Beauteque May 2015 Head to Toe Bag Review ~ Lip Essentials

Beauteque is a website based in the US that deals with all things Asian beauty. They some of my favorite brands like Skinfood, Mizon and Etude House. They also have a great program in their Head to Toe Bags. Each month, they curate a new bag packed with Asian beauty products all based on a central theme. The theme this month is “Lip Essentials.”
Beauteque also has a monthly subscription (BB Bag) which you can access at BeautequeMonthly but the bags are not the same. This review is for the Head to Toe Bag which is completely separate and is a one time purchase. The products do not overlap, so if you are already getting the BB Bag, you can purchase a Head to Toe bag any month you choose without worries of duplicates.
This month everything arrived in a silver and black flowered zip pouch. I think all the Bags (both Head to Toe and BB Bags) come with a makeup bag every time. Hence the name “Bag” instead of “box” I suppose.

The Cost: $26 plus $2 shipping (US)

What You Get: Seven full size, Asian beauty products and a makeup pouch. This month is all about Lips.

Lip Brush– This is a retractable, travel size lip brush. Take off the cap and slide it onto the opposite end and the brush appears. I don’t use a lip brush much. Ever? Except to get the last vestiges of my Clinique Shy/Mauve Crystal lipstick out of the container. I still get depressed thinking about how they discontinued that. /sigh.
Value: $5

Etude House Soft Touch Auto Lip Liner– This is a nice creamy lip liner and I love the color I chose. It has a nice sharp point but I don’t see a sharpener anywhere for later. It’s a twist up which is nice. Definitely a keeper.
Value: $6

Aritaum Baby Lip Balm– Woo! Talk about pinktastic! I got Vita C but there’s also Hyaluronic Acid and Super Collagen. This lip balm will give you hydrated, happy lips. It doesn’t actually go on that pink. Or it does, but it’s basically sheer. It’s basically just like chapstick as far as I can tell.
Value: $10.50

Holika Holika Holy Berry Tint in Strawberry– You have a choice between Raspberry, Strawberry and Orangeberry. As usual, I chose Raspberry but ended up with Strawberry. I’m really unimpressed with the attention to detail regarding choices. I feel like every bag has a mistake. This is a water based lip tint. Perfect for gradated lips. My lips are so thin they’re useless when it comes to gradation. I like the look but I feel like on my it just looks like I had a cherry popsicle. The crappy thing is that this has lavender oil in it and since it’s going right next to my mouth I don’t really want to chance it even though it’s far down on the list.
Tints like this are so popular in the Asian makeup houses. I feel like every brand has at least two. It’s really not my favorite style (hey, thin lips here!) but I do like the lasting tint effect. It’s not the easiest thing to apply but it has it’s place in every lipstick cabinet.
Value: $6

Etude House Dear My Blooming Lips Talk Shine in Red304- Since I basically had to pick without really having an idea of the colors, this one is a little too orange for me. However, that didn’t stop me from using it. It is SO cute! I love the pink, the little bow, the shape… and then I LOVE the hearts imprinted on the lipstick itself. I was reluctant to use it because I didn’t want to mess that up but I can’t resist a lipstick. Even when it’s coral colored and looks absolutely terrible with my skintone.

This is actually nicely moisturizing. It definitely has issues with leaving lipprints on everything. The color is so beautiful that I wish it would work for me but there is no way. I did want to mention that it’s pretty matte so I wonder why the word “shine” is in the label. This is not shiny like I would expect it to be. But still pretty and a very vivid, beautiful color.
Value: $12

Nature Republic By Flower Lip Scrub– Plagued by chapped skin? Scrub your lips! And then balm those babies up. Or whatever. I’m sort of hooked on lip scrubs. My favorites are sugar scrubs because well… sugar is tasty but walnut pieces are not. This one uses walnut bits and flower extracts to scrub off your skin so don’t get it in your mouth! It’s a pretty intense scrub so you don’t need much and you don’t need to scrub for long. Apply a small amount of scrub then wipe it off, then do a rinse. And then your moisturizing balm.
Value: $4

Etude House Cherry Lip Patch– What is an Asian beauty lip bag without a lip patch!? Incomplete, of course. Luckily, Beauteque included the requisite lip patch. Use at a time when you won’t be talking much. I’ve used these several times (different brands) and never felt like they did much but they’re always fun to walk around the house in. You should have seen my husbands face the first time he saw me with these big lips on. 😀
Value: $2

VERDICT: This Lip Essentials bag is a really cute collection of popular and useful lip products. The value isn’t exceptional being worth about $45 but this should give you an idea of what’s available to you. Etude House lipsticks are coveted and lip tints are all the rage. I would have liked to see one more brand of lipstick. Something like Clio or TheSaem would be fun. I think Beauteque does tend to rely on the popular middle ground. There’s so much fun and unusual stuff out there and I’m hoping we start seeing them pop up in the Beauteque bags soon.

If you’d like to get this bag, you can find it right here. This month you have 3 choice products! You can choose your favorite available color for the Holika Holika Holy Berry Tint, Etude House Dear My Blooming Lips Talk Shine, and Etude House Soft Touch Auto Lip Liner.

Beauteque is based in the US but ships internationally. Use code MAY2 to get $2 off your purchase. Shipping is free in the US for orders $35 and over so you may want to sneak something extra in your cart to hit that mark. Although this bag only has $2 shipping which is nice.