It's taken me longer than usual to write about this current Boxwalla Beauty Box. They showcased New Zealand brand Verité Spa Organics. It has two full sized products. If you're not familiar with Boxwalla they curate a bi-monthly box filled with green beauty goodies. Boxwalla is well curated and I like not being overwhelmed monthly with new items. Bi-monthly gives you the chance to try the products out well before getting the next box. The theme for this month is: The Truth about Gardens and Dreams. The first full size product is the Japanese Lemon, Vanilla & Jasmine Hand Cream.
This cream has a nice rich and glossy texture. It smells like warm herbal lemon plus floral from the jasmine. It smells like warm herbal lemon with jasmine. It's a warm herbal overall and I like the scent a lot. This is a great night hand cream for me. Very nourishing but not greasy. It may be a bit rich for days depending on your preferences. I preferred it for nights. I love the scent and the texture is nice so this was a win for me.
The Goodnight Recovery & Repair Sleep Mask is likely what everyone talking about this box is focusing on. This sleep mask has a unique jiggly thick gel texture. This sleeping mask is one that forms a film on the skin. So I tend to have a love hate with those types of products. Mainly because I like to layer and they pill. I tried this in so many different ways. I like it but I'm not sure I'm in love with it. I think I might enjoy it more if I didn't have really dry skin. This gel has prebiotics for balancing the skins microbiome, rooibos, rose petal water, New Zealand honey, goji berry, rose hips, hyaluronic acid, glycerin, kakadu plum, Quandong, squalane plus melissa and neroli essential oils. It has a light fruit/herbal/fresh scent, nothing strong or worthy of noting besides that. So you use this as like a barrier kind of protecting layer.
The first night I tried it I had just been to a massage and gotten some essential mint oils on my face so I promptly went home and washed my face. I then applied this just to try it. As first the gel feels like it's drying down tight, I'm normally not a fan of that and I tend to stay away from gels that dry down. After twenty minutes I was thinking what did I get myself into. Then magically after about thirty minutes it managed to transform again. It became less dry and taught and just has this almost hydrating kind of feel on the skin, with a film. I was actually able to wear it for a few hours before bed in which case I put a cream over it and learned--yup it pills even if it set hours earlier.
So I've also tried it as a day product over a serum, think lounging around the house on a weekend using it as a pre-skincare product. I tend to not wash my face for hours on weekend mornings and lounge around but I need extra help with moisture and a seal of some sort before washing. This works good for that but can't use SPF over it, so depending what you're doing may or may not be day suitable. If you apply SPF over this it pills so not really usable in that way either. I've tried this over creams and balms at night. It does form a mildly occlusive film forming barrier. Definitely not as occlusive as Vaseline or something similar but if you're into green beauty more this is a film forming barrier layer. I did try to use this as a layer over a cream and under a balm/occlusive twice and even with misting I got pilling.
If you have oily to combo/normal skin this should be a really nice product for you as it's going to give you that barrier film layer to help seal in moisture. You should be OK using it in a more minimal routine. If you have dry or really dry skin it may not be for you. If you're a person who uses ointments on a nightly basis then this is too light for you. It's not going to work with the ointments. There's no point applying it above Vaseline or Aquaphor. Applying it under equals pilling. It's not as occlusive as Vaseline or Aquaphor and if you need that level of occlusive every night, then it's not for you. It's OK to say that and know what does and doesn't work at times for you.
This is probably the worst season for me to test this being dry because I'm constantly using balms and really occlusive layers like ointments and Vaseline. It's hard for me to sub this in honestly. Five years ago I would have loved this as that kind of layer, when I was combo to more oily. It's just really hard to get this to work with dry skin and ointments. Even over a balm I wonder how much is it delivering to the skin versus just being a slightly film forming layer. I will come back to this in the summer this year though. I think it may be great for me then with a cream as a lighter film. I do also like it in the day if I'm lounging around not wearing sunscreen and not going outside. It works great that way. Give it 30 minutes for the dry down before you judge, that's my advice. I think this will be the biggest hit with oily to normal skin types that don't use ointments or Vaseline at night.
The retail of this box is $162 and you get it for $49.95 when you subscribe HERE. Check out my other Boxwalla reviews to see what their past boxes have been like.
*Gifted by Boxwalla and all thoughts are my own.