Holt Renfrew X Rebecca Minkoff Beauty Bag

Holt Renfrew X Rebecca Minkoff Beauty Bag Only 50$ Valued at over $125!! With $25 voucher to put towards on your next purchase at Holts!!

So this was the image that was posted on facebook along with my favourite sales associate making the simple and dangerous comment. She simply posted my name. Tagging my name in a Holt Renfrew Beauty Bag alone is bad enough. But a MINKOFF colab? Sigh............ I was in the store within 10 hours of her tagging me!

I ended up buying both the gold and the silver, but the gold one was for my mom. I kept the silver one, though to be accurate, its more of a gunmetal.

This bag is big. And has a zippered pocket inside. Now I know that Minkoff changes up the lining on their bags ALL the time so I was surprised to see the lining matched my mini mac from them. But the zipper is nice feature and again, this bag is BIG!

And I must say this little brush holder is great! This will certainly get use!

This was certainly the most pricey of the Holt Renfrew beauty bags, but it also had a $25 coupon instead of the normal $10.

I have to say though, the beauty items inside the bag were, at least for me, the best thus far in these bags. I love the chubby sticks, thrilled to try a Laura Mercier eyeliner, and really there is nothing in the bag I wont use (aside from the shampoo, but I was given a bunch of other Oribe samples to try to make up for it!). Also, the revive glycolic peel I am both thriled and exited to try, and also pissed off to find in this bag. It retails for over $300 and I am worried that I might love it! At least, the full sized one comes with 30 pads so you get quite a bit of product, but oh my is it a steep price!

I have a feeling this bag is going to sell out fast, so contact your local Holt Renfrew store asap to reserve yours, or you can contact Melanie Drain at Melanie.Drain@HoltRenfrew.com or 1-204-926-8105

May 2014 Glossybox Reveal and Review

So I have made one or two posts about this box already. I figured with a $25 gift card it was a sure bet at $21. Now I hadn't at the time realized the gift card expired so soon (June 15th) and might not have done this had I known that since that gives me only two weeks to run down to the post office box (across the border) and pick this up. Thankfully my father happened to be going the day after it arrived so it worked out well.

This box again is $21 and does not ship to Canada. It also bills at the beginning of the month but ships at the end of the month. I have no personal issue with this (heck, my julep box usually takes til the end of the month to reach me. I am STILL waiting for my May box) but some do so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Because of the collaboration with Bergdorf Goodman we actually knew what was going to be in this box. We were to get 6 items off a list of 13 possibles and were guaranteed one of the two Lancer eye products and one of the two Revive products.

First off I got this gift card. There is no shipping, taxes or other fees when ordering off the website so it was great. I ordered an Oribe Beach Spray for $21.50 which is en route as we speak. So that was something I wanted, would have purchased to try eventually and covered the cost of the box.

The first item was one of the ones I wanted! Its the Napoleon Perdis Primer. A value of $13.24

Next I got the revive serum. I have used this morning and night for two days now and while I like it, the pump is horrible. No matter how hard I try, I cant manage to not pump out enough for at least 6 eyes. What a waste of such a high end product! The value of this is $28.

**edit - day three the pump broke all together. I called glossybox (mainly to see if this was a known problem or if there was a way to fix it) and they are sending me a new one! yay!

Next up is a Light Weight Deep Conditioning Creme Rinse from Phillip B. I will admit I was disappointed to see this in here. I was hoping for the Alterna caviar cc cream and I guess they ran out because this wasn't even supposed to be an option.  That being said, a Blush mystery box introduced me to the Phillip B adjusting hair spray which I really like, so I will give this a chance. Its silicone free so I can use it, and its the full travel size Phillip B sells on the website for $10.

Next up was the Cologne. I freaking HATE rose. HATE rose. HATE HATE HATE HATE. My mom? She loves that god awful scent so this went to her. Nice size to try though from the pictures I had seen of it I was expecting a slightly larger bottle. A $10 value.

The Lancer Eye Contour Lifting Cream I have been using for the last two days over the Revive Serum. Its nice. Its a third the size of the regular one so its a fair amount to get to try it out. As I said, its nice, but I am not sure I would at this point in time be willing to spend $100 on an eye cream. Ten years down the road, possibly. A $32.30 value

This little container of Lancome elixir I can only assume is made by unicorns. At $350 for a mere 1.7oz jar, it better be! I have not tried this, I have no plan on trying this and I simply gave it to my mom saying "I hope you hate it". When she questioned why I would say that I told her the price. I have no urge to even TRY something like this. What if  I loved it? I prefer to remain in complete ignorance. This little sample is a $35! Its seriously the size of my thumb nail. Tiny tiny sample.

The value of this box $130 not including the Oribe product that I ordred. making this box come in over the $150 mark! A great value, and although I think this box was skewed very much towards anti aging and skincare, I certainly got enough to make me happy, if only the conditioner, primer and gift card. Since I am using the serum and eye cream, I really cant complain!

Next months box is said to have a couple polishes in it and if you use the code "HAIR" at sign up you will also get a free FULL SIZED, $50 Nioxin product. I like that these boxes seem to be (at least for your first one) totally risk free. Who cares if you hate everything in the box if you get a $50 product you know you want for $21?

I honestly was going to cancel after getting this box, but I think I will get at least one more box and decide after that! I wont get the free Nioxin product so I will give them a month to see if they can hook me!

Did you get this box? If so, what did YOU get? Would you have been happy with this box?

May 2014 GlossyBox - See It, Love It, THEN Buy It!

I think over the years you guys have all figured out I am not big on beauty box subscriptions. Asside from Julep I have NEVER stuck with one for more than a month (though I am seriously considering the blush box!!).

Then I saw this May glossybox and I HAD TO have one! So I subscribed. Sorry Canadians, this is only available in the United States (although you can order it for $40 on the Bergdorf Goodman website - well worth the extra $19 possibly). So why did I buy one? And why might you want one even if you have to buy it off the website for $40? Let me go through what is in it.

First and foremost, its $21 and it comes with a $25 gift card that is a true gift card. Or so Glossybox promises. Not a coupon or discount code, but a true gift card without restrictions (though I am sure this will end up being corrected in some form. I find this too good to be true). So if you like/use nothing in the box, you have already made $4.

Now, what comes inside? 6 premium samples. But saying it could be any beauty items that Bergdorf sells really leaves too much room for surprise for my liking. So here is the list of possible options. You WILL get 6 of the folllowing:

You will be receiving six of the following 15 items listed below. Each box is guaranteed to contain one sample from each of the following vendors, Lancer, Napoleon Perdis and Revive. Please note that the assortment of product is random, items pictured in the photo are an example representation of what the customer may receive. (The remaining three samples are picked at random.)
1. Alterna CAVIAR CC Cream 25ml/0.84 oz
2. Atelier Cologne Rose Anonyme Cologne Absolue 7.5ml/0.25 fl oz
3. Lancer Eye Contour Lifting Cream 5ml/0.16 fl oz
4. Lancer Lift Serum Intense 5ml/0.16 fl oz
5. Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Pre-Foundation Skin Primer 15ml/0.5 fl oz
6. ReVive Intensite Volumizing Eye Serum 3ml/0.1 fl oz
7. ReVive Eye Renewal Serum Firming Booster 3ml/0.1 fl oz
8. Chantecaille Brilliant Gloss 3ml/0.1 oz
9. Iluminage Skin Prep Gentle Cleanser 15ml/0.5 fl oz
10. Kevyn Aucoin The Essential Mascara 4g/0.14 oz
11. Lancome Absolue L'Extrait 5ml/0.16 fl oz
12. Hourglass Film Noir Full Spectrum Mascara 4.5g/0.15 oz
13. Sulwhasoo Timetreasure Renovating Cream 5ml/0.16 fl oz
14. Aerin Beauty Rose Hand & Body Cream 15ml/0.5 fl oz
A silky, lightweight rose-scented hand and body cream that drenches skin with moisture.
15. Napoleon Perdis Auto Pilot Pre-Foundation Skin Primer, Box of 7 Sachets, (1ml/0.03 fl oz)

I am REALLY hoping I get the tube and not the packets of the primer! A $13 value vs a $6 value would be nice. And I would love to try the eye serums. I love the hourglass mascara, chantecaille glosses and Alterna products in general so those would be awesome. The only two things I REALLY don't want are the rose scented lotion or perfume. And for essentially no risk I HAD to get this!!

If you want this box, go to glossybox.com and sign up (you will get the may box still as of the time of this post). The cost is $60 if you prepay for 3 months or $21 for a month to month subscription like I purchased (you can cancel at anytime). Or if you are outside the USA, go to the Bergdorf Goodman website to pick up the box for $40.