Wantable Makeup May 2014 Review

I've been getting Wantable for a while now and for a while it was my absolute favorite box. I still like it, but I think I'm getting into makeup overload territory, so I may end up putting this box on hold for a few months while I use up my gigantic stash. Regardless of my personal stash, it's still a pretty cool box - for $36/month (or $40 if you just want to buy a single box without a subscriptions), you get 4-5 full size premium makeup products (they also have a jewelry subscription and a new intimates subscription if either of those is your thing - it's 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

The first thing I've noticed about my past 2 boxes is that the box itself seems to be getting smaller. I'm still getting the same amount of things at least for the past 6 months or so, so I guess it's probably better that they use smaller boxes and thinner packing. Nothing is damaged, so I'm all for a little less trash. They do seem to have done away with the little bonus product they used to include every month as well. It wasn't always a product I loved and was usually pretty small, but it was a nice touch I thought.

Info sheet

Now, I had done a few months of expanded preferences to try to shake up what I was getting, but I was finding that I just wasn't always a huge fan of the stuff I was getting within those expanded categories (blush, nail polish, tools, lip gloss), so I just went back to my old preferences where I pretty much only want eye stuff. Let's see what I got.

First up, was a Three Custom Color AfterGlow Shimmer Creme ($22.50). This is a cream highlighter. It's a pretty color in the container, but not my favorite on - it's a little hard to see applied. This is also a repeat brand for me. I don't expect new brands every month, but this is my 3rd Three Custom Color product, I think at least 2 of which are highlighters. I can't remember if the 3rd is a shadow or another highlighter. I know my preferences are a bit limited, but how about those Vincent Longo eyeshadow trios advertised as a featured product this month on the Wantable site? That would've been a product in my "love" category, too, instead of just "like".

Three Custom Color AfterGlow Shimmer Creme

My second product was a Sorme Extreme Volumizing Mascara in black ($19 according to Wantable, but the Sorme site doesn't actually sell anything, so I looked on Amazon and found it for $13.99). I'm hopeful seeing the words "extreme volumizing", so I'm all for trying this one out. The brush seems decent, although not as thick as my favorite mascaras tend to be.

Sorme Extreme Volumizing Mascara in black

Next up was another black mascara. Hm. A little bummed to see 2 black mascaras in the same box. Especially when the site talks about pops of color in eyeshadow and mascara this month. Anyway, this one is something referred to as (PL_) Beauty Mascara Holy Grail ($24). I originally couldn't find anything related to this company online, but then I realized the info sheet just didn't print it right, it's (PLA)Beauty. Their site still doesn't list this particular product though and several of the products are shown as "image coming soon", which makes me a little hesitant about the brand and the value given. This is my highest value item in the box and I can't prove that in any way. Nor does it really look it, honestly. While the Sorme product was in a Sorme box, this mascara was just sitting in the Wantable box, no (PLA)Beauty box around it, no shrink wrap, nothing. How do I know it hasn't been opened? I like to think that anything sent back to Wantable would be thrown out if it arrives unsealed (if they even accept returns on products you've tried out), but I don't really know for sure. I did just send them an email about it, so we'll see what they say about it. I probably won't be trying it though, honestly. Even if it were sealed, it's a thin brush that looks like it would give a more natural look.

(PLA)Beauty Holy Grail Mascara

My last product was an Eddie Funkhouser Ultra Definition Eye Lining Stylus ($10.99). This was probably my favorite item out of the box, although that's still not saying a WHOLE lot. I do like black liquid liner, so this is definitely usable. I do have quite a few black liners already though, and this one is a tad watery, but an extra coat seems to fix that well enough. I guess I might've preferred a different color, especially since I have neutrals marked just as "like" for right now so I don't overload on black liners, but oh well.

Eddie Funkhouser Ultra Definition Eye Lining Stylus

May 2014 Wantable makeup box

So. Honestly, this box was a bit underwhelming for me. I usually love, LOVE this subscription, but the past 2 months (including this one) just haven't been fantastic for me. I'm not sure if I've just been a subscriber too long and my preferences are too limited, so I've tried everything they've got or what. They do seem to advertise new featured brands each month though, so I'm just not sure that's it. Why not send me the new brands?

They did change their quiz maybe a month or 2 ago and while I think some categories might be better, I'm not terribly happy with some omissions, like the deletion of the choice between dramatic and natural mascara. You can only rate black or color mascara now. Which means I may end up with natural looking mascara that I hate! For me, it's go big or forget it! None of that natural stuff! (If you like natural mascara, that's totally cool - I just don't like it on me.)

But anyway, with this month's box, I did notice a slightly weird set of choices for me. They all fit my preferences decently, but I got 2 black mascaras (set as "like", not "love"), a highlighter (another "like", not "love"), and a black eyeliner (my only "love" category, but only a "like" color, since I have a bajillion black liners). All very basic and not a whole lot of variety. Meanwhile, the little blurb on their site and in the info sheet about their featured brands this month both mention pops of color in eyeshadow (and the picture for the month is totally focused on eyeshadow!) and mascara. I just wish I got a box that was a bit more on theme this month. I'm not entirely sure how strictly they follow their monthly themes, though. I mentioned all this in my email as well (politely), mostly just asking what's up and if they have any ideas on how I can tweak my quiz to get some better matches next month.

UPDATE: Ok, I hadn't finished this post last night in time to actually post it and in the meantime, I heard back already from Wantable. I definitely have to give it to them for their customer service. The couple times I've written them an email, I hear back quickly and they're very helpful with their answers. So, basically, they looked at my profile and said it's not too strict, but it may help to try to set things only to "love" or "dislike" for next month (get rid of the "likes") and see what that does.  She also said all the (PLA)Beauty mascaras came like that and they do not resend things that are sent back from other customers, so that's good enough for me. I'm still not sure I'm a huge fan of the brand, but I'm sure it's not used at least. Finally, they apologized for me getting 2 black mascaras and said that shouldn't have happened and offered to send me a replacement item to make up for it. She also said they'd throw in one extra item to make up for me being pretty unhappy with the whole box this month. Really, all I hoped for was some advise on my profile and an answer to the question about the unsealed mascara, which I got quickly, so I was already happy enough with that. Their offer to send me a couple replacement products really seemed above and beyond to me and I definitely appreciate that. So, yay for awesome customer service!

If you are interested in signing up for Wantable, here's my link! If you already get Wantable, what kind of products 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. I have included referral links.)