Lip monthly unboxing: August 2014

Hi girls and boys,

So today I'm going to be talking about lip monthly. It is going to be a lengthy post but please bare with me as I want to give you all the facts so you can decide for yourself whether or not to subscribe to lip monthly. 

So back in July I had heard about lip monthly. A monthly subscription box that included lip products and you could get your first box for $6 usd + shipping. Sounds cool, right? 

So I signed up and as I had a fair amount of time to wait until I received my box I started to google lip monthly and the vlogs I came across were quite concerning. The reviews were not the best and one of the biggest things I found out was that the subscription box contained discontinued products. I was particularly disappointed with that fact as if I like a product in a subscription box I would then go out of my way to purchase it. So to me this was kind of like what's the point?

A couple of other people had posted on different make up forums on social media about lip monthly as well. Now this didn't happen to me but it has happened to other people.
When you sign up to lip monthly you can chose to just sign up for one month at the discounted rate. A couple people had selected this option and had had their credit card charged for September's box when the august one had not even been sent. Lip monthly kept the credit card details on their website and charged them without notice and when they had not selected that option. I have not heard an update on this case but as far as I am aware lip monthly are reimbursing for the extra charge.

Also communication with Lip monthly is not the easiest. One thing I did not like was that my credit card details were held and I could view them when I logged into 'my account' on their website. I too had only signed up for the one month box and so was weary to see if they would charge me for September also. Lip monthly is on facebook and you can find their page by clicking here although you are unable to post publicly to their page. This is very odd because if it was such an awesome box you would want people to share positive experiences publicly right? So I had emailed them on their 'contact us' page on the website. 48 hours later and no reply so I took to twitter. They were faster to reply but not what I was after.
Finally a response. I had asked about cancelling my subscription as I did not want my credit card details held and this was the response I received:

"You can cancel your subscription by logging into your account at www.lipmonthly.com/login and going to the “Subscriptions” tab at the top right of your screen. From there, you just need to click “Suspend” and your account will be cancelled. Please note that if you suspended your account after a payment processed, you will receive another box in the following month but you will not be charged again. We are unable to refund processed payments.

Please note that the company called Stripe manage all of our transactions. They hold your credit card information. Once your cancel, your credit card info will automatically be deleted from our system."

1) why use a company that holds credit card information when I have not authorised my details to be held? and 2) I went to cancel subscription but the only option to get rid of it is to suspend it. So I have suspended it in hope they don't charge any further. I am tempted to do what other people have done and cancel the card at the bank.

A few days later lip monthly sent out yet another email and it read:

"We just wanted to send you an e-mail to let you know your Lip Monthly bag was shipped last week from our warehouse in Chicago, Illinois. We realize that some people are frustrated that their 2nd payment has been taken out without receiving their first box and we'd like to apologize. Next month we will ensure that you will not be charged until you receive your current month's box. This mainly happened because of the delay that took place in shipping to subscribers outside of the US - however that is changing next month.

New Shipping Process Next Month

For the past few months, we've had to ship your box from Chicago to our warehouse in Canada and then ultimately to your destination. We did this because of Customs issues however the issues have been resolved since. Next month we'll be shipping your box straight from Chicago and you will receive your bag before the 20th of themonth as well as a tracking number to track your bag. This process will be much more efficient and will save you time as well as allowing you to track your package all the way until it reaches your destination."

So its great to see a company learning from their mistakes and changing things when they don't work.


Anyway my lip monthly bag arrived and this is what I received

This cute pouch held all the goodies in. I'm really glad it came in something as the previous months the lipsticks had literally been chucked into the postage envelope from what I have seen. 

Inside were some lippys and swatches of them as follows: 

Also they like to throw in a random product and I got:

So later on I will review each item in a blog post but as you can see there is ally of "city color" items. I would have loved some variety but then it's cool as I've never heard of city color before. My jest impression is that I may wear one, possibly two of the lipsticks but I'm trying not to get to attached as these are discontinued items. The eye pencil is really cool, I'm excited to use that!

So thank you for bearing with me through what has been a lengthy post. I hope I've given you enough information about what boxes to spend your hard earned money on. The pros about lip monthly are that you get a suprise, a few lipsticks and if you don't mind not being able to replace your lipstick once your done then it's a great idea. 

How have you found your experience with lip monthly? 

Let me know in the comments 

Xx