Essence Beauty Box: October

The beauty box that lets you look your best and help the community!

Have you heard about Essence beauty boxes? I am talking Essence like the magazine Essence. There are a lot of beauty box subscriptions on the market out there. Why did I chose this one? The products are chosen by a team of African-American women choosing most products with women of color in mind. With the Essence beauty box I am emailed a video clip of my products to come and a brief synopsis of how it is used. When my beauty box arrives, I have a small pamphlet with employees from Essence that tell me about each product and how they use it. it lets me try new and innovated beauty products at an affordable price. It’s super convenient and even a bit gleeful as the products just show up in the mailbox each ready for you to unwrap like a little present each month. I chose Essence beauty box specially because they strive to include a product from a black-owned business in each box a cause that is close to heart, after all there is power in where we spend our money. 

I first heard about beauty boxes from a friend a few years ago. What’s a beauty box? was what I had asked back then and what my hub asked me when I asked to sign up for the Essence Box. A beauty box requires a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription to receive a box of beauty goods to sample, however box subscriptions aren’t limited to beauty; you can get a box subscriptions from meals (see my post on HelloFresh) to socks and everything in-between. DailySavings.AllYou.com has a wonderful blog post on some of the best beauty box subscriptions. Subscriptions range from $10 – $25 for a month for some of the most popular beauty boxes, the prices of course drop a bit if you a make a more long-term commitment. The Essence beauty box is new to the scene with October being its debut month. However, what I really want to discuss today is my Essence beauty box. Now I know the title says October and it is November. I am little behind on writing my review of this. I am actually anxiously awaiting the November box! I just watched the clip of the next products I should be receiving soon and how to use them.

October’s beauty box consisted of Curls Cream Brulee or Creme Brulee as it is spelled on the bottle, Tarte the Brow Architect, Eden Bodyworks Coconut Shea leave-in conditioner, L’Occitane hand cream, Calvin Klein Eternity Now perfume. So there are five things that come in the box which may be less than other Beauty Box competitors but I was excited to see products that had been picked for me and my hair. I don’t know too much about makeup; that is my Bff’s area of expertise but I do know about hair and hair products. I will slightly raise my hand to say I am a PJ (product junky) when it comes to hair products. I have tried a lot of popular brands and have had little success. Which brings me to the reviews.

Curls Creme Brulee:First off I have found different spellings of this product. The bottle says Creme Brule while amazon has it as Cream Brule. Anyway, I love this product and have found it useful on my natural hair and also when my hair is flat ironed for daily moisture. It smells like a cupcake! Although, tonight while I was using it on my daughter’s hair, hubby mentioned it smelled like Tequilla. Not sure what Tequilla smells like (cause I don’t drink it) but this smelled devine to me. Especially since so many african american-geared products smell coconutty-is that word? Well, it is now. I use this like I would a pink oil moisturizer only I noticed this moisturized my hair longer whereas my hair drinks Pink Oil super fast and it is creamier, not too thick and not too runny. I felt it had the perfect consistency. I have to use Pink Oil daily for moisture and shine and at the end of the day my hair would be dry and feel almost brittle (in it’s natural state) and using it on flat-ironed hair was a no-no because I ended up with my hair reverting back to it’s afro/curly state. With Curl Creme Brulee, I can use daily or every other day and have moisture and no reverting. Two thumbs up for me! I have already ordered an 8 oz bottle from Amazon. It was $10.99 (whew! I usually don’t spend that much on a hair product). However, I later found that my local target had it for 7.99

Eden Bodyworks Coconut Leave-In Conditioner:

Just like the name suggests, this has a coconut fragrance. Compared to Creme Brulee, this smell does not linger. This is a coconut oil and shea butter leave-in conditioner that you use after you wash your hair. It is sulfate free and safe for color treated hair. I have used this after washing and I like the results for when I am doing a wash-n-go or braid out. It gave me moisture and easy detangling. I did not use this when I had my stylist flat iron my hair. So I cannot attest to how well it would do for that. I have been looking for a great leave-in and ended up making my own concoction (before I received the beauty box of course). This one is very thick and creamy. Don’t use too much. Like most prodcuts, a little goes a long way. I used about a nickel sized amount on hair sectioned into six. I like the product and will continue to use it for when I chose to be au naturale. Great choice and two thumbs up!

Tarte the Brow Architect:I had no idea how to use this. It was a three in one applicator. One end was for pencilling, one for brushing and another for concealing. Ok, so I got the brushing and pencilling but not the concealing because I felt I needed to wear makeup for that. I honestly have not used it much although I probably should. I think it is a great product to have. I received it in full-size. I need to play around with it more before I can give it a full review.

L’Occitane hand cream:I use to work for Crabtree and Evelyn (like 10 years ago) and L’Occitane was considered our rival. I remember trying L’Occitane hand cream back then and thinking that it left a weird feeling on my hands. It could have been because I was constantly wearing Crabtree’s hand cream but I digress. I saw the hand cream in the beauty box and ignored it for a couple weeks but then my hands got dry and I came across it. I put it on and immediately loved the aroma. It was light and sort of sweet but not nauseatingly so. It was smooth and absorbed quickly–no weird feeling afterwards. I love it and glad it’s small enough to fit in my purse. It is very thick which speaks to how emollient it is going to be on your skin. Two thumbs up!

Calvin Klein Eternity Now:I am sensitive to alot of fragrances. Many things nauseate me including candles, body splashes, plug-in fragrances and even scentsy. I can tolerate most essential oils which is mostly what I use for fragrance these days. However, I loved this fragrance. It’s a combination of floral and fruits with a touch of cashmere as an end note. Lychee and Peony are some of it’s highlights. Honestly, if I had found out that this fragrance was all fruit and flowers, I probably would not have tried it. My curiosity had the best of me. What made the Essence beauty writers think I would like this? I tried it without reading about it’s fragrance notes first and was pleasantly surprised. It was a bit sensual and clean but also light and kinda crisp. I gave it bonus points for not nauseating me.  The scent did not last all day even with putting it on my pulse points straight out of the shower but perhaps that was because it was a rollerball. Two thumbs up!

Okay, that concludes my review of the products in last month’s beauty box.I like that Essence sent in a guide of how their employees use the product. That made me feel even better about the products I got. Stay tuned for the November beauty box review. Have you tried any beauty boxes? Would love to hear your thoughts if you’ve tried some of the products reviewed above.