Carmine Beauty Box - October 2011

If you haven't already heard of Carmine where have you been?! They're the latest beauty box in the UK offering 5 lovely products for all us beauty-crazed women to try. There are 3 different types of subscriptions you can go for, monthly which is £10 plus £2.75 P&P, 6months which is £60 plus £16.50 P&P or 12months which is £110 plus £30.25 P&P resulting in 1 box free! After this box I'm really debating as to whether I should sign up for a year's subscription and save myself some money...

Onto their first ever and my first ever box! I subscribed on Wednesday and had the box with me on Saturday, very impressive.

First a few snaps of the box and packaging:

Then what's inside:

Trind Nail Repair Natural - Full Size 9ml - £12.95

balance Me Super Moisturising Hand Cream - 30ml sample - £4.35

Caudalie Vinosource Quenching Sorbet-Creme - 10ml sample - £5

theBalm FratBoy Shadow/Blush - Full Size 8.5g - £16

Daniel Sandler Eye Delight in Peach - Full Size 3g - £10.25

Total Value of Box: £48.55

Amount Paid: £12.75

Total Saving: £35.80

First Impressions of Carmine:

They seem to be a very relaxed, friendly and fun brand. I love their wording and descriptions on the website, one even made me not feel so bad for having to pay for P&P. I love that they were able to ship out their boxes so soon after subscribing, it really makes a huge difference to me. Especially as when signing up for previous boxes I've had to wait months to receive them - ridiculous! I look forward to what more Carmine have to offer.

First Impressions and Thoughts on the Beauty Box:

I really love this box, I found the contents to be quite similar to Feel Unique's beauty box this month, but I love it. The bright colours and the large black box are great, however I did have a hard time getting the box open because it is so secure. The lid covers the entire depth of the box and not just the top portion so it was a bit annoying getting it open! The box itself is larger and much more rectangular than any other beauty box I've mentioned on here. There's also a very helpful leaflet explaining the products and codes for money off and discounts too.

Now I'll let you know of my thoughts on the contents of the box individually. The Daniel Sandler loose eyeshadow looks amazing, I'm not an overall fan of loose eyeshadows because anything loose in my opinion will be messy, I do however ignore that when reviewing or using something unless it makes a significant mess. I haven't yet used the eyeshadow but I love the colour, very versatile, I'd personally use it as an overall base colour or for highlighting specific areas, and depending on the texture even my face. I was very happy to see a Caudalie cream in here because I'm a huge fan of French brands, I'm sure I'll love this cream too. The balanceMe hand cream is a lovely treat, I love the size and the bright packaging, it's also made up of 98.8% of natural origin ingredients and is definitely cruelty-free. I'm glad that the Trind nail repair was included because overall in the colder seasons I find that nails aren't as strong, although I put that lightly because fortunately my nails aren't so bad overall. It looks like a great treatment and is yet another full sized product included this month. Finally theBalm's gorgeous blush/eyeshadow, this is also a full sized product and a release that is very difficult to get hold of in the UK as of yet. It was released for Summer 2011 and looks beautiful, it is a peachy-pink blush perfect for all year round.

I'm very very happy with Carmine's first box and I cannot wait for future boxes. I do believe that I'm very close to deciding which boxes to keep and which to unsubscribe from. I'd like to add a huge thank you to Carmine for bringing back my belief in amazing customer service and quality of service. Not to mention value! Overall based on my first impressions and thoughts this box gets a 9.5/10! The 0.5 less because I couldn't get the box open for ages!

What do you think of Carmine's Beauty Box? Will you be signing up?


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