Hi Pettigrew Crew, 

I am over the moon excited to bring you this 3rd round of Battle of the Beauty Boxes: Play! by Sephora. I’m just going to come right out of the gate and get make a bold statement about the love that I have for this beauty box! If I could only keep one of my beauty boxes, THIS WOULD BE THE BOX!

As I mentioned in Round 1 and 2 of the Battle of the Beauty Boxes: Birchbox edition, {which you can check out HERE} and Boxycharm edition {which you can peep HERE} in this series I won’t be focusing on reviewing each product in a single beauty box, but rather, reviewing the beauty box brand as a whole. So, instead of one box, I will present you with multiple boxes from each beauty box brand. I will offer up my review of what I think this box is all about and what it has to offer and highlight a couple of my favorite products from each box.

My hope is that this series will help anyone who needs a little help trying to decide which beauty box is right for them, or perhaps someone looking to try a new box, but unsure which one packs the biggest punch.

Let’s jump in the ring.

With Play! by Sephora subscription box each month you get 5 deluxe beauty samples and 1 fragrance for $10 free shipping delivered to your mailbox. The samples are curated by the beauty experts over at Sephora and they usually are chosen from the most well known and hottest cosmetic brands.

Each white and black striped box {love} comes with a collectible mini tote drawstring makeup bag and most of them have some sort of graphic on them to give you a hint of that month’s theme.

With your bag of goodies, comes a large and glossy fold-out brochure on all of that month’s beauty products. The brochure tells you the theme for the month and all kinds of info on all of the products. This is done in a magazine-esque kind of way with beautiful pictures.

This first unfold reveals pics of your beauty products and details on the theme.

The second unfold creates a poster menu with lots of details on the products, it’s ingredients and tips and tricks for using them.

Each Play! by Sephora brochure has a “play pass” card attached to it. That you can pull off and stick in your wallet. This card is your ticket to receive a one-on-one consultation with a Sephora beauty expert on all of your box’s beauty goodies for that month. And, when you purchase any item in store that month at Sephora and show your play pass, you’ll receive 50 Beauty Insider points good towards more Sephora beauty products.

June’s Play by Sephora box was themed “The Minimalists” and was all about looking glow-y, natural and effortless for summer. The box included an organic sun screen, mascara, liquid bronzer, hair cream, shimmering face primer and a fragrance. {How cute and colorful are these beauty products?}

One of my favorite products for June’s month was this Tarte Tartegaurd sunscreen. It’s a mineral, non-chemical sunscreen lotion that is sheer and goes on great. And can I just say, I’m a sucker for this packaging. Sunscreen wants to be cute too!

My next highlighted beauty product for this month is this Becca Backlight Priming Filter. It’s a shimmery makeup primer that also works to blur skin’s imperfections. Love this stuff. It’s simple and just makes you look better in a really easy way. It adds a nice shimmer to skin with no sparkle. {I don’t like sparkly looking glitter all over my face ya know?}

I couldn’t keep it to just two products once again and my third choice was this Bumble and Bumble Don’t Blow it hair cream. It tames the frizz in humid and hot weather and keeps my curls looking shiny and put together. Good stuff!

July’s box was themed “Effortless” which was very similar to June’s theme, and even some of the products were the same {another primer, bronzer and hair product.} I do prefer a little more variety, however it’s kind of nice to see which primer you prefer between Benefit’s or Bare Minerals or which facial primer suits you more Smashbox’s or Becca’s without out having to pay for the full price versions. This box came with a wavy hair spray, a facial cleanser, an oil blotter, a liquid bronzer and another fragrance.

This Benefit matte, liquid bronzer Dew the Hoola was my favorite bronzer. It made my skin look great and it goes on very natural. Love that.

I had heard about the blottrazzi by beautyblender, but I didn’t want to fork out the money to try it, so I was happy to see this in my box to give the box a little extra fun. I don’t think this is a product I would buy often, but it was fun to use and it does work well. I just had to feature it because it’s cute and I know people with more oily skin might really love it.

The August box had the theme “The Eye Openers” and came with this cute little wink-y bag that just made me smile. This box was quite different than the two previous months and was a real wow box for me. I liked that the theme was set around eyes and eye products. Very clever. It came with: mascara, eyeliner, eyeshadow, eye lifting balm, moisturizer and {as always} a fragrance.

This Urban Decay mascara called Perversion might not have my favorite names, but it is one of my favorite mascaras. I love a good mascara that can voluminous and lengthen. {I want it all I tell you}

This Make Up For Ever Artist Shadow in I-544 is kind of a perfect shade for me. I love the mauve and shimmer and it blends so well with lots of other colors. So pretty and great pigmentation.

Reasons to love Play! by Sephora:

1. Free one-on-one tutorials and subscriber meet-ups in your local Sephora each month
2. A cute collectible makeup tote each month
3. A Play Pass good for 50 beauty insider points with any purchase at Sephora
4. Getting to try the hottest and most well known brands and beauty products for only $10 a month
5. A level of professionalism and style that’s hard to beat from other boxes not backed by a store like Sephora

The full scoop:

For $10 a month {free shipping} you receive a cute little black and white striped box in your mail with a make up tote full of 6 beauty products. These are products from brands like Tarte, Benefit, Bare Minerals, Lancome, Make Up For Ever and Becca to name a few and they are always products that have a lot of good buzz circling around them. You also get lots of perks and fun with your Play Pass.

Final Thoughts:

At the moment, this is probably the box I would choose if I could only choose one. I just think it’s the one I find fun and exciting and look forward to the most each month. Granite, I’ve only had this box for four months {I was on the waiting list for 2 months} but I just can’t get enough of this box. It has my favorite brands and it’s just all so fun to look at and take pictures of {great packaging} For me, a beauty subscription box is about the experience as well as the products and Play! by Sephora tics all of the boxes for me.

Beauty Buzz Question: Is Play! by Sephora your heavy weight champion?

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