Glymm: November Box

I received my November Glymm box last week. For those who haven't heard of Glymm, it's a beauty subscription program very similar to Luxe Box. It's $10 a month, and you get a box of four to five deluxe beauty samples sent right to your door.

This month, I received:

Orlane B21 Oligo Vit-A-Min Light Smoothing Cream (sample size, 3.5 ml): Having worked with this brand for so long at Shoppers when I was a cosmetician, I can honestly say that Orlane is a quality luxury brand that churns out some beautiful products. This is a light cream that helps protect, soothe, and relax sensitive, fragile, and allergic skin types. Most people will be able to use this; it's not really an age-specific product. That having been said, you can probably find a face cream that does the same thing for much, much cheaper, seeing as the full-size version (50 ml) is a whopping $80. And a 3.5 ml size sample (which you can get for free at Orlane counters) will be good for maybe three or four uses, which is great for seeing if you like the feel of the cream, but not enough to see the benefits of it.

Lise Watier Flash Lift Radiance Vial (sample size, 1 ml): You can read about what I thought of this here.

Rahua Shampoo and Conditioner (sample sizes, 10 ml and 8 ml, respectively): When it comes to haircare samples, I would rather receive shampoo and conditioner than styling products, because I know I will use them. These two products are "for longer, stronger hair" and "adds bounce, body, and shine." It's "the Amazon's natural secret to luminous tresses" and the products are made with 100% natural, organic, rainforest grown ingredients. I've actually never seen Amazonian hair before, so I'll just have to take their word for it. However, I doubt that a shampoo and conditioner can actually make hair longer... The sample sizes are enough for two to three uses so these will only be enough to see the short-term effects rather than long-term. Moreover, I wish these had been in actual bottles instead of these cheap packages, because they seem more like drugstore samples rather than a luxury salon brand.

Annabelle Studio Smudge Paint Creamy Gel Shadow + Liner in Plummed (full size, 2 g): This is a long lasting, water-resistant, crease-resistant, cream gel eyeliner and shadow that is very similar to MAC's Fluidline. It goes on smooth and pigmented with good colour pay-off. Plummed is a deep violet with purple shimmer, and is similar to MAC's Ash Violet Fluidline (from Fall Colour Collection). It's a great drugstore cream-gel eyeliner, and is great for those who want to try this type of eyeliner but don't want to spend that much money on it. I personally don't like the brush that it comes with, though, and would recommend using it with MAC's 209 or 266 for use as a liner and the 242 for use as a cream shadow.

RGB Nail Color in Oxblood (full size, 12 ml): RGB is a nail colour and care brand that is 3-free and cruelty-free. Oxblood is a dark crimson red in a cream finish. It is similar to Chanel's Rouge Noir. The formula is beautiful: smooth and even application, not too thick and not too watery, and nearly opaque in one coat. I definitely want to check out some of their other shades (it's free shipping to Canada!).

Jelly Belly Candy: Strawberry jam and cappuccino flavours for this month!

Overall, I was pretty pleased with this month's Glymm box. The two full-size products are already worth $29, making this month's box quite a value. The skincare and haircare samples seemed a little cheap, though, as I mentioned before, and can be easily attained at a participating drugstore or cosmetic counter. Overall, it's not as impressive as last month's box, but definitely still worth subscribing for.