NYX Beauty To Go Box

A few weeks ago, I took advantage of NYX deals on Hautelook, and one of the things I ordered was the NYX Beauty to Go box.  On the site, it looked like a smorgasbord of beautiful NYX products, all packaged nicely in a neat box for on-the-go.  What actually arrived was... well... a little disappointing.


When I hear "Beauty to go" I think of products that travel well.  Something I can take with me in suitcases or overnight bags that can withstand a little bit of a beating.  What I got was an acrylic box that could never go on a plane unless it was wrapped tightly with several layers of bubble wrap.  And to make matters worse, this acrylic box was already broken.

The lid's hinge is broken so that it does not stay on properly... so not only would I not travel with this box because it would break, but now I would not travel with it because the lid's already broken. The products inside don't stand a chance!

The concept of this box is great.  It has everything you need! Face color, eye colors, lip colors, glosses, liners, mascara, etc.  Let's peek inside, shall we?

When you open up the lid, you see a large mirror inside, and the first layer of NYX shadows and face colors.

A closer look of the colors shows a nice rainbow of neutral-y eye colors, plus 4 face colors.  For whatever reason, NYX says that some of the shadows are actually face colors, but they're strange colors (like the bright blue), so I'm a little confused about what they mean.  So, I'm just calling all the skinny colors eye shadows.

Pull aside the first layer and you see layer #2:

These are some interesting eye colors!  But, the whole point was to get some variety and allow for some creativity!  So, it's nice to have something to play with.

Pull aside the second layer and you see Layer #3:

Layer 3 gives you 6 potted lip glosses, two lip liners, a black pencil eyeliner, a liquid liner, a disposable-type makeup brush (applicator) and a black mascara.  The mascara is dried out and the wand is PUNY (think cheap dollar store makeup brush meant for little kids) and the liquid eyeliner is one of those cheap floppy paintbrush applicators that's all bent up so I can't use it.  The glosses are all that I can use here, unfortunately.

The final layer is a pull out drawer I didn't discover until I'd owned the box several days:

This layer has concealers, gel eye colors, and lip colors, plus several spongetip applicators that I usually just throw away.

The overall verdict

I haven't written to a company in a long time, but I feel very compelled to write NYX.  This isn't like them.  Their products are always amazing.  Seriously - I've never been disappointed in their products and this one just seems FULL of FAIL.  The shadows aren't even as pigmented as normal.

They're all pretty dry and chalky.  Also, in being laid out this way, they're hard to get a shadow brush in there and get a decent amount of product.  Guess that's why this box was on discount... but I'm going to write them anyway.  This isn't right.

If you see the opportunity to purchase this, even at discount, I recommend that you pass.  The money could be better spent on some nice trios of shadows and some single lip colors.  Sometimes when you try to get a nice variety and a little bit of everything, you end up getting a whole lot of nothing!

Have you ever written to a cosmetics company about a disappointing product?  How did it go?

Until next time,

Kelly