UNBOXING | Banila Co Meme Box!

Ever wanted to try a subscription box? Do you like Korean products? The Meme Box would be just perfect for you as it is a subscription box filled with trending Korean products that are hard to find elsewhere!

Came in a pink plastic bag. Opened it to reveal a hot pink box bubble wrapped securely--though one of the item's boxes was dented. Overall, the box was wrapped securely and presented very nicely. 

This is my first ever "subscription" box service I used so I didn't really know what to expect. I normally don't like surprises but since I couldn't find any information on this particular box, I took a leap of faith and ordered it. The one I have here is the Meme Box by Banila Co. Banila co. is a popular high end Korean makeup brand with people in their 20s and 30s.I first heard about this brand from Bubzbeauty as she liked one of their eyeliners and since Jessica from my favoritest girl group ever, Girl's Generation, endorses their products, I decided that this box would be a safe one to get.

--At a Glance--

Taken from the Meme Box website, 

"Memebox Special Edition was created for special occasions, or specific themes. just like Memebox, it is packed with 4 - 8 full sized products and deluxe samples, carefully curated from Korea to give you the best experience and widest exposure to a range of products. Boxes in each Memebox series always contain the same products, and contents vary from hair and body products, to skincare and cosmetics."

In my box, I received the Friday Night 3d highlighter, Marbling Shadow in 20 Titanic, The Great Love Extra Bold Eyeliner in Brown, the Intense Care Moisture balm SPF 13 in 02 Soft Peach, the It Radiant CC Cream , the It CC Brightening Cream, and the It Radiant CC in Melting Pact.

--The Breakdown--

The box retailed for $39.00 USD plus $6.99 USD regular shipping and $25 USD for expedited shipping. I went for regular shipping which took approximately 8 days from shipping date to get to my doorstep.

Now I don't know the official costs of the product if you get them in store from Korea so I'm going to use the cheapest price I can find online for these items.

•  Friday Night 3d highlighter (full size)--$21 USD on ebay. You get 7g of product ($85.05 USD for 1 oz). This product brightens your face through a mosaic of white, pink, and purple colors. You can apply this on your cheekbones to enhance their appearance or under your eyes for a youthful effect. 

• Marbling Eyeshadow in 20 Titanic (full size)--$13.95 on Koredeapart.com. Apparently, this eyeshadow has been discontinued so I'm not sure how else you can get this product... You do get 3.5g/0.12oz of product ($112.99 USD for 1 oz). It's described as a gold brown shade. Contouring, lining, and highlighting your eyes with this product to create definition for any occasion can be done with this eyeshadow.

• The Great Love Extra Bold Eyeliner in BR01 Brown(full size)--$12.68 USD on Koredepart.com. This eyeliner contains 1.8g/0.063oz of product ($199.71 USD for 1 oz). This dual-ended eyeliner has a smudger tip on one end so you can smudge it out for an eyeshadow base or smokey look. 

• Intense Care Moisture Balm SPF 13 in 02 Soft Peach (full size)--$14.83 USD on Koredepart.com for 3.8g/0.13 oz ($110.64 USD for 1 oz). This sheer tinted lip balm provides enough moisture to keep lips from chapping throughout the day. It has a hint of color to enhance the natural color of your lips. The added SPF 13 is great for protecting your lips from the damaging rays of the sun.

•  It Radiant CC Brightening Cream(sample size 7.5 ml)--Costs $32.99 USD for 50 ml/1.7 oz from ibuybeauti.com. Used before your base makeup, the brightening cream hydrates and even out the skin texture for a more radiant look. 

• It Radiant CC Cream (sample size 10 ml)--Contains 30 ml/1 oz for $24.91 USD on Amazon.com. It naturally covers any blemishes and creates an even complexion. Used after your skincare products and before your foundation/bb cream, it moisturizes and smoothes skin at the same time. With SPF 30++, you'll also get UVA/UVB sun protection in one go!

• It Radiant CC in Melting Pact (sample size 1.5g)-- Setting you back $29.37USD on Koredepart.com for 13 g/0.46 oz ($65.85 USD for 1 oz), this product promises to give you a radiant and perfect finish. This product does it all with oil control, hydration, and finishing off your look. The additional SPF 32 PA++ really makes this the perfect on-the-go makeup base!

--The Good--

Okay, so this won't be a very comprehensive review or anything since I haven't done more than swatch the products on the back of my hand. However, I already have some products that I'm sure will be a hit!

First up, the eyeliner. The Great Love Extra Bold Eyeliner is amazing. When I first took it out of the packaging (which is super cute BTW), I was taken aback by how big it was. Thinking that it was going to be a dud, I swatched it on the back of my hand and continued through the rest of the box. A little while later, I went to wash my hands to prepare lunch with some soap and water. To my surprise, the swatch stayed put! I tried washing my hands again, this time, adding a bit of rubbing to see if it would budge--and it didn't! I washed my hands two more times after that, which was when I started to notice the eyeliner budging. I even showered afterwards and it was still there! I was a bit scared that it was going to be really hard to remove but my Neutrogena dual phase eye makeup remover thankfully got it off.

The packaging reminds me of art deco with the gear shapes and symmetry; it's pretty luxurious looking with the gold embossed designs on a black background. The pencil doesn't weigh much either, making it great for your beach bag. I'm hoping it doesn't get scratched off with wear. The caps are pretty secure and making a solid click sound when closed tightly. This will be perfect for the hot and humid summer months coming up! This comes in three colors (brown, black and burgundy) and while the chubby pencil will be hard to make a thin line, this will work perfectly as an eyeshadow base for summer nights out as it is quite creamy. ♥︎ Initial Rating: 4.5 out of 5 ♥︎

Another hit with me is the Intense Care Moisture Balm. I'm usually not a fan of sheer lip colors but I like to wear lip tints and stains quite often. Layering a sheer and moisturizing lip product on top helps my lips stay nice and moisturized throughout the day without altering the color underneath. I didn't look at the informational sheet that came with it, preferring to discover the purpose of each product. When I took it out of the packaging (covered in Korean) and pulled the top off, I was surprised by the bright, warm neon pink color, even though it's described as a soft peach shade. Swatching it on my hand was disappointing until I realized it was a lip balm. The balm comes in three colors: baby pink, soft peach, and purity beige (more of a vanilla white color). I've been wearing it since I got this package on Wednesday and it does a good job of moisturizing my lips.

It doesn't really show up on my pigmented lips but I like the consistency. It's quite thin so you do need to layer it. However, my lips don't feel sticky and gloopy like the feeling of lip gloss on your lips. My lips are quite chapped right now (after being in the sun for 7 hours without water or lip balm >.<) yet this doesn't emphasize how chapped they look and actually hide it very well, making my lips look pretty and luscious. (¬‿¬) It reminds me of the Maybelline Baby Lips, albeit a more expensive option. The packaging is quite simple and sleek. You can see the color of the product in the base of the tube, which is nice because the bullet is actually that bright but color payoff is lacking (which is a good or bad thing depending on what you're looking for). The cap is quite secure. There is a light, fruity candy scent that reminds me of an Asian candy I used to eat as a child; it doesn't linger on the lips at all for those adverse to scents. The additional SPG 13 makes it another summer essential! ♥︎Initial Rating: 5 out of 5♥︎

I've been having some pretty bad breakouts on my chin so I couldn't test the face products on myself. However, the swatches on my hand seem very promising. I got the Radiant CC creamin in Melting Pact in shade Light Beige. My experience with a lot of Korean products is that they are usually way too light for my medium skin tone so I was a bit hesitant about this product. Peeling off the foil cover, the color actually looked very promising. Sometimes, a product looks darker than it actually is in the pan when you break the top surface so I didn't get my hopes up. Swatching it on my inner wrist (which is really close to the shade of my face), it blended right in. Thinking that might have been because the product was sheer, I swatched it on my right hand over some moles I have it it did cover them up slightly. It looks quite natural, like I have nothing on, and even smoothed out the wrinkles on my knuckles. It doesn't feel sticky and I hardly used any product. This is going to be quite the hit during the hot summer months and a definite must with the SPF 32 PA++! I'm very excited to put this to the test when my face clears up because I don't want to aggravate it by using new and untested products on my face. ♥︎Initial Rating: 5 out of 5♥︎

The Radiant CC Cream, which is the star product of Banila Co., was the product I was most excited for (even though the contents of the box was a mystery, I was sure they were going to include this!). Even though CC creams don't claim to cover anything, they make it up by providing a lot of skin benefits, such as SPF and evening out the skin tone. This one doesn't cover anything but it did make my skin brighter without making it look lighter or ghostly, if you get what I mean. Some bb creams and cc creams claim to whiten the skin but since the product is so light, it makes it look like your face and body don't go together. The Radiant CC cream does whiten the skin but it looks quite natural, like you have a luminescent glow from within. This is going to be perfect for layering under your base makeup for some added dewy glow. The added SPF 30 PA ++ will also be nice for the lazy summer days! ♥︎Initial Rating: 5 out of 5♥︎

--The Bad--

I wish I could give a glowing impression of everything I received, but there were some disappointments. There's no brand that does everything perfectly, and the Friday Night 3d highlighter and Marbling Eyeshadow prove that point for me exactly.

The Friday Night 3D Highlighter has super cute packaging that reminds me of the Benefit Boxed Powders. The sassy girl on the top in combination with the sugar skulls all over the box is edgy and cute at the same time. Unfortunately, the product inside wasn't as good. The highlighter has pink, purple, and white alternating squares but if I swirl my finger in all of them, I just get a stark white highlight, which doesn't look good on my medium skin tone. Even when I just swatch the individual squares, I get a white color, even from the purple and pink squares. Using the  included brush looked as if I didn't apply anything. The brush isn't anything to write home about either as the hairs are quite scratchy and flimsy. At least there is no chunky glitters in here, as with other Korean highlighters I've tried (Holika Holika, I'm looking at you!) but rather a nice, smooth, radiant shimmer. I'm not really sure what I can do with it but I might just use it as a inner corner highlight as I prefer a champagne or pink highlighter for my medium tone complexion. ♥︎Initial Rating: 2 out of 5♥︎

The Marbling Eyeshadow looked really pretty inside of the case. The packaging remind me of MAC eyeshadows (though I have yet to own one >.<) Quality-wise, it couldn't be more different. It isn't as soft as I thought nor is it very pigmented. It swatches so sheerly even though I swirled my finger in it quite firmly. You would definitely need an eyeshadow primer or base of some sort to get a good effect. It doesn't have good staying power as I wiped my hand, pretty much all of the color is gone except for some shimmers. I think Koreans like bare-there makeup, so this might be why it isn't as pigmented as I'm used to. 20 Titanic is described as a gold brown and it does lean bronze on my skin tone. It has a nice luminosity without chunky glitters so it would make a nice sheer, wash of color across your eyes. ♥︎Initial Rating: 3 out of 5♥︎

--Bottom Line--

Speaking about the Banila Co. brand itself, I would try the eyeliner, the lip balm, the CC cream in Melting Pact and the CC cream in a tube. I didn't get a chance to try the Brightening cream as I don't want to scare my skin by introducing new skin care products. The highlighter and eyeshadow were a bit of a letdown for me but that's okay, not everything can be a hit. Even hits for some people can be disasters for others.

As for the box itself, you get 4 full size products (eyeliner, lip balm, highlighter and eyeshadow) and three deluxe sample sizes (brightening cream, cc cream, melting pact) Adding up the price for all the items in the box ($4.85 USD for the brightening cream, $8.30 USD for the cc cream, and $3.39 USD for the melting pact in addition to all the full size product prices), the box's value comes out to $79 USD. I paid $39 USD for the box plus shipping, which comes out the a grand total of $45.99 USD, so I got my money back and then some with this box. Subtracting the prices of the items I didn't like, I still think the box is a pretty good value at $44.05 USD. You get face and eye products to complete a basic look with just these products; all you would need is mascara, eyebrow pencil, and blush!

Overall, I would be interested in trying this box out again. I got products that I would've never bought on my own yet a lot of them will probably be repurchased in the near future! I have two more boxes coming my way from Meme Box so when those get here, I will definitely have a post up about them! You can still get this box for a limited time so if you really want these products, I suggest you hop on over there and grab it fast! If you still want to try Banila Co. but want a box of full size products only, you can get that here for $10 USD more. If you just want to try the boxes but don't have one in particular, you can find out more from the memebox website itself. They ship to 31 countries and are always having some sort of deal going on. You get 2 reward points just for signing up, which can be used to get discounts.

MWAH Musings ♥

• Had an outreach event today. Was outside for 7 hours and didn't have lip balm, water, or sunscreen (such a bad idea!) Luckily, it wasn't hot  but it was quite windy--our flyers kept flying away!
• My pimples on my chin are starting to dry out out fall out--which is gross but at least that means it's almost done healing :D
• Have a computer class tomorrow hopefully--learning to write HTML and all the cool stuff!

So that's it for this post! I hope you all learned a lot from it :) If you've tried a Meme Box before, what products did you get and did you like it?? I'm totally interested in trying out more and have the Memebox Free From Oil & Troubles and the Luckybox #3 on its way here :D 

XOXO,

MWAH ♥

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Disclosure Statement: All products mentioned were purchased with my own money. I am not sponsored by any of the companies mentioned above and was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own. Links are not affiliate links and are provided for the readers' convenience. I cannot guarantee that the product(s) will work for you. I do not approve or endorse the products or information available on these sites. Proceed at your own risk.