Glambot Experience and Haul – Part Two

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UPDATE, NOVEMBER 21, 2014:

I discovered that one lipsticks I purchased and that is shared in this series, MAC Cosmo, had gone bad after detecting a foul crayon-like smell. I checked with Glambot to see if they check the batch numbers of products they put up for sale to ensure they aren’t selling extraordinarily old products…they don’t, the lipstick I received was over seven years old.

Disclaimer: The following post was sponsored by Glambot (www.glambot.com). I was not paid to write, but let it be known that I did receive discounted product for consideration. My content, thoughts, and words are my own. I would not have accepted a discount if I wouldn’t have written about my experience with them anyway. You can visit my Legal page for more detail.

Continuing from Part One last Saturday, I left off at having received my Glambot package only two days after ordering (though I did not receive a shipment confirmation, so I wasn’t sure when to expect it.) I tore open a the USPS Priority Bubble Mailer that arrived open to find a shiny, cutely-adorned Glambot bubble-mailer insider. It is slightly smaller, but fit snugly within the USPS envelope.

Glambot - Inner Bubble Mailer OpenLook! Bubble wrap! A thing! Looks like a little pigment vial, but let’s empty ‘er out:

Glambot - Bubble-Ception 1

Five little bubble pouches. Bubble-ception! The bubbles obscure the contents a little, but not entirely. Up top are two lipsticks, at the bottom, a blush and two shadows (in one bubble-pouch), to the right, the pigment vial.

Glambot - Bubble-Ception 2

Why yes, that is yet another protective bubble pouch. My joke about it being bubble-ception may be a little more realistic than I thought. But hey – at least my order was safe. Glambot really seems dedicated to keeping your purchases protected from damage during shipping – these items are packed better than NIB items often are!

Glambot Haul

You will notice that the lipsticks and pigment vial have a small Glambot, “GB,” sticker on each to keep them closed. This is done after sterilization and keeps the cap secured during its journey. The two shadows on the bottom left and right are secured within two plastic sleeves and then surrounded with this cute, circuit-board-printed vellum-esque Glambot paper, and also secured with the same type of, “GB,” sticker to hold everything in place. In the bottom center is a blush, and it has a small foam pad on top of the blush and a piece of vellum-esque Glambot-printed paper on top of that, under the lid.

Here’s everything after I have removed it from bubble-ception. This is the entirety of my order, from top left (pricing is before the discount I received, for full disclosure):

  • MAC Lipstick in Syrup – 30-50% full, in Good condition – $9.00
  • MAC Pigment in Rushmetal – 80-100% full, in Good condition – $10.80
  • MAC Lipstick in Cosmo – 80-100% full, in Good condition – $12.00
  • MAC Eyeshadow Refill in Motif – 50-80% full, in Good condition – $9.00
  • MAC Blush in Fleur Power – 80-100% full, in Good condition – $21.60
  • Urban Decay Eyeshadow Refill in Freelove – 50-80% full, in Good condition, $8.25

Realistically, the blush was not priced at less than retail. Glambot.com suggests that it is regularly $23.50 new, but MAC has it on their site for $21 (maybe it used to cost more? I have no idea, maybe one of MAC’s devotees can clear that up for me). I don’t really care how much the pigment normally is, as I am certain this is a discount and will probably have it until I die. Cosmo and Syrup are reasonable discounts. Motif came at a discount of $1 and I don’t think Urban Decay offers refill pans, though it was labeled as such. It did come at a hefty discount as compared to the full product.

To date, I have owned only two MAC products – MAC Brave (lipstick), and MAC Soar (lip liner). I’ve wanted to try more, but I have trouble swallowing $15 for lipstick, $21+ for blush. Since I had nearly no experience with the brand, I wasn’t exactly clamoring to try it. I found Glambot, however, and checked out their site, which claims to have the largest selection of verified legitimate MAC products out there. Realistically, I lack the time to scour their site to confirm that statement, but I can tell you they have 145 pages, twelve products per page, of MAC products.

Moving on:
Glambot - MAC Motif This is MAC Motif. You can see the circuitry art a bit better; I thought it was pretty cute. When you remove this paper sleeve, there is a plastic sleeve inside, and then another:

glambot10

This is Urban Decay Freelove, still safe inside of plastic sleeve-ception. (This is actually the second plastic sleeve. The right part folds over, then it was in a slightly larger pouch of the same material, then the paper was around that.) They each had their own sleeve.

glambot12

This is to show wear. UD Freelove on the left, MAC Motif on the right.glambot11

And again. You can see that pan has been hit on Motif, but just barely – there is still a lot of product in the pan. Freelove has a bit of a gouge out of its right side (I suspect it had been dropped), but is also still very full. It will take me some time to finish these.glambot07

My first pigment! Kind of coppery looking in the tube. (Pardon my needing-to-be-redone nails.) I was particularly thrilled for this one, as I hear it is virtually impossible to actually run out of these pigments (hence why I got a tiny vial and not a whole tub). glambot17

Still coppery looking with it open. I’m amazed it didn’t go everywhere when I opened it. I only barely tapped my pinky to the inside of the cap and got major color payoff. Score!

So far, I am extremely impressed with the speed of shipping, the care taken with regard to packaging, and the fact that these items were represented so well on their website. Take Freelove, for example. I do not know if Glambot photographs each item they put up for sale (I certainly wouldn’t hold it against them if they didn’t), but look at this:Glambot - Urban Decay Freelove Listing

Glambot.com Example Item Listing Page

Here we have the listing for Freelove. Look at the photo of the shadow – that is literally what I received. I know it is a little harder to compare with my photo, but you should still be able to see that line where it kind of dips down into that, “gouge,” area. I think it would be huge for them if they were able to photograph each item they had up for sale.

This image also shows what I mentioned in Part One about having items appear available in searches and in browsing, but clicking through and finding them out of stock (this screenshot was taken after I had received my order). I could see keeping listings for things that are NIB (new-in-box), like Mascaras (Glambot does not appear to sell used mascara – which is GOOD because they shouldn’t!) since you won’t need to show its wear, but for specific items that have specific wear, it would make shopping easier and more enjoyable if listings for specific pre-owned items were immediately removed from searches and categorical listings.

My items were well-packed and thoroughly protected, with eyeshadow having a total of SEVEN layers of protection (two plastic sleeves, paper sleeve, two bubble sleeves, inner bubble mailer, outer bubble mailer). Although there was a bit of packaging-ception going on, it was reassuring to know that that much care had been taken in keeping the items safe en route to me. All of the items arrived undamaged, despite suffering the rigors of USPS transit. Furthermore, even though there was a lot of protective packaging, it was not difficult to remove and was not time consuming. (Those plastic clamshell packages that come on stuff, usually electronics, takes WAY longer to open!)

If you’re interested in checking out what they have to offer, I have a promo link for you. Their site is kind of weird about promo codes, however, so instead of entering that at checkout, their site is setup in such a way that you follow links to get whatever promo they have going on. BeautySkepticLove10 will get you 10% off all items on glambot.com. (This is not an affiliate link – I do not get kick-back from your purchase – just wanted to give you a heads-up!).

Part Three

Glambot Experience and Haul – Part One

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UPDATE, NOVEMBER 21, 2014:

I discovered that one lipsticks I purchased and that is shared in this series, MAC Cosmo, had gone bad after detecting a foul crayon-like smell. I checked with Glambot to see if they check the batch numbers of products they put up for sale to ensure they aren’t selling extraordinarily old products…they don’t, the lipstick I received was over seven years old.

Disclaimer: The following post was sponsored by Glambot (www.glambot.com). I was not paid to write, but let it be known that I did receive discounted product for consideration. My content, thoughts, and words are my own. I would not have accepted a discount if I wouldn’t have written about my experience with them anyway. You can visit my Legal page for more detail.

Like me, you may have had a product you were interested in trying but were wishy-washy about pulling the trigger and making the purchase. That’s how it has been for a lot of things for me – biting the bullet and trying gel polish, BareMinerals, Stila Stay All Day liner, etc. especially when it comes to mid-range or higher products. It is easy to commit to a $2-5 lipstick, but a bit harder to commit to a $15-20 one.

Enter Glambot.com.

Glambot

The simplest way to relate this is to say that Glambot can be considered the Plato’s Closet of cosmetics and tools. Someone buys something, maybe it doesn’t work out for them. Maybe they bought it from somewhere with a less-than-generous return policy. Maybe they question the ethics of returning something just because they had Buyer’s Remorse, and want it to be used by someone who digs it instead of being discarded (which is often the fate of opened-but-unused products). They sell to Glambot, who verifies the authenticity of the product, sterilizes it, and prices it based on its condition (fair, good) and how much product is left (80-100%, 50-80%, 30-50%).

Someone else comes along wanting something and they find a product they wanted to try cheaper than retail, they then order from Glambot.com as you would any other website. They receive their verified, sterilized, carefully packaged product in a few days.

Glambot carries and verifies products from MAC, Urban Decay, Lorac, Benefit, Too Faced, Stila, Nars, Buxom, Tarte, Sigma, Laura Mercier, and The Balm – amongst others, including premium labels. They seem to be expanding their options, but seem to be following the, “slow and steady,” approach rather than compromising quality and delivering anything less than a safe, legitimate product.

After I did some research of my own, I went ahead and decided to give Glambot a shot. I literally spent a couple hours perusing the site to see if they had anything I was specifically seeking. I was just matched to Nars Sheer Matte foundation in Punjab – but they didn’t have any in stock. I am definitely not interested in paying full priced for MAC brushes, but I wouldn’t mind a gently-used 242 – they didn’t have them. It is the nature of the business to have a constant revolving door of products, after all, so I pressed on.

I actually saw a Naked palette on there for something like $47, and Too Faced palettes for $32. I already have Naked and am not looking for another palette, but I thought that was intriguing. They have a lot of, “vintage,” Urban Decay – not true old school, but prior to the current formulation. Lots of 24/pencils. They have a veritable ton of MAC products – though I could not get through all of them, I sifted through quite a few. There were several lipsticks I wanted to try, but many of them (though they had a listing), were marked as sold out when you clicked through to it. Same with the shadow refill pans – I found the sheer volume of products that appeared to be in stock that actually weren’t a little discouraging. For a little while, it seemed like out of every 5 products I was really interested in, only 1-2 of them were actually available for purchase.

I finally filled my cart and placed an order on the 16th; I was surprised when, on the 18th, this showed up in my mailbox via USPS Priority. Although I received an order confirmation immedoately, I did not receive a confirmation of shipment. For reference, Glambot.com ships from California and I am located in Pennsylvania.

Glambot - Shipment PackageObviously, the reverse side has important info. The dimensions of this envelope are larger than I was expecting – 9.5″ x 12.5″ standard USPS bubble mailer. It felt pretty full, not haphazardly filled with jumbled contents. I opened it up:

Glambot - Inner Bubble MailerGlambot Inner Bubble Mailer

Inside, I found a super-shiny chrome bubble mailer. It is slightly smaller, and covered with a Glambot sticker and carefully sealed with branded tape. I am pleased that it isn’t just nondescript, lame packaging picked up from Staples. Carrying your branding into the details is, I think, one of those little things that will make people smile. All in all, pretty cute.

I am thoroughly pleased with the speed of shipping, even in spite of not having received a shipment confirmation (though two business days is not an unreasonable time to box-and-ship for a company without a giant warehouse with warehouse people pulling picks and so forth).

After I finished concocting this post, I realized how insanely long it was – so I am breaking it into three separate posts (and yes, part one was this long). If you’re interested in looking into Glambot, they have a couple promo codes up on their site, but you can snag 10% off with this link!

Part Two
Part Three

Worth It? Elma and Sana Argan Oil Review

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A couple weeks ago I did a first look at the Elma and Sana Argan Oil, and now I feel as though I can adequately review the product. Fortunately, this won’t be a talk-your-eyes-off-via-text review.

Verdict: Don’t bother with this one, at least not for facial use.

The consistency of this product is thinner, resulting in having to use more product to effectively moisturize. Granted, this is only a 2-4 drops more than you would need to use of the Josie Maran product – but still. On top of feeling thinner, it somehow also feels greasier. Of course it is going to have a bit of slip to it as it is an oil, but it kind of felt like vegetable oil or canola–if I wanted that, I could probably just grab a jug of Crisco. My skin took longer to absorb it – which makes a ton of sense, I know. I used it nightly for two weeks and thought I was crazy for the first few days, but nope – it really did take longer to absorb. The color of the oil is not the same – Elma and Sana Argan Oil is closer to being clear, which suggests additional processing:

Elma and Sana Argan Oil ReviewElma and Sana Argan Oil vs. Josie Maran Argan Oil

On top of that, this oil does have a smell. You will frequently see that Argan Oil on its own should not have a scent. This has a distinct smell, but it is difficult to describe – but it doesn’t smell very natural, and not at all like the odorless Josie Maran. It is neither foul nor particularly offensive, but when you anticipate an odorless product, having an odor is unpleasant.

Furthermore, I feel that this product caused me to break out. It did not cause irritation or redness, but I did develop blemishes during use of it – I typically only get 1-2 small, manageable ones per month (cycle-related), but I have FIVE that are currently healing (non-cycle-related).  My under-eye area is back to being a bit dull.

I’m going back to using Josie! I think this product is an OK body moisturizer is fine for the ends of the hair (if you’re into that – I’m not, but I tried it for science), and it is definitely nice for cuticles, but I don’t recommend it for use on the face. Something about the way they processed this oil doesn’t really let it do what it is supposed to do for your face.

Especially considering the somewhat-illiterate label and website…just pass on this one.

May 2014 Favorites

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I did a Favorites post last month, but it seems like it has been a while! May 2014 Favorites:

May 2014 FavoritesMay 2014 Favorites
1. China Glaze – I’m With the Lifeguard, $5 / 2. Lip Smacker – Dr Pepper, $2
3. Etude House Drawing Eye Brow, $2-7 / 4. Marc Jacobs Dot Rollerball, $22

China Glaze I’m With the Lifeguard – When the weather gets warm, I like to resort to unreasonably bright and ridiculous nail polish colors. Don’t worry, I use them when it isn’t warm, too – but I use them more often when it is toasty. This awesome, bright, shimmery neon green is what I’m wearing on my toes (with peep-toe shoes…at the office). If your polish collection is bereft of ridiculosity, please consider investing for your own amusement. I bought mine from Sally Beauty, but you can also get it on Amazon.

Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers lip gloss – Not just for kids, dangit. I maintain that this is the best product Lip Smackers has ever released. I just bought a new one, judgment be damned.  Realistically, it doesn’t do much for chapped lips – but that’s fine. It was never really meant to, despite having a chap-stick-esque format. You can buy this directly from Lip Smackers, on drugstore.com, or in stores at Wal-Mart.

Etude House Drawing Eye Brow – Korean cosmetics companies have done some pretty cool stuff. BB creams, cute lotions, lip gloss with adorable bunny-shaped caps…and these brow pencils. Capped at both ends, this guy has a spoolie (with soft, friendly bristles, not the ridiculous Brillo that some included spoolies are) and an angled, chisel-tip twist-up pencil. Some western brands have products that I can only assume were inspired by this design (Hourglass brow products, Bite lip products) because it is awesome. I’m sure this can be found elsewhere online, but I always buy from Amazon.

Marc Jacobs Dot – Lately, I’m of the opinion that buying a whole bottle of perfume is pointless. I got this as part of a coffret I purchased around the holidays and have been wearing it more often lately; I’ve barely made a dent. Very season-appropriate. It is currently available at Sephora, but there’s a spray pen variety at Nordstrom, Ulta, and Macys.

 

By the way, have you entered my L’Oreal Infalliable Never Fail Lacquer Liner 24H giveaway, yet? If not, go for it – there are only two days left! All you have to do is comment on that post and you’re entered. Who doesn’t want free liner?

 

Disclosure: Hey! Some of the links in this May 2014 Favorites post are affiliate links (not all of them, of course) – this means I may get a very small percentage of the sale if you decide to buy something. I only recommend products I’ve tried and verified as awesome, which is kind of the point of a favorites post. Ethical blogging FTW.

First Look: Elma and Sana Argan Oil

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I bought a bottle of Elma and Sana Argan Oil a couple months ago to compare with my more expensive bottle. I wrote a few posts about Argan Oil products (you can find them here and here) in the past and though I am pretty happy with my Josie Maran 100% Pure Argan Oil, I wanted to explore less costly alternatives. A 0.5 fl oz. bottle has lasted me six months so far (and I still have a good bit left!) but I wanted to see if shelling out $14-16 per bottle made sense.

I already knew, from my use of the Josie Maran product, that I enjoyed using argan oil for my face (especially my cheeks and under-eye area). This is not going to be a full-blown review because I do not feel that I have used it long enough to be able to fully speak to the product, but I did want to give you a look at what I’ve gotten and tried recently. I purchased this 2 fl oz bottle of 100% Pure, Organic, Cold-Pressed Elma and Sana Argan Oil from Amazon.com for around $10 (I think it was just under when I purchased; it was on sale). I received it without issue – it was packed securely and safely. Here’s the outer packaging:

Elma and Sana Argan OilElma and Sana Argan Oil

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Cheery Yellow Eye Look Tutorial

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It is the end of May, which means we are on the heels of summer (yay!). This yellow eye look is appropriate for the warm transition and though this tutorial a little bit of a depart from what I’m normally about (calling out BS or saying, “No seriously, this thing really is awesome, it isn’t just weird dumb hype,”) I was so happy with it that I wanted to share. Want to wear yellow shadow? It can, in fact, be done without looking like a clown.

Yellow Eye LookCheery Yellow Eye Look

The yellow is actually a bit more saturated in real life, but I just couldn’t quite capture it that morning or afternoon (and I do not like to color-correct or filter my photos). Just my eye because I didn’t do a full face yesterday (even forgot the dang concealer) BUT STILL. This is how this whole thing happened:

Recently having woken up, I was trying to decide how I wanted to do my eye makeup today. Normally I’ll dither about which palette I want to grab for it, but today I just thought, “Let’s get weird.“

I grabbed my Coastal Scents 252 Palette. I rarely bother to think about my makeup in coordination to what I’m wearing because if I wear eye makeup, I wear neutrals 98.9743% of weekdays. I don’t remember, at this point, my thought process on why I chose the yellow – I know I’ve been liking to *look* at yellow a lot lately (I find it to be cheerful), so maybe it was that. I do know it it worked surprisingly well with what I wore – a Worthington (Penney’s) top in what I think (based on a quick search) is their Stunning Pink or Adventure Pink color, and grey slacks.

ANYWAY. On to what I used to achieve this bright, summery, cheery pop of yellow eye look.

  • NYX Milk Pencil – you don’t want to skip this, or the yellow will not pop as well. It is often out of stock in stores, so try online if you can’t find it near you.
  • Coastal Scents 252 Palette. You can get it on Amazon or direct from Coastal Scents.
  • Flat Brush – I used the one that came with my Naked Palette, but any flat shader (like a MAC 242, which I do not own) will be fine.
  • Fluffy Tapered Blending Brush – I used a bdellium 785 because that’s what I have (similar to MAC 224), but any will do. Sigma has a nice one, or if you have something else you like for crease work, that’s cool too.
  • Another Blending Brush – Your choice. I actually used the Real Techniques Shading Brush (because in reality it is not ideal for regular shading, but is great for small-area blending), but you could use something like a MAC 217 (I was going to use my bdellium 776 but reached for this instead).
  • Eyeliner that makes you happy, preferably black or dark brown. I recommend gel!
  • Mascara that makes you happy.

OKAY. Onto the education. We are using three main colors from the Coastal Scents 252 Palette (which you can view here because Coastal Scents is awesome) and they can all be found on the warmer (red/yellow based) of the three inserts. The colors used are: Orange Mousse (In the chart: first column, third down – way more yellow than orange) and Sunflower Petal (Fourth column, second down). The light shimmery stuff on the inner half is Polished Ivory (first column, second down).

1. Apply a thin layer of NYX Milk to your lid. It doesn’t have to be your whole lid (but you can if you want), just really where you’re putting your yellow. I didn’t use a separate primer (Milk has primer-y qualities), so I applied it all over, slightly heavier in the outer half. I do this by dotting it on my kid (rather than drawing or coloring it on), then I blend it out with my finger so it is even and not a bunch of awkward dots.

2. With your flat brush, pick up some of Orange Mousse (which is yellow, not orange, may I add) and Sunflower Petal and pat it onto the outer half of your lid. Build it up to your desired opacity/brightness – you may need to pick up some more shadow on your brush depending on how opaque you want it. I wanted it pretty opaque because my office is pretty casual and I knew I could get away with this. You may want to go a little more sheer for daytime if your office is a bit more conservative or if you aren’t sure.

3. Once you’re happy with that, you can use the other side of your flat brush OR another similar brush OR the RT Shading brush. Pick up Polished Ivory and place it on the inner half.

4. With the fluffy tapered blending brush, take a shadow color a shade or two darker than your skin tone and place it in the crease with windshield-wiper motions. Try to keep this motion in the crease – it will blend the top edge of your yellow and ivory, but you don’t want to bring it down into those colors – this is just for socket definition. I used Kokomo Cafe (Seventh column, second from the bottom) in my crease, but you might need a different shade.

5. Take the RT Shading brush and blend the ivory and yellow together where they meet. Don’t overdo it, we don’t want a light yellow amalgamation – you want to achieve a gradient or ombre effect like above.

6. IF you feel like you need it, add a little more yellow to the outer half. I wanted to, because I wanted it to be bright.

7. Line your eyes as you see fit. I did a tiny wing with Milani Eye Tech Extreme Felt Liner (discussed here). You can do a crazy wing, you can skip that noise. That said, if you normally do a razor thin line, go a little thicker with this. You want the black or dark brown liner to really separate the yellow from your eye – otherwise, you risk looking too sallow.

8. Mascara. You can do your bottom lashes, too, if you like to live dangerously. I haven’t decided if I like that on myself yet, though.

It seems silly broken down into eight steps, but this took me no more than seven minutes to achieve, and that is a generous estimate. I think this is very spring/summer appropriate, but I couldn’t for the life of me tell you if it is on trend because I don’t really keep up with that sort of thing.

Though I have only ever tried something like this with a pretty coral shadow, I believe this technique can be applied to many bright or non-neutrals without turning out like Mimi from the Drew Carey Show. If you’re like me and cling to your neutrals for dear life, don’t be so afraid to tiptoe out of your comfort zone for a bit – it isn’t traumatizing.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links – this means I may get a very small percentage of the sale if you decide to buy something. I’ll only tell you that something is awesome if I have verified it myself!