Elle Canada's Fall 2013 Beauty Box

I signed up for Elle Canada's first beauty box recently. It's a registration process, so you're not automatically selected just for signing up, but I was lucky enough to be selected to receive one. Registration is now open for the Spring 2014 box. Info is here about how to sign up for the next one.

Let's take a look inside this pretty box! 

Inside is an information card (pictured below) and a Looking Glass booklet featuring step-by-steps on achieving three fall looks - Nouveau Nude, Glam Revival, and New Old Hollywood.

The products and samples inside are: 

• A sample of Olay Regenerist Wrinkle Revolution Complex (0.23 fl oz)
• Coupons for a free Venus razor (when you buy a Venus cartridge pack) and a free Satin Gel shave cream (when you buy a shave gel)
• A Crest 3D White Whitestrips sample (1 upper and 1 lower strip)
• Samples of Pantene Expert Collection Age Defy shampoo and conditioner (one of those impossible-to-open-without-scissors flat sample pouches)
• A full-size CoverGirl Clump Crusher by LashBlast mascara

My reviews?

Olay Regenerist Wrinkle Revolution Complex: I love a night moisturizer that feels like it's working. This one tingles on the skin. It's not one of those rich, heavy moisturizers I sometimes like to wear at night when my skin is feeling especially parched, it's for those other nights, when I want to feel like my skin is being renewed and refreshed. I don't have wrinkles yet, so I can't say whether this is effective in reducing their appearance, but it certainly makes my skin feel and look smooth, soft and refreshed. Jill has reviewed the Olay Regenerist Wrinkle Revolution Complex in the past. You can see her lengthier review here. 

Crest 3D White Whitestrips: I've never used any teeth whitening products before, apart from the occasional regular-toothpaste-with-whitening-properties. I'm not particularly interested in whitening my teeth and I know one Whitestrip is not going to make much of any difference in the colour of my teeth anyway. Teeth shouldn't be gleaming white anyway. Great review, right? Sorry. This sample product isn't for this beauty blogger. 

Pantene Age Defy shampoo and conditioner: It's difficult to review a shampoo and conditioner after using it once, which is the size of the sample I received. Still, I can say that my hair felt shiny and soft and smelled nice after washing and conditioning with the samples. 

CoverGirl Clump Crusher mascara: My preference for mascara is a natural look, so this mascara is right up my alley. It's not thick and goes on very smoothly, clump-free and builds the thickness and length of my lashes without looking overly dramatic. Great for a natural look.

I have to admit I was disappointed with the Elle Canada Beauty Box. I know it was free, but considering it was from Elle Canada, I expected some higher end products. There's only one full-size item in the bunch. There's nothing wrong with the samples I did receive, I just expected fewer drugstore products. These would fit better in a Glow magazine Beauty Box, not an Elle Canada one. The Lookbook highlights three makeup and hair looks featuring Pantene, Olay and CoverGirl products but the only product included in the Beauty Box is the Clump Crusher mascara. It's disappointing. 

Having a look at the #ECBeautyBox hashtag on Twitter, it looks like some of the other beauty boxes had Cover Girl nail polishes in them. So that makes my criticism about only including a mascara in the box less valid. Still, there was no polish in mine. 

C.

Olay Regenerist Wrinkle Revolution Complex Review

New to Olay's anti-aging line is Regenerist Wrinkle Revolution Complex, which according to Olay, is an anti-aging moisturizer designed to instantly relax the appearance of wrinkles, and "reduce the appearance of even deep eye lines in 14 days." This product is formulated with biopeptides, micro-fillers and a B3 complex to hydrate. This product retails for approximately $32.99 CA and can be found at drugstores.

Ingredients:

water, cyclopentasiloxane, glycerin, polyethylene, niacinamide*, propylene glycol, aluminum starch octenylsuccinate, dimethicone crosspolymer, panthenol**,dimethicone, polymethylsilsesquioxane, palmitoyl pentapeptide-4***, carnosine***, tocopheryl acetate^, camellia sinensis leaf extract^^, yeast extract, allantoin, disodium edta, acrylamide/sodium acryloyldimethyltaurate copolymer, c13-14 isoparaffin, peg-100 stearate, dmdm hydantoin, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, laureth-4, laureth-7, ammonium polyacrylate, citric acid, fragrance, titanium dioxide. *vitamin b3, **provitamin b5, ***amino-peptide, ^vitamin e, ^^green tea

I have been using this product throughout the late winter and into the spring as a night moisturizer, on top of my other skin treatment (Differin 3X Gel). The texture of this moisturizer is true to Olay's "cashmere soft" description, it's smooth, silky and non-greasy. It has a pleasant, mild, slightly fruity scent.

In winter I found this product to be a good, but not excellent moisturizer. The climate I live in is in general very dry and in the winter, extremely dry - dry to the point where you feel like you need to smear Vaseline on your face before you leave the house to protect your skin from the cold. While I found this moisturizer perfect for my t-zone, it did leave my cheeks wanting for more. However, when the weather warmed up this product gave my skin sufficient moisture in all areas of my face.

Although I do not suffer from significant wrinkles yet, I did find that this product gave my skin a very smooth appearance and surface texture. This moisturizer feels and applies very much like a foundation primer. Indeed, the ingredients list dimethicone twice as an ingredient. Dimethicone is a silicon- based polymer (a synthetic oil) which is used for its lubricating and conditioning properties, and is used heavily in most foundation primers. It's this ingredient that, like it's inclusion in many primers, gives the skin a very smooth, almost "air brushed" finished. It is no surprise then that this product acts as an excellent base for foundation and concealers.

Because of my relative lack of noticeable wrinkles, I do not feel I can truly judge Olay's anti-wrinkle claims associated with this product. I will say that this moisturizer makes my skin feel well hydrated in the warmer months, smooth and more radiant. I would recommend this moisturizer to people with normal or combination skin who want an affordable anti-aging moisturizer. The only people I would not recommend this product to would be anyone who reacts and breakouts in response to silicone, or for someone with very dry skin.

Grade: B+