Sephora Play July 2018 Subscription Box 178 Review

Sephora Play! is a subscription box that offers five deluxe beauty samples and a bonus foil packet or perfume vial for $10 a month plus tax. Shipping is free. Only items sold at Sephora come inside the box so most items are from well-known, high-end brands. While Sephora does carry a few low-end and luxury brands, they do not really appear in the subscription boxes. There is not a traditional rewards program with this box so you cannot get points for referring friends or writing reviews. It does award 10 Beauty Insider points and applies $10 toward your purchase minimum to maintain your Beauty Insider status. Visit my Sephora page for descriptions on points and status. The $10 charge processes immediately for new subscribers and from the 1st through the 4th for succeeding months. Boxes usually ship from the 11th through the 15th.

The Beauty Bag was the only place to see complete sample history. Although it worked when I wrote the article for the January 2018 box, it is not working now. In case the link is ever recovered, I will leave it here for now. It does remove items Sephora no longer carries. You can view contents on one box at a time accessing the links through your Sephora order history. There are times when I can see all my Sephora history from that link and other times where it cuts older orders off. The past boxes link does give complete details on the last six boxes.

Boxes get customized based on your profile. Make sure you update your Play! Profile, because they do not use the Sephora profile for this box. There is not a lot of variety in the boxes, but there is enough to justify updating your profile. If you received a box that does not suit you, update your profile. You can continue to play with your settings until you are happy with what you’re receiving. If no adjustments help, cancel your subscription. You can view all samples that were available this month through shop the products link. There are 23 items listed for July 2018. My box is version 2078178.

Each box comes with a Play! Book. This is a booklet that unfolds into a large sheet of photo paper to show info about all the items inside the box.

It also goes over the theme for the box and shows how the products tie into the theme. The theme for July box is The Good Stuff.

Each box comes with a Play! Pass. The Play! Pass is only valid in store though the end of the following month. It is redeemable with any purchase (even items not received in the box) for 50 Beauty Insider points. Only one 50 point pass is valid per day, so using two in a single trip will not work. These points may take up to 24 hours to apply. You can also use the Play! Pass for a one-on-one consolation with a beauty expert.

It takes 100 points to receive a deluxe perk, but online orders $25 and over can use a promo code, which is usually deluxe perk. While this is wonderful for those trips you have to make in store or when you are spending less than $25, it will generally be a better deal to order online and redeem a deluxe perk.

Items come inside a collectible makeup bag. The design is usually different each month (but this one had the plain design). This is a small drawstring thick cotton bag that is very cute but not practical for holding makeup. It does help keep the contents inside from shifting too much during shipping. I really like the bag for this month, because both the design and feel of the bag are nicer than usual.

This is the first time since I started where half of the items come from one brand. I am not complaining, because I love a lot of items from tarte. It is just unusual to see, so I thought I needed to point that out.

The 0.5oz tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush in paaarty is worth $7.25. This, along with Laura Geller Baked Blushes, is my favorite blush formula. It lasts longer on my dry cheeks than most other powder blushes.

I received this blush in the birthday gift from Sephora last year. It was during my blogging break, so I do not have an article I can link. Even though I did not wear much makeup in 2017, this was a blush I reached for when I did. It is a beautiful color in a formula I love. This pink shade seems to have just a touch of mauve, and it suits my skin tone beautifully. Once I wear this again, I will link a photo. Although I love this blush, I will not keep the duplicate. There are too many in my collection to every pan or need a backup of any of them.

The 0.25oz tarte Deep Dive Cleansing Gel Rainforest of the Sea™ is worth $1.25. At $10 for 5 deluxe samples, getting one for this amount falls below the $2 I paid for it. Yes, I made it up with the value of other samples, but I prefer when each sample holds its own weight in value. This is a sample I’ve received before, but I have not tried it yet. It is hard to say whether I will keep this duplicate. That depends on whether I try it and fall in love before a round of gifting where I usually start with dupes before gifting originals. I am unsure whether I would use this as a first or second cleanse based on the description.

The 0.035oz tarte Color Splash Lipstick Rainforest of the Sea™ Collection in Salt Lyfe is worth $6.13. This is a formula I think I’ve tried before, and I remember it being a hydrating but not long-lasting one. That said, I will try this one to make sure I am correct.

This mauve gray is one of my favorite lipstick shades, and I really love lipsticks in satin finish. Once I wear this, I will edit in a picture and review.

The 0.17oz DRUNK ELEPHANT Protini™ Polypeptide Cream is worth $6.80. Like seemingly everyone else who shops Sephora, I love getting samples from this brand. There is a lot of buzz around all of its products, but they are very expensive. Trying them before I buy them to see if I love them as much as everyone else is ideal. As I get more and more samples from various methods, there are certain things I usually only purchase full-sizes of after falling in love with a sample. Moisturizers have become one of those items. This is one I’ve heard great things about, so my expectations are high.

The 0.75oz Briogeo Blossom & Bloom™ Ginseng + Biotin Volumizing Spray is worth $3. Well, it would have been worth $3 if most of the product did not leak out, but that is still the value I am going with as shipping damage does not change the value of the intent. This is a sample I’ve received multiple times but have not tried yet. I cannot give this one away. It has that used appearance thanks to product that dried around the rim while it shipped. If you take a close look at the bag above, you will see that there are yellowish stains on it. Those stains came from this product leaking. Once I finally try this one, I can always give away my intact samples to others assuming I do not like it. Of course, I can always keep my intact ones if I do. My hair is thin, so I do not mind trying volumizing sprays.

The 0.35oz boscia MATCHA Magic Super-Antioxidant Mask is a foil. While I love receiving foils to try new things, I do not place value on them. This one is new to me, and I really want to try it. Look for my next foil challenge in August, because I am almost certain this will appear there. It promises to reduce redness and inflammation while detoxifying, decongesting, and de-stressing skin. That seems amazing, and I hope it works.

The lipstick and the blush look like they would not go well with each other, but I will probably try them together anyway.

The box has a $24.43 value. This brings the average box value for the year to $33.67. My personal value is $17.18, because I will not keep the duplicate blush. If I do not like the cleansing gel (or gift this duplicate before I ever try it), it could dip to $15.93. While I am unable to gift this Briogeo (due to the leak), I could gift another already in my collection dropping the value further to $12.93. I will definitely keep the lipstick, moisturizer, and mask, so I still get more value than I paid. Granted, it is very little over what I paid, and I did not get to select my items. That is one of the drawbacks to subscriptions on months that slightly miss. It is only a slight miss, because I am extremely happy with all three of the items I am keeping. Getting three that excite me is better than six I will reluctantly try. If you have any questions I did not cover, please visit the FAQ section. I will answer any posted here if I know the answer.

Sephora does not inform a single Beauty Insider of all deal details. Certain offers are targeted and others have different purchase minimums based on the code. Remember to check New Offers and/or Recycled Offers before placing an online order for items you loved from the box. Visit my Sephora! Play Page for more information and other box reviews. See all Sephora Play! articles. View my main page for the guide map to the site and deeper deal exploration.

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