Image credit: @givemeglowcosmetics

Indie beauty brands are on the rise. Many of them are fast becoming household names and for good reason. Many offer comparable quality products to top brands with competitive prices that are often cheaper. They're also able to easily follow trends and change their product line up more quickly to suit the changing needs of their customers. On such brand is Give Me Glow Cosmetics. It started as an Etsy brand but quickly grew in popularity. Run by a single woman, Brandy is always thinking of new ways to make her company better. Her most recent venture was starting a beauty box. It's not a monthly subscription but a single box that you purchase separately every month. She features a different products that are unique to these boxes only (unless there's extras that she will sell afterwards) and go with the theme she selects each month. The mailer boxes are stylized for those that like to save them for display purposes and hint at the products inside. May's beauty box had a Vintage Rose theme, which immediately caught my attention so I had to give it a try.
The Vintage Rose beauty box included 5 products: 2 liquid lipsticks and 3 pressed shadows. It was priced at $37.80 with a shipping fee of $5.85. But let's break that down. GMG liquid lipsticks at full retail value are $13.25 and the eyeshadows are $8.50, which are the larger 37mm pans (think MUFE and Sugarpill). Let's add that up:

($13.25 x  2 = $26.50) + ($8.50 x 3 = $25.50) = $52
That's a total savings of $14.20 off these items at full retail value. That's over 25% off!

So the savings are there. The box makes sense price-wise and while I was a little disappointed not to see a highlighter inside I did like the shade selection. (Btw Brandy mentioned not including a highlighter because it's harder to find a shade that works for all skin tones.) Vintage Rose does give me more of a dusty rose/wilting rose vibe so I was expecting a different color scheme. Not the typical red/pink rose, green stem but I still like the products. I'd definitely recommend giving one of their boxes a try. Here's a closer look:
Yellow Rose actually can double as a highlighter and Red Rust Rose will work great as a blush too. Gotta love double duty products! These swatches were applied with a brush and I had no issues with the mattes at all. Pigmented and smooth application.
Now lastly let's take a look at the liquid lipsticks. The formula is very comfortable and it does dry matte so I can see why it's popular but it's not 100% transfer proof. I'd say maybe 90%, which means it's not smudge-proof either. But it's a great option for those that want long lasting color without the super dry feeling some liquid mattes can have.

If I could make some suggestions, I would say to change the mailer. It should be like the ones used by brands like Lime Crime and ColourPop where the inside of the box is where the design is. All you have to do is turn the box inside out for a keepsake. The reason being is that my beautiful box was damaged not only from delivery but also due to the fact that the large address label doesn't make it display ready. If I try to remove it that would only further damage the design. Another critique I have is about consistency. I know this is their first beauty box but it would be nice of there was a consistent price. That way there's no need to wait for the box to launch before realizing based on the price you don't want to purchase it. I say this because in response to June's box, which will feature 6 products instead of 5, Brandy was unable to confirm the price until a few hours ago, less than 24 hours before the launch.

A post shared by COSMETICS FOR ALL SKIN TONES (@givemeglowcosmetics) on May 24, 2017 at 9:11pm PDT

Speaking of their June beauty box, the theme is Tropical Nights and I can't wait to see what's inside. It goes on sale today, June 1st at 11am CST/12pm EST. It's priced at $45 and will feature 6 full-sized products. In addition, the leftover singles from the Vintage Rose beauty box (aka the one I just reviewed) will be available for purchase at this time as well. Shop here when the sale goes live.

Happy hunting!





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