Oui Fresh Beauty Box – May Unboxing

Hey friends! This month is a really exciting one for a few reasons (two full-size items!), and an important one, too! It’s exciting because we’re including a product from a special collaboration, and this product (and a few others are things) you all have heavily requested. We wish sourcing products for the beauty box were as easy as snapping a finger and saying “Yes, girl,” but it depends on a lot of different variables. So when all of those stars align and we can fulfill a request you all have, it’s really and truly our favorite thing ever! Next month is also going to be amazing for stars aligning. 😉

Speaking of giving you a peek behind the scenes, Emma wrote a very insightful blog post about a big internal change with the beauty box in the upcoming months. We’ve worked hard to open as many new subscriber spots as possible over the last eight months, but we’ve decided in the spirit of supporting small businesses and maintaining the premium quality of the Oui Fresh box, we’ll be “reverse scaling” (significantly reducing the number of new subscribers we take in each month) and soon, capping subscribers altogether. You can read more about the details of that here!

What does that mean for subscribers? Nothing, really! The box will remain the same amazing quality that you’re used to. If you are someone who’s been thinking about signing up, this is our last month with a “typical” amount of new sign-up spots. After this, the number of new subscriber spots will be just a handful of what they used to be, in addition to anyone that’s opted out that month (it’s a good month to lock in a subscription if you’ve been thinking about it).

Later this summer, we’ll stop adding new spots completely, so the only new spots will be those who choose to opt-out.

Okay, let’s get down to business … (go ahead and finish that Mulan-style if you feel me.)

Our info card this month was CUSTOM PAINTED (!!!) by local Nashville artist Caitlin Shirock of Cash Color and we love the phrase,”Celebrate every little victory”—don’t sell yourself short of any accomplishment! You can follow Caitlin on Instagram @cash.color.

Nail Polish in “Supernova” by AILA for Oui Fresh – (Value – $14)

This collab has been in the works for awhile now, and we are so excited to finally share it with you! This is the first of our collection of shades with 10-free nail lacquer brand AILA, which is local to Nashville. You can learn more about the ingredients here, but we love this brand for their thoughtful formulation. Nail polishes can absorb into our skin through nails and nail beds, and AILA does an amazing job of presenting a safer option that is still extremely functional (they have a very wide range of colors, too!). We are very proud to be partnering with Dr. Cary Gannon, the amazing founder of AILA on this project!

The shade, Supernova, is named after Elsie’s daughter, Nova. Elsie was wearing this shade when she and Jeremy traveled to China to bring Nova home, so this warm lavender shade is super close to our hearts! It’s really the most perfect lavender-pink, and it kind of makes me feel like a ’90s Barbie when I wear it, which is a mood I am very much trying to achieve.

Celestial and Zodiac Nail Tattoos by Love and Lion – (Value – $5)

Another very special Nashville partnership with our friends Leah and Jenni from Love and Lion is meant to be the perfect compliment to our Supernova nail polish. Of course we had to go with a celestial theme and these were designed just for this box! We adore Love and Lion’s nail tattoos because they instantly make a DIY mani super special in a matter of seconds. The long strip of stars can be used as a little flash tat bracelet on your inner wrist, or you can cut them up to use on your cheekbone highlight for a fun summer festival look—lots of room for creativity!

Mer-Mane Shampoo by Captain Blankenship – (Value – $10)

Mer-Mane Conditioner by Captain Blankenship – (Value – $10)

Our subscribers have been asking for recommendations for clean shampoos and conditioners ever since we started this clean beauty journey, so we are THRILLED to include one of our favorite picks this month—the Mer-Mane set from Captain Blankenship! We love Captain Blankenship for their hair products (no artificial fragrance, parabens, or sulfates) that are full of gorgeous natural ingredients that are marine focused and amazing for creating a textured beachy look, air dried or heat styled.

This formula uses a lot of essential oils, which we love—lots of citruses for a gorgeous fragrance and rosemary for growth. There’s also aloe vera to soothe the scalp and promote shine, as well as a ton of super cool marine botanicals and minerals that are rich in antioxidants. The conditioner uses shea butter and coconut oil for a rich, soft texture to hydrate hair and leave it nice and silky. I LOVE this set—I find that my frizz is significantly decreased and my hair is nice and shiny and soft.

Golden Glow Eye Shadow by HAN – (Value – $15)

Whenever we work with our partners to choose makeup shades, especially eye shadows since there is some skill associated with application, we try to choose shades that are accessible for the majority of our subscribers. I’m someone who LOVES eye shadow, so I also try to represent those of us who use four shades at a time as well as those who are one shade babes when we choose! So pleased to say that we think this shade strikes a perfect balance. Clean eye shadows are notoriously difficult to get a good pigment out of, and HAN does it so right. I can’t wait to build a collection of their shades that are not only free of gross ingredients, but they are actually good for your skin. I love using Golden Glow either as a base to build into a smokey eye with darker shades (I have been recreating this look from Kesha almost every time I glam up lately, using this eye shadow as my highlight shade), or as an all over golden wash of color for that bronzey, glowy look—so so right for summer. The blending brush pictured is the one I most often use to apply this shadow—it’s from Crunchi. This would also make a bangin’ highlight for deeper skin toned beauties.

This box is so perfect for the start of summer—get those nails lookin’ fresh and that hair lookin’ beachy, and of course a golden glow! Remember, this is the last month that we will be growing our subscriber base as normal. Next month, there will quite honestly be just a handful of new subscriber spots available until a few months from now when we will completely cap out. 🙂

Click here if you’d like to subscribe! xo – Keely, Emma, Elsie + Team Oui Fresh

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