Winter 2013 Yuzen Box
Winter 2013 Yuzen Box
Wood fire -
Oh happy age
On every face
-- Issa
Yesterday the winter/holiday box from Yuzen Box arrived, promising soothing aromatherapy, nourishing products to replenish stressed skin, and a little sparkle for the holidays. It all sounds delightful, although I hope that there's nothing pine-scented in here because thanks to cleansers like Pine Sol I will forever associate pine with cleaning products.
As always, the box is packaged in a pretty, reusable cardboard box and an inner drawstring bag. Since the holidays are the sparkly time of year, the bag is gold - as are at least two of the items in the box. I also see candy, a candle and some skincare stuff - looks pretty promising to me!
As I empty the bag out on the table and start investigating, I get more excited.
JANE IREDALE 24-Karat Gold Dust in Gold - I've seen Jane Iredale at a lot of local high-end spas, but I think that this is the first time I've actually owned one of their products. This is probably a perfect introduction to their line for me because I love gold eyeshadow. I used to use it a lot as a highlight with green eyeshadow or I'd blend it with other colors to add more sparkle. I will definitely be using this. This is a full-sized pot, which sells for $13.50 on the Jane Iredale website.
SPARITUAL Nail Lacquer in Golden Rule - I don't use glitter nail polishes too often, because they're a royal pain to take off. So I don't already have a gold glitter polish, which makes this a decent addition to my collection. It is VERY sparkly, and has two or three sizes of glitter to help maximize the sparkle factor. It dries lightning fast, too! A full-sized bottle of this polish sells for $12, so this mini-bottle (.17 oz) is probably worth somewhere around $5.00-6.00.
LEVEL NATURALS Travel Candle in Cedar - To me, cedar smells like moss and earth, damp and decay. It's a great fragrance around Halloween, when I want my house to smell like a crypt, but it's not so great the rest of the year. At least, that's what I would have said a few months ago, before I lived in Utah. Now the scent of Cedar reminds me of the forests around Cedar Breaks and Brian Head, and it's a very nostalgic fragrance. I still don't want it on me, but I don't mind the scent around me. Level Naturals doesn't sell the travel candles on their site, but a 6 oz Cedar Candle sells for $19.99 so I'll arbitrarily assign a value of $6.66 to the smaller 2 oz one.
TARA AROMATHERAPY Stress Relief Roll-On Remedy - We used to sell something very similar to this at Bath & Body Works. It's a combination of essential oils, meant to applied directly to pulse points to relieve stress and help the mind focus. Unfortunately, something about my bottle is broken - the rollerball refuses to roll and release the product - so this caused stress instead of alleviating it. Not cool. I finally pried the rollerball off and tried the product, which has a lotion-like consistency and smells like ylang ylang and geranium. Very familiar. A 1 oz bottle of this stuff sells for $19.00, so this 5ml sample would be about $3.15.
JURLIQUE Rose Hand Cream - I always need hand cream, and I always love rose-scented things. This is awesome. I have heard some great things about this hand cream (it was one of Instyle magazine's Best Beauty Buys of 2013) so I hope that it works well. The full-sized cream sells for $25.00; this sample has about $9.50's worth of product.
SANITAS Moisture Mist - Honestly, I've had several hydrating facial mists/sprays over the years, and they all have one thing in common: I don't use them. I probably won't use this one, either. But maybe I'll use this one, since it goes on before moisturizing. We'll see. If this 60ml bottle was sold on the Sanitas Skincare website, I'm guessing it would cost about $10.80, based on the pricing of the full-sized bottle. There was also a SANITAS product in the Autumn Yuzen box.
PINO Facial Mask with Coconut Aloe - I believe this is one of those cloth face masks. I find them a little strange - using a "carrier" for a mask seems silly because you could so easily just apply it to the skin and skip the extra waste. But they do work, and my skin has been a wreck the last few months so I'll definitely use this soon. $5.90 per mask.
KERSTIN FLORIAN Fuß Balm - Or "fub balm" as I'm going to call this since I'm not even sure what "ß" is, let alone how to pronounce it. Silly Germans and their extra letter. It's a foot cream, but instead of the usual peppermint it has a pleasant herbal scent. Rosemary and lavender, I'm guessing. Supposedly it's anti-fungal and naturally deodorizing, so no stinky feet! $8.00.
SUN CUPS Dark Chocolate Mint Cups - It's candy. It's a Reese's with mint-flavored sunflower butter instead of peanut butter. Yes, sunflower butter. (I'm confused too.) There were two of these in the box, but I wager they'll be gone by the end of the night. My husband is already eyeing them. 83 cents times two cups equals $1.66.
Another delightful Yuzen Box! I really like these,because the selection of products is awesome. It leans heavily towards spa stuff and skincare, but I love that stuff. It's $33.00 per quarter, so it only comes four times a year, which is nice.
To learn more about the Yuzen Box, check out their website here: http://www.yuzenbox.com