April 2012 TopBox Overview and Review

Lots of varied items

Happy April and as promised, here is the overview and review of TopBox, the first in a series of four reviews this month on the sample subscription services for beauty products in Canada.  The other three (Glymm, LuxeBox, and GlossyBox) will be posted as soon as I receive them.

Cute box design - I will get this from now on 

What's inside?

Side one of the info card

Side Two of info card

Earth Day card from TopBox

 Now on to the items... In this box I received:

• * Bella Pella Tropical Flowers Body Lotion
•    Misa Nail Lacquer in Play it Cool
•    Benefit POREfessional
• * Lise Watier Hydrasmart

* Canadian Company

Tropical Flowers Body Lotion from Bella Pella

This lotion is quite fragrant when first applied but quickly becomes a more subtle scent, so don't be put off when you sniff the contents of the bottle.  The card reads that is composed of the perfume of South Pacific flowers enriched with avocado oil, jojoba oil and shea butter.

Full size: $15.95 for 175ml.  Sample size is 30ml.

Misa Nail Lacquer

Colour is Play it Cool - A pretty pink

This polish is from Misa, a company that I really know little about.  In fact, I rarely used nail polish before receiving these boxes.  Now I relish receiving them!

Also enclosed was a coupon for 20% off the purchase of Misa product from tradesecrets.ca

Full size is $8.99 for 15ml. Received the Full Size product.

POREfessional from Benefit

This pore minimizer from Benefit also reportedly smooths the appearance of fine lines. You can apply this alone, under or over makeup.  Translucent colour.  This has been on my wish list for a while so I am excited to receive it!

Full size is $34 for 22ml.  Sample size is 7.5ml.

HyrdaSmart from Lise Watier

This 3 in 1 cream can be used as opposed to a foundation.  When I swatched it and blended it out on my hand, it gives a beautiful sheen to the skin and makes the skin slightly more smooth.

Update - I have used this product today (Wednesday, April 18) to try it.  It applies very well, but I find that I needed to supplement it on some of my more red areas around nose and chin with my Lancome Teint Idole.  The other thing is that the sample size does not provide enough product for a good  test.  I really had to wrestle with the tube to get enough to cover my face.

Full size is $35 for 40ml.  Sample size is 2ml.

Cargo Blu_Ray HD Pressed Powder

There is relatively little information except a Sponsored ad for this product.  Which is more of a general intro to this line from Cargo.  The sample is one that you would get in a magazine and I am not entirely sure this would contain enough product to give it a fair review.

So... There you have it!  What was in the TopBox, well... box (cylinder shaped one).  My thoughts?

There were 3 sample-sized and 1 full size product this month.  The Cargo product was basically a toss in. Each product holds my interest, in particular the POREfessional.  I don't compare it to other months as all the products are different every time so it is not comparing apples to apples.

Soooo.... My thoughts on this month's offering from TopBox.

POREFessional - Hooray

Hydrasmart - Hooray

Nail polish - Hooray

Body Lotion - Hooray

Pressed Powder - Meh

4 Hoorays out of 5 means I am pretty pleased. All in all - a pretty good TopBox month.  Spectacular?  No, but honestly it's the anticipation that gets me.