September Starbox Review

I’ve been receiving the Starbox monthly subscription from Starlooks for a few months now, and despite my initial hesitation (I pretty much bought the first subscription because it featured a band I like), I was super impressed with the makeup that arrived, and I’ve been pretty loyally using the makeup that arrives each month as I go along.

(For reference, my favorite thing to arrive so far has been the blush palette from August 2014’s box.  I use it probably 4 days a week in varying combinations.  The eyeshadow from July 2014 has also been excellent, though that’s more of a night-out thing for me.)

This month’s box contained four items:

• Kohl Eye Pencil in Oracle
• Lip Pencil in Roseate
• STARLOOKS Lashes
• Single Shadow Compact in Tan Glow

Typically, my main focus for makeup is definitely around my eyes — I love having fun colors around my eyes, and I also like to give my eyes a little more definition — so I was very excited to see both an eyeliner and a shadow in this month’s box.  The first Starbox I received, the July 2014 box, had the eyeliner pencil and single shadow compact in different shades, which I use pretty consistently.

On the other hand, I’ve never used false lashes before, and lip pencils are a little confusing to me.  (If I do anything with my lips beyond a layer of lip balm, it’s normally sliding on a coat of lipstick before running to an event.)

Still, I was excited to check out everything in the box.  Individual reviews for each item below the jump!

Eye Pencil

The “Oracle” shade is a gold-bronze sort of color which is, as I discovered, bizarrely close to matching my skin tone — when I applied it, I put on a few layers before realizing I could barely see the liner at all.  The general effect made the line around my eyes look virtually no different except for sparkling — not exactly what I was going for when I put it on.

Lip Pencil

This month’s subscriber newsletter suggested using the lip pencil as a sort of lipstick replacement by fully penciling in the lips.  On my first try with this month’s shade, I decided to use a slight variant: I lined the outer part of my lips and shaded inward for more of an ochre lips style.  It probably would have worked a bit better if this particular shade didn’t match the color of my lips so closely.

Later on, I tried matching the lip pencil with a rose shade of lipstick that is also very close to my skin tone.  I was much more satisfied with the look of the pencil as a liner for this lipstick than on its own, or as the monthly newsletter suggested as shading over the full lips.

Shadow

I tried the eyeshadow a few different times with different combinations of other makeup to see if the different combinations affected the look in any major way.

First, I tried using the shadow on its own the way I typically apply brightly colored eyeshadow, with no eyeliner.  I thought, based on how the color looked when I opened the package, that the shadow would apply as a rich, carmelly sort of color.  When I actually applied it, though, the color appeared almost nude against my skin tone with an almost golden shimmer over a slightly reddish tint.  Without eyeliner, it looked a little odd, especially since I applied it not only on my eyelid but also extending beyond the crease.

Second, I used the eyeshadow after using the eye pencil in this month’s box.  As I mentioned, the gold-bronze eyeliner barely showed against my skin tone, so the effect wasn’t much different from the first time I tried it, though this time I only applied the shadow to my eyelid, which I found a lot more pleasing.

Third, I used the liquid liner from the August 2014 box — which is part of my main makeup routine now — and the shadow on my lids.  I found this to be the best application of the shadow.  The black liner gave my eyes enough definition that the color of the shadow against my skin didn’t appear too red, which was my main issue when I had first couple times I’d applied it.  It gave a somewhat nude type of effect, so I think it’ll be a good everyday type of look.

Lashes

I didn’t try out the lashes at all!  I’ve never used lashes and wasn’t really sure how to go about trying.  Any recommendations for a good tutorial I can check out?