Hi, everyone! Hope your New Year is going well.
I signed up with a little bit of trepidation for Beautylish’s Lucky Bag 2017. The Lucky Bag is a fukobukuro, which is a Japanese New Year tradition where merchants make grab bags of mystery merchandise and sell them at deeply discounted prices. Beautylish offers two Lucky Bags. The regular is $75 and contains at least $150 of products; the XL Lucky Bag is $150 and contains $300 worth of products. I’m a little hard to please when it comes to new products, but one of my goals for the new year is to live more adventurously, and that includes trying more new things and being more open to new experiences. In that spirit, I ordered a regular size Lucky Bag.
The Lucky Bag 2017 actually came in a box.
Here’s the card that came with it.
And now, one by one, the contents:
Wayne Goss The Brow Set, $55
I will be the first to admit that I don’t do well by my brows. I don’t groom them as often as I should (too lazy/cheap to set up a regular waxing schedule) and I don’t generally use eyebrow cosmetics unless I’m doing a full face. So this particular brush set is not really in my wheelhouse, so to speak.
The tools come in a cardboard tube, inside which is tissue paper made into a package and tied with a string, inside which are the individually plastic-wrapped brushes. This packaging is what my roommate describes as “fucking ridiculous”.
The tools themselves look lovely. I likely won’t use any of them except for the actual brush, and I’m way more likely to repurpose that for eyeshadow somehow than to use it as intended. Oh well!
Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray 2.2 oz., $22
This texturizing spray is available in 2 sizes, and the one included in the Lucky Bag was the small size. This spray is described as building both volume and texture.
Let me tell you, product comes out of this bottle like a bullet from a gun. It’s super fast, and with a decent amount of force behind it. Does it add texture? A little. Did it add volume? A tiny bit, I guess. I’m in the particular position of having hair that is extremely thin and fine, so most texturizing products just weigh it down and make it look greasy. This doesn’t make me look greasy, but it doesn’t do much by way of volume at all, so it’s a pass for me.
Jouer Cosmetics Long-Wear Lip Creme in Dulce de Leche, $18
I don’t particularly like this product. It’s a matte lip cream, and it’s designed to be long-lasting. I don’t actually object to either of those things in a lip product. However, I have two issues with this product. First, the color is unflattering on me. That’s just a function of playing the Lucky Bag game, and I can’t fault Beautylish for not knowing that this particular color makes me look like a decaying corpse. Second, though, is the fact that this product is pretty drying and uncomfortable on my lips. I put it on, it dried down (pretty quickly, and it spread really easily on the lips), and I almost immediately felt the need to lick my lips to remoisturize them. Of course, since I was wearing this lip creme, that accomplished nothing. It’s also not particularly pleasant to wear – until it dries down completely, it has a gross kind of “gummy” feeling that a lot of matte lip tints have (looking at you, Clio’s Lipnicure), and after it does, it almost feels a little grainy.
it Cosmetics Superhero Mascara, $24
This is a pretty decent mascara. You can get the same effects with it as you get with my current favorite, Chanel’s Volume de Chanel. Unlike the Chanel, though, it takes several swipes of the mascara wand to build up enough product to get the volume. That makes this product better if you vary between a more natural mascara look and a really lashy one, but if you’re like me and it’s all lashes or go home, the Chanel is easier to use.
Viseart Theory Palette in Cashmere, $45
This is a lovely palette. Obviously it has six colors, three of which are matte and three of which are shimmery. All six shades are finely milled; there are no glitter chunks to be found in the shimmers and the mattes are not as hard as a rock. Five of the six shades applied beautifully; I found the mid-tone shimmer shade to have significantly less color payoff than the rest. The colors blend together well and wear for at least 8 hours without creasing (over an eyeshadow primer). Here are some swatches.
Don’t be fooled – although you can’t really see the swatch of the lightest matte shade very well, the issue isn’t with this product’s pigmentation. It’s that the tone is so close to my actual skin color that it blends in too well, which makes it a great base color for me since my dark circles basically go from my browbones to my cheekbones.
Although I’m happy with the quality of this palette (mid-tone shimmer shade aside), I don’t think these are the shades I would have picked for myself. I’m certainly not unhappy I received it, but I think I would have picked colors other than neutrals. And to be frank, although they’re a little softer than the Inglot shadows, the Inglot wear just as well and you can make your own palette.
Bioderma Sensibio Micellar Water 100mL, $6.90
I’ve actually wanted to try this product for quite a while. On the one hand, everyone is saying good things about it, so I’m curious. On the other hand, I really like my Son&Park Beauty Water, so I want to see if the Bioderma stacks up to it at all. So I have a couple reasons to play around with this.
I wish this product wasn’t the small size – I’d gladly have changed out one product to a less expensive one to get a full size of this micellar water. I’ve only used it once since I’ve gotten the Lucky Bag, but it did a great job of removing all of my makeup without leaving my skin feeling like I’d rubbed it with sandpaper.
So, for my $75, I received a total of $171.90 in products. Now, just for funsies, here is what I would have picked if I got about $170 in products from Beautylish (and if I wasn’t allowed to use any brands that I had used before, in keeping with my whole “adventurous” goal).
Koh Gen Do All In One Refresh Gel, $50.
Make-Up Aetelier Palette 5 Cream Concealers, $35.
Natasha Denona Eyeshadow Palette 5, $48. Probably in either set #2 or set #8.
Charlotte Tilbury Eyes to Mesmerise in Cleopatra, $32. Because I just can’t resist a good cream eyeshadow, especially in that color.
That brings me to $165, so I’d get myself the Bioderma again to try out. To be honest, though, if I had $170 to spend at Beautylish without any rules or restrictions it would be ALL ABOUT THE CHIKUHODOS. I love Chikuhodo brushes.
Did you pick up a Lucky Bag? Were you happy with what was inside? Let me know!