Beautylish Lucky Bag 2018

Each year for the last few years, online beauty retailer Beautylish release their ‘Lucky Bags’. Inspired by the Japanese New Year tradition of fukubukuro they offer mystery bags containing some of their most coveted products. They say that some bags are luckier than others, but all bags promise to at least double your investment – which is pretty amazing! They release on 26th December (Boxing Day) in the US which works out to the early hours of the 27th in Australia – worth setting an alarm for! Their 2018 bags are obviously sold out, but here’s a link for the signup for their 2019 bags in case you’re interested!

I ordered the bag last year and have a full review here. Beautylish offer two bags – one ‘normal’ bag for $75 and their ‘XL’ bag for $150. The XL bags sell out incredibly fast and are a US exclusive. The international shipping for their normal bag to Australia was $15 – and these prices are US (being that they’re a US based site) and it worked out to $121.19 converted – last year the same conversion cost me $130.02 so at least the exchange rate is looking up!

One other thing about the Beautylish Lucky Bag 2018 is that for the first time they offered two options – a Light-Medium box or a Dark box, giving two different skintone options and I was definitely impressed. Last year I received an item that was too dark for me but would have suited more medium skintones, so I was intrigued as to how well all of the products would match me.

My bag shipped the morning of the 11th of January from the USI was following the #luckybag2018 hashtag on Instagram and watching all of the boxes trickle to people in the US and UK before it arrived to me – with some people getting Natasha Denona 28 pan/Lila palettes, full Becca sets, Jouer sets and more I was pretty pumped to say the least – but there were some items I saw coming in that I knew I wouldn’t use/were brands I didn’t support – so I was also fairly hesitant to say the least. It arrived on the 18th of January, which is pretty good!

Soooooo….. what’s in the bag?

Jouer Skinny Dip Eyeshadow Palette – $40USD/$50AUD
Indie Lee Brightening Cleanser – $32USD/ $40AUD
CoverFX Mattifying Primer – $38USD/$47.45AUD
Jeffree Star Liquid Lipstick – $18USD/$22.50AUD
Becca Beach Tint Shimmer Souffle – $27USD/$33AUD
Wayne Goss 16 Brush – $30USD/$37.45AUD
Stila Magnificent Metals Eyeshadow – $24USD/$30AUD

Value: $209USD/$260AUD (Give or take for conversion)

So – the monetary value is there at least. But I’m not happy with my bag.

Firstly, two issues – my cleanser arrived damaged and the Becca product arrived cracked and dry, rendering it unusable. I reached out to Beautylish and expressed my disappointment – within an hour they’d organised for new products to be sent, so absolute props to their customer service department.

I wasn’t happy with my bag, for multiple reasons. The cleanser won’t suit my skin type, the eyeshadow palette isn’t something I’ll use, I already own the Stila and CoverFX products (and love them so it isn’t all bad) and we all know here that I am definitely NOT a fan of Jeffree Star’s liquid lipsticks after Celebrity Skin left my lips with blisters – and understandably I’m not willing to give them another go after that.

I’ll be selling all of the items (including the replacements when they arrive as I won’t use the Becca product because the shade/formula doesn’t suit my skin) but keeping the Wayne Goss eyeshadow brush – I think it’s completely overpriced but is very soft – plus a girl can’t have too many blending brushes!

I guess that’s the risk with these things – you aren’t guaranteed to get what you like. But it was disappointing to not receive anything that I like/am excited by, other than the two I already own.  This for me was an unlucky bag, and I’m just hoping that I can sell the items I have to get my Christmas money back and purchase items elsewhere that I will love and use.

Would I get the bag again late this year? Absolutely, if I have the money available to me at the time. If that bag isn’t for me then I’ll give up. I know I sound bratty and I’ve struggled with how to type out this post without seeming entitled – but for my finances at the moment this was a big investment for me, and I was let down. I love the spirit of the idea and the excitement. And who knows – some of you who read this would have absolutely loved the items I received – that’s just how these things work! (If you’re interested, keep an eye on my Blog Sale which will have these items up shortly!)