Unboxing: Sephora Play! July 2017


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It's that exciting time of the month when the Sephora Play! box shows up at my door! We now all know that this beauty subscription box can be very inconsistent from one month to the next, so was this summery edition a must or a bust? Let's find out!

What is Sephora Play! ?

By now, I'm sure most of you already know. If you don't, here's the deal: Sephora Play! is a beauty subscription box that comes to members' mailboxes every month and costs $10 (+ tax), charged automatically to the credit card on file. For this price, we receive 5 samples, deluxe or travel sizes of makeup, skincare, haircare products and one fragrance sample. You cannot pick your samples - you just get what you get and there's no exchanging samples you don't like. I don't remember filling a survey asking for my preferences when I signed up, but the subscription is linked to your Sephora BI/VIB/Rouge account so you might want to complete your profile just in case. Different subscribers may receive different samples every month, so what you see in my box might not be what someone else got.

The Sephora Play! program was launched in 2015 in a bunch of test markets in the US and opened nationwide in April 2016, just over a year ago. Subscribers are charged at the beginning of each month and the box is supposed to be shipped in the 3rd week of the month: I was charged on July 2. The box was sent through UPS Mail Innovations as usual, which is a mix of UPS and USPS, where UPS brings the box to your city and USPS does the final delivery to your mailbox. As most past months, I only got an email with my tracking number when my box was transferred to USPS, and I received it on the 15th.


Let's unbox this month's goodies!





The theme for this month's box is Beauty Staycation. The mini-site sephora.com/play used to announce the theme of the next month's box early, but they stopped doing that a while back, and they don't even have any info on the July box up yet.
The drawstring bag is made of a synthetic material this time, with a cute pink/white print - we call this pattern vichy in French, according to Google translate it's called gingham in English, but I've never heard that before. Is that right?


What's in the July box?

Here's what I received (I just discovered that Sephora Play comes in different numbered variations and you can see all of the possible combinations for the July box on this blog. Mine is the #049 version).


monthly beauty subscription box $10 bareMinerals It Cosmetics Milk Briogeo boscia charcoal pudding



- It Cosmetics Superhero mascara: I'm kind of drowning in new mascaras these days so I'm probably not going to open this one too soon. But I haven't tried much from It Cosmetics (frankly what I've tried so far was not convincing, with the exception of their wonderful brushes) so it's nice to explore the brand's range a bit more. I also think this mascara is new-ish, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I saw it heavily promoted on Instagram fairly recently.

- bareMinerals Gen Nude Matte Liquid Lipcolor: I already got a matte lipstick in last month's box, but at least this one is in a shade I'm more likely to wear. The Gen Nude collection doesn't exactly qualify as new any longer as it was released several months ago now, but I haven't tried anything from that range so I'll enjoy testing this sample. Of note, my tube is only 2/3 full which is always frustrating with deluxe samples that are already quite tiny...

- boscia Charcoal Pore Pudding: I'm not sure this "detox" mask is a great match for my skin type (more normal to dry than combo lately, with lots of dehydration), but I'm always up for skintertainment! This weird whipped black and white mask looks really fun! I expect it to be a gimmicky product and I'm concerned it may dry out my face further, but I don't think I can resist the temptation to try it. I mean look at these contrasting swirls in the little jar! Again, this is not a brand new product, but still a fairly recent launch.

- Milk Cooling Water Stick: again, that's probably not the best choice for my skin type - hmmm I may have to update my VIB profile? But it's another fun skincare product with a packaging that looks different and attractive. I just doubt that this would provide enough moisture, and I wonder what in the formula causes the cooling effect. Usually it's menthol derivatives, which are very irritant, but I'm not seeing an obvious one in the ingredients list. Anyways, I'm glad to see trendy brand Milk in my Playbox.

- Briogeo Rosarco Milk Leave-In Spray: wow Sephora Play needs to stop repeating haircare brands so much. After Ouai and Verb, it looks like we need to get used to Briogeo! I have difficult hair that doesn't respond well to very many products, so I'll test this one, we'll see. But I'd much prefer to discover a new brand of hair products every month, rather than see Sephora rotating between 3-4 brands all the time...

- The fragrance sample is Atelier Cologne Orange Sanguine: Atelier Cologne yet again?? Don't get me wrong, I love them, I have a small set of travel-size sprays that I'm slowly finishing and planning to repurchase, but do we really need to get a sample of the same brand every other month?! Aren't there enough perfume makers sold at Sephora that we need to repeat the same so many times?
By the way, Orange Sanguine simply means Blood Orange. I just saw someone's video on Youtube where they suggested Sanguine was an invented word about tangerine (*facepalm*). Please Youtube girls, do your research before you embarrass yourself making up complete BS...


Overall

I think this is a pretty good box, and interestingly the most appealing, fun-looking products are actually the skincare ones. I hope Sephora stops repeating brands so often in their Play box, it could get very old very fast! As usual, I would also prefer to see brand new releases, but I think this box had its fair share of recently launched products.


Number of products: 6
Makeup products: 2
Products I'm really excited about: 2
Products I know I won't use: 0 
My grade: B+


Where to buy?

You can visit this link to subscribe to Sephora Play! There may be a waitlist.




The box featured in this review was purchased by me. I received no compensation to write this post, which only reflects my personal opinion. This post contains affiliate links. I receive a very small commission when you click on those links, and the money generated covers a small portion of my expenses to purchase products for review. Clicking on those links helps ensure that Beaumiroir continues to publish reviews of new and exciting high end French products - at no cost to you!




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