38 CAD.
So, for those keeping score, my regular Topbox cost me $13.56 and resulted in $36.65 CAD in products (I'm not counting Belvada because it doesn't seem to exist) and my $11.30 add-on resulted in a $38.00 product. My savings? Almost $50! I'll take that gamble next month!
Topbox is a monthly Canadian beauty box subscription, for an invitation put your email in the comments or contact me, and join the waitlist today!