Glossy Glossy Glossy Glossy box

So there it was; the day had come when my Glossybox finally arrived. You wouldn't think that a box of make-up could get a grown woman excited but there you are. I promised myself that I wouldn't review my Glossybox until at least the second one had arrived, but here is a small rather tentative step towards a short review. More to the point - this is basically what I think of it so far. It would appear that there are several reviews of Glossybox on the internet - all you have to do is type it into the Google search engine and there you are, lots of reviews, not all of them good.

http://www.glossybox.co.uk/?gclid=CK63qoH3x7UCFYfJtAodZnwAWw

I have to admit, I'm not overly excited now I've opened it and it does seem a lot for £12.95. Basically you sign up, and there are at least 3 subscriptions to choose from and they send you a box each month with 5 products. One is usually more or less a full sized product and the rest are samples of products that would normally cost more in the shops, but come in miniature size. They are the more expensive luxury brands that you won't find in Boots. My daughter has already subscribed and is quite happy with hers. Faced with her monthly exuberance each month I decided that I had to try it out for myself. You choose from one of the subscriptions on offer, and it would appear that the longer you sign up;  the cheaper it works out for you, which is not uncommon, a lot of companies do this.

Having seen my daughter bring out her gifts from her small pink box each month  it seemed too good a thing to miss. Each month she would flick out another product, and out would pop another miniature miracle guaranteed to make you look gorgeous. So I signed up, I got her to recommend me in order for her to acquire her "glossydots" which you can collect, like bonus points, and then I waited for my box to arrive. You fill in a beauty profile telling them what your skin and hair are like and, well, that's it really.

It arrived today and this is what I got - a l'eau narciso rodriguez 0.8ml miniature size eau de toilette, a Voulez-vous warming body oil, FatCat lengthening Mascara by MeMeMe cosmetics, a small sample size moisturising Lipstick Helen E Cosmetics (generously sized for a miniature), and a mineral blush powder by Micabella cosmetics.

 I have to be honest, after having witnessed my daughter's generously packed box each month,and her recent Valentines box I am slightly piqued by the fact that my own Valentine box did not meet my expectations. It seemed half empty. Granted it had been delivered from across the country and if you look at how I've arranged the products in my box for the picture it does seem slightly more "full." The Voulez Vous warming body oil is looking slightly squashed as I used it all this morning (yes it was good, but nothing to write home about). I LOVE the lipstick and the mascara (although it's not waterproof, which I usually prefer).  I don't usually use blusher but the mineral blush is light and goes on easily, and I don't wind up looking like one of Stephen King's circus clowns. I also have to keep in mind that I didn't fill in my beauty profile in until after I'd signed up and my Valentine box had been sent for. I'm hoping next month I might get  products, especially skin care products that are more ideally suited to my skin type.

If you're the type of person that doesn't buy make up by the bucket load each week then Glossybox might be for you. It' certainly does add up over time, and some of the miniatures do come in generous sizes, whilst some of them (like the perfume) will go in just one spray. I suppose you have to keep in mind that these are only samples and if you want to buy the full product you have to go out and purchase the full size. The box does come with a handy little leaflet that tells you about each product, how to use it, and how much the full sized product will cost you if you decide you want to purchase it.

It's great fun, but only if you can afford it. It's a lot for what you're getting, but as mentioned earlier, this is a tentative review of something I have only had for the very first time.

It is very much a girly thing really - I just love opening boxes that have been prettily wrapped, the rustling of tissue, the flick of a ribbon.  The smell of cosmetics and a waft of perfume. I'm a sucker for it really I know.

Let's see if I'm more impressed with next month's box, shall we?

Dinner Parties

I cannot abide the idea of a dinner party. If I was invited to one I know I wouldn't take up the invitation. The very idea of people mulching over their food directly opposite someone that's only inches away from them seems almost barbaric to me. It reminds me, for some reason, of going back to being a child,

I feel like a child just thinking about it.

I'm forced to sit at the table, no elbows, good manners at all times, and always remember to listen and answer when spoken to.

And when you've finished don't leave the table until everyone else has finished, there's a good girl.

It makes me want to do all the things I know I shouldn't. Shout and swear and burp and fart.

Whatever you do, don't ever invite me to a dinner party...

Steady and determined as she goes

I err towards pessimism, but even I can be a force to be reckoned with. I am resolute in my quest and I shall be a success, even if it kills me. This time there is no going back, I can only go forward, and I stand at the crossroads of success or failure.  It would be easy to convince myself that I am doomed to a disastrous end and to give in to naysayers,  although in all honesty I haven't come across that many really.

And of course I have always been convinced that the end will come quickly when it does and by my own hand. Only I stand in my own way. Perhaps that is why I am so determined to succeed, I must reach the winning post before disaster strikes.

And trust me on that, I won't be giving up on the basis that I can't be bothered anymore, my head's been turned by something else, (an excuse for giving up). It can only be a one way road to the end - success.

Does anyone live up to who we think they are?

"But then, even in the most insignificant details of our daily life, none of us can be said to constitute a material whole, which is identical for everyone, and need only be turned up like a page in an account-book or the record of a will; our social personality is created by the thoughts of other people. Even the simple act which we describe as "seeing some one we know" is, to some extent, an intellectual process. We pack the physical outline of the creature we see with all the ideas we have already formed about him, and in the complete picture of him which we compose in our minds those ideas have certainly the principal place. In the end they come to fill out so completely the curve of his cheeks, to follow so exactly the line of his nose, they blend so harmoniously in the sound  of his voice that these seem to be no more than a transparent envelope, so that each time we see the face or hear the voice it is our own idea of him which we recognise and to which we listen."

Marcel Proust, Swann's Way, 1913

Chameleon

I am invincible, I am self-sufficient. I start  the day with my self-destruct button firmly intact . I am a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. I am a smiling at you but conceal a thousand inadequacies beneath. I am out of proportion and out of kilter, but you will never know.

Don't come to close or you'll see behind the façade - keep a safe distance and you'll never know.

Exits

I search for exits, whenever I'm talking to you I'm searching for exits, an escape route. I need to be able make a run for it. At a party or in a bar I need to know where the door is, to feel the fresh air blow over me whenever the door is opened. Wherever you see me I'll be near a door and if I can't be near one I'll be searching for one,  looking for an exit, a window or a door.  I need to know that I can leave at a moment's notice, that I can leave whenever I feel I've had enough, without an announcement or an explanation. I can go out into the fresh air towards the light and into the road outside, and you'll have trouble remembering who I was.

Last night I dreamt I was searching for an exit at a party. There were people talking, but they didn't see me. I followed the route I suspected would lead to the way out. I walked along a hallway that led to a kitchen. To the left of the kitchen was a door that led outside. I stepped out of the door and suddenly I was on my parent's porch. I walked a few steps and I saw my father smoking a cigarette standing at the top of the steps that led to the garden. My heart was heavy with loss, I'd missed him so much. He was gazing into the middle distance up at what was left of Blackberry mountain. He turned and saw me coming and he smiled.

What was he trying to tell me?

Vampires

 I have been eaten away, eaten away until there is nothing left but the husk and remnants of who I once was.  No identity and no footprints, because I have been hijacked. Who was I? I have been interfered with and eaten away by a shadow, an alien growth inside me that's taken  away the essence within and left only a likeness. Now I am to play the role of footnote in the life of an alien, someone who I do not really know. There is an imitation and a perfection of me wandering about who looks a little like me but is someone else entirely. A mimesis, a likeness, an imitation, but not me for I have been eaten away....