Macy's Beauty Box, June 2021: Expert's CHoice

Am I catching up? Sorta! I need to charge my camera to take more photos (of books and boxes) but I need to clean my kitchen more. There are shades of importance! 

Luckily, I'm home for the next few weeks (working from) since there's a bit of a Covid-19 outbreak in town. It comes in waves and I'm just trying to stay away from it all. Usually when I wake up with a migraine, my first thought is: "Oh god...it's the 'rona!" It's always a migraine. 

Anyways, this month's box is called "Expert's Choice" and is meant to be the 'crème de la crème.' I thought the choices were quite lovely and I kept all of them. There was not a bag this month, but there was a "beauty item" included. 

There is usually a $5 or $10 off the next beauty purchase. This one was $10 off the next $40+ beauty purchase between 5/28 and 7/30. 
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There's always a booklet included. The booklet explains the items, the price at full size, and any little tips, tricks, or how-to use. 
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The first three items: 

• Lancôme's Advanced Genifique Youth Activating Serum: I actually have this in full size already. I quite like it but it is VERY pricy. The smallest bottle is $78 while the largest bottle is around $200. Lancôme will run specials and bundles occasionally, so I try to buy then. The serum has hyaluronic acid (a plumping agent), vitamin C, and ceramides. Obviously, this is my jam. My holy grail. My reason for going into work on Mondays. I'm always glad to have more...even in tiny little bottles. 
• Clarins' Total Eye Lift concentrate: This seems to be a new formulation (or a replacement formulation? I'm not sure). I can't compare to the original. I don't use eye stuff that much because it tends to cause milia for me or irritation for contacts. I think a lot of that was my placement (too close to the eye). I'm going to start again by putting it on my orbital bone. Although the tip for this product is to place everywhere. Nope! Anyways, full size is $89, so that would mean I'd have to get a second job. It's meant to deal with dark circles, fine lines, and wrinkles. Which seems to be a lot to deal with. Anyways, I haven't tried it yet, but I did save it to try. I have a Korean eye serum to try first. 
• Dry Bar's Detox Dry Shampoo: The full size is $23, which isn't too bad honestly. I have a few different products from Dry Bar, including the full size of this. I'm fairly rubbish with haircare but I'm trying to get better. I saw that some beautytuber had suggested using Dry Shampoo the night before you need it. Now, that girl was involved in all sorts of drama and making bad decisions...but that was some great advice. 

The next three items:

• Elizabeth Arden's Retinol Line Erasing Night serum: I'm slowly becoming obsessed with Elizabeth Arden's little capsule things. This is the third or fourth time I've received a mini of it. I feel like it's almost enough for a full size. I'm putting it off because what if I love it? A full size is $107! I do need to use a retinol...but I'm not sure how much retinol is in this product. So, each little capsule has enough for a single use. There are ceramides, peptides, and retinol. 
• MAC's Prep + Prime Fix+: This is a legendary product isn't it? I've never actually used it though, so this is quite exciting. It's a hydration mist that can also be used to set a look, sooth tired skin, and improve the wear of makeup. The scent is listed as green tea and chamomile, which seems nice. I'm currently using the PUR setting spray that was sent in an earlier box (it's doing quite well), so I'll have to try this out after that. A full size is about $30. 
• Armani Beauty's Lip Maestro Liquid Lipstick in Casual Pink: I've heard nothing but good things about Armani's Lip Maestro line, so this is a nice surprise! This is a matte, long lasting liquid lip that hopefully will work well with masks. The lippie is supposed to last for eight hours. A full size is $38. Now, for some reason, this product is not on Macy's website. Other Armani products are, the closest I see is Armani's Lip Magnet, it's the same price and has a variety of colors. 

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The two fragrances: 

• Ralph Lauren's Romance eau de parfum: The full sizes range from $78-116. This is supposed to be a lighter, summer scent. The top notes are mandarin essence, pink pepper, and white violet leaves. The middle notes are rose, jasmine, marigold, and geranium. The base notes are patchouli, oakmoss, musksigold, and geranium. I'm not in love with the base notes, but the middle and top seem interesting. I'm going to give it a try. (update: used it...loved it!)
• Ralph Lauren's Deep Blue eau de parfum: This is the men's cologne. I usually don't keep these as if I used them, I'd be so in love with myself that I'd be unproductive. I love the smell of cologne. The top notes are CristalFizz (an 'exclusive ingredient'...I don't know what that means or smells like. I'm going to assume Ralph himself burps into a each vial of cologne and that's the Fizz), Hawaiian Green mango, grapefruit oil, and bergamot oil. The middle notes are cypress oil, geranium absolute, and clary sage oil. The bottom notes are deep ocean accord, mush accord, patchouli oil, fir balsam resinoid, and ambroxan. 

The beauty item was a pill case. This was a pretty neat item. Once you opened it, there are two sides that have covers. They're latched and open to show similar layouts. 

I can't use them for my prescription medicine (it's in these little packets) but I think it'll work well for generic pain medicine. The writing on the cover says "Beauty Supplements."