While many retailers have taken to releasing popular one-off beauty boxes in recent years, they can often prove to be pretty pricey, coming in on average around £50 a pop. But for those looking to discover new products on a monthly basis without breaking the bank, the OK! Beauty Box is an affordable but impressive subscription that makeup and skincare fans can rely on to deliver quality products hand picked by experts.
Each month, the box has a theme, and for March, the ‘all eyes on you edit’ stars a selection of makeup and skincare products to enhance one of your face’s most notable features – your peepers. And while many beauty edits feature at least one ‘dud’ find, there’s not a single product in this edit I wouldn’t use regularly.
Of the five products inside, two are skincare focused. One of them, the Canopy Retinal Ritual Eye Cream, is worth a whopping £43 and packs a serious punch when it comes to anti-ageing. As soon as I squeezed a small amount onto my hand, I knew it was going to be a vitamin A-based product due to the distinct orange hue.
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The retinal-infused eye cream is stronger than retinol, and targets fine lines, dark circles, and puffiness. It’s so potent, it’s recommended only to be used once a week, before building up to three times a week.
Despite having fairly sensitive skin, I didn’t experience any irritation after using it, and it’s a great way to try out a retinal eye cream for an extremely budget-friendly price, working out at less than £1.80 as part of the edit. By comparison, Medik8’s Crystal Retinal Ceramide Eye 6 – the product I would usually buy – is £55.
While you have to be consistent with an eye cream to see noticeable results, for those looking for a faster, short-term fix, the box also features a pair of Hello Skin Black Pearl Charcoal Infused Eye Masks, worth £6.95. Infused with charcoal and black pearl, these masks aim to hydrate, depuff, and brighten tired under-eyes.
What I especially love about these patches is that they don’t slip around your face and stay exactly where you put them. Once complete, my eyes looked more awake and refreshed, so they’re ideal if you’re using them before an event or special occasion. Plus, when you’re done with them they dissolve in hot water after use, making them eco-friendly.
Moving onto the three makeup staples, I was absolutely blown away by this Bellapierre Cosmetics All Eyes On You Eyeshadow Palette. Now, I’ll admit this is a brand I’ve seen in a few beauty boxes, such as Glossybox, in the past and their blushes miss the mark for me personally, but the brand has well and truly redeemed itself with this four-shade palette. Worth £25, it contains a light and medium shimmer shadow, a chocolatey matte brown shade and a champagne glitter, which can be mixed and matched to create a sultry daytime look, or a dazzling evening glam.
I found the formula to be highly pigmented and blendable, making it really easy for me to create a flattering look with limited skill. I’ve never been particularly good at eyeshadow, but this handy palette made it a breeze. As well as four sizable shades, the compact has a built-in mirror so it’s great for on the go. The only thing I felt it was missing was a light coloured matte that could be used as a base shade.
A smudge-proof, waterproof black eyeliner is an essential in any makeup bag, and the OK! Beauty Box delivers with this Bourjois Paris Contour Clubbing Waterproof Liner. It boasts a soft, creamy formula that makes application effortless. If you’re someone who tightlines their upper lash line, it’s a really comfortable pencil for that precarious area, but I personally prefer to use it to add a bit of smudgy definition to my lower lashes.
The final product in the edit is this Saint Luxe Clear Brow Gel, which is designed to hold your brows in place all day. It’s great for a natural, fluffy look or as a setting gel over your usual brow product. I really liked the precise applicator on this gel, and the fact it didn’t leave my brows feeling stiff or crunchy. I also have very fair brows so I often reach for a tinted gel over a clear one, but it would be ideal for someone with naturally dark, or tinted eye brows.
In total, the edit is worth more than £110, but you can get your first box for £8.99 when you sign up to the monthly subscription boxes. The boxes are £15 a month thereafter and you’re always guaranteed to receive at least £80 worth of beauty, which means you save over 80% on the retail price of the products.
At £8.99, it does feel like exceptional value for this edit, especially considering the Canopy eye cream alone is worth nearly five times the price of the whole edit. The mix of makeup and skincare is well-balanced, and the products themselves were a dream to use. That said, I was a little disappointed to not see a mascara in an eyes-based edit, plus, if you already own similar products, you might not find all of these particularly exciting.
For me, the eyeshadow palette was one of my favourite picks, closely followed by the eye cream, so overall, if you love trying new products and want to refresh your makeup bag, this box is a solid choice.
In other beauty deals, online beauty retailer, Face The Future, has launched a luxury Skincare Edit. Worth over £500, the Revitilising Rituals haul contains a whopping 10 products from iconic premium brands like Augustinus Bader and Rodial but you can get it for under £100.
And Marks and Spencer has launched a brand new beauty box containing ‘over £130’ worth of skincare and fragrance – but shoppers can snap it up for £30. The Made for an Icon Beauty Box stars seven items in total, three of which are full-sized, with four travel-friendly picks, too.
If you’re looking for subscriptions, though, Glossybox and LookFantastic both have their own service where you can get a range of beauty products delivered straight to your door each month. Or you can take a look at the OK! Beauty Box here.
