Sorry I’ve been so busy! Review under the jump!
The Bag/Theme – YAAAAS. My bag was specifically kind of skin care heavy, which was cool. I love that this bag was a different, natural material and the print was cute. A keeper!
Hang Ten Classic Sport SPF 50 Sunscreen – My skin rarely sees the sun, so when it does, I need serious SPF protection. I was glad to get a strong sunscreen! This is nice and seems to have a good application, so cool. The full size is $12.99 for 6 ounces. Most big brands of sunscreen will run you $8-$11 for 8 ounces.
Pacifica Mineral Eyeshadow Duo – This was ok. I got it in purple and white (that’s Moonbeam and Unicorn to you.) For some reason, when I first looked at this pot, I thought ‘This isn’t going to be very well pigmented.‘ I don’t know how I knew, but… the purple is kind of a dusky shade (they call it greyish moody violet) but it goes on and looks just sort of smoky. Since it’s a frost, it just doesn’t look right on me–it look like my dark circles spread around my eyes. Not great. The white is a nice pearl, and works great as a highlighter. Interestingly, this isn’t sold this way on the Pacifica site. The shades are each part of separate palettes. It’s very cool that they created this (full-size!) sample, but I don’t think this was a great product to bait anyone into buying the product. The palettes are $14 (four shades) or $17 (7 shades).
Revlon ColorBurst Matte Balm in Elusive – Ok, when I saw the teaser for this, I had my fingers crossed. I’ve wanted this for ages and just haven’t bothered to buy one. I’ll say that it’s my favourite product of the bag, but I wasn’t over-the-moon in love with it. First, “matte” is kinda relative here–it doesn’t give quite the matte finish that I envisioned. The pigment borders on chalky when worn. And to be honest? I hate it when lip balms have mint in them–this one definitely does, to the point that it’s all I smell. These run $7.50ish each (the Revlon site keeps crashing Flash for me?) Every review of these I read, the reviewer L O V E D them, so maybe I’m just picky. MilkTeef had an awesome review with all the shades.
BareFoot Spa Exfoliating Polish – Hilariously, I got this on the day I read this article that claims that there are 19 tons of plastic beads in the New York sewers each year thanks to stuff like this (and laundry detergents.) Honestly? I didn’t even try this. I use St. Ives Apricot Scrub and probably always will. This stuff is $5.99 for 5.3oz.
Purlisse Pur Moist Hydra Balance Moisturizer – This is nice. It soaks up into my skin almost immediately, which is awesome. The problem, of course, is that my sample size was 0.5 oz–about the size of any deluxe sample of concealer or lotion. The full size? 1.7 oz for $55. Um, I think I’ll probably pass…
Yowza that sounds like a pretty good bag! I’m pretty happy with mine too, different though it was. I checked their website and they now have 24 choices! Now it’s amazing there’s any similarity between them. It makes me wonder what algorithm they use to fill the bag. I wonder if they cut deals with “preferred” vendors to make sure their item goes into all bags. I assume all vendors donate product but maybe some pay a little extra. WHAT? THESE ARE THINGS I NEED TO KNOW!
So here’s my bag:
I also got the Pacifica eyeshadow but mine was brown and white. Oh I’m sorry! Mine was Moonbeam and Opal. Why did I say brown and not purple? Oh because it was impossible to tell when I swatched it on my hand. That’s how bad the color payoff was. I just threw this one away. I have to say I’m a little surprised because I really like the other two samples I got from Pacifica : the hand lotion and the BB cream. In fact the BB cream is one of the few things I’ve re-purchased.
Hang 10 sunscreen : I got this too. I might make this my “emergency” sunscreen that I carry in my bag, because the tube is so small. I doubt I’ll buy it because I’m pretty faithful to Neutrogena for sunscreen.
Eva NYC Hair Mask : haven’t tried this yet. Hair conditioners as a rule aren’t too exciting to me, at least not anymore. I have a bunch already.
Hey Honey Take It Off : This looks like a peel-off mask. I haven’t done a peel off mask in years so I’m looking forward to this.
Avene Thermal Spring water : I am oddly excited about this! This falls into the category of “shit I would never buy but would still like to try”. I’ve been using Urban Decay All Nighter to set my makeup when I bother to use foundation ( which is rare ) and I’m liking it. I can’t speak to its “long-lasting” attributes because I don’t wear foundation often enough to have a sense of how long it should last. But I do like how it looks right after I spray it on. I have a long love-hate relationship with foundation and the moment right after I apply it is when I hate it the most : it looks fake! I can see all my wrinkles! it’s too orange! An hour later I’ll feel fine about it ( it settles in? wears off a bit? I get used to it? I dunno ) but I have a strong compulsion to take it off as soon as I get it on. Finishing powder and setting spray seem to help.
I’m totally jealous you got ColorBurst balm. I’m curious how a “balm” ( which I associate with looking shiny ) would be matte. I gave away a few lipsticks. That means I can buy more, right? Right.
I’m not jealous however about the exfoliating polish. I don’t like any type of gritty or beady exfoliant.