Today was a good day, my
Walmart beauty box arrived in the mail!! This box is FREE but costs $5 shipping per quarter (that means you get 4 boxes a year, one per season). As far as I could tell there were two variations of this box, you can check them out out at
NouveauCheap. I read from multiple sources that which box was received would depend on the age of the subscribers - I received the < 35 years old box, if this is true.
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| Contents of Walmart Beauty Box for Fall 2014 |
I received quite a slew of products, varying from small foil packets (yuck) to deluxe sized samples and even 3 full sized items! So far it's looking like a pretty good deal for just $5.
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| Contents of Walmart Beauty Box for Fall 2014 |
You can see I received the following products:
- L'Oreal - Glossy Balm in Lovely Mocha (Full size)
- CoverGirl - Glosstini Glowing Nights Nail Polish in #AfterDark (Full size)
- Secret - Clinical Strength Invisible Solid Deodorant in Completely Clean (Full size)
- Dove - Pure Care Dry Oil (Deluxe sample)
- Dove - Advanced Hair Series - Shampoo (Deluxe sample)
- Dove - Advanced Hair Series - Conditioner (Deluxe sample)
- Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday Perfume (Sample)
- L'Oreal - Youth Code Pore Vanisher (Sample)
- Neutrogena - Nourishing Long Wear Makeup (Sample card & $2 off Coupon)
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| L'Oreal Glossy Balm in Lovely Mocha |
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| Before and After L'Oreal Glossy Balm in Lovely Mocha |
I'm so happy I received this item, it retails for $6.97 at Wal-Mart and I didn't want to shell out the almost-$10 it retails at my local drugstores. This chubby stick L'Oreal Glossy Balm in Lovely Mocha turns out to be a "my lips but better" shade for me. It evens out the color of my lips and adds a nice shine to them, it's very comfortable to wear and you don't need a mirror to apply. This is going into my purse immediately. This product already paid for the shipping of the box in my case.
The next most interesting product in the box is the CoverGirl Glowing Nights nail polish in #AfterDark (retails for $2.97 at Wal-Mart). This is a really beautiful turquoise color that is probably most suitable for spring/summer for me.
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| Secret Clinical Strength Invisble Solid Deodorant |
The Secret Clinical Strength Invisible Solid Deodorant in Completely Clean is a full sized item which retails for a whopping $11.97 at Wal-Mart (I guess Clinical Strength means it's more expensive?). I don't use these types of deodorants so I will probably pass this on, I prefer to use natural deodorants without Aluminum, parabens, and as few hormone-disrupting ingredients as possible.
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| Dove Deluxe Sample Products |
The Dove Advanced Hair Series Shampoo and Conditioner (Value: $0.42) and Pure Care Dry Oil (Value: $1.42) were nice additions to the box, I like receiving travel-sized minis of hair-care products because it's just enough for a few uses and gives me a good idea of whether or not I would re-purchase them.
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| Foil Packets and Small Sample Products |
I'm not even going to bother trying to calculate a value for these small samples because I'm sure you can get them for free in magazines or any store. I do like that Neutrogena included a $2 Off Manufacturer's Coupon with their sample card for the Nourishing Long Wear Makeup, so you can use this to stack with your store-rewards and sales. The perfume vial is a standard size of the Nicki Minaj Pink Friday, the smell is of some fruity candy so probably best suited for a younger person (or someone who likes cloyingly sweet scents).
The L'Oreal YouthCode Pore Vanisher is basically a copy of any other Dimethicone-based primer, so you can expect that same slick feeling on your face when using it - these products always work well to "fill up" any large pores you may have (the cheapest alternative is always to use Anti-Chafing Gel as your primer, it's made up of the same ingredients and sells for a much lower price than cosmetically-branded primers).
Was this box worth it? Heck yes! For $5, I received stuff I'll use, stuff I'll give away, and a bunch of new things to try! The total value of my box was $24.17 (not including the 3 smaller samples) in Wal-Mart prices - this means that at my local drugstore, the price would probably have been closer to $35. The Wal-Mart Beauty Box is a wonderful program and I hope that it continues to have success so they keep it around in the future and more brands want to participate for the great exposure.
- retail value $18, full size - Can I just say wow? I'm way more impressed with Tini Beauty's cream shadow than I am with their nail polishes (which I found to be just average). The Ambrosia shadow stains and lasts and lasts all day - I wish I had all of the colors now (especially Violette which is supposedly an IPSY exclusive - I might hunt this down on eBay soon!). The shadow goes on creamy smooth (way creamier than the Maybelline Color Tattoos) and isn't patchy at all, drying to a complete powdery finish. I also didn't notice any creasing. This color is very pigmented so you can use it on its own or as a base for other similar colored shadows. I have already repurchased this item in Violette from eBay!
- retail value $9, full size - IPSY first introduced me to Zoya and I've probably received 2 other nail polishes from the brand sinze and I absolutely LOVE them. They are naturally formulated and don't tend to chip on my nails - I would have preferred the color Odette (purple) but I received Dot (ballerina pink).
- retail value $2.99, full size - This blush is phenomenal! For the extremely low price point I was thrilled! It is very finely milled and it's a very generous size, this is definitely going to last me a long time (especially since I have so many other blushes in my current rotation). I'm going to look in local drugstores for this brand now!
- retail value $16.00, deluxe sample size value: $7.53 - love the color of this gloss in Peony Petal, this is definitely the color I was hoping for! It smells like a burnt rubber but it should smell like vanilla cupcake and glides smoothly onto my hand - I wasn't able to try it on my lips because of the scent. I received replacements from IPSY and POP Beauty - the full size of this product is made in the USA and smells like vanilla cupcakes and has a pleasant plumping sensation, the mini replacement I received from IPSY is made in Taiwan and still has a strong chemical/burnt rubber/gasoline smell
- retail value $35.00, deluxe sample size value: $1.35 - I like this item, it has a nice consistency to it, unfortunately the color is a little dark, this may be my fault though because I probably should have written in my beauty quiz that I'm "fair" (I'm changing that immediately!)
