Volume 21 launched on November 3rd, and is the third Trendmood box I’ve purchased overall. For those who might not be familiar with them, the founder is Sophie of the Trendmood1 Instagram account. It’s not like subscription services that charge monthly until cancelled. Each box of products is curated and shown ahead of time (including details about possible shade variations that will be chosen at random). The prices of each box also varies and you have to buy each specific box you want each time it launches. There are currently no preorders. Quantities are limited and once they sell out, they usually aren’t restocked. What they ended up doing last year for Black Friday was selling a mystery box with a set number of products that would be randomly chosen from a pool of previously launched boxes. My second ever Trendmood box was last year’s Black Friday mystery one.

Volume 21 was supposed to be $48 for the products inside that had the combined retail price of $195, but using Trendmood’s own code at launch dropped it to $45. There is usually an incentive to purchasing early and signing up for early access (one hour before the normal launch). This time the discount was five percent, but it can vary. I got 20% off that Black Friday box with the special code.

I had actually heard people were disappointed by the Fall Romance palette since it came out before the Vol.21 box was available. The Fall Romance palette is $55 at full price, so I was willing to gamble that getting this for $10 cheaper, plus other items I was interested in having, would end up still being worth it. Let’s see if I’m correct!

I will start off reviewing Fall Romance, plus Nouveau that I bought last year that came with a free 2 piece set (mesh pouch and mascara) from purchasing through Ulta. Since I still have that Lash Brag mascara and I recently got 10x the points buying a mini of the new Lash Sculpt mascara, I’ll be reviewing them both too. I will include additional reviews of other products I’ve used from the Trendmood box at the end!

Anastasia Beverly Hills Fall Romance Eyeshadow Palette

Moonlight feels gritty and is difficult to pick up with a finger. It might be intentionally hard pressed to minimize the fact that it’s a flakier topper style duochrome eyeshadow. Divine felt surprisingly rough too. Even though it picks up easily on my finger, it takes multiple swipes to smooth it out for an opaque section of color. The brand considers it a duochrome as well and describes the shade as, “vivid purple with a sparkling pink-pearl shift,” but the shifted sheen is so subtle that it’s not a true duochrome in my eyes. Ember and Crimson are the two roughest textured shadows in the palette, but Ember smooths out nicely whereas Crimson is patchy both in swatches and on the eyes. With a lot of work, it can be covered up, but I’m not pleased with the way this one was made. Thorns and Mulberry are not quite as rough feeling as Ember and Crimson, but still not as soft as regular ABH matte eyeshadows. Unlike the first five shades in the palette, plus Midnight, the remaining shadows in the palette have a big kickup problem. I don’t usually pay much attention to some excess powder here and there, but it literally gets into the neighboring shades if I forget to pay attention to how softly I tap and pick up product on my brush. I’m wondering if we have another Subculture situation where the brand wants pigment, but feels they have to press the pans very hard so they don’t fly all over the place due to not using enough binders. I never owned the Subculture palette because the reviews scared me off, but I remember the complaints that came out about it and this seems similar with the exception that these mattes are even rougher feeling to the touch. Thankfully, these don’t feel like sandpaper when I’m actually applying them to my eyes, but it’s indicative that the formula is not the same as ABH’s usual eyeshadows. All that rough texture feels like how pigments/oxides feel without enough fillers, yet the ingredients show this is definitely not the case. So, unfortunately, I’ve been unable to figure out why these feel like this.

Something else to keep in mind is that the non-shimmers all deepen up considerably when I use MAC Paint Pot, so a drier type eye primer is better for me. At least, something like the Gerard Cosmetics Clean Canvas works better. I don’t know how these perform with ABH’s own primer which was definitely a very dry type. I ran out of the sample, so I can’t test the palette out with it.

Another thing that will probably be less important to others is that Thorns looks so similar to Twilight in the pans that I got them mixed up in one of the eye looks I created (but did not photograph), and only realized it when the spot turned blue where Thorns and Twilight connected with Divine. Thorns by itself is more vibrant of a green than the other one, but also has a stronger blue tone to it. The ability to see it in the pan depends on the lighting.

Looking at the photo of the yet-to-be-used palette at the top of the post, Fireside stands out as the most textured and foiled shimmer of the bunch, but I was disappointed that it didn’t look special on the eyes. Applying it damp smooths it out, so it looks more metallic than sparkly, but adding Fireside back on top with a dry finger brings some shine back. This technique improves my opinion of how it looks on me, but it’s still not my favorite.
Crown is a beautiful duochrome gold to green shimmer shade, but even though it’s one of the stars of this palette, Natasha Denona has done a shade like this better from her Gold palette (Lime Chrome) and the Mini Gold (Antheia).
Smoke is the smoothest of all the shimmers in look and feel, but is also the only one that creases on me. It’s only a tiny bit of creasing though. The bigger issue is the immense fallout, so I advise applying this one wet and/or using glitter glue. Nyx Glitter Primer pretty much solved this issue for me.

There’s a learning curve to using this palette in the beginning. I have to be mindful of the primer used. I have to be careful to watch out for patchiness from Crimson. I have to combat shimmer fallout. I also noticed that these shadows really didn’t like my crease brushes. They were more prone to patchiness from the color being too easily rubbed off. I had to switch to using mostly paddle shaped and flat brushes before blending the edge with no additional product with a crease brush at the end. For some reason, these work better when patted on slowly to be built up and not swiped across the skin the way I would normally work in windshield wiper motions with a crease brush.

Due to all these issues, I can’t recommend this palette. Because I know all the tips and tricks to making this work now, I have managed to complete eye looks in an acceptable amount of time and find it less difficult to use. I’m still annoyed when the matte kickup (which tends to be dark) keeps getting into the shimmers (which are mostly light) and wants to stick to them, basically dirtying up the color. I really love those tones of colors though, and the end result of the eye look most of the time. For that reason, I don’t regret buying the Trendmood box to get it, and I surprisingly keep second-guessing my decision to leave it behind when I go to Germany again.

In the Nouveau section, I delve into more theories as to why that one gets praised, but this one doesn’t.

The letters correspond to which mascaras were used. LS equals Lash Sculpt while LB stands for Lash Brag.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Lash Sculpt Lengthening & Volumizing Mascara (mini)

I have to mention that I was quite impressed with this travel size with how weighty it feels in the hand. This mascara packaging could not have been cheap, especially with the extra details like the logo on the cap and the metallic looking gold rim at the tube’s opening.

What I like about this mascara is that it gives length, but if I spend enough time with it, I can also get some volume. There’s no flaking or smudging. When I go for a second coat (needed for the volume) it can start to get clumps at the tips but by the time I finish fully brushing through the lashes, they are combed out and gone. Also, after the mascara dries, my lashes feel soft to the touch and not stiff or stuck in one direction.

Part of what makes this a bit time consuming to apply is that the formula gives me trouble with initially sticking to my lashes. When I accidentally got mascara on my eye, I was going to let it dry before trying to wipe it away, but the drop ended up falling off by itself leaving barely any evidence behind. When it does stick to the lashes, it’s like it skips parts of the strand and builds on the tips or the base of the lashes, often skipping the middle. I have to continually brush through to get it looking even. I believe it’s also difficult to build volume because it feels like the wand bristles aren’t close enough together and brushing through my lashes aren’t touching all my lashes in every swipe due to those gaps. So, I have to wiggle the brush back and forth to add as much product onto the lashes as I can and then comb them through and repeat. I get it to look the best I can, wait a minute, and then proceed with the second coat which is where I finally get some volume and extra length. So, this mascara does end up doing both just as is claimed, but it takes longer than my other mascaras to get there. However, this mascara’s benefit is how much better it is at looking uniform and clump free with this level of length and volume that does end up looking as good, or better than a few of my mascara favorites.

So, I’m happy to use this up, but I don’t know if I’ll repurchase it. I still prefer how quickly I can complete applying my other mascaras in just one coat since I’m impatient, even at the cost of the lashes looking a little wilder.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Lash Brag Volumizing Mascara

This mascara’s focus is on volume. I don’t get any clumping, smudging or flaking. The brush part of the wand is shaped in away that’s good at separating the lashes while still building volume. Just like the newer ABH mascara, once the product dries on my eyes, my lashes are left feeling soft and flexible to the touch instead of stiff.

I have to mention the packaging again with this one because it’s weighty like the Lash Sculpt tube, with the additional factor of the cap actually being a magnetic metal (in the photo above I show my triangular magnet attached to the cap). I’m not sure if this was weighted intentionally for balance in holding, the way some makeup brushes are intentionally weighted. There’s also a pretty rose gold-into-black ombre design. Anastasia Beverly Hills certainly puts a lot of money into their mascara components. I don’t understand why they’d give mascaras (something that gets tossed out or used up quickly) better packaging than some of their staple products, but perhaps it pays off more than I know.

The downside with this one is that it doesn’t give quite as much length as my favorite mascaras, and even leaves slightly less volume than some of them, despite specializing in volume. I can at least get it closer to my favorites if I spend a lot of time building it up using the same application techniques as the Lash Sculpt mascara, but I’d rather use my favorites that are cheaper and quicker to build. So, I intended to use this up, but I don’t think I’ll be repurchasing another one either.

While we’re at it, lets review the KVD mascara I got from the Trendmood box.

KVD Beauty Full Sleeve Long + Defined Tubing Mascara

I actually just bought this mascara prior to the launch of the Trendmood box when Ulta had a 10x the points on mascara event. It would have been very bad if I ended up having two full tubes of a mascara I didn’t like, but I consider myself lucky because I like it. And now I have a backup!

This is my first real foray into tubing mascaras. I remember using one or two when I was much younger with very little makeup knowledge. I didn’t like them at the time because I didn’t know they were supposed to come off in tubes, so it scared me off. It wasn’t until recent years that I thought I should give them another try.

The best part about this mascara is that I don’t get any clumping, flaking, or smudging. In fact, it doesn’t smear as much when removing it and in the moments when my eyes get watery, I can wipe the tear away without getting smudges either. The issue I have is that it can take a while to build up to my desired length and thickness. The quickest way I can achieve the result I want is to use a wiggling motion to build up to the acceptable level in the first coat, wait a minute, and then add another layer. It’s recommended to apply additional coats while still wet (to avoid clumping), but my way works best for me. Also, the tip end being bulbous required me to be very careful and deliberate in trying to reach the innermost lashes without accidentally touching my skin and getting mascara on it. Then I learned the brush is meant to be flipped from the horizontal position to the vertical position when it comes to the inner corners and lower lash line, so I’m able to reach them easier now.

When it comes to removal, using warm water and trying to slide the mascara off my lashes with my fingers feels more time consuming than when I just use a wipe with Bioderma, so I personally skip that and just remove my mascara the way I normally do with others.

Also, I have to mention the artwork on this tube is really cool and the component feels like aluminum. It’s nowhere near as weighty as the ABH mascaras, not that it matters. It’s just something I found interesting.

Really cool packaging is my weakness, but I try to not let that be the reason I buy a mascara since it’s going to be tossed out in a matter of months. The time when I have a hard time resisting is if a favorite mascara of mine gets released in new limited edition packaging. Then it’s hard to talk myself out of it because I already know it’s something I like, and will get use out of while getting to admire it looking pretty.

My final point regarding mascaras is that all three had no issues with flaking, which has been such a relief because the Huda 1 Coat Wow and Benefit Fan Fest mascaras that launched recently both had that issue for me, and worse than I’ve had from mascaras in a long time. Also, I’ve recently tried the L’Oreal Telescopic Lift Washable Mascara which gave length and volume very quickly, but at the expense of being prone to being clumpy if I spend too much time building it up (I think as it tries to dry). Plus, I can feel it stiffen my lashes, and not just to the touch with my fingers. I can literally feel the mascara on my lashes while I wear it, which can be uncomfortable at times. It’s at least as easy to remove as they say.

I figured I may as well throw in these comments on other mascaras because I love trying new mascaras but I don’t enjoy reviewing them and don’t see myself doing another one of these for a very long time.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Nouveau Eyeshadow Palette

This palette doesn’t have the rough texture issue, and the eyeshadows are in fact incredibly soft to the touch because they feel like they were given light-medium pressure when machine pressed into the pans. Considering the fact that this palette isn’t as hard pressed, yet still manages to have slightly less kickup than the Fall Romance palette (though still more than I experience with the majority of palettes), is fascinating.
Nouveau and the Rose Metals palettes have been praised as being softer than ABH’s prior eyeshadow formula with better color payoff, but I think it really comes down to the press making a difference. ABH’s palettes prior to the release of Nouveau had mattes that were buttery feeling and shimmers with less slip. These mattes are soft because they’re powdery and not due to them being creamy. I wouldn’t be surprised if the previous eyeshadow formula was more expensive than this newer one in recent years. The way they’ve pressed the eyeshadows allow them to perform just as well, or in some ways even better than the older palettes, but I think Fall Romance falls victim to what happens when working with rougher pigments and needing to better adjust the ingredients for adherence. Fall Romance mattes would likely have Subculture level kickup if pressed lighter, which is why I think it’s a formula problem with the eyeshadow particles not being better binded to each other because of the darker colorful pigments requiring a lot more tweaking in formula than the lighter and neutral shadows the brand tends to stick to most of the time.

As I mentioned, this palette’s shadows are lightly pressed. My shade Lili was actually a little broken, but I was able to press it back so well and easily (no liquid added) that it looks practically untouched in the product photo above!

The eyeshadows don’t want to get in the deepest line in my crease, but other than that, I have no other issues of creasing, moving, or fading. The mattes blend well. The shimmers are a little less impactful than I would like, but they’re still quite pretty. I love the tones of the shades in this palette. I only have two complaints, which are Wisteria being the typical pastel that is too thin and has to be caked on like crazy to stick to and last on my eyes, plus has a lot of white in the base that shows ashier white and less purple than how it would look on someone else with lighter skin than mine. Also, other than using Wisteria as a pop in my inner corner, I have struggled to complete looks with Wisteria in any other spot around the eyes and have it look good. This shade just does not go with the rest of the color story.
My other complaint is that many of these color groupings (the greens together and the orange family) have the same depth, so there is very little differentiation on my eyes if I wear them in the same looks. I would have loved a deep green and/or dark terracotta so I could use something other than Muse to darken the outer corner.

Peacock looks so exciting, seeing as its a duochrome, but it’s let down by the shimmer particles being so muted. This kind of color is super popular from even mainstream brands. I used to have a color like it from Too Faced as a single back in 2015, and this is about as good as that one was (which is a bad thing considering how long ago that was). They don’t stack up to the shine and shift from some of the brands found in Sephora with updated formulas like Pat Mcgrath and Danessa Myricks.

Overall, I like this palette, but I don’t recommend buying it at full price. I’m glad I bought it to satisfy my curiosity, and for being able to understand the direction the brand is taking their eyeshadows now. I really enjoy using it in the moment, but when I think about other palettes I truly love, this purchase could have been skipped.

APRILSKIN Artemisia Rice Toner

This has 80% Korean Mugwort extract, which is why it’s from the Artemisia line (mugwort’s scientific name being Artemisia vulgaris). I don’t believe I’ve ever used a skincare product with mugwort prior to this one, but I’m becoming a lot more interested now after the results I’ve had. My box arrived October 11th, and since that time I’ve been using this toner frequently. There are quite a few claims that are advertised, such as soothing skin irritation (mugwort), boosting skin elasticity, reducing bumpiness, addressing uneven skin tone (rice bran water), and improving internal hydration and external moisture (four different hyaluronic acids). I don’t know which ingredient is supposed to boost skin elasticity unless they mean how the skin behaves when it’s hydrated (going back to the hyaluronic acids then) versus dehydrated. For the reducing bumpiness part, I also don’t know if they mean that by inflamed pimples being soothed and calmed, the inflammation will go down and thus be smaller in size? If so, that sounds like a stretch to me and it’s probably better for customers to only expect to get hydration, skin soothing, and brightening elements from this product. Those three are the ones I’ve personally observed.

I tend to just use this at night and my skin feels adequately hydrated after putting it on, to the point that I don’t feel the need to overload my face with moisturizers. Despite the external moisture claim in which the thinnest layer of film is left on the skin (enough to see in the light but not feel it on face), I don’t feel it’s occlusive enough and so I still need at least one other layer of product, but the fact that I don’t feel the need for something heavy duty is amazing. It’s especially helpful because even though I have dry skin, my pores only tolerate lightweight things and too heavy of creams cause a clogging problem. By getting hydration and moisture from a toner, using my regular lightweight serums and moisturizers seems even more effective.

As for the skin soothing, I didn’t notice anything until my skin was getting irritated from doing repeated swatching and wiping off of products on my face. Because I’ve been trying to figure out which products to bring with me on my trip to Germany, I needed to actually see them on myself to refresh my memory. The constant rubbing was making my skin hurt, but after cleansing my face at night and applying this toner, my cheeks felt less painful. I’m guessing it’s from both the mugwort and rehydrating ingredients to replenish what was stripped from my skin from the makeup removers and cleanser.

My skin looks glowier and less dull, but I can’t tell if it’s only due to that thin veil of residue/film that is left on the skin, or if my skin has actually been brightened. I feel like my areas of hyperpigmentation that look deep ashy grey-black don’t look quite as dull anymore, even before I apply the product, but I don’t know whether I can credit the toner or other skincare I’ve been using. Regardless, the other benefits are enough bonuses for me to continue wanting to use it. I like that this doesn’t have alcohol or witch hazel and that the slight herbal scent (which seems natural because I don’t see fragrance on the ingredient list) is extremely mild.

I’m quite happy with this product and plan to keep observing it to see if there will be other advantages to using it long-term.

Sigma Beauty Lip Cream in Dapper

There was a possibility of getting either Dusty Rose, Begonia, Dapper, New Mod, or Rosewood in this box. I think Begonia is the only one guaranteed to be too light for me. I might have liked the other shades as well, but Dapper being a pink-purple “warm hibiscus neutral,” looks nearly natural on me considering my mix of lip colors.

The lips look juicy/plump with this on, feels creamy and comfortable, has a bit of a slight staining effect, isn’t completely removed after eating, and clings to the lips quite well. The downside is the same as the majority of lip products with color in them, that my lips will still end up being drier and I will see spots that are peeling at the end of the day. So, I still need to condition them at night to not have the problem exacerbate.

Em Cosmetics Soft Blur Velvet Lip Liner in Foxy

It was possible to get either Bunny, Teddy, or Foxy in this box. I’m glad I got Foxy because it’s the only shade from Em Cosmetics that can function as a proper lip liner color for me. However, it is still darker than I typically wear. It’s great paired with Sigma’s Dapper though.

I like that it glides on smoothly because it has a slight creaminess to it, but not enough to slide around everywhere. I’m able to soften the edges without fear of totally wiping it off. It’s not waterproof or budgeproof, but it clings fairly well to my lips. By the end of the night, without touching anything up, I can still see it around 60-70% of my lip line depending on what type of food I ate that day.

I’m happy to have this item and plan on using it up, but I don’t think I’ll purchase a new one when it’s done. This is mainly because I prefer a formula that’s soft when I apply it, yet dries down to the point that it becomes hard to budge. This one has the emollient level I like, but doesn’t have the water-resistant factor. So I’ll continue reaching for the other lip liners in my collection along with this one.

Swirl and Sparkle Solid Makeup Brush Cleanser (Trendmood Edition)

I never heard of this brand prior to the inclusion in this box, so I had to do a little research. They make all kinds of “handcrafted vegan, cruelty-free, and all-natural” solid brush cleansers in various colors, scents, and shapes within the container. The scent of this one is Toasted Marshmallow, which is their most popular one. That smell isn’t very heavy, it’s pleasant, and fades quickly, so I don’t mind it being there.

It appears, based on the website, that $25 for 1 ounce is the typical price point from their offerings. My main arsenal of products I use for brush cleaning are the Blendercleanser Solid at $18 for 0.55 oz and the Rephr soap at $25 for 60 grams. I only buy the Rephr soap when it’s discounted (which happens frequently) and I have a stash of several minis of Beautyblender’s soaps that were either included with the Beautyblender, part of a free gift with purchase set, or redeemable for 100 points via Sephora. So, I’m used to spending a lot less or nothing at all for those two products. I also reach for the Dr. Bronner’s Pure Castille Liquid Soap when I need something heavier duty, and my 4 ounce bottle (in conjunction with the other products) lasted me three years and was $6 at the time from Amazon. I’ve also recently been using the Chikuhodo Makeup Brush Cleaner* which is practically a detergent and apparently contains surfactants. That one cost me $11 for 100ml. The container is meant to hold 115 ml so it will arrive looking like a lot of liquid is missing.

*Note: The link to the Chikuhodo brush cleaner is an affiliate link. Making a purchase using it on CDJapan will generate commission. This is the only affiliate link in this review. Any other links are regular non-affiliated ones.

If I’m trying to deal with stubborn stains, I use Cinema Secrets Lemon Makeup Brush Cleaner (the colorless one). It’s extremely harsh on brushes, so I don’t recommend it, but I admittedly use it on rare occasions and sparingly. Plus it leaves a film on my brushes, so I always feel compelled to wash it again afterwards. Some cleansers I’ve tried, but dislike, are the Beautyblender Instaclean (left brushes feeling oily) and the liquid version of Blendercleanser didn’t do as good of a job as the solid from my viewpoint.

I recently bought the Sephora Mini Daily Brush Cleaner, but haven’t used it yet because I misplaced it.

I say all this to show the wide variety of products I’ve experienced cleaning my brushes with from gentle ones to some that are harsh, and those products set the bar for the kind of results I’m expecting.

I began by washing my synthetic brushes, natural hair brushes, and then moved onto the brushes that are super dense and tend to give me the most trouble cleaning. For example, the Patrick Ta contour brush pictured in the top left of the photo below shows remnants of product that I missed being able to see when it rolled down with the water and collected onto the fiber tips. This kind of thing usually only happens with my thickest densest brushes like Tarte’s The Buffer and The Blur brushes. The Swirl and Sparkle soap easily took care of my Patrick Ta brush, which would have been bad if it didn’t considering it was just leftover product on the brush. The bigger test was comparing how it would do with Tarte’s The Blur brush with several uses of foundation built up on the bristles. Unfortunately, it didn’t give me any better results than I usually have with the rephr soap or beautyblender solid soap. It took quite a few repeated washings to get it looking clean as clean is it is in the bottom right quadrant of the photo, and even still, when the brush dried I was able to see some remnants on the tips, just like with the Patrick Ta brush.

I should note that I don’t do more than 3-4 washes on a face brush at one time. I find that it becomes counterproductive with the bristles being too saturated with water and at risk of damaging the brush even though I let them hang upside down to keep water out of the ferrule. So, I find that it’s better to squeeze out the excess, let it dry partway, and wash it once more before leaving it alone to dry completely.

For normal brushes, this brush cleaner seemed at first to be working quicker than Beautyblender and Rephr’s soaps. The bristles were literally feeling squeaky clean on both synthetic hair and natural alike. However, when the brushes were fully dried and I rubbed my fingers over the bristles, it feel like there was soap residue still on them. So, I had to rewash the whole batch. The next time I was on a brush cleaning spree, I remembered this and made sure to wash the bristles out extra thoroughly, even more than I spend with any other brush cleaner. This helped reduce the amount of residue, but there was in fact still residue. The whole reason I was feeling the hair in the first place is because the heads were dried exactly in the shape of the way they looked when I squeezed out the water, which I guess is further indication that some kind of product was weighing down the bristles and preventing them from puffing out.

Now, I know this soap contains oil, so I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be conditioning the brush and the residue is intentional. I don’t know if the fact that I don’t wipe my brushes on a towel (recommended by the brand for the purpose of a quicker drying time) would have also wiped that residue off the hair before being set aside to dry. I can attest that the residue is at least not dirty leftover product because the water runs clear when I try to wash them again, so it might be a conditioning thing. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Also, my brushes take about 30% longer to dry using this soap than when I use my other brush cleaning products. So, I guess squeezing the water out really isn’t enough and pre-drying them on a towel before air-drying them is essential.

In the photo above, I wanted to show a random thing that happened when part of the top layer came off. I can’t explain why this happened. I rinsed it off and put it back with the rest of the soap and was able to continue using the rest of the lifted off piece for another giant brush washing session.

I apologize for the next image being pretty gross, but I felt it best to show what happened around the third or fourth time I used this product. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until after I washed a giant batch of brushes that I saw the spots around the edges of the container. So, I hadn’t even attempted to rinse off the dirty residue yet.

Please be warned!

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According to the website, the directions say, “With your very last clean brush, use it to swirl + clean off any residue in the container under water. Air dry the lid + container before locking + loading it for next time.”

After use, it’s my practice to literally clean off the top layer (as instructed) with the last brush and as little water as possible. Then I hold it upside down and try to shake out any lingering drops. I then set the tin in the area I keep the rest of the brushes. I let it air dry with the lid off for a minimum of 12 hours. Usually I wash my brushes in the morning, so I put the lid back on the soap just before bed. If I wash them later in the day, the lid remains off overnight. So, if 12 or more hours is too short of a time to let it air dry, there should be a mention of this on the website or extra instructions on keeping the soap tin as hygienic and clean as possible. I feel like this was an inevitable issue considering I noticed that while I was washing the brushes, I could see some water seeping between the canister and edge of the soap, even though I couldn’t see any space there. It somehow still was getting a tiny bit lower around the edges.

When I use my Beautyblender solid, I basically keep the soap on a surface to air dry, the scrubbing piece to air dry, and wipe the plastic container completely dry before leaving that open as well. Then at the end of the night I put them all back together. So, I was concerned that this soap being stuck in this container and not being removable could potentially have this issue since I was following directions and not trying to wipe it down.

So, my advise is to either take a sharp object and remove the soap and place it into a different container (the brand seems to have some soaps in plastic containers instead, which might be better) or to wipe off the edges of the sides as an extra precaution against water sitting in there. Then again, if water is seeping between the soap and the container edge, this might not help as a towel would be unable to reach it. So, cutting the soap out of it so it can be placed back in when after everything is dry might be the better plan.

I should also note that in my last use, I did have my brushes near the soap and it’s possible some drops got onto the soap during the drying process, but I don’t let my brushes dry in soaking condition. I squeeze them out, so there shouldn’t have been dripping water. I’ll still offer the benefit of the doubt. However, this just might not be a product suited for me and my needs. I still have 2 Rephr soaps (my current one is almost finished) and 2 Blendercleanser solid minis as backups, so I’m all set.

Bondi Boost Miracle Hair Mask

I did not expect to like this product, but I was pleasantly surprised! I’m a total noob when it comes to hair care. All I can really say is that prior to this year (because I’d essentially given up trying to find a good mask and just made do with conditioners I like), there wasn’t any mask I tried that did much for my hair. In fact, some made my hair feel worse. When I tried the Gisou Honey Infused Hair Mask, I said to myself, “Hey, this actually did a little something,” and was willing to settle for that. Then, I got the Function of Beauty Pro Conditioner Mask, which worked even better! I haven’t been able to test it enough yet to be completely sold, but I was pleased with the results.

The Bondi Boost Hair Mask is supposed to be used once a week, so between all the other hair products I’m trying out now (to figure out what to bring on my trip), I haven’t had the opportunity to use it more than a few times. However, I’m a new fan! I have super dry hair, and using this made noticeable improvements. I can’t see it as much from what my hair looks like once it’s dry, but I can tell the difference in looks and it being significantly softer when I combine it with my usual other hair products. It’s like this mask helps my hair to absorb more moisture, look more hydrated, and stay hydrated for longer. I haven’t been this pleased with a hair product since my discovery of the Olaplex No.3 Hair Perfector.

I’m not sure how much credit I should give this mask if I’m not satisfied with the results of the product by itself. However, I’m not a hair reviewer. For my own personal experiences, what matters most to me is how I can best use anything to get improved results, and if the combination of this mask with other products means that my hair looks healthier (and at a price that doesn’t completely break the bank), I’m all for it.

Anti-Chafe Stick with Shea Butter + Colloidal Oatmeal (mini/deluxe sample)

I tried this product once and then lost it until literally the day before my trip. It’s so small and I had products all over the place because of my packing and simultaneous decluttering. So, I can’t really say much about it, except that it felt fine on the skin (not greasy). I’ve never used any other Anti-chafe specific product, so I have nothing to compare it to either. To anyone hoping for more details on this one, I’m sorry!

I hope everything else in this review has been helpful! Thank you for reading!

-Lili ❤