Wantable Makeup August 2013 Review

My July Wantable box arrived about a week ago, but I had a small issue (which I'll talk about) that I wanted to wait to be resolved before I wrote up the review for it. For $36/month (or $40 if you just want to buy a single box without a subscriptions), you get 4-6 full size premium makeup products (they also have a jewelry subscription if that's your thing - its not mine). When you sign up, you fill out a quiz that has you rate different makeup types (like lipstick, blush, and eyeshadow) as love, like, or dislike and within those categories, you rate things like application type (like cream vs. powder blush) and colors (like neutral vs. brights). Things that you rate as dislike, you will never get in your box, while things you love are more likely to show up than things you like.

Opening the box

Info sheet

Ok, so here's where my small problem begins. I looked at the info sheet before digging into my package and immediately noticed that the first 2 items are lip products. :-/ As I said above, things you mark as dislike should never appear in your bag. So, I emailed them right away to ask why I got 2 lip products. I got a response the next day, even though it was a weekend, apologizing and saying it would be looked into on Monday, but that at first glance it might have had something to do with me editing my profile the day before it shipped out. Now, just to note, you get an email the day before shipment telling you that if you want to make any changes, do so now, so I had logged on and just changed blush and brows to dislike, just because I had enough of both for now. I wrote back to let them know what I had changed in the quiz and, more importantly, that I never had lips set to anything but dislike. On Monday, they let me know they shipped out 2 new items for me! I'm super impressed with customer service. We never did find out how I got sent those lip products, but I'm happy the problem was resolved. Anyway, onto the products!

My sample product this month was Echo Vie Organic Body Oil (product wasn't sized to estimate price - 2 oz is $35).  It smells nice, but to me this is yet another oil. I'll try it out, but unless it does miracles, I probably won't be buying it. It did come in a cute little bag and didn't spill, so that's a positive.

Echo Vie Organic Body Oil

I may as well review the 2 lip products, since I got them, so my first lip product was Michael Marcus lip liner in Raisin ($19). It seems fine for a lip liner, but of all the lip products, liner is probably one of my least favorites. They're always so dry feeling. I get the purpose of it, but if you don't wear lipstick, liner isn't terribly useful. Plus, Raisin is pretty dark. I just don't see myself ever using it.

Michael Marcus lip liner in Raisin

My second lip product was FACE Stockholm lip gloss in color #18. My info card values this at $3.80, but the website values the same size at $19. Given the usual range of prices of Wantable items, I'm guessing the Wantable price is a typo. Glosses are a bit more usable for me, but I'm kind of iffy on the color. It's not terribly sheer and it's just not my favorite shade of pink. Really, I think I'm just going to pass both of these products on to someone else.

FACE Stockholm lip gloss #18

Onto the products that fit my profile! My first real item was an Au Naturale eye pencil in Deep Sea ($18). It's a really lovely color! Pretty dark blue with a sheen. It also applies smoothly. I really like it! Their other colors look really pretty, too. The only thing I thought was a bit odd was that this brand is all about being organic and vegan and all that, but the box was ridiculously oversized. The pencil was just floating around in there. Seems kind of wasteful for a company that puts focus on natural and organic.

Au Naturale eye pencil in Deep Sea

Next up was a Besame 1930s mascara ($18). The packaging on this is really beautiful. The box is pretty and the tube is pretty. I haven't tried it yet, but I love mascara, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure why I decided to smell it - I don't usually smell mascaras, but oddly this has a scent! A pretty nice one.

Besame 1930s mascara

My next product was Swagger Cosmetics Highlighting Powder in Champagne in the Bubble Bath ($14.50). I got one of their products a couple months ago - I believe in the color Rad Bitch. When I first saw it, I was a bit worried they were the same product, but Rad Bitch has a pinky goldish sheen to it while this one is more neutral shimmer. I loved the first product I got from them and I love this one, too. Both really pretty highlighting colors! Looking at their website, I'd love to get more of their colors! I'm really loving these loose pigments lately. I actually bought quite a few sample sizes from a few different indie companies recently - I plan to definitely review at least one of them soon (Notoriously Morbid). Maybe more if I notice a big enough difference.

Swagger Cosmetics Highlighting Powder in Champagne in the Bubble Bath

My last full size product was a Cailyn Mineral Pressed Eyeshadow in Midnight Mauve ($15). Wow, what a pretty color. I'm a sucker for purple and this is a lovely shade. Dark purple in some light and a gorgeous lighter purple sheen in others. So so pretty. I'm really happy with this, too. It looks like they have a lot of really pretty colors, but I find it a bit odd that their picture of my color looks nothing like what I got (mine looks more like Deep Purple). I don't know if it's labeled wrong on my product or the picture's just not a faithful representation - it makes me pretty hesitant to order from their website, though.

Cailyn Mineral Pressed Eyeshadow in Midnight Mauve

All these other products were why, initially, I was a bit hesitant to contact Wantable. They do have a return policy - you can return your full box, but not individual items. In the end, I wanted to keep my box and I was willing to suck up the 2 losses for the 4 gorgeous products I loved. When I contacted them, I just wanted to know why I got the lip products and make sure it didn't happen again. I was really surprised when they shipped 2 new products out to me. I certainly didn't ask for that (not that I mind at all! I'm just not the demanding sort.). I'm guessing it's because lip products were never a "like" in my profile, so it was their mistake, not just something I didn't really like that was part of my normal profile. Again, I'm really happy with the resoultion. And here are my 2 replacement products:

First up, a MiA BelleZZa Long Last Eyeliner Pencil in Indigo ($16.50). This was a very dark blue/purple. A bit darker than the Au Naturale eyeliner and it applied more smoothly (it's a softer twist up pencil). It's great!

MiA BelleZZa Long Last Eyeliner Pencil in Indigo

And second, another Cailyn Mineral Pressed Eyeshadow in Honey ($15). Definitely different from the purple (and oddly, this one actually looks like the website's picture!), but somewhat similar to my previous Rad Bitch from Swagger Cosmetics. Still a nice color though and it's pressed rather than loose like the Swagger color, so I can probably use both!

Cailyn Mineral Pressed Eyeshadow in Honey

Swatches of the original products, top to bottom: Cailyn eyeshadow, FACE Stockholm gloss, Michael Marcus lip liner, Au Naturale eyeliner (and on the right, but barely visible, Swagger highlighter)

Head on shot of the Swagger highlighter

Swatches of the replacement products: left is MiA BelleZZa eyeliner and right (barely visible, but you can see a bit of the sheen) is the Cailyn eyeshadow

August 2013 Wantable makeup box (not pictured are the replacements)

In spite of the unexplained snafu, I'm really happy yet again with my box. The fix was quick and painless and in the end, I ended up with a full box worth of products I really love. My original box was worth about $103.50 (assuming the lip gloss price was a typo on their sheet) and my box with the replacement items instead of the lip products was $97. That is amazing considering the box only costs $36.  It's so worth it. I think this is becoming my favorite subscription!

If you are interested in signing up for this awesome subscription, here's my link! As usual, if you prefer not to use my referral link (though, I'd really love it if you did!), there's a non-referral link up top. If you get Wantable, what kind of awesome stuff did you get this month?
 

(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own. The final link is a referral link, but I also included a non-referral link at the top.)