Latest in Beauty Review |December 2020

I don’t know how beauty subscription boxes work. Okay, that’s a lie. I do understand how they work. What I don’t understand is how everything you’re about to see cost £7.50. Yes, 9 items, 9, for seven and a half of the Queen’s English pounds. I’ve seen a lot of people talk about Latest in Beauty, so I decided to finally try it for myself. Is Latest in Beauty worth it? Good? The best subscription box ever?  

How Latest in Beauty Works 

The thing I like about it the most is that you pick the products yourself. There’s a list of products, I think I had the choice of about 100 when I picked mine, and you choose 6. So, if there are brands you don’t want to support, only shop cruelty free or try to avoid certain ingredients, you can pick products you’ll definitely use.  

As I mentioned above, I only paid £7.50 for this box, including shipping. This was a Black Friday promotion, the regular price of this box is £12.95 plus £3.95 shipping, so £16.90 a month. No minimum terms, cancel any time, no contract.  

Because you pick the items yourself, you can potentially get 6 full sized items as well, making the box even better value.  

Of the six items I opted for, four were full sized, one was a deluxe sample/ travel sized item and the last one was sample sized.  

I chose 6 but got 9? 

Yes, I thought that the six items I chose were all I’d get in my box. But there were an additional three items that I wasn’t expecting.  

Once more in case you missed it, 9 products for £7.50. Nine.  

My Latest in Beauty Box

What I picked 

As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’m working towards going CF with my beauty products. 4 of these products are fully vegan, one is definitely CF & claim to be vegan but I can’t find that verified anywhere. And the final product is a Nars lipstick because I forgot they’re selling in China these days, but we don’t need to dwell on my slip up.  

Natura Aqua Auto Replenish Hydrator (40ml/ full sized) 

I’ve been saying for a very long time that I’ve been looking for a Clinique Moisture Surge alternative and this could be it. It’s a standard hydrating gel moisturiser, absorbs very quickly, hyaluronic acid is the main active. Although standard and simple, this was the product I was most excited to try.  

Polaar Very High Protection SPF50+ Sunscreen Lotion (50ml/ full sized) 

I’m extremely pale and have very sensitive skin, this is SPF50 and fragrance free. I don’t think I need to elaborate on why I chose this one.  

My skin is extremely sensitive to SPF, I don’t know if I’ll get along with this one or not. But all three of the ones I currently use aren’t CF, and this is vegan. So, if my skin does like this one, it’s a huge bonus.  

Lavera SOS Help Lip Balm (8ml/ full sized) 

Organic, vegan, no mineral oil but has a jelly texture similar to something like Carmex. My lips are almost always dry, and colder weather obviously doesn’t help that so I’m forever looking for new ones and I thought this one sounded promising.  

Nail Kind Natural Nail Wear (8ml/ full sized) 

You couldn’t pick your shade for this one but I received Nude & Proud, a natural nude pink shade which I was quite happy with. 

KVD Vegan Beauty Go Big Or Go Home Volumising Mascara (2.5ml Sample)

This was my only sample sized product, but it’s 2.5ml, an average mascara is about 7ml, so I think that’s a fairly generous size for a sample. And it comes with a full sized wand, which I was really happy with. I have troubles with my lashes and mascara, so I can’t wear it every day anymore, making minis like this perfect because full sized ones dry up before I’ve even had a chance to use half of it.  

And my screw up item 

Nars Velvet Matte Lip Pencil – Do Me Baby 

Now, I’ve tried this formula a million times before. The Nars lip pencils used to be an absolute staple of mine, and I still have a few, so I knew I’d like the formula of this. It was hard to tell from the swatch online what this was actually going to look like in terms of shade. Nars themselves call this a chestnut rose, Temptalia called it a warm-toned medium to deep plum. I’d personally call it a deep rose, but I can tell where the plummy description came from because there is a slight hint there. It’s more of a plummy rose than a pinky rose.  

And the extra items 

• Natura Siberica Hyaluronic Exfoliating Gel (75ml/ full sized) 
• Grow Gorgeous Intense Thickening Hair & Scalp Mask (50ml sample) 
• Monpure Nourish & Stimulate Scalp Mask (37g sample) 

I think we can all agree that this box is more than worth the money. I think the only item with an RRP less than the cost of the box is the lip balm, and that’s for one item. If you couldn’t tell already, I’m blown away by how much I got for so little, and I think the box is definitely worth the full price too. 

There was a delay in delivery, so I haven’t had this long enough to try everything yet but I’ve been impressed by everything I’ve tried so far in terms of first impressions. 

Have you ever tried Latest in Beauty? Were you blown away by the value too?  

Until next time, 

Sophie 

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