Original Beauty Box Brush Drying Tree Review

Click here for my YouTube review 

I bought the Brush Drying Tree by Original Beauty Box because I didn't want to keep laying my makeup brushes on their sides to dry. I learned you don't want to lay your brushes on their sides (or with bristles facing up) because then water can get down into the glue and it will damage the bristles/quality of your brushes. 

I was looking at a lot of different "tree" drying designs online. There's a bunch on Amazon and other makeup organization sites but I decided to buy from OBB because they have a good reputation and I was ordering a mirror from them too. 

Looks like cardboard but it's film covering the pieces, the black is the acrylic 

The Brush Drying Tree comes packaged really well. It's wrapped in bubble wrap and each piece comes apart so it's able to fold completely flat (which is great for storing it). The pieces also come covered with a "film" that sort of looks like a sticky cardboard layer (see pics) and these films are super hard to pull off! I think it took me about 15 minutes to get them off all three pieces. You need to sort of scratch at the corners until you get the film to come up, then it's easy to get them off. This film helps protect it from scratches while it's being shipped.

What I like about this drying tree is that the quality was better than I expected. It's acrylic so it's really sturdy and has spots for 26 brushes. The slots are all various sizes so you're able to dry a wide variety of brushes. One of the biggest brushes I own is Tarte's Airbrush Finish Bamboo Foundation Brush and this fit in the largest slot, but my Tarte Airbuki Powder Foundation Brush was just a little too large to fit. Also, if you have more than 26 brushes (like I do), you can double up by putting more than one brush in the slots, and they will stay in the drying tree without any problems. 

There's rubber lining the slots to prevent the brushes from sliding down, however there is one thing I don;t like about this drying tree. One has to do with the rubber lining. It is set up so that you have to inset the brush from underneath the tree (if you tried to insert it from the top it would mess up the bristles) and this is sort of tricky because since the tree comes apart easily it would sometimes fall off the stand when I was trying to insert brushes. I like the rubber they used, I just wish there was a way to push the brushes downward into the rubber without messing up the bristles (like having a small space in the center for bristles to initially go through)... but I think they have it set up this way so that the drying tree is able to hold even the tiniest brushes. 

The pros of this drying tree is that it's made out of sturdy acrylic, it's design holds a wide range of brushes, and it comes apart and stores flat (so it won't take up any additional space and is easily to travel with if needed). 

This drying tree is $29 on the Original Beauty Box website and I don't think it's worth $29 (maybe more like $15-$20) but if you wait for a sale or use a coupon code like I did you're able to get it cheaper! Overall it did exactly what I needed it to do and is now one of my brush washing essentials!

Go here to purchase: Brush Drying Tree by Original Beauty Box

Purchased by me, affiliate links have been used. 

CoverGirl Queen VoxBox Influenster Review

Click here to watch YouTube Review

I recently got the CoverGirl Queen VoxBox through Influenster. For those of you who don't know what Influenster is, it's a free site where you can read reviews, ask questions, and get free samples through their boxes which are called a "VoxBox." I've been signed up for three years and have gotten three boxes, a Colgate one, college one, and now this CoverGirl one.

How Influenster boxes work is they try to match you up with certain boxes. Before you receive a box you're asked to take a survey that will let you know if you qualify or not. If you don't qualify you won't be getting that particular box, but if you do then they will ask for an address and will send the box out to you. The only thing that you are required to do when you receive a box is to check it in on their website and answer a questionnaire/review about a month later about the products you received. You also have the option to complete tasks to earn a "badge" on your profile, but I've found almost all the tasks now require you to post certain things on your social media 2-3 times which I'm not really a fan of. There are also other tasks that you can do that give you the opportunity to earn additional prizes.

The three products that came in the CoverGirl Queen VoxBox were their Natural Hue Liquid Makeup, Stay Luscious Lipstick in the color Duchess, and the False Lash Drama Mascara.  

Natural Hue Liquid Makeup
I didn't like this product. One reason was that the shade was too dark for me. The product description on their website says it's made for dark skin, but during the pre-qualifying survey they have you pick a color online and I picked the lightest one thinking it looked light online (but it's hard to tell shades on a computer) so it didn't match me. Regardless of the color I still wanted to see how it applied/stayed on my skin. I tried to apply it using a brush and also by dabbing it into the skin using a sponge (which is their suggested way to apply it). Neither technique applied the product evenly and since it was a lot darker on my skin I could really see how splotchy and uneven it applied. 

However, it did do a great job at darkening up the liquid foundations I currently own, so I would use this if I got tanner and needed to darken up a foundation I already have.

Stay Luscious Lipstick in Duchess 
I wasn't a fan of this lipstick either. It also didn't apply evenly (had some dark spots and other really light spots) on my lips. I had exfoliated my lips beforehand and they were not dry so I'm not sure why it was applying so uneven. On their website the color looks more like a wine/mauve tone but in person it is very purple. 
Also I did not like the smell. It had a cheaper makeup scent (was not minty, floral, etc, smelled more like a clay). I felt that this smelled almost the same as the older Milani Lipsticks and I hate the smell of the Milani ones (I've read Milani changed their scent but haven't smelled them recently). 

False Lash Drama Mascara
I liked the mascara. It says 400% volume (I didn't notice that much of a dramatic difference) but it didn't smudge and stayed on my lashes all day without an issue so that was a plus. The back of the package says to apply multiple coats but I normally only do 1-2 coats of mascara so I don't get spider lashes, so that could be why I didn't notice dramatic volume. Normally I only wear water proof mascaras on my bottom lashes because I have contacts and blink a lot causing it to smudge easily, but I didn't have any problems with this product smudging and am pretty sure it wasn't waterproof because the package didn't mention it. 

Sign up for Influenster here


I received these products to review by Influenster. 

Kylie Cosmetics Gloss Review

(Left to Right) Like, Literally, So Cute

Watch my YouTube review+swatches here!

I ordered Kylie's new glosses during their initial release on April 1st. She had announced the date that they were being released but not what time, so that made it a little bit easier to get them--because the site wasn't crashing like it has before when too many customers are on it.

The checkout process was basically the same, you need an email, shipping address, billing address, and credit card ready (no PayPal). The one thing that was different was that when you are click checkout you are put in a "line" where the page tells you not to refresh and that it's keeping you in your spot until it takes you to the checkout page.

Once you get to your cart you have to be fast putting in your info because nothing is held for you (use autofill)! This time my confirmation email came immediately after I ordered.

Kylie's new gloss colors are Like, Literally, and So Cute (named this because they're terms she says a lot). The glosses are all nude toned. Like is more Brown, Literally seemed more pinky brown to me, and So Cute is a lighter nude. They also have the same scent as the liquid lipsticks, which is a really sugary, sweet smell. I'm not really a fan of the scent but luckily it doesn't seem to linger after it's applied.

What I like about these glosses are that they are REALLY pigmented, but it will still look a little different on everyone depending on what your natural lip color is. Also these glosses are not that sticky! I hate when you're walking outside wearing super sticky gloss and your hair keeps getting stuck to it. That only happened to me a couple times with this gloss.

Taken in sunlight

Right after the first launch Kylie announced that she was changing the brushes because they were too long and the bristles were getting all split when you pulled them out of the tube since the gloss formula is so thick. So that kinda sucked and a lot of people were mad that she changed it right after the initial release when that issue should've been addressed before the launch. I was mad about it because my order hadn't even shipped yet and here she was announcing the next ones would be fixed...

If you follow Jeffree Star you would've seen he posted a rant on Snapchat and Twitter about how bad the brushes were. It blew up all over Twitter and Instagram. Then the day after that Kylie said her company would be sending new glosses to everyone who ordered during the first restock with a whole paragraph about how she "listens to her customers." Honestly, I don't think she would have resent brushes if Jeffree hadn't called her out because I had emailed them about the brushes before his rant (and others did too) and they got emails saying no replacements would be sent because it's still "usable" (I got no email response)... but then a celebrity says something and her company acts like it's the first time they've been notified about how bad the brushes were.

Also I found it weird that all the big YouTubers who bought/were given her gloss (and who were at Kylie's Gloss launch party) didn't mention the messed up brushes in their reviews...

Another issue I ran into this time was that their customer service seems to be getting worse and shipping is A LOT slower. It took a day over the time listed on their site for my order to get shipped so I basically had to wait 2+ weeks for my order to get to me. Also, I had emailed customer service about the defective brushes but I never got a response... After a couple days I sent two more emails and finally got a scripted response (a few days after the Jeffree Star rant) saying they would be replaced. So they would either ignore the emails or take days to reply which isn't how good customer service should work...

Also one of my glosses wasn't filled all the way up. I saw others complain about this in the comments on her instagram page. All of mine were filled up except for one, which is pretty easy to see since the bottles are clear.

Besides all the brush drama I really liked the formula of the glosses. They aren't super long wearing like the matte liquid lipsticks, but they apply really smoothly and have great color payoff! They also feel really moisturizing, my lips never got dry while wearing it. Another thing I like to use before applying the gloss is Dolce K, Candy K, or Koko K liners to line my lips.

Like Gloss

The glosses are $15 each, which I felt was a pretty decent price since it's similar to other higher end brands like MAC, Anastasia Beverly Hills, etc... but you still have to pay a lot of shipping.

Overall I've been wearing the glosses more than the mattes (mainly because I'm more of a gloss person in general) but these are the best glosses I've tried (and I have A LOT of gloss)! Also the new brushes are a lot better! The bristles don't separate and you have more control over it when you're applying it to your lips. If you're looking for a really pigmented gloss that's not overly sticky then I'd recommend trying out Kylie's new gloss line. Just be prepared to stalk her social media to find out when new releases are coming because they will sell out in minutes!

Related Review:
~Kylie Cosmetics Lip Kit

Not sponsored. Purchased by me!