YOU Beauty Box: The Cult Beauty Edit: May 2016

This months You Beauty Discovery Box is titled 'The Cult Beauty Edit' and the reason given for the title is that all the products chosen are favourites but less ordinary beauty products on the market. Im not too sure that fits with what I think a 'Cult Beauty' product is, but there are some fabulous brands to choose from. 

As always there are some treats inside this months box and the three this time is a sample size hair tie pack from Popband. Popband is a product ive used before and find quite handy to have. Made from stretchy Elastic, it is designed to leave your hair kink free after wearing. The second is a sachet of Verso Super Facial Serum which contains a high dose of Retinol 8 to encourage healing and strengthening of the skin. Finally there is a £15 Anne Semonin gift card.

This month I did dither a bit between choices, one I had definitely decided I wanted to try and then that left me wanting to try two others and I am still not sure I made the right choice. Anyway, the first choice was SHOW Beauty Pure Treatment Oil - This rejunventaing Pure Treatment elixir restores your hair's luster and shine, leaving it strengthened, deeply nourished and infinitely desirable. Often called ‘liquid gold’ by beauty experts, Argan Oil penetrates the cuticle to strengthen and enhance the elasticity of hair. It can be used daily and is designed to be used on freshly washed hair.

My second choice was between the Revlon Ultra HD Lipstick and the Rodial Stem Cell Cleaner. I chose the Revlon Ultra HD Lipstick and it came in shade Hibiscus - Break free of dull, muted shades and lace your lips in high-definition colour with NEW Revlon Ultra HD™ Lipstick. This advanced new lipstick formulated with Revlon’s wax-free high-definition gel technology allows for true colour clarity in one smooth coat. The secret is in the clear gel base that provides a weightless feel with a smooth, even application. Just one coat of the deliciously scented, silky, moisturising formula and lips are instantly enriched in weightless colour.  Now sadly, this is not a shade that I can pull off, it is too coral for me, beautiful though it is and I am determined to try more shades. RRP £7.99

So those are my selections for May and yet again, You Beauty offers great value for money at £6.95 per box including p&p and the contents of this box have a value of around £58.

Hugo Boss Bottled Unlimited

If you mention the words Hugo Boss and aftershave together I automatically get a shudder down my spine. Not in a good way! Since my first foray into Hugo Boss aftershaves (shudder) with Dark Blue which to be blunt was awful they have actually released a number of good scents for men such as Just Different and Man. Trying to put my prejudices to one side, Rachel (Beautyqueenuk) asked me to get my sniffing tackle around Bottled Unlimited by Hugo Boss.

At £60 for a 100ml bottle this bottle, the fragrance launched in 2014 sits in the medium bracket in terms of affordability so I was expecting good things from this in terms of not just fragrance but also staying power and evolution of the notes.

Without boring you with the marketing blurb I’m going to launch straight in. These are the notes for Hugo Boss Bottled Unlimited:

• Head: Iced Violet Leaves
• Heart: Pineapple
• Dry-down: Sandalwood, musk

From this I would have expected a light floral fragrance with the slight bite of the citrus from the pineapple. To be honest, I can’t recall another fragrance that I’ve tried over the last year with a citrus heart note - just seeing this made me more curious as to what it would smell like, and whether indeed it had the decent base on which to act as a hard-wearing aftershave.

So, on with the sniffing….

Spray one and you think wow, this is strong, and by spray three (I spray quickly) you are thinking “seriously, can an aftershave be this strong”. The strength of the fragrance as it leaves the bottle is like an unexpected slap to the face…..from Floyd Mayweather which makes it pretty hard to bring your senses to bear on it. It took thirty seconds until I had my senses back and could indeed detect a strong floral scent, it wasn’t as subtle as I had expected, this was much stronger and it wasn’t for a good fifteen minutes until this dried down a little and the light citrus from the pineapple came through. It is lovely as it's as though the fragrances melted into each other. 

It takes around an hour until this starts to lighten, it’s really noticeable to me as I move around but it loses some of it’s heavy top notes and becomes slightly lighter, yet with a warm finish on the nose. The sandalwood is light so not to overshadow the floral and citrus and the blend is simply amazing.

This lasts for well over ten hours and I think will appeal to those who light their fragrances light and citrus to those who prefer a heavier and warmer floral. With it being so strong a little really does go a long way with only three sprays needed at the start of the day. It’ll last for ages even when worn for day-wear, nights out or those special occasions. Go on, treat yourself to a bottle of Hugo Boss aftershave (no shudder anymore) and take a closer look at Bottled Unlimited by Hugo Boss.

This post is written by Beautykinguk who also happens to be my Hubby.