October 2013 Lip Factory review, unboxing, photos: International beauty box

Do I love the Lip Factory customer care or what! I told them I hate lip gloss and they've magnificently replaced the glosses for this month with two awesome products. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Most subscription boxes arrive by the end of the month, or into the next month - even the local ones. I love how the Lip Factory Box arrives by mid-month, around the same time the US customers get theirs. Of course, I look for spoilers anyway! And, from September 2013, a percentage of the revenue from every box will be donated by Lip Factory to the Compassionate Hands and Hearts Breast Cancer Outreach. To subscribe, hit their website (make-up centric beauty box with no foil sachets or samples but around six full-size products). Do mention my reference number 384919 and we'll both get 50 points apiece (used to redeem for products or boxes).

I love the new external packaging; a black box with a pair of red lips. Inside, the usual Lip Factory Box and the product card/brochure (click on the photos to enlarge them).

The October 2013 Lip Factory Box is themed "Welcome The Fall". 

The contents of my box are:

1. Michael Marcus Cake Eyeliner in Amethyst
2. Palladio Beauty Baked Blush in Berry
3. Befine Warming Clay Mask Packette
4. Sweet Pea & Fay Lip Joule in Mermaid Kiss
5. Sweet Pea & Fay Lip Joule in Merry Widow
6. Bonus: J.Cat Roll It Up Lip Pencil in Burgundy
7. Alcone Make-Off Professional Make-up Remover

Although the product card says that the Michael Marcus item is a cake eyeliner, the box says "refillable shadow compact" - I'm presuming it can be used as either. I love the shade - a rich matte deep violet. I'm at the pro-matte shadow stage right now and I also love shadow liners, so - win!

The Palladio Beauty Baked Blush looks pigmented. However, berry isn't the right shade for me -  something peachy or coral-ish would have been better. I'll see if I can use it as a shadow.

I loved the Befine scrub from the June box, and the Warming Clay Mask Pachette was actually warm to the touch when I opened the box. It cooled down soon enough, but promises to warm up on contact for detoxing the skin. I'm trying this over the weekend, during a nice pampering session.

The Alcone Make-Off Professional Make-up Remover has gone into my travel bag. It looks like another bonus.
The J.Cat Roll It Up Lip Pencil is a bonus. I was in the market for a lip liner after putting away the Urban Decay 24/7 Lip Pencil among the all-over lip colours! I really liked the J.Cat eyeliner pencil from the September box and this is another find from the brand - no sharpening, very creamy and easy application and a great shade. Plus, it makes for an all-over lip colour (berry-red with fuchsia tones) that stays on, just like UD. I know you're thinking, "she's drooling over a measly lip liner, seriously?" You need to try it to know why. I rate it on par with the Urban Decay one and will use it as an all-over lip colour. Which means I'm back to square one with the lip-liner-search.

The two Sweet Pea and Fay Lip Joules are in lieu of the two lip glosses in the product card. Who does that? Most subscription companies blather about trying to accommodate customer needs and send you glosses and false lashes anyway even if you tell them you hate the fiddly things. I love how they take my tastes into consideration and include these instead.

I've never tried the OCC Lip Tars (looking forward to sampling those shortly) or the Sleek Pout Paints, but the Lip Joules work on the same principle - mix to get your custom colour and then apply. I'm lucky to have received two massively pigmented shades that I can actually work with. The mixing part is actually trial and error, but it looks like I can get a dusty pink soon! And let me tell you, these stay on. I've swatched and roughly mixed them on my hand (the lip liner is on the extreme right) and they refuse to go away despite soap, water and Neutrogena makeup remover.

I'm very pleased with this box, and the winners for me are the Lip Joules, followed by the J.Cat liner. I can never understand lip gloss and you can't ever see the hair-magnet-fluid on my pigmented lips anyway! I can't wait to find a proper mixing plate and play around with the Lip Joules till I hit a dirty rose. I do wish there was a nail polish though; it has been a while since they sent one out.
The November 2013 box is a lips-only box and I can't wait for some awesome lip goodies. I only hope there are no glosses, though I hope there are some lovely lippies in dusty rose, neutral brown and dusty coral, a lipliner, lip brush and a nice lip primer. Resubscribe? At the risk of sounding rude for emphasis, you bet your bonehead I will!