Oui Fresh Beauty Box – January Unboxing

Happy 2018, beauties! UPDATE: our January Beauty Box sold out in 12 hours, but if you missed this month you can sign up for the waitlist here!!! If you’re familiar with our Beauty Box, go ahead and skip to the next paragraph. If you’re not, here’s a quick introduction: At ABM and Oui Fresh, we are always looking for ways to ‘clean up’ our everyday routines by eliminating ingredients that might be doing more harm than good to our bodies and our environment, and in addition, including as many naturally good for you ingredients as possible. Elsie and Emma began the Oui Fresh Beauty Box as a fun way to introduce our friends who are new to ‘clean’ or non-toxic beauty to great products we love, as well as to bring a fun, best-of-the-best brand experience to those who are already doing the clean beauty thing. It’s been an amazing way to get to know some incredible small businesses and brands, and we’ve discovered some unique new products along the way! Each month, we also share one of our signature Oui Fresh products in the box. 🙂

For January, we wanted to do something to signify the new year and thought a “Try Something New” box would be way fun! Some of you may be familiar with a few or all of these products, but our hope is that you get to experience something different that you may not normally be apt to try. Who knows, you might just love it!

The front of our information card this month is MAKE IT HAPPEN! Because of course we’re going to—it’s our year, right?! Here’s what’s in the box this month:

Vitamin B Enzyme Cleansing Oil + Makeup Remover by One Love Organics (value $12) – I am absolutely IN LOVE with this cleanser! I used it morning and night in two vastly different climates: a dry midwest winter and for a week in humid, 90 degree Florida. I was amazed by how hydrated and balanced my skin stayed when I was braving the chill in St. Louis, but even more so when I had a full face of makeup, power walking Disney World for 12 hours and wasn’t shining like the top of the Chrysler building (#annieforever #hardknocklife). I had an understandable amount of shine by the end of the day, but I felt like my oil production was significantly less than normal under these conditions and I wasn’t constantly blotting. For being scented naturally, this cleanser smells like a tropical paradise—very impressive. This is a great product for travel because you don’t need water to rinse your face beforehand; just use a quarter-sized amount, massage onto your skin until the consistency is ‘a delicate milk’, and rinse clean or wipe thoroughly with a damp towel. Alternately, you can use this like any other makeup remover with a cotton ball—no rinsing required!

Note: Oil cleansers are a true gift to the skincare world. If you haven’t yet embraced facial oils or cleansers because you’re nervous about making your skin more oil-prone or shiny, you might be surprised to find that an oil cleanser can actually help your skin pump the brakes on that excess sebum production. The way it works is that the oils in the cleanser latch onto dirt, makeup, and other impurities to wash them away and leave your skin with all of its good oils that keep it hydrated, as opposed to a harsh ‘detergent’ that dries it out. When your skin gets dried out from these harsher cleansers, your sebum production kicks into high gear to compensate for those good oils being stripped away, leaving some of us more shiny than necessary.

Poser Paste in ‘Ex Girl’ by Good Dye Young (value $18) – If you’re a fan of the band Paramore, then you KNOW Hayley Williams—their seriously talented frontwoman (she might be petite but that voice will bring. the. house. down.) Hayley started Good Dye Young as a vegan, cleaner alternative to hair dyes which are a notoriously ‘dirty’ product in the beauty world. We were so excited when we found out about Poser Paste: the easiest, most risk-free way to achieve super fun temporary ‘fantasy’ hair! All you have to do is apply it with your fingers to dry hair—any color, any texture. It washes out really easily with no staining, even on the lightest hair. I love to brush mine out after applying it with a lighter touch to achieve a pretty pastel look (I have balayage color so I kind of apply it in that way, where I leave my roots with no paste and taper the paste down). But applied more generously, it is so bright and amazing. You can even heat style your hair as normal after application. A visit to their website can give you more info on styling (just make sure you brush through it first), but it’s honestly so easy, and such a blast to experiment with pink hair with no commitment!

Hydra Repair Mask by Aeria Skin (value $5) – This extremely hydrating mask from Aeria Skin is ultra soothing and amazing for any skin type. The sheet is made of organic cotton, and the serum is packed with peptides that help to combat premature signs of aging while vitamins E and B3 deliver major antioxidant power to fight the free radicals we’re exposed to every day. One of my favorite things about sheet masks is how easy they are to do when you’re pressed for time because they don’t require you to do an extra rinse and they’re so easy to clean up. If you’ve never worn a sheet mask before, they can be a little interesting on the first go-round, but just relax, do some insta scrolling, or whatever you normally do during a face mask application—same thing, different vehicle. Simply apply the mask to a clean face, remove after 15-20 minutes, and pat remaining serum into skin, no need to rinse (you want allll of that goodness on your face!). Follow up with your favorite moisturizer, facial oil, or serum.

Jade Roller (value $25) – This past weekend, I talked a little bit about this guy on ABM Instagram stories and got soooo many messages wanting to know more. For centuries, jade rollers have been used as a beauty tool and are said to combat inflammation, improve circulation, reduce the look of pores, reduce fine lines, and promote elasticity + lymphatic drainage. To use, start with a clean face (preferably, prime with a serum or facial oil—you’ll reap the benefit of the product being massaged into your skin). Beginning down at your chin, roll out and upward toward your cheeks with the large side of the roller. Move upward in sections using 3-5 strokes for each section. Use the small side of the roller to gently massage your under and upper eye area. We always keep our roller in the refrigerator, or even in the freezer, for maximum de-puffing benefits. Although this is made from stainless steel, we always take the extra precaution and avoid standing water to keep away rust. (Pro tip: Use these steps to apply your sheet mask and massage that serum into your skin!) Note: This is real jade; the look of the stone may vary. While this particular roller is a Oui Fresh Beauty Box exclusive, our friends at Herbivore have one you can get your hands on. 🙂

Oui Fresh Hydrating Lipstick in Baby Spice (value $20) – SO excited to introduce you all to a nude from the Oui Fresh collection this month! This light nude definitely has a little bit of that mod vibe to it. it’s so sweet and fun, just like the diva who inspired it (platform tennis shoes optional but encouraged)! My favorite application for this color is to start with your favorite chapstick for added hydration (especially if it’s cold where you are), follow it up with a few pats of concealer to lightly cover your lips, then apply two passes of lipstick. The concealer is a trick we use with light colors/nudes to lay down a neutral base so that the color of the lipstick is more ‘true to the tube’ once it’s applied, since sometimes your lips’ natural tones (though beautiful) can change how the shade is interpreted on your skin.

*Boxes cannot be customized. As with any subscription box, it’s normal to expect you’ll get some things you love more than others. The purpose of it is to try new things at an amazing value. Each month will be a different assortment, but it will always include some skincare and makeup. We will not do skin-tone-specific makeup colors (so don’t worry, we will never send you a foundation that doesn’t match your skin!). If you get something you don’t like one month, just share it with a friend! You can read more on our FAQ page and you can SUBSCRIBE HERE.

That’s the scoop for January—lots of fun new things to check out. We sold out super fast this month, but we’ll be opening up more spots for March, so join the waitlist to get priority access sign up when the next box is released!  xo Keely, Elsie, + Emma

Credits// Author and Photography: Keely Rust. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.