LipMonthly September 2014: value breakdown, swatches, mini reviews!

Hello, Beautiful!

This is my September 2014 LipMonthly bag! Check out below to see what I received, a little about each product and my thoughts, as well as a break-down of the value of this month's bag!

Also, I have some updates to some issues/complaints I had in my last post and how they responded - as well as a new complaint about their referral system change. All those details will be towards the end of this post.

LipMonthly is just $10 a month! Each month you'll receive 2 to 3 FULL SIZED lip products and 2 to 3 sample sized products (the sample sized products may not always be lip items). If you want to sign-up for your own LipMonthly box, CLICK HERE (it's my referral link and there is usually a discount/deal when you sign up - but not always). Join me and let's be LipMonthly friends!

September 2014 LipMonthly

Shipment Quick Stats:

• Value of this month's LipMonthly Box: $35.65 (value is approximate)
• Total # of Items Received: 5
• # of FULL SIZED items: 4
• # of deluxe sized sample items: 1
• # of lip items: 2 (because the one item is eye/lip & I would never use it for lips)
• # of non-lip items: 3 

Now I'll talk about each product...

Makeup by Cherimoya - Lip Crayon
Shade: Coral

• MY THOUGHTS: This product had the cutest packaging out of all the items in this month's bag. Upon just looking at everything, I was most excited for this product. Even the lip crayon itself looks like a higher end lip crayon, but looks can be deceiving. The product packaging feels very cheap and the actual stick of color inside the packaging is loose, so if you shake the lip crayon you can hear it moving back and forth inside the tube. It is a twist-up, so not sharpening needed, but it is a cheap twist-up (loud too). The scent is a little cheap too; smells like cheap unscented candle wax or a cheap beeswax. I could look past all of the packaging if the color was pretty. Seeing at the shade name is Coral, I thought I would absolutely love this color; boy was I wrong! It comes off different than it appears and from what you expect a coral to look like. It swatched like a very light, baby pink shade with a hint of coral undertones. On my lips it was even more horrible in shade, looking pasty and pale, and showing every crack and dry flake possible. It also applied very patchy, and when I rubbed my lips together it left a line on my upper lip and just looked very uneven. I had to use my finger to smooth it out for the lip swatch photos. Just a very unflattering shade and not a very good quality product in general.
• FULL SIZE: $8.00
• SIZE I RECEIVED: full size
• VALUE: $8.00

Makeup by Cherimoya - Retractable Lip & Eye Pencil
Shade: Latte (24)

• MY THOUGHTS: LipMonthly counts this as a lip product, but for me this would never be a lip liner - I'd only use this on my eyes. Maybe if I had gotten a different shade I could use it as a lip liner, but I rarely see lip and eye lining shades to be interchangeable. I also don't think a formula for your lip liner should be the same as for your eye liner; but that's just a personal opinion. As you can see from the one photo, it came with a clump of product on the tip, and I think it's because this formula isn't the best. It didn't swatch very nicely on my hand; a little patchy and the product would ball up wherever you first put it, meaning you'd have to remove that ball of product or try and smooth it out. I personally hate the shade; it's not a very noticeable shade on my skintone. It has a frosty sheen to it that would terrible (at least on my lips) as a lip liner and because it's so close to my skintone I wouldn't even bother using it as an eyeliner (not even for my lower waterline). Even though the other Makeup by Cherimoya product was a let down from what I thought it would be, this lip/eye pencil is my least favorite product in the entire bag. One positive about the product: it does come with it's own built-in sharpener.
• FULL SIZE: $4.00
• SIZE I RECEIVED: full size
• VALUE: $4.00

Eco Lips - Fair Trade Organic Hemp Lip Balm
Scent: Vanilla

• MY THOUGHTS: I can always use a lip balm, and I had never tried Eco Lips before (but have heard of them). I like Vanilla so I was sure I'd love the scent. I do like the scent but I don't love it; it smells very much like baking vanilla extract and a little bit of hemp thrown in there, which does throw off the scent a bit. It's unlike other vanilla scents I have. I didn't do a lip swatch because this is just a clear lip balm. I do think it's moisturizing, but it oddly made my lips tingle slightly. I had my friend try it out and he said the same thing, but he didn't feel the tingle as much as I did. Not sure what that tingle is about, but I've used this a few times since getting it and I'm still forming an opinion on this lip balm.
• FULL SIZE: $3.49
• SIZE I RECEIVED: full size
• VALUE: $3.49

Julie G Nail Color
Shade: Anthony

 

• MY THOUGHTS: I actually don't own any Julie G nail polishes, which is odd because I always see them in Rite Aid and love the shades. I'm happy to get this in my bag because it's a really pretty coral-pink (sort of the shade the Makeup by Cherimoya Lip Crayon should have been!). The formula is really lovely! I only used 1 coat for the nail swatch, but depending on how you polish your nails you may want 2 coats. I haven't used this in a manicure yet, and with fall here I kind of want darker more sultry shades on my nails, but this shade will be used for sure. It's pretty!
• FULL SIZE: $3.99
• SIZE I RECEIVED: full size
• VALUE: $3.99

Pur-lisse - Pur-Moist Hydra-Boot Moisturizer

 

• MY THOUGHTS: If you are subscribed to just about any beauty subscription service, you've received a Pur-lisse moisturizer - usually a full size, or a decent size. It's just one of those products people are tired of seeing in their subscription boxes because it's everywhere and often! However, it is a good moisturizer. I don't mind getting it because I can use it, and since it's not the full size I won't have to worry about wasting the whole thing (since I have so much skincare I'm trying to work through now). But I do know a lot of people are kind of annoyed to see this in their bag - which isn't LipMonthly's fault at all, as they've never featured Pur-lisse yet. 
• FULL SIZE: $55.00 for 1.7 oz
• SIZE I RECEIVED: 0.5 oz
• VALUE: $16.17  (LipMonthly has this listed as $18 on the card)

My Thoughts On The Entire Bag...

• FULL SIZE/DELUXE SIZE: This box contained 4 full sized products and 1 deluxe sized sample.
• VALUE: The value was approximately $35.65
• USAGE: I have been using the Eco Lips lip balm here and there since receiving it. I'll use the Julie G nail polish for sure! I've also used the Pur-lisse moisturizer a few times. I absolutely won't be using either of the Makeup by Cherimoya products!
• FINAL THOUGHTS: I wasn't really thrilled with this month's bag; it had some okay products but nothing that was amazing, and it certainly had a couple of bad products (the Makeup by Cherimoya items). Also received another LipMonthly makeup bag, which is the same from last month. I already have enough mini makeup bags from Ipsy, and I'd appreciate more if they were cute (like the Ipsy ones are) but the LipMonthly ones have been the same each month (just two months so far since they've done bags instead of a box). Maybe in the future they will change them up; at least I hope so because I don't know what I'd do with multiples of the same mini makeup bag that is branded all over front and back with LipMonthly. Just lips would be super cute though! I guess I also wish this month had more lip products though considering I signed up for this service because I'm a lip product addict and it is called LipMonthly. But I still appreciate the subscription service and will see how the next month's bag does. I also was supposed to receive an extra item for writing my blog reviews, but that never showed up -- read all the details about that and another issue in the info below!

Some Updates about the LipMonthly Service and Customer Service... 

So last month I had made a specific complaint on my Instagram post about first LipMonthly bag, how I had sent them my blog review to see what they thought, but I didn't even receive a reply back. I had sent that to them also because they had listed that if you make a YouTube video and send them the link, that they'd send you an extra product in your next box. Now I know I didn't make a video, I'm very aware of that, but thought I'd send it to them anyway, seeing as how my blog gets a lot of views every month and it takes a lot of work to take all the photos and swatches - including lip swatches (and my photos aren't crap either). But I never even received a reply back. 

Then, randomly, one day (in August) on my Instagram post they replied saying that did appreciate my hard work and would be sending me an extra item in my next box -- my next box would be this box, my September box. I was thankful and excited.

BUT that item never arrived in my September box (and I realize it's now a bag, but it was a box, so I say box or bag when I typed up this review - you still know what I'm saying). I had made another Instagram post about my LipMonthly bag, just as I did in July and August, but this one was for September and had mentioned how I did not receive the extra item I was told I would receive.

This time around I got a much quicker reply on my Instagram post, asking what extra product I was referring to and to email their customer service - which at this very second that I'm typing up this post, I realized I never did email customer service. I still need to do that, but unfortunately my work schedule has been so hectic and I've been driving/traveling a lot that it completely slipped my mind. So I still need to email them about that extra product and I'll update you all next month with the outcome on that situation.

But then I had another issue....

I hate to sound like I'm complaining - because I'm really not. I understand they are a newer company and there are kinks to be ironed out. I mean, look at Ipsy; they started as MyGlam and there were oh so many issues in the beginning and look at where they are now! So I stay hopeful with LipMonthly that they'll grow from their customer feedback and improve as needed.

The other issues I had is their referral system was set up that for every friend you referred you received a free box. Thanks to you wonderful followers, I had 7 free boxes lined up for me - which I was excited to save some money on my subscription boxes, but still be able to do blog posts like this to share with you all what I received, swatches, and the value breakdown. 

I had randomly looked at my credit card statement and realized they charged me for my September box -- and now that I think of it, they may have charged me for August box as well. So I emailed them on August 28th, thinking it was some kind of billing mix up. I let them know I had 7 free boxes in my referral system and that I was charged for my September box but should not have been charged. Their reply?  They said to please check out their new referral program, which they linked me to, and said they would send me a free box in October, but after that my referrals will be turned into points which are redeemable for "amazing products". 

Their reply was the day after my email, so I was happy with the quick response, but um... gee... thanks? What about all the referrals I had previously gotten? Why all I had previously thought was their referral program was now changed without any notification to me at all. Why not a refund for September's box (and possibly August's box if they also charged me)? So I replied back the same day - August 29th - to ask about it again - making sure I understood that I was getting one free box in October and then the rest of my referrals would be converted to points that I could spend in their store. I waited on a reply and I did get a reply, but not until September 9th.

Before I had received a reply, they had sent out a mass email on September 3rd to notify people of their new referral program. In the email they explained that anyone who had previous referral credits would be able to use 3 of them and the rest would be used in their point system.

So that left me even more confused... and a little annoyed, to be honest. I had just been told I would get 1 free box in October and the rest would go to points, then I get this email saying anyone who previously had referrals could use 3 of them and the rest would go to points.

On September 9th they replied simply saying I would receive a free box in October. They did not answer my question about my points and the value it would equal to. Nothing other than linking me to their helpdesk. 

But I wasn't really happy about that reply - especially after the email they sent out notifying people they'd get to use 3 of their referrals towards free boxes... which would mean October, November and December would be free for me. So I replied back again to inquire about all that... 

They replied back the same day saying they "understand" and have "allowed" me to get the 3 boxes as previously promised and I would not be charged until December 25th for January's box.

That issue was solved, but I'm still left a little uneasy and not sure what to think. Here are some of my thoughts:

I personally think any referrals prior to the switch over should have been grandfathered in and any referrals thereafter would be under their new referral program. If anything, I should have been able to use my referrals for August and September, as I thought it would be, and then imply their new referral rule and have the next 3 boxes free and the rest of my referrals into points. Am I wrong in thinking this? I do need to go back and look at my credit card statements and see if I was also charged for my August box. It's something I feel really uneasy about with them because here I am thinking I am not going to have to worry about being charged for several months, and then I'm charged and without even a warning about the referral program change? I don't like that.

So in conclusion:

While I was initially really happy about them replying to me to include an extra item in my September box, I was really let down to not receive it and then they weren't even sure what product I was talking about on my IG post. But I do like the fact they are listening and responding to their customers. They are trying to improve their service and fix any issues that come up.

Thoughts on this?

Let me know what you think...

What are your thoughts on this month's LipMonthly bag? Did you receive an LipMonthly bag this month? If so, what did you get in your bag and what did you think of the products? Discuss in the comments below.