Well unfortunately this review is coming a bit late, things have just been crazy I haven’t had time to focus on getting a picture of the items.  I was really hoping I was one of the lucky winners of the clutch bag, but at lass I was not.  I think this popped my excitement bubble a little because the contest was one of the deciding factors to keep my subscription one more month.

So here we go May’s must have box.

I will start at the top and work clockwise.  First up the Giselle Mid-Brim Hat by Kooringal.  I was a bit excited to see a nice floppy hat for the summer, it has a molded-able brim so that it can be easily packed for those summer trips to the beach.  But the hat itself is a bit small for me so I can’t really pull it down onto my head.  Because it sits so high on me the top of the hat really sticks up and looks like I have a cone head, it is a bit stiff so I don’t think I will be able to use it.  I may have to see if my mother would like it.  To the left is a better picture of the item since it was hard to get the right angle in the group shot.

Next up we have the Sweet Chili chips from Way Better Snacks; this was one of the box extras that they normally throw in.  I have yet to try these but I am looking forward to them, it seems like a great flavor.  This is a company that I have never heard of before and I like that they use nuts and grains to enhance them.  They do use a technique called sprouting which allows the grains and seeds to release their hidden benefits before they are put in the chip.  Since I have been on weight watchers for the last few months I am always looking for ways to get those random snack cravings that come up.  So I have high hopes for these chips, stay tuned to my twitter @TheBlurredLines for an update on how they taste!

Now we have the Mindy Kaling Questions I Ask When I Want to Talk About Myself conversation cards.  When I first saw this I was really excited, I love conversation cards.  I own two Table Topics cubes and love to bust them out when I have people over, so another set of conversation cards sounded great.  Then I opened them up, they aren’t necessarily conversation cards as much as just a way to put parts of her book on cards and then a tiny question at the bottom, almost so small to read on some you might think it is a footnote.  Now don’t get me wrong I read her book and it was funny, so there is no doubt that her little stories wont be funny, but I don’t think this was the best medium for this.  Maybe if I hadn’t read her book I would have found them better, I will leave them on the coffee table and see if they get the conversation going but I am not really on board yet.

Next up is the Beauty Blender and Cleanser.  This is a raindrop shaped makeup applicator sponge.  This sounds like a nice product providing a way to apply seamless makeup application.  Now for my daily routine does not include any actual wet foundation, I just use powder as a base.  Now on occasion I do go a bit more detailed and use foundation so I will give this a try when I do that.  I am not sure if it will work as well with just my powder but I should test that out sometime.  The nice point would allow you to get into the more hard to reach points like right around the nose and your under eye area.  The nice thing about this item was that it came with the cleanser to help keep things nice and clean.

Right next to that is the Charm & Chain $30 gift card towards a purchase.  Now I am not a fan of them putting gift certificates in the box; I would rather get a piece so I can see the quality before making a purchase.  So I was a bit disappointed to see this as part of the value of the box.  I did go to their website and unfortunately there is nothing on the site that is for $30 or below, everything is over this price.  So we do have to put up money to get something.  And of course all the pieces I actually liked were $100 and up.  Which for my budget it just doesn’t fit.  The one piece I found close to $30 was a pair of turquoise earrings but even though they were listed under turquoise they were no longer available unless I got them in a rose color.  So that was  a bit disappointing.

Next up is the Pacifica Color Tint Lip Tint.  I received the guava berry which in the tube looks like a deep purple red color.  It smells really good when you open the tube.  Upon application to the lips it turns a soft pink/purple color which was not intense at all.  At first I was a bit nervous because the color in the tube is dark, so I was happy to learn that it is sheer.  This is perfect for me because I have been looking for a light pink color that I can throw on for day to day.  Now the scent and flavor once on the lips is a little weird, almost fruit mixed with mint.  I am hoping I get used to this the more I wear it.  But overall I am very happy with this lip tint and even more happy that it was not a pot like Popsugar is more famous for sending.  By sending something in a tube it was already gaining marks.

Last up we have the Modern Margarita Cocktail kit.  This kit comes with 5 different margarita flavors and colored rimming sugar.  Since this box came after Cinco de Mayo I was not able to give this a shot, but I do plan to keep it on hand for my next cocktail party or gathering.  I did see that you can pick this kit up at Target over the weekend on sale for $5.99.  So if these taste amazing at least I know it is something I can get just around the corner.

Retail Price Breakdown

Kooringal Hat: $27.99

Mandy Kaling Question Cards: $14.95

Beauty Blender & Cleanser: $23.95

Chain & Charm:  $30.00

Pacifica Lip Tint: $7.00

Modern Cocktails: $8.29

Total Retail Value: $112.18

($82.18 value without gift certificate)

*The chips are not included in the price breakdown because they were listed as an extra but retail for $3.

If you have been following my last few reviews you know that I have been on the fence about my monthly Popsugar subscription.  Things just have not been living up to the boxes that I was receiving at the start of their service.  With April’s box being as bad as it was I actually planned to cancel after receipt of the box and the only reason I didn’t was because I received an e-mail saying they were running a contest where they were giving away 10 clutch purses in May’s box.  I am sucker for a cute purse so I really hoped I would be one of the lucky ones.

Overall my opinion is this box was just OK, most of the stuff I wont be using and the only thing that stands out to me is the lip tint.  I am especially disappointed about the $30 Charm & Chain gift card, if you take this away from the merchandise that was included in the box the box falls under their $100 box value.  While I do not expect each box to be way above $100, I want the quality of items to meet that value.  Lately this just isn’t happening and when one of your main items in the box is a gift card it takes away from the overall value that you are receiving.  I do think for the most part this has been a fun subscription but a few days after receiving May’s box I cancelled my subscription and will no longer be getting their boxes.  I do know that just within the last few days I saw on one of the Popsugar sites they said there are still a 100 boxes left for June, so I am guessing that they have had a few cancellations over the last few months because for months they were sold out and you couldn’t even join up for at least 2 months.  So this is saying something about the subscription.

I do plan to keep tabs on their boxes and see if at a later date I want to rejoin because their idea of being well rounded and providing things from all different areas is a great idea where as most boxes are just based on one subject.  So for now I am going to be looking into other subscriptions.  I really do like the idea of subscription boxes and there are so many out there it is hard to choose; so for right now I haven’t decided on a replacement.  If you have a monthly subscription you love leave me a comment so that I can check it out!

**I was not paid or compensated in any way for this review