Hello and Welcome!

Today I’m coming to you with one my my longer posts – a review of this month’s The Cruelty free Beauty Box.

It’s been almost a year now since I first subscribed to this box, which seems so strange to me! I really enjoy writing these reviews, although they do take me forever, and I’m usually pretty happy with the box. So, let’s see what this month’s box brings.

As always, I will first give an overview of what the box is, what the available plan contains (as well as the price), and what options I picked when I filled out my profile. If you’ve read my reviews before then feel free to skip past this part (and if you haven’t read my reviews before then hello, welcome).

What is ‘The Cruelty Free Beauty Box’?

The Cruelty Free Beauty Box is pretty much as it sounds – a beauty box that contains only cruelty free products. The Beauty Box subscription is £14.95 per month, and contains 5 beauty products. They send out each box around the 10th of each month.

When you choose your plan, you create a profile of sorts. It will ask: your skin tone, makeup style, nail preference, skin type, hair length, hair type, hair colour, if you sunbathe, and if you fake tan. You also have the opportunity to provide your birthday.

If anyone is interested, I chose: Fair, dark and sultry, dark, dry, short, straight, brown, I don’t sunbathe, I fake tan.

They also have an option to create your own box, which allows you to pick your 5 products from a list. You pick 4 products with a value between £0 and £10 and then a final product that is valued at £10+. This box costs £19.95 and is not run on a subscription. 

What I Received

The photo above shows what I received in this month’s Cruelty Free Beauty Box. From top to bottom, left to right, I was sent:

• Onirica Cosmetics – All in One Cream in ‘Sleepwalker’ – £12.00
• BAO Skincare – Vegan Lip Saviour – £4.00
• Tisserand – High Energy Pulse Point Roller Ball – £5.95
• Le Mont Botanique – Balancing Body Wash – approximately £5.16 for the 60ml version (£21.50 for the 250ml full-sized product)
• Divine & Handmade – Pink Himalayan Bath Salts – £9.90
• White Nougat Crisp – Birthday Gift

Based on these prices, the value for this month’s box is £37.01. Which, as always, is a fantastic value given that the cost of this box is only £14.95.

Onirica Cosmetics – All in One Cream in ‘Sleepwalker’ – £12.00

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So the first thing in this month’s box is this ‘All in One Cream’ by Onirica Cosmetics. A couple of things jumped out to me with this product. Firstly, I was really interested because this is a brand we’ve never received in The Cruelty Free Beauty Box, and one I’ve never heard of. Secondly I was a bit confused about what an ‘All in One Cream’ was, and thirdly this is a ‘refill’ product so doesn’t come with it’s own packaging as such (only what you can see here).

The description for this product on The Cruelty Free Beauty Box’s website:

‘All in One cream is your multitasking dream come true! Eyeshadow, blush, lipstick, eyeliner, bronzer all combined into one cream product that you can use however you like. You’ll just have to change your brush! Unbelievably easy to blend with a feathery texture, it can be used as a base for your shadow or alone (set it with translucent powder to make it last longer).  

No fuss, only pigment, and good vibes!’

Once I’d read the packaging I realised this is the type of product that you can use however you want and I think that’s really cool. I have to confess I’ve used lipstick as eyeshadow, eyeshadow as highlight, highlight on my lips, anything goes in my books as long as you get whatever look you’re going for. So I think this product is a great idea.

The shade I received is called ‘Sleepwalker’ and is described as a ‘chestnut brown’. As you can see from the swatch it isn’t the most pigmented but I actually like that about it. It doesn’t have so much pigment that would make it difficult to use and it has a very small amount of sheen to it, but again nothing that makes it difficult to use.

I thought this shade would make a great contour and I was absolutely right. This shade on me is perfect as a contour. It blends out really well, you only need a small amount of product, it doesn’t get muddy, and it isn’t too warm-toned. This has become my go-to contour product since I got it, it’s fantastic!

The only thing I would say is that you can’t really use this product for everything. I’ve tried it on my lips and I find it just isn’t pigmented enough by itself and on top of another shade it gets drowned out. However, I haven’t tried it as an eyeshadow yet and I think it would be fantastic used in that way.

This isn’t the only shade that is available, so if you want to see the others then you can do so here.

If you’d like to check out, or purchase, this specific shade then you can do so through this link.

BAO Skincare – Vegan Lip Saviour – £4.00

We’ve had a couple of products from BAO Skincare before so I was interested to see this lip balm in the box. I have extremely dry lips so I’m always open to trying new lip balms – especially ones that are more natural!

This product has the following description on The Cruelty Free Beauty Box website:

‘A beautiful blend of Organic Vegan ingredients that help to nourish, soothe and repair your lips.

100% Vegan
100% Organic
100% Natural’

A very short and sweet description but then again, how much can you say about a lip balm?

This product is made from a couple of different waxes/oils (candelilla and coconut), but the main ingredient is cocoa butter.

As I said, I was excited to try this product but I’m in two minds about it. It’s really smooth and soft and glides on so nicely, you can tell it’s protecting your lips with the layer it forms. However, the cocoa butter smell and taste is so strong it puts me off. It smells sort of like dark chocolate (as you’d expect given that it’s cocoa) but so much stronger and there’s something else to it that I can’t put my finger on. I also hate the way it tastes (it certainly doesn’t taste like chocolate) which, given that it’s something on my mouth, makes things a little challenging.

I’d say the product works pretty well, it feels great and I do think that it helps my lips, and I’ll definitely use it all up (it’s very small). However, the smell and taste makes me want to reach for a different product and for that reason I wouldn’t buy it again myself.

However this is my personal taste (haha, get it), so you may not have the same issue. I also think that the price is pretty fair for it.

If you’d like to try this product then you can grab it from the beauty box’s website here.

Tisserand – High Energy Pulse Point Roller Ball – £5.95

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Unlike some of the other products, I can’t say this was one that I was particularly excited for. These types of roller ball, essential oil, products, aren’t my cup of tea – my skin doesn’t tend to like oils directly applied to it. However, since this one smells good (it is orange, after all), I still wanted to give it a go.

On The Cruelty Free Beauty Box’s website, this product has the following description:

‘Energy High Pulse Point Roller Ball gives a burst of energy to tired bodies and minds. This invigorating blend combines 100% natural pure essential oils of stimulating Coriander, revitalising Lime and uplifting Orange Leaf to help lift your spirits and put a spring in your step.

A naturally supercharged blend is the perfect size to pop in your pocket, handbag or keep at work to help top up your energy levels on the go.’

Cutting straight to the chase, I’ve tried this product a fair few times and I personally just don’t see any difference. It smells amazing, but that’s where it ends for me. I’m a pretty tired person because of migraine medication that I’m on so I’m used to just ploughing through, and this doesn’t change that for me. It doesn’t make me feel more awake, that’s all I can say about it really.

Again, just because it doesn’t work for me doesn’t mean it won’t for you. Additionally, there are a few different types of this product (e.g. focus, de-stress, sleep better, etc.) so if you like the concept of this product but don’t want this particular one then there are others available. You can view all of them here. Additionally, if you do think this one sounds like the one for you then you can find it through this link.

Le Mont Botanique – Balancing Body Wash – £5.16

This is another brand that we’ve had a fair few products from but I’m still excited to see more from them. I also love getting shower products in these boxes since I use those more than bath products.

The description for this product on the beauty box’s website is:

‘LMB’s Anti-static Body Wash contains moisture-activated white Fuller’s Earth clay and pure lavender oil, natural minerals and extracts which stabilise and absorb the skin’s excess static. This relaxes fine capillaries, relieves dryness, and soothes irritation, helping to calm and soften the skin. Our white clay is rich in zinc, magnesium, and other natural microelements, vitally nourishing new cell growth.’

I haven’t got around to using this product yet as I have a lot of different products to get through in the shower and I want to use some of the other products up before I get around to this one but it’s something that I’ll definitely use.

I find it really interesting that it says it absorbs excess static, I’ve never seen a product claim this before and I feel like it’s something I can benefit from as I get static shocks from pretty much everything I touch (mostly my car door).

The product smells quite herbal (almost identical to the TrueVit Naturals ‘Biotin Shampoo’ that I reviewed) which I don’t dislike. I can’t say it’s my absolute favourite fragrance but it isn’t unpleasant at all.

I do think that in general products from this brand are on the pricier side, and outside of my budget but if you’re looking for natural products like this and have the money to spend then that’s completely up to you. I wish that this smaller sample-size was sold as well as the larger one as I think it would be nice to be able to purchase the smaller one to try before committing to the larger one.

If you’d like to read more about this product, or try it yourself, then you can do so here.

Divine & Handmade – Pink Himalayan Bath Salts – £9.90

Our final product (excluding the birthday gift) are these bath salts from another brand that I haven’t heard of before. I have to say, I was really drawn to these when I saw them in the box!

The description for this final item on The Cruelty Free Beauty Box’s website is as follows:

‘Relax your muscles and turn bath time into pampering experience with our beautiful Pink Himalayan Bath Soak with Gentle Avocado Oil. 
These ethically-sourced, rich in minerals Bath Salts are blended with Himalayan Pink Salts, Epsom Salts and Avocado Oil. The distinctive pink colour is due to the incredibly high mineral content, including potassium, magnesium and iron, all vital for good health. They will cleanse and detoxify your body and calm your nervous system.’

My first thoughts on this product is that it looks beautiful. I love the packaging so much, the way that the label is laid out, the font, the glass bottle, it all comes together to form some incredible packaging in my opinion. I love that you can see the pink bath salts in the bottle too! I think this would make an incredible small gift for someone (or larger gift if you bought the larger one).

As I said earlier, I don’t have baths anywhere near as much as showers (I have a whole cupboard of bath items that I haven’t used yet because I just don’t take that many baths) so I haven’t tried these. I really want to keep hold of these because they look and sound so good, but I’m unsure when I would get around to using them so they MIGHT get put into a giveaway (if I can part with them).

I do think the price is a little up there but since the product is ethically sourced, natural, and in a glass bottle, you can expect to pay a little more. Personally, I probably would pay the £9.90 for the 100g as a treat for myself but it wouldn’t be an everyday item.

If you’d like to try this product, then you can find it here – additionally, they sell a 250g version for £15.90, which you can grab here.

Overall, the box this month wasn’t my absolute favourite. Whilst I would use all of the products, and I do really enjoy the Onirica Cosmetics product, I wasn’t completely blown away. However, I don’t see this as a particularly bad thing. After all this is a subscription box, I didn’t choose the products and I like the surprise aspect of it, there’s no way that it can be 100% to me taste 100% of the time and I’m fine with that. I subscribed to this box because I want to discover new, cruelty free, brands and this box allows me to do that in an affordable way.

If you think you’d like this box then you can check out their different plans here. Also, if you’d like to check out my previous reviews on The Cruelty Free Beauty Box, and boxes that I was receiving before going cruelty free, then you can do so here.

So this is now the end of this month’s The Cruelty Free Beauty Box review, I really hope that you enjoyed reading! If you did then, as always, please give this post a like – I really appreciate it. Also, if you aren’t following me already then please do, you can follow using a WordPress account, or via email. I post at least twice a week and cover cruelty free beauty, and lifestyle.

Love,

Charlotte (Multibendystraw)

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Check out my previous posts!

Juvia’s Place ‘Mini Magic Palette’ Swatches & Review
Alex Steinherr x Primark ‘Plump & Glow’ ‘The Power Mask’ Review
My Experience With, and Thoughts on, The UK Blog Awards 2019