A few months back around March, I was on this kick of searching for free samples and offers online just to see what would come up. As a college student, any kind of deals and freebies that are out there are such a big help. I came across a site called Influenster, where basically you become a member, fill out some surveys to earn “badges” and wait for a chance to receive what they call “voxboxes.” A voxbox is a box of sample products from various companies they send out in the mail for free. You really don’t pay anything. The only catch is, accepting a box means you agree to use the products on a trial basis and review them on the Influenster site, as well as through social networking.
To be honest, I didn’t expect much from signing up on this site, but I thought it would be worth a shot. I earned all the badges I could and I played the waiting game. Four months went by and I had completely forgotten about Influenster when I got an email saying I had the chance to receive a “Latina Beauty Voxbox.” Every month they have voxboxes geared towards different people/demographics. I know that there have been holiday voxboxes around Christmas and Valentines, and most recently there was a voxbox for mothers and a summer beauty voxbox. The companies whose products would be in the Latina Beauty box were specifically looking to target Latin/Hispanic women.
I received my box about a week ago and was very excited to start trying out the products. The products I received were complimentary for testing purposes through Influenster. Here is what was included: Always Radiant Infinity Pads, Always Tampax Radiant Collection Sampler, NYC New York Color Liquid Lipshine in Nude York City, Bath & Body Works new Shea-Enriched Signature Collection Shower Gel, Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Lotion Sunscreen, and VEET Ready to Use Wax Strips (Leg & Body).
I’ll start with my thoughts on the Always Radiant products. I received the Always Tampax Radiant Collection sampler as a gift to share with a friend. The prices vary for the products in stores because it is a sampler of some of this new line’s stuff. It came with a couple of the Always Tampax Radiant tampons, three of their liners, and I think a pad. It also came with a wristlet/bag for “convenient storage” and discreetness when carrying these products out, I guess. I wouldn’t care for the wristlet, personally, because I think that’s just what my purse is for, and I like my purses better. So I wouldn’t use that for its intended purpose, but it is convenient for having a little more organization in bigger purses or as a small makeup bag or something along those lines. I just wouldn’t carry it on its own, myself, but I could see young girls who are just starting out maybe being interested in that. The bag is a shiny pink-purple gradient style with these white graphic “sparkles.” I do like the new packaging of the tampons, though. They are re-sealable wrappers. The liners are VERY thin, which is what I like if I’m going to use a liner. So that seemed nice.
I received a 16 ct. box of the Always Radiant Infinity Pads (valued $6.99 in stores). I don’t prefer using pads, but I do use them for sleeping. I tried these pads out, and I actually like them. I think I will buy them myself because they are comfortable and I didn’t really notice wearing them when I went to bed. They’re not the thinnest pads I’ve tried, but they aren’t too bulky, so they feel a lot less like a diaper than other pads. The ones I received are not too long or too short, which has been annoying for me with some other pads because I usually get the “long” to make sure I’m covered, but they end up being stupidly long and I hate them. These aren’t like that. These have wings like probably every other pad does today, so don’t worry about that. One of my first thoughts of these pads was that they are really soft, too, so that adds to their comfort. They feel very cottony, like, it didn’t feel like a pad was there, it just felt like I put on underwear. So that’s cool. Since I only wear these to sleep anyway, I think they’re worth buying because of the comfort. I don’t know if I would buy them as a primary pad if pads are your choice. I felt like they wouldn’t be AS absorbent as some other pads I’ve tried, but I prefer these for the comfort and I don’t need a lot of absorbency to sleep anyway. TMI? Whatever. This is an honest review.
Moving on… I think the product I was most excited for was the Bath & Body Works Shea-Enriched Signature Collection Shower Gel. The box came with the mini shower gel (3 oz bottle), which is valued at $5 in stores. I received Sweet Pea, which is my least favorite of BBW’s scents, but I was still very happy for the chance to try out their new formula. Besides having shea butter, it now includes other moisturizing things like aloe vera and vitamin E. I really like the product. I don’t know that I would say I notice a HUGE difference between this and their old shower gel, but my skin does feel soft and smooth after showering with it. I get dry legs and elbows and they don’t feel so rough/tight after drying off, so I guess it could be this stuff working. I would definitely buy the shea-enriched shower gel because it does feel nice, but I would buy a different scent, like my favorite, Twilight Woods.
Speaking of soft skin, I got to sample the Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Lotion Sunscreen (which is $7.99 for a full bottle), and I have to say, I LOVE IT. I don’t spend a lot of time in the sun and I’m not someone who worries about wearing sunscreen much (even though I know I should). So this isn’t a product I would normally pick up on my own because I wouldn’t see the need for it. I am so glad for the opportunity to try it, though, because this product is fantastic. I received a small sample bottle of the SPF 30 lotion. This formula combines silk protein and shea butter lotion with sunscreen to both protect and moisturize your skin. It’s available in SPF 12, 30, and 50, is water-proof and supposed to provide moisture for up to 12 hours. Seriously, my skin has never been softer than it is now that I’m using this lotion. It’s awesome because my skin isn’t the softest. I don’t have terribly rough or scaly skin or anything. It’s just not as soft as some people’s, like, my boyfriend’s. However, he even commented on how soft my hands were the other night, which is really saying something because my hands are never soft. It usually takes a lot of lotion for that to happen, and then they feel all gross and oily/greasy, so I end up washing them anyway and they go back to being dry. This lotion is NOT greasy feeling at ALL. It takes a lot for me to say that. I am so picky about lotion texture, it all feels gross to me, but this stuff… I’m just in love. I don’t know what it is. It’s just so light and rubs right in and I have smooth, baby soft skin. It leaves a very sheer glow/sheen on your skin too which I like. It smells like sunscreen in that nice tropical way, but it is not as strong as sunscreen. It is a very light airy smell. So if you are someone who doesn’t like going around smelling like the Bahamas, don’t worry. No one has to know you’re wearing sunscreen. But I like the smell. It’s just fresh and clean… Enough.
The other product I was excited about receiving was the NYC Liquid Lipshine (valued $2.49 in stores). This showed up at just the right time for me because I was needing a lipgloss and about to buy something, and then I got this. There’s supposed to be vitamin E in this stuff to give your lips moisture and shine. I’m not a big lipgloss chick. I used a TON of lipgloss in middle school and kind of outgrew it after that because I didn’t like the feel of most glosses and I moved on to more matte makeup styles rather than shiney/glossy looks. But recently I decided I needed at least one good lipgloss in my makeup supplies for the few occasions that call for it. This liquid lipshine is a good find! I don’t need to invest a lot of money into a lipgloss because it’s not something I’m going to get a lot of use out of, but for days that I want to accent my lips over my eyes, or on more casual days when I don’t really want much makeup or lip color, this is perfect. I’m very happy with it. I love the nude color because I can wear it over any lipstick or on its own as a neutral. This product feels more creamy than sticky to me, which is great because that’s what turned me off of lipgloss before. It is kind of thick, so if that’s something you don’t like in a gloss, you might not be interested in this, but for the price I think it’s great and I would buy it myself.
The last of the products I received in my Latina beauty voxbox, and the last I got around to trying, was the VEET Ready to Use Wax Strips for Leg & Body ($9.99 in-store value). I received the full 40 ct. box of strips. I’ve used different wax strips before and I can’t say they’re my thing, but I was excited to give these a try because it was such a good value receiving the whole box for free. I was a little nervous about it because I don’t have a very high tolerance for pain, but I sucked it up and got over it. I tried these strips out on a few different locations and none of them resulted satisfactory, unfortunately. I kept trying because I thought maybe I was doing something wrong, but these just didn’t work out for me at all. They left behind a lot more hair than they removed, even after multiple tries. I guess if you prefer a wax, you should probably just get it done or at least buy an actual waxing kit and not these warm-in-your-hand wax strips. If anyone had better luck with these, please let me know. I’m keeping them because I really want to like the product, but they just didn’t cut it for me. On the plus side, they were a lot less painful than expected, so it wasn’t a big loss to give them a shot. I hated the wipes that were provided though. They were very oily and didn’t remove the wax at all and it all ended up being extremely hard to wash off.
So I guess my favorite products were the Hawaiian Tropic Silk Hydration Lotion Sunscreen, the NYC Liquid Lipshine and the BBW Shea-Enriched Signature Collection Shower Gel. I would buy everything myself except for the VEET Ready To Use Wax Strips. I had a LOT of fun receiving my first voxbox through Influenster. This was a great experience and I am hopeful to be chosen to review more products in the future! Please check out influenster.com if you’re interested in becoming a member and receiving a voxbox of products to review yourself. Thanks, Influenster!
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