Hey friends!

Remember how I’m behind in my posts? Well, here’s another one for you that I’m finally getting around to posting about, Black Violet’s Black Box Subscription. I apologize for the delay, but I had to take 3 baths to do a full review of this, and that can be time consuming!

Anyway, I am here today with my thoughts on the second installment in this new quarterly subscription, so let’s check it out!

General Information: This was the second installment of the Black Box’s quarterly subscription and there were some changes in the subscription service since the first box. (And if you want to compare and contrast here’s my post on the first Box.)

First, the subscription service changed sites, so all previous subscribers hard to resubscribe. The original new date to sign up was May 9th, but it ended getting pushed back to June 5th. People who already had a subscription were offered a one hour window the morning of June 5th to sign up, which I completely forgot about, (and I was at work and wouldn’t have been able to sign up anyway), so I just signed up with all the newbies later that night and it wasn’t a problem. I wish there had been more time allotted for current subscribers to re-sign up, but it worked out.

The other change in the service is subscribers were allowed to pick one full size product, either perfume or a body product. I chose the full size body product, because I am super picky about perfume. The chances that I would like and use a full size random scent are pretty dicey. There is also now a premium option that allows you to get both the full size choices, but you have to pre-pay the full year subscription, which means putting down $136 upfront. I am way too frugal and indecisive to make that kind of commitment, but you guys have fun!

So for my quarterly box, I paid about $40 on June 5th. It shipped on June 19th and arrived at my house on June 23rd. I think there are currently slots still open for the next quarter, which according to the website looks like it will be billing around September 5th, and I assume shipping out around September 18th-20th. You can see more at the Black Violet Black Box website here.

Fun Stuff:The theme of this month was Crystal Garden, or gemstone. Not super exciting for me personally, but a unique theme, nonetheless.

Inside my Box:

Nice cellophane wrapping.

All my stuff laid out:

The info card:

And let’s check out the products:

Ametrine-Essential Cleansing Gel, Full Size Value:$13.50-Essential oils of gingergrass, lime, and lavender take you to the jungles of Bolivia to discover a rare gem of amethyst and citrine

So the good stuff: I adore lavender, and this smells lovely, very soothing and clean. The gel has a nice consistency, not too watery, and it lathers up nicely. The bad news on this is more personal than an issue with the product. My skin is very angry and hateful, especially during the summer, and it did not enjoy using this, I had a bit of a breakup on my chest while using it. I’m not blaming this gel cleanser for the breakout, I think it was more sunscreen and general skin anger that caused the breakout, but the Cleansing Gel did not help the situation, and I switched back to my Neutrogena Body Clear Body Wash. I am going to hold on to this and try it again in the Winter when my skin is dryer and calmer, but I might end up giving it to someone who has less evil skin than me.

Turmali-Sugar Polish, 2 oz, $5-Freshly picked Watermelon Tourmaline-watermelon, strawberry, honeysuckle

This is essentially a sugar scrub, and I really like it. It smells exactly like fresh watermelon, which is nice for summer. The consistency of this is sugar granules, which is why I applied it while in the shower, because you will need your skin to be wet. However, I like that the granules were so big, I felt I actually got a good scrub from this.

Chalcedony-Comforting Milk Bath, 1.5oz, $4.50- These pastel beauties were the earliest material used by mankind along with sticks and rocks. Lilac, a wisp of cream, plum blossom, fresh hyacinth.

I’ve never taken a milk bath before, so I was definitely interested to try this. I threw it in the tub and while it smelled softly floral and nice, I didn’t notice much else while I was in the bath. (I guess I was expecting a milk adventure, who knows.) However, when I got out of the bath and rinse off a little, I noticed that my skin did feel softer. So, hey maybe it worked? Either way, I got a bath out of it. (AND I LOVE BATHS.)

Chrysoprase-Bubble Scoop, 1oz, $4- Quartz once mistaken for emeralds be ancient jewelers. Trace amounts of nickel result in an apple green color. Green leaves, apple, peppercorn, bamboo, fig.

This was the product I was most excited to try because I love bubble baths. I’m trying to find an indie version of Lush’s bubble bars, and I was hoping this would be it. Unfortunately, I was pretty disappointed with this guy. I crumbled it up under running water, (and I noticed it has more of a putty/clay texture than Lush bubble bars) and it bubbled up slightly under the running water and smelled nice. However, the bubbles disappeared within minutes, leaving a sweet, pleasant smelling, but bubble-less bath. Maybe I got a dud Bubble Scoop, but I think this guy may need some tweaking.

Morganite- Soaking Crystals, Full Size, $5-With the largest crystal at 600 carats from Madagascar, Black Violet mineral soaks are the perfect size for a relaxing bath. Rose, milk, soft musk. 

This smell randomly brought back a childhood memory of this beach house we used to go to every summer. It’s a very musky floral scent, and I don’t know if the house smelled that way or maybe one of the adults wore a rose perfume, but anyway it was a weird flashback!

As far as soaking crystals go, I threw these in my bath. I don’t know what benefit they had to the bath other than smelling nice, but smell nice they did!

Spectrolite-Perfume Oil, Mini dram, $7-You’re more than I ever expected. Gardenia, morning dew on green vines, oakmoss, cool musk, vetiver.

This is a very floral scent, almost bordering on old lady floral to me. It smells like fresh flowers and it’s slightly musky. I feel it’s a pretty safe and traditional perfume scent, like I can wear it to work and no one will question my perfume choices, (which since I usually love tobacco scents and other weird stuff, is actually a bonus). If I had gotten the full size of this, I would have been okay with that, I just don’t know if I would have ever been able to finish it up.

Botanical Elixir-Facial Treatment, 1 dram, $8.50-Ten organics gently soothe, smooth, and refresh

There were no directions on how to use this on the info card, so I checked the website. (I’m hopeless you guys, I need directions.) According to the Black Violet website, you can put a few drops of this into your facial wash. So I did, and I have to say I have noticed no ill effects. That is an accomplishment, because as previously mentioned, I have evil, sensitive skin that I’m on like 3 prescriptions lotions to fix. But yeah- no break outs using this! I want to say I feel like it made my skin smoother, but I don’t know if that was just a placebo effect because I wanted it to be smoother. I’m going to have to use this more regularly to determine if it’s actually effective, but we can definitely rule out breakout-causing for me!

Aromaleigh Cosmetics-Cheek Glisten in Adularescence, $7 value

This is a pretty, light gold, almost leaning taupe, powder. It’s cheek and eye safe, and I’ve used it as light highlighter on my cheeks, and it does indeed create a glistening effect. I have a lot of highlighters at this point, but it’s a nice one to add to my collection.

Overall:

Okay, I’m going to be up front and say I have mixed feelings about this subscription box. So let me sort out my thoughts of you:

Pros: I enjoyed trying everything out, (especially because it gave me the excuse to take multiple baths). I like the Milk Bath and Perfume Oil. The Soaking Crystals and Botanical Elixir also have potential. However, the only product I really loved was the Sugar Polish.

Cons: This box was $40, which is on the high end of subscriptions for me, even quarterly ones. The other problem with this price, is I don’t feel I necessarily got my moneys worth. I don’t like paying $7-8 for a dram of perfume for example. Or $5 for what is essentially 2 ounces of bath salts. I can buy a bag of Dr. Teal’s bath salts for $8, so it’s hard for me to justify this. I understand that Black Violet is using premium and natural ingredients, but I’m just not personally comfortable with the price tag on the products.

So essentially, while I had a lot of fun trying all these products out, I don’t know if I can really afford $40 just to have fun trying things out. I wish I could have loved more of these products, but I wasn’t really knocked out of the park by anything other than the Sugar Polish. I’m not sure yet whether or not I’ll be continuing this subscription. I’m trying to save up for a big trip and $40 could be a meal out…

Questions:

-What did you think of Black Violet’s Black Box?
-Do you have a favorite bath product?
-Any tips on saving up for big trips?!

Love,

Rebs!