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| Silk Naturals Mystery Adventure Club Subscription Box |
You've been sitting at your cubicle all day, listening to your coworkers all aflutter over their newest Birchbox and comparing contents. "Gee," you muse to yourself, "if only there was some sort of indie subscription box!"
Luckily, there are indie boxes out there, but they're a little tricky to find. There's the Glitter Guilty Pleasures Box Gift if you're looking for some indie nail polish, the Indie Style Box for a little bit of everything indie - neither of these I've ever tried before. However, when I heard that Silk Naturals, one of my favorite indie companies, was offering their own Birchbox-style subscription for a three-month span, I jumped!
What is the Silk Naturals Mystery Adventure Club?
Once a month, for three months (May, June, July) a package will be mailed to you. Every week Silk Naturals has a gift with purchase (GWP) - if you hit a certain purchase amount, you receive a small gift. Sometimes it's an eye shadow, maybe a blush or lip product. With the Mystery Adventure Club, you receive one of each GWP you missed for that span of time and some extra goodies as well.
How much does it cost?
The price is $42 USD for 3 months, which works out to about $14/box. Not bad considering you're most likely going to receive at least 2-3 mineral shadows and/or blushes at the minimum and bonus items!
Why should I subscribe?
If you're a big fan of the GWPs offered by Silk Naturals, you probably can't keep making purchases every week just to receive them. This allows you to receive each one without making any additional purchases. This is a lot of fun if you want to stay ahead of the curve on new formulas or potential products that are being tested. It's also fun if you just enjoy indie products and want a little surprise each month to look forward to. Karen takes feedback from all her products pretty seriously, so you'll have a say in what works and what doesn't. So who knows? Maybe that trial product will become a regular staple in their catalog!
Silk Naturals Mystery Adventure Club #2 - June
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| The Silk Naturals Mystery Adventure Club #2 - Unveiled! |
June's "box" (which isn't really a box, it comes in an envelope) arrived in my mailbox smack-dab in the middle of June on the 19th. It was full of surprises (and as usual, a thoughtful note from Karen)!
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| The polka-dot bow really seals the deal for me. |
Lippie Storage Purse
I'm not going to call this a "lippie" pouch because I'm not a huge fan of the word, but this is definitely the most noticeable item in the whole package. It was one of the GWPs available, and supposedly it's for holding all your lovely little glosses and lipsticks.
The downside? It's not tall enough! I mean, I am sure I could lie them flat, but as you can see in the image, my Silk Naturals lip glazes are a bit too tall to stand upright. On the forum Karen claims she can fit about 12 sticks inside. Either way, it's an adorable little silver pouch, and a great way to toss in some lip sticks on the go.
Eye Colors and Bronzer
The GWP pigments are my favorite part! This month's package included Algorithm and Campagne shadows (although why Algorithm says "Eye Shadow" on the jar and all my other Silk Naturals jars say "Eye Color" is beyond me), and Gossamer, a bronzer.
What's nice about this trio is that they all seem to "go together" in a complimentary way!
Algorithm - I'll admit it, sometimes it feels like we've used every single cool word in the English language for a product name, and then you hear a word like algorithm and you just *have* to make a color to go with it. Algorithm starts with gold because there's usually metal in a board, and then there's a very light blueish base to it.
Algorithm is gorgeous. If shimmery pigments with interference are your thing, this is the sort of shade you want to return to the general catalog of colors. It has a sort of light rosy tan base with a shimmery gold green-purple thing going on. It's rich and pigmented too, and it applies very smoothly.
First is Campagne. I made this around the same time I came up with Marvel in hopes that I'd make a color to compliment Doubloons. Interference pigments are challenging to work with - sometimes you come up with a nifty multi-faceted color, and sometimes they cancel each other out. This one combines copper, gold, and green. The name means countryside in French, and I think it captures the spirit of the country pretty well.
"French countryside" is an excellent way to describe Campagne. Soft, shimmery, springy and bright, this color is full of life! There's a lot going on with it too, and it's hard to catch everything. Although I usually stick to mattes for everyday wear, there's something subtle and simultaneously lively about Campagne that would make for a really classy and fun one-color wash. It also looks like it'd pair spectacularly with a bunch of different colors (greens, blues, purples).
Lastly - we have Gossamer. It's summer, and I thought a little bronzer would be nice. It's a little glimmery, and adds just a little sun-kissed glow. It's also great for applying to your body.
A bronzer! The idea of a bronzer is both exciting and a bit frightening when you're ghostly pale. Looking at Gossamer as a pigment of its own merit, it's a warm, gentle tan with a golden shimmer to it. However, I haven't used it as a bronzer yet, and I'm not so sure I'd be skilled enough at applying without looking silly.
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| This month's mystery item |
前髪とーめる (Maegami Tomeru) - Japanese Velcro Hair Tape
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| Stylin'~! |
Obviously this is not an indie product. Each MAC includes a small "surprise" item, and this time Karen has included DARIYA's Velcro Hair Tape. 前髪とーめる (maegami tomeru) literally translates to "bangs stop", but really it's a piece of velcro meant to hold your bangs in place while washing your face, applying makeup, etc.
The benefit is that you can do all these things while holding your hair in place with a gentle strip of velcro, and after you remove it your hair is still in great shape and hasn't been mangled horribly. They come in all different shapes and sizes.
You know what else does a great job holding your hair out of your face? Bobby pins. Headbands. Etc. Unless you have a pretty high-maintenance hairdo, or you like to have the latest Japanese novelty cosmetics, I can't really see ever using this in a practical fashion. It looks like you stuck a big pink poptart on your head. However, I can see it being a really fun grab-bag gift if you ever plan a party.
Kristin adds: I actually have one of these and I think it's useful for keeping any loose small hairs away from your face. The ones that no matter how hard you try, never stay up with bobby pins and are too short for hair ties.
Facial Cleansing Pad
And the bonus item is a silicone face scrubber. I actually use one on my feet, and it's great for maintenance.
Another non-indie-Japanese-novelty-item, Yan Ying's facial cleansing pad is a floppy little silicone teardrop with a hook in the back for you to hold onto while you rub it all over your face, supposedly clearing out your pores, eliminating blackheads, etc. Products like these are quite popular over at Sasa.com, and if checking out fun Japanese skincare items is your jam, clearly this needs to be on your shopping list.
Does it work? Eh. I'm very particular about my skincare products. Any sort of manual exfoliation should be done maybe once or twice a week tops, especially if your skin is delicate. This is obviously a gentler alternative to something like a buff puff (eek!), and it did not leave my skin irritated afterward. I'm more of a chemical exfoliation kind of lady, so this really wasn't my cup of tea. I have yet to use it on my feet though, which is what Karen suggests in her letter.
Final Roundup
Items per box:
- 3 pigments each in a 3 gram jar
- 1 zipper coin purse pouch
- 1 velcro hair grip
- 1 silicone scrub pad
Price:
- $14 per box
- $2.33 per item (this is a steal!)
Worth it?
Yes! I was really pleased with the contents of this box, even though I really can't see myself ever using the Japanese novelty items. The pigments are gorgeous and the little coin purse is adorable. I'm already counting down the days until my next Silk Naturals Mystery Adventure Club delivery!
If you're part of this program or want to learn more, check out the corresponding post on Silk Naturals's forum. This is only a 3-month program currently, so hopefully subscriptions will be open again for another round after July!
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