The Sephora Play beauty subscription has been absolutely terrible since the beginning of 2018. I received box after monthly box of boring, old, uninteresting products, often not properly selected to suit my skin type or tone, sometimes broken. My patience has limits, and I decided a while back that I would give Sephora until the summer to get back on track and start curating exciting boxes again. Now that summer is here, it's time for me to make a decision based on my June 2018 box. Was it another epic fail, or did Sephora finally make an effort to put together a compelling selection of products? Keep reading to find out if I will keep or cancel my subscription!

If you want more info about how the Sephora Play subscription works, take a look at one of my older posts, like this one. In a few words: the subscription costs $10 a month plus tax, and there are 6 beauty products in each box (one is supposed to be a "bonus", usually a fragrance sample). I also do a video unboxing of my Sephora Play every month in my Instagram stories, follow me and keep an eye on my stories if you want to watch the next one!


The theme for this month's box is Summer Nights. The leaflet contains tips to get your beauty routine summer ready, but most mention products that are not included in this box, such as a flesh-toned lip liner or a facial exfoliator. Sephora's been doing that a lot recently, and I wish they realized that they would create fantastic boxes if only they put the products they talk about in the box! Instead we get a strong theme plus a selection of mostly unrelated products...

The bag this month is very cute. It's the classic white drawstring canvas bag, but it has an adorable print that is made to look like an old-school neon sign, with a palm tree and the word hot in blue and pink.

Here's the selection of products that I received:


- COVER FX Perfect Setting Powder: Cover Fx is a brand I have been wanting to explore more, and I have heard good things about this powder. This is a product I'm actually pretty excited to try! The only disappointing thing is that I just received another setting powder in my Play box last month, the bareMinerals Mineral Veil... I know a beauty subscription box is bound to repeat a category of products fairly often, and that's better than repeating brands, but maybe they could be a little more careful to send out a better variety! Like, they could have switched for a pressed powder.

- Too Faced Melted Matte Lipstick in Queen B: this liquid matte lipstick tube is so huge that I thought it might be full size! As it turns out it is not, but it's still a very, very generous deluxe sample. I have never tried the liquid lipsticks by Too Faced and it's a brand I like (although I've started losing interest lately), so this is another good surprise. I don't think the color is very summery but it should make a good mauve-y nude.

- Living Proof No Frizz Nourishing Styling Cream: I don't know if it's because of the very minimalist gray packaging, but Living Proof isn't really a brand I get excited about. Yet some of my top finds in the Sephora Play boxes over the past two years have been hair products that I had no interest in trying! Frizz is the bane of my existence with my very fine, naturally wavy hair, so I'll give this leave-in cream a try, despite its boring gray tube. Who knows, it might become my new HG hair product!

- Clinique Take The Day Off Makeup Remover: this bi-phase makeup remover is not anything new or exciting in any way, but it is one of my favorites! It's just super effective to remove any long-wearing eye makeup, including waterproof mascara or eyeliner. Having a travel-size bottle is very convenient for short getaways, so I'm really happy that it was included in my box. But I can see why other subscribers would find this really boring if they don't love it as much as me. It's been around for ages!

- Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream: this very fragrant body cream comes in a cute mini jar that wasn't securely closed, the lid was very loose in my box. Luckily it didn't open up in transit and make a mess! I already received the exact same cream in my August 2017 Play box, less than a year ago, although it was a small tube then. Sol De Janeiro is still a popular brand, but they've released newer products since last year: a fragrance mist, a scrub, and most recently shimmer body oils. Why are we getting the same cream again? Yes it smells like summer, but so do the latest, more exciting launches by the same brand!

- Marajo Deep Treatment Butter: these packet samples are a joke, I got so annoyed with them that I forgot to include them in my picture of my box contents! I received the EXACT SAME crappy packet samples from Marajo in my March box! That was only 3 months ago, and I was already upset to receive ridiculously small foil samples the first time, thank you very much...



It's decision time! Should I cancel my Sephora Play subscription, after many months of terrible boxes? Well... I'm going to say no, at least for now. This June 2018 box was a lot better than the selections of the past few months. There are some good brands included, and a bunch of products I was really glad to find in my little bag. It's not a mind-blowing box by any means - I think I've given up on the idea of receiving newly launched products at this point - but it's pretty decent and worth the $10 in my opinion. I'm going to keep my subscription for now and see where Sephora takes this Play box service in the near future. Hopefully they've started to listen to the feedback!






The subscription 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!