Tuesday, December 11, 2012

A review of b-glowing.com

My first post back and I am posting a review of a fabulous website. B-glowing describes itself as being a "leading online specialty beauty retailer featuring an extraordinary collection of hard-to-find niche beauty products alongside some of the worlds most coveted beauty brands." They feature a "multifaceted search - you can search by formulation, skin type/concern, fragrance notes and more, improved browsing and navigation, a new men’s category (great for gifting), seasonal fragrance flights with a clean elegant look and feel. Look for other great improvements throughout the holiday season including 200% larger product images and 3 Beauty Archetypes – b-natural, b-classic or b-creative."

Let me just say that I had such a fabulous experience with this company! They told me to pick a few items off of the site to review and so I browsed around the site and picked out a few things that looked nice and would look great as gifts (in fact... I might give some away as gifts. If I don't keep them all for myself...).

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First, let me write about the packaging. Since this isn't quite so important, I just collaged it so that it would take up less space. As you can see, it was shipped in a box via FedEx two-day shipping. The website says that standard shipping (5-7 days) is $5.95, 2 Day shipping is $16.95, and overnight is $25.95. But free standard shipping on orders over $75, and free 2 day shipping on orders over $100. (Also, I am horrible at this editing thing, so I don't edit my images. For one thing, watermarking is enough of a pain that I am too traumatized to do anything else. So! Please don't mind if my pictures are slanted/a little dark/weird.)

I just have to note: the order didn't get lost in the mail! Now that I'm living in a dorm, I have to write my address a certain way or it might get sent back (which has happened with my elf order and coterie order). This got here fine, thankfully! Anyways.

When I first opened the box, there was this pretty tissue paper. Seriously. You could ship this straight to a friend's house (I'm not sure about the receipt though... You would want to check that) and save yourself having to bring it in person or mail it second hand. It's already packaged so nicely! The tissue paper is such a nice touch and even had a little sticker with their logo on it. It's little details like that. With the holidays coming up so soon and all the chaos going into preparing it, I think b-glowing would be great to send quick gifts to friends! You might not even have to wrap it! *swoon*

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One cute little thing that they sent that I didn't expect was a pack of samples! This kind of bag is my very favorite in the world because I love putting random trinkets in it. It came with a small sample of Baume De Rose multi-protector balm that "repair[s], hydrate[s] and guarantees a maximum volume effect. Lips are soft, smooth, pulpy and nail contours perfectly defined." The sample is .007 oz, and it sells for $59 for .34 oz on the website. Also, a By Terry Touch Expert Advanced Multi-Corrective Concealer Brush. (I can't find it on the website, but the picture shows a concealer pen. Inside the sample is just the concealer liquid, though.) Last, a .3 fl oz packet of Neil George Indian gooseberry treatment oil. A container of 3.7 oz sells on b-glowing for $42. I actually already used this sample because I've had to dry my hair a lot lately which equals split ends (the bane of my existence). I loved it! The site says that it is meant to "calm frizz and ease styling, leaving hair beautifully smooth and wonderfully healthy." It did! My hair was so shiny and silky and styled really easily. I might buy a full-size of this.

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I asked for the beautyblender holiday candy cane trio of sponges. The water here at college has been really hard on my skin and I've had to start learning how to use foundation and cover-up, which I've never used before. So I don't really have the right tools (although I did a huge order of eyeslipsface), and these looked so pretty. Also, I've been debating with buying the Soho beauty sponge (the bright pink one... I can't find it on their website), not based on anything but how pretty it was! Anyways.

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So, the website says that it comes with two original beautyblender sponges and one beautyblender pure sponge. This is true. And let me just mention how pretty the packaging for this product is. You can easily wrap it or throw it in a gift bag and give it away as a gift. It even comes with a cute little gift tag!

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Now, the sponges aren't quite true to color. The pink is a little more vibrant than my pictures and the stock pictures. It's way closer to the Soho beauty sponge, which is why I'm glad that I got it. They're pretty small, too, but perfect size for using. And they're soft! I really like it. I also like how they packaged it (into three separate containers), because I can totally see myself giving one or two away and keeping one for myself. I haven't used it yet (I got this right before finals week) but it has rave reviews on sephora.com. I think the price is fabulous, since you get three of the sponges for $50, when sephora sells one for $20.

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I also asked for the Sara Happ luxe lip scrub & slip gift set. The one they sent me is a little bit different than the Red Velvet that I linked to, and instead it is the Black Velvet lip scrub but with the same lip slip balm. This is packaged so beautifully! In a sturdy cardboard box, that looks very neat and classy.

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It comes with 1 oz of the Black Velvet Cherry scrub (on the left) and .5 oz of the lip slip, the hydrating balm (on right).

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 Now that it's winter and getting colder (and I always forget my chapstick), my lips are starting to get chapped so I tried this out. It works fabulously! Rub the scrub gently in a circular motion, then wipe off with a tissue. And then apply the balm right after. It made my lips so smooth (no before or after picture... I don't want you guys to see a) the poor state of my lips and also b) my mustache). Also there's a ton of product in both jars, so it will definitely last all winter.

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The next thing that they sent me that I honestly did not expect was Butter London nail polishes. They sent me La Moss, which is this beautiful, vampy red nail polish that is better suited for fall than winter (not that I ever follow nail polish trends...). I haven't gotten around to testing it (Finals ;-;), but you can expect a swatch coming soon!

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They also sent me Butter London British Racing Green, a super pretty dark, cool toned green with an emerald sparkle. I reallyyy can't wait to try these out!

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Finally, they sent me the Paul & Joe Eye Color and Lip Balm set. I can't find it on the site right now, but I will update when I find it.

As with all of their products, the packaging is pretty and really holiday-y (maybe it's limited edition...) and ready-to-give. It contains a 0.56 oz tin of lip balm (with a cute deer on the top!), a .21 oz tin of a smoky eye color, and a .17 oz tin of glistening eye color. Perfect for a holiday party. The lip balm is a gorgeous pink-red (I know, descriptive) color. It doesn't really have any odor, nor is it waxy. It gives your lips a nice tint and, best of all, doesn't really wear off (I tested by drinking coffee not five minutes after putting it on). The smoky eye color is a very, very dark brown that is long lasting and applies smoothly. I'll try to post a shot of my eye makeup using that. The glistening eye color is two sided: a light bronze on one side, and a pearly pink on the other, both with glitter in it. It is stunningly pretty, I kid you not. (I will edit with a picture soon. My camera battery managed to die just before I had unscrewed all the tins, and I can't find my charger. I might have to just take a picture with my poor quality iPod until then).

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A note about the containers and the packaging: all three were set into this plastic container... thing then inserted into the box. The plastic container was perfect because it had grooves between the containers, so you didn't have to shake the container to try and get the tins out and then pray that nothing got damaged. So points for packaging!

My thoughts:

Service: 10/10. I asked them to treat me as a regular customer and they promised to. (Other than the 2-day shipping, which I needed since I wanted to post this as soon as I could before holiday shopping).

Shipping: 10/10. I asked her how long it would take to reach me (so I could plan out my posts. I actually have a lot more posts due up), and she told me that they would be sending it two-day. It was sent really nicely packed, no damage to anything and (like I've said multiple times through the post) you could easily give the box as a gift.

Products: 10/10. They really, really spoiled me. I gave them a few options and thought they would just pick the cheapest one or two of the batch and send it to me, but they sent me everything I liked (that's actually a lie. I was short on time so I just picked a few things that I like and now as I go through their website again, I'm cursing myself for not getting certain other things). They clearly only stock high quality products. And I love that they re-opened in time for holiday shopping! I know my friends are going to love, love, love me when/if I choose to give them something from b-glowing.

There really were no cons. The website is easy to use; you can choose from "skincare," "makeup," "bath+body" "hair" "fragrance" "men's" and "sale," as well as inputting by brand or keyword.

I really recommend them! I'm keeping them bookmarked because I have a ton of birthdays coming up (poor me... so many right after the holidays!), and I will definitely be ordering from them.

(These items were sent to me by review from b-glowing.com, but they are all my own opinion.)







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