Beauteque Bag November 2015

 

 

My first ever Beauteque beauty bag (aka BB bag) came in the post today and I was super excited to finally have this!

For those unfamiliar with Beauteque, it is an online Asian beauty store based in the USA. They have a monthly subscription service for a BB bag that provides 6-8 full size products that are a combination of skincare, makeup or other beauty product. This is different to many other established beauty subscription boxes in that it primarily focuses on K-beauty (although there is the occasional Japanese/Western/Chinese product) and are all full size items not just samples.

Their products for each bag are valued at between USD$65-$85 but for a monthly bag you only pay $24. Including shipping charges to the UK ($8.95) I paid $32.95/£21 in total.

For more information on the subscription service check out that website here.

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Beauty subscription services have never appealed to me before now. As I’m now on the K-beauty train I thought this would be a good way to discover new products and brands. As I don’t live in an Asian country, it isn’t as easily accessible to me so its nice to receive things regularly to test out. K-beauty has such cute packaging and designs too that I was quite excited at the prospect of receiving surprise goodies every month. I only signed up for 1 bag first because I wanted to decide whether I liked it enough to get a 3 or 6 month subscription.

I was very pleasantly surprised then, when I received my bag much earlier than expected. I received an email saying it had been shipped last Friday and I already have it here on Wednesday. I thought it would take at least a week from US to UK.

As I’ve only just got this, this will just be my initial impressions of the bag and the items inside and whether I think it’s worth subscribing.

The bags usually have a monthly theme which the products revolve around and for November it is Fall Favourites. Normally the card with product details would be enclosed with the bag but this month they’ve chosen to send it out via email in honour of Nov 15th ‘America Recycles Day’.

So my BB bag came in a large white envelope and I immediately knew it was Beauteque from the logo above the address. Inside was a polka dot bag containing most of the items and 2 other items too big for it.

Have to admit, a big part of why I signed up to this BB bag was to receive the toiletry bag. I’d seen previous ones and they looked so cute! Other beauty services usually provide products in a box but I love that this is much more practical and is something that I can keep and put all my products into. This month is a black and white polka dot bag and while its not really to my taste I still love that I have it to use. Its a good decent size and lightweight.

This month there were 8 items inside the BB bag.

First up – Banila Co. Radiant Lace Hydrogel Eye Patch – Illuminating and Lifting.

Value: $6.90

Use: After cleansing, wear for 20 minutes then discard and follow up with rest of skincare.

I’m very eager to try this product. I use Asian facemasks but not eye masks and this is a lace one which seems to be getting popular in Asia at the moment. It contains ceramide and rose with white flower complex along with green tea and other flower extracts to illuminate, lift and improve your skin condition. Also contains collagen extract to reduce fine lines.

The ingredients look good but I’m not convinced how much benefit this will have on my eye area with just one mask. Seems like something you would have to apply on a long term basis to get any visible affects but I’m still keen to try this because face masks are always fun and relaxing to wear.

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Baviphat Paprika Moisture Hand Cream

Value: $10

Use: Hand Cream for moisturizing

Now isn’t this just adorable! So so cute. Its a small tub of hand cream shaped like a bell pepper. I’ve just been playing with it for the last 10 minutes and I still can’t get over it. I’m not even fussed about what’s inside, I just love looking at it.

So there were 3 different types you could have received this month. Beauteque will usually email out for people’s preferences on certain items and then try to cater to them but I signed up too late so I just got given one at random. I was hoping for the green one because its the best colour, anti-wrinkle and contains grape extract which is just what my hands need. Alas I got the orange one for moisturizing dry hands. Thats not bad though since it’s coming up to winter and weather is getting very dry. This contains paprika extract to smooth and hydrate as well as peach extract for nourishing.

I don’t often use hand cream since I’m not a fan of the thick sticky feeling as it makes me feel like I can’t touch anything but this one is quite lightweight and absorbs quite quickly. I don’t particularly like the scent too much though. I can definitely smell traces of peach and paprika but it comes across as quite artificial which my nose doesn’t like because then it starts to hurt my head. I will probably give this to my boyfriend to use because he has very dry cracked hands. And he likes to eat peppers. When he has used it up I’ll take the pepper back and fill it up with some other cream so I can keep pepper by my side. Love you lil pepper. 🙂

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A’Pieu Soochaebit Finger Blusher

Value: $10

Use: Apply small amount to apples of cheek with fingers.

Cream blusher. Yay. I’ve always stuck with the traditional powder but I’ve been wanting to try a cream blusher. I’ve hit pan with my favourite E.L.F blush and was looking to try some Korean ones. I ordered a few to try just yesterday and was even considering this A’pieu one but I went for Aritaum cream blushers instead. Glad I did because now I have this in my BB bag.

This is another item that will vary in colour for each bag. I got it in shade RD01 and swatched it on my hand. Initially I thought wow this is far too bright of a pink it will make me look like a clown. But as you smooth it out and rub it in it becomes a lovely wearable pink shade. A little bit does go a long way since I am quite pale. I do like my blushers more pigmented though so this is good because you can build up the colour intensity.

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Baviphat Touch My Body All-In-One Wash

Value: $5.50

Use: Apply in bath/shower with hands or body pouf.

This is the one product I’m slightly iffy on because I’m not fond of the smell. There was a choice of receiving cherry, lime, rose or peach. When I first sniffed it I honestly could not figure out what it was meant to be. Just smelt funky. Made my dad smell it and he said almonds. Only realised it was cherry when I checked the product card and then I could kind of sniff it out. Most fragrances don’t usually bother me as long as they aren’t overpowering or artificial but this is both. I guess those who love the smell of cherries will love it. I like to eat it but not partial to the fragrance of it in products. Perhaps when its diluted with water in the shower it won’t smell as strong. I will give it a chance but if it’s not for me I will pass it on to the boyfriend. He likes the smell of cherries even though he doesn’t eat it. Go figure.

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Bath Ball 

Value: $5.50

Use: Wet then apply body wash. Run sponge under water to create lather then wash body with sponge.

A bath sponge isn’t something I would personally go out and buy or find it a necessity for my showers but you can bet if I have one I’m definitely going to be using it so I’m very happy to have received this in my BB bag. It is good for gently exfoliating the skin and creating a nice lather so I should hopefully have super fresh skin when I come out my next shower.

Also just to point out, this is the only Chinese product in the bag. It is made in China but looks like a good quality ball sponge nevertheless.

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Cow Bubble & Aroma Bath Salt

Value: $4

Use: For a bubble bath. Pour sachet into bath filled with warm water and soak in it for about 10-15 minutes.

This is bath salt from Japan and came in a choice of scent. I hoped I’d get the sparkling champagne one after I saw it on their website but I ended up with creamy milk.  This is infused with milk fatty acid and ceramide with a milk aroma and creamy white colour. Very curious how that will smell. This is meant to moisturize your skin leaving it soft and silky smooth and soothe muscle aches and pains.

I’ve been looking forward to a nice relaxing bath in this cold weather recently so I can’t wait to try this. Will use the body sponge and body wash that I got in this bag at the same time I think.

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Secret Key Lemon D-Toc Peeling Gel

Value: $15

Use: Use after cleansing on dry face. Massage it onto face until residue forms. Rinse off with water after 5 minutes.

Love peeling gels. This was what I was most excited to receive. I love skincare products the most and was very keen to try this out after I’d finished my TonyMoly peeling gel that I’d reviewed here. But lucky me now I don’t have to wait. This is Secret Key’s best selling product and is very well reviewed among bloggers so I’m expecting good things from this.

It has a lot of ingredients that are great for the skin such as lemon. Lemon is rich in Vitamin C which moisturizes sensitive and problem prone skin, evens out and brightens skin tone and works to detox and unclog pores. It also contains broccoli, aloe vera, papaya and witch hazel so lots and lots of benefits to the skin.

The only downside to this so far, is that it doesn’t have a lemon scent like I’d expect from the name. Sad. Love the smell of lemons. This smells more like the Vitamin C tablets that I fizz in water.  Tested a bit on my hand and it balls up very quickly like usual peeling gels, leaving my hand silky soft. So far so good.

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Beauteque Pore Brush 

Value: $8.99

Use: Apply cleanser. Wet brush and brush face in circular motion, focusing on the nose and nose crevices.

The final product actually comes from Beauteque itself. This is meant to remove buildup and gunk in the pores and provide a nice massage into tight areas your hands can’t get to. I’m interested to see if this actually works. The brush is a nice quality, small enough so I can work it into tight crevices and has dense but very soft bristles.

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So do I like this BB bag?

I think this BB is great! Feel lucky my first foray into a beauty subscription bag has been so good. There is a nice variety of products here from skincare to makeup to beauty tools. There is such a mix that it’s hard to please everyone with everything and I was expecting to get things I wouldn’t want to use or may not have suited me but surprisingly this was fab.  I pretty much like every item in the bag and there’s nothing that I couldn’t or wouldn’t use. A couple iffy ‘flavours’ but that’s to do with the luck of the draw and not the product themselves.

The total value of this bag is worth $65.89(not including the toiletry bag)  which is about £44 and I paid £21 for this including shipping. I do think the products have an inflated value because they can certainly be found for much cheaper but even still, you are saving probably £10/15 at least. Some of these beauty products are hard to find online also and not all from the same website where you also have to take into account shipping cost. Therefore I think this bag is good value if you want to try various Asian goodies and like the surprise factor of it.

I have subscribed to a 3 month subscription plan and I’m eager to get my December bag already. I hope the next few bags are as great as the November bag and I’m looking forward to collecting more of the actual toiletry/makeup bags. They are really cute and I could do with a few more.