October (New and Pricey) Allure Box
Happy October! Pumpkin spice, Minnesota’s first snowfall, and a new batch of makeup that I don’t need. October is usually when I start eyeing up the holiday sets and deciding what I want to bring into the house and what is better off not entering my life. I’ll be honest, this year’s holiday stuff is kind of -meh- so far, but maybe I’ll change my mind as the Christmas spirit starts to haunt my wallet.
Anyway. That’s a blog post for another time.
Today we’re here to talk about Allure. As I’ve spoken about before, Allure had a big old price increase this month, jumping from $15 a month to $23. It’s a big stretch, and I was mostly wondering if it was worth the price increase. I love getting this box and thought it was 100% worth it at the lower price, but that is a lot more. I went ahead and took the leap and paid upfront for the full year at a discounted rate, so I’m hoping it’s worth it because that money is gooooone.
This month, there were seven items, plus a bonus foil packet.
Let’s get that foil packet out of the way. It’s the Rusk Puremix Native Fig Replenishing Shampoo and Conditioner. I’m not loyal to my shampoo. I switch it up a lot and don’t worry too much about what I buy. For me shampoo is either -just okay- or it’s good. There’s not much in between. This falls firmly in the just-okay set. It’s shampoo. At almost $20 a bottle each for the shampoo and conditioner, I’m not sure I like it enough to buy it when there are several shampoos I love that already fall into that price point.
Okay. Let’s dive into the real products.
Skincare
First up was a single-use item, which is the Wilma Schumann Hydrating Collagen Eye Pads ($3.60 for one, $18 for a 5-pack). I’ve never heard of this brand, but I regularly use eye gels. My favorite ones are the Wander Beauty No Baggage ones, but these felt nice and it was nice to switch it up.
The box also loaded me up on moisturizers. The most “basic” of these is the La Roche-Posay Lipikar Balm AP+ ($0.74 for this sample, $19.99 for 400mL). I’ve mentioned this before but LRP was one of those brands that I always thought was fancy when I was a college student who couldn’t afford good skincare. But, thinking about it now, you can buy so much of this moisturizer for twenty bucks. It is super affordable for how good it is. That said, it’s a moisturizer. It’s not spectacular, but it is a nice everyday moisturizer.
The next two were a little more niche. Dr. Jart is a favorite of Allure, and they sent on the Dr. Jart Ceramidin Cream ($9.60 for this sample, $48 for 50mL). I’ve used this before and liked it. It’s very thick and does a wonderful job of sealing in moisture for the day. Its thick texture makes it rough to blend in, so not one for when you’re in a hurry. To finish off the moisturizers, there was also an eye cream. The Verso Super Eye Serum ($65, full size is 0.67 oz) is a pretty standard eye cream. It’s a huge squeeze bottle, and I love the light and creamy texture. I get fairly dry around my eyes and this has helped stave that off. It has a nice cooling effect, which would also be helpful if you have puffy eyes too.
The final skincare item is something I…would never buy for me. Ever. The Nue Co. Topical C ($70, full size is 0.48 oz) is a powdered vitamin C that you can mix into other skincare. I already use a Vitamin C serum, so the idea of using it isn’t unusual, but I think mixing it into other products in an unknown concentration could be sensitizing to some skin. I’ve been using this for over a week, mixed into the LRP moisturizer, and it hasn’t done much for me, but if you have a lot of discoloration or dark spots it might!
Makeup
Color cosmetics are my favorite part of the Allure box (because they’re fun!) and this month there were two. First is the Sigma Liquid Lipstick in Venom ($4.93 for this sample, full size is 5.67g for $20). Liquid lips are something I haven’t used in a while. Probably not since their heyday in 2016-2017. But, new times. This is the perfect lip for wearing under a mask. It does. not. move. IT’s a bright red, but there is zero smudging once it dries down. LEt’s be honest, no liquid lip is comfortable, but this one is one of the more comfortable ones I have tried!
Next is a nail polish, the Static Nails Liquid Glass Lacquer in Irene ($16). Trying out a nail polish from Static had been one of my wishlist items. So far, not disappointed. The nail polish goes on in thin and even coats easily and sets down hard with a glossy, glassy finish. For wear time, it’s also better than most, lasting 7 days without chipping for me. I’ll be trying some other shades. I also used my Olive & June Poppy to apply it and that helped a lot too since the bottle is so small and delicate.
Final Thoughts
The total value of this box therefore comes to $169.87. The website kind of disingenuously (in my opinion) says that the value is going to be $220…but that also includes 3 bonus gifts in your first box. So, take that with a grain of salt. I don’t like the way they do that, but $170 is still an high number, and higher than normal, so I think that the value is indeed going up as the price of the box has gone up.
I’m not sure if I would ever justify repurchasing such large-cost skincare, especially for things that are easily dupable, like Vitamin C, which shouldn’t cost $70 under any circumstances. Still, they’re nice to have and I’ll honestly use every item from this box.
If you’re interested in getting your box, you can click here! Boxes are $23 per month and guarantee at least six items and a retail value of $100+! They also release spoilers every month, so if you want to take a sneak peek, you can see if you want to skip or not too.
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