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Le Ethos Women of Color Beauty Box Review + Coupon – August 2018

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Le Ethos Beauty Box
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UPDATE from Liz: It appears as though this box included a counterfeit makeup item. We've reached out to the owner, and we're waiting to hear back. 

Le Ethos Beauty Box is a new luxury make-up and hair care discovery box created for women of color.

From Le Ethos:

LE ETHOS Beauty Box strives to represent the skin tones and hair textures that fall outside the "traditional" range found in many beauty boxes on the market today. When you subscribe to LE ETHOS, you will receive a box shipped to your door containing five personalized samples of make-up and hair care products from top independent beauty brands.

open Le Ethos box

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

Le Ethos August 2018 review

About Le Ethos Beauty Box

The Subscription Box: Le Ethos Beauty Box

The Cost: $24.95+/month + free US shipping

ACTIVE DEAL: Save 15% off your first box!
CODE: INCLUSIVE

The Products: Each box contains five deluxe makeup, hair and skincare samples from top beauty brands. When you subscribe, you provide your skin complexion, hair texture, and skin undertone to get boxes customized to compliment your specific skin and hair.

Ships to: Worldwide

Le Ethos Beauty Box August 2018 Review

My Le Ethos Beauty Box did not include an information card that typically accompanies subscription boxes, but it would have been helpful. These cards will usually provide an overview of the items included in the box. Some also provide other useful information such as the product’s retail value, where to find the items online, information about the box itself - the box’s name, month and theme and social media presence.

June Jacobs Mandarin Moisture Masque, 0.5oz -

June Jacobs Mandarin Moisture Masque, 0.5oz - Estimated Value $6.50 (Buy a 4oz size for $52.00)

On a freshly washed face, apply this moisture gel masque to face, neck and décolleté for 5 – 10 minutes then rinse. This mask has no parabens or preservatives and claims to neutralize free radicals and fight early signs of aging. It smells great with a hint of mandarin oranges. The sample size initially appeared small, but after applying a generous amount of the masque on my face, I found that there was still plenty remaining for at least 3 or 4 more treatments. My skin felt soft and clean after using the masque.

Davines The Renaissance Circle Hair Mask, 1.69 oz – Retail Value $10.00

With Babassu butter and yellow clay, this repairing mask claims to “give new life to hair damaged hair from heat styling, sun, chlorine and frequent color services”. Apply to dry, damaged and brittle hair after washing, leave on for 10 minutes and rinse for soft and shiny hair. I can’t wait to give this hair mask a try on my next wash day!

Fenty Beauty Match Stix Shimmer Skinstick in Rum, 0.25 oz –

Fenty Beauty Match Stix Shimmer Skinstick in Rum, 0.25 oz – Retail Value $25.00

Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty has quickly become a cult favorite! One of the most versatile items in her makeup collection is the Match Stixs in matte and shimmer. The shimmer stixs are meant to “highlight, blush and enhance” and the matte stixs “conceal, correct and contour”.  This rum color is perfect on my skin, went on very smooth, is light and had the perfect amount of shimmer. I can’t wait to get glammed up with my skinstick!

Ouidad Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel, 0.6 oz

Ouidad Climate Control Heat & Humidity Gel, 0.6 oz – Estimated Value $2.40 (Buy a 2.5 oz size for $10.00)

This gel claims to “lock out humidity” and “define curls with anti-frizz nano technology”. That is a huge task for my tightly coiled hair in Georgia heat and humidity. I needed to redo a few face-framing Bantu knots that were fuzzy from not having completely dried the night before taking them down. Before bed and on dry hair, I applied the Ouidad gel, put my hair in a few Bantu knots and took them down in the morning. The gel really defined the curl which was visibility shinier and less frizzy than the others. I’m sold!

Bobbi Brown Skin Foundation Stick in Chestnut – Buy a .31 oz size for $46.00

Bobbi Brown’s award-winning foundation comes in 31 shades. The chestnut shade is perfect for dark brown skin with red or yellow undertones. Bobbi Brown’s formula is different in that it is ultra-moisturizing containing olive extract and shea butter to quench dry skin. You can feel the difference! Although the chestnut shade is clearly not a match for my complexion (no fault to Le Ethos – I had not yet completed my skin and hair profile), I was none the less impressed. It went on so smooth, barely felt like I had anything on my skin, and was ultra-pigmented! You won’t have to cake on this foundation for full coverage that’s smooth and flawless.

The Verdict: I loved this month's Le Ethos Beauty Box! If you are looking for a high-end beauty box with hair and makeup items for women of color, look no further! This box had a great mix of high-quality products. I enjoyed using all the items I tried and will definitely be adding the skinstick and hair gel to my beauty arsenal. This box has an estimated value of $43.90, not including the Bobbi Brown lipstick. It is sold as a box of samples but with two full-size products included, the Fenty Match Stix and Davines Hair Mask, this makes the August Le Ethos Beauty Box a great value.

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, you will receive the September box. Place your order by the last day of the month to receive that month's box. Boxes are customized to your specific skin and hair so items may vary.

ACTIVE DEAL: Save 15% off your first box!
CODE: INCLUSIVE

Value Breakdown: The box cost $24.95 with free US shipping, which means that each of the 5 hair and makeup items in this box has an average cost of $5.00.

Check out more Women Of Color subscription boxes and the Beauty Subscription Box List!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

What do you think of this month's Le Ethos Beauty Box?

Starting at $24.95
Active Deal
Save 15% off your first box!
Use Coupon Code INCLUSIVE
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"Le Ethos is a monthly subscription beauty box created for the woman of color. A subscription to Le Ethos will include a delivery of five luxury makeup and hair care samples, with the option to personalize the samples according to skin tone and hair texture. Le Ethos strives to represent the skin to... read more.
Shatae Hutchinson
Shatae Hutchinson
Hi, I’m Shatae; pronounced shhh-tay! I work in IT Healthcare, I’m married to my high school sweetheart and we have 2 cool kids. I am obsessed with black culture, lifestyle, travel and art made by and featuring women of color. I also love trendy plus-size fashion and accessories, eclectic and bohemian home décor and all things self-care, mental health and fitness. My favorite box is Izzy & Liv’s Brown Sugar Box; a monthly box offering tees, accessories and lifestyle products designed for black women. I also subscribe to TheSelfCareBox, FabFitFun, CauseBox and Merkaela. Being a wife and full-time working mom, subscription boxes are one of the few things that are just for me! They are fun, convenient, reasonably priced and full of surprises.

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32 comments

Shatae

Hair Mask Update: I used the hair mask on wash day. I washed and conditioned my hair as usual, applied the mask, and sat under my hair steamer for 20-25 minutes.

This is longer than the instructions recommend but I wanted to get in a good steam treatment in before my protective style.

The mask smells very earthy but in a good way. It contains a lot of product so I wouldn’t worry about having enough if your is long or very thick like my mines.

When I rinsed out the mask, I got really worried! My hair was squeaky clean (literally squeaky). Oh no! I thought “Did I overdue it and remove all the good oils from my hair and scalp?”. I reached out to my stylist right away and she said squeaky hair isn’t necessary a bad thing depending on your hair type. For me, she said that it just meant my hair was super clean and clarified. Although the mask didn’t say anything about being clarifying, I did enjoy the feeling of a super clean scalp and soft hair. I’d use the mask again but very infrequently, maybe once a quarter. I wouldn’t m want to regularly strip my hair in this way. For someone with very oil hair and scalp, this might be your perfect product.

Have you ever had a product give you squeaky hair?

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Lisa

Liz it is appalling to me that you are allowing this review to remain with nothing updated about the Fenty product being counterfeit. Not everyone reads the comments and not everyone reads your Facebook or even uses Facebook. This is a really serious problem and for you to not immediately remove this review or update it makes me really question your trustworthiness.

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Liz Cadman

Apologies. I’m catching up on comments and emails as I was off a bit for the holiday. I’ve reached out to the owner of this subscription box to get more information. And I’ve added bold text at the top of the post to alert all readers about the counterfeit item.

Sorry again for my delay.

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Anna

Liz,
I’d like to know if the Too Faced product in the Huck & Liz box is counterfeit? I voiced concerns on the latest review, Too Faced doesn’t sell items that don’t meet their standards so the off label and packaging were red flags to me. I’d hate to see anyone pay $50 for their box if they’re sending counterfeit items. Thanks for following up.

Also Le Ethos has a link to MSA on their Cratejoy page.

Shatae

The question of authenticity never came up because I never considered that they could be knock-offs. I did experience two red flags reviewing this box.

The 1st I mentioned above – not receiving an info card.

The 2nd, I justified. I noticed that the Fenty matchstick did not come in individual packaging. I compared the matchstick that I received to the product online and it appeared to check out. I noticed that matchsticks can be purchased as part of a collection so I justified that they were probably purchased that way and individual colors were chosen and included in the box based on the individual’s skin complexion (provided when signing up).

I was not able to compare the Bobbi Brown foundation because that exact item, labeled not for sale, wasn’t available online. However, the color of the product I received matched what was listed on the site and the quality of the product was impressive and as I note, very pigmented.

I should address lighting too. It is a bit off – even from photo to photo. I’m working on getting consistent lighting and editing for my photos. I didn’t think however that the quality of the lightning affected the review or proper representation of the items included.

So, where do we go from here? I’m vested and I want to know if the items are authentic as well! First stop, Sephora! I’ll report back on my findings. If you have any tips or tricks on how to tell if these items are authentic, please let me know!

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Shatae

I went to Sephora! The ladies were more than happy to help me compare the Fenty and Bobbi Brown products received in the Le Ethos Box to the products sold in store.

The consensus is that the Bobbi Brown foundation appears to be real. They didn’t have any sample sizes but said the packaging, labeling and product was on par with what is sold in stores.

The Fenty matchstick was clearly a knock-off. They could tell right away and upon comparison, it was very clear. The real Fenty matchstick packaging is bigger, heavier and magnetic. The product itself is also larger and richer. I purchased the real Fenty matchstick in the same color. I’m unable to post picture here but head over the the MSA page under the Le Ethos review to see comparison photos.

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Anna

I think updating the review to reflect your findings would be good and the FB pictures aren’t marked. They have a link to a past review on their subscription page too.

Jackie

Thanks for your investigating! Can you let us know what the company says and mention it in the review? It worries me to have someone put that on their face.

Shatae

Pictures posted on the MSA Facebook page.

Anna

You can always email the company and give them the stamped info to verify.

The difference is you acknowledged concerns, several people shared concerns about the Huck & Liz box that included Too Faced lip gloss with crooked label but there was no response from the reviewer.

It’s not unusual for boxes to end up with overstock and closeouts since a lot of them are buying products that way. I’ve seen some horror stories about counterfeit makeup that makes me cautious.

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Jackie

Thank you for looking into it! I appreciate the response. 🙂

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Carrie

My fake radar went off straight away too and I’m glad I’m not the only one. My disappointment is that for a site supposedly concerned with only posting boxes of authentic goods is that they just blindly post these without any critical thought to it

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Lisa

I agree. This isn’t the first time that Msa has posted reviews of questionable authenticity items. Hope they aren’t getting sloppy.

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Anna

I wish other people would be vocal on the Huck & Liz box review, I think follow up on potential fake Too Faced product needs to be done.

Sharon in SE TX

Awhile back there was a discussion/poll about this and many people stated they wanted MSA to review all boxes, including the questionable ones. They said that they wanted to make decisions about authenticity for themselves.

Lisa

Sorry but Fenty and Bobbi Brown are not going to give products to a brand new box. Very irresponsible for this review to be posted without verifying the authenticity of these products.

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Mariek

Agree looks like a knock off.

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Susan

They certainly appear to be significantly different that the authentic products. Can’t imagine either of those brands changing their packaging for a subscription box, especially without posting about it on social media. The lack of an information card seems even more suspect in this case. Definitely something to research so no one receives incorrect information.

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Melissa W.

My first thought was that it’s a knock off too.. I wouldn’t trust it. I’m sure you could just call Fenty and ask if provided this product to a subscription box. I highly doubt they did!

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Bella01

Sometimes these products are sold to other companies and then sold in bulk to another company and so on. Doesn’t mean they are getting their products directly from Fenty. And Liz surely doesn’t need to check every product to see if it’s legit. Come on.

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Carrie

Considering that she determined that the Fenty is indeed fake, yes, they should look into products that raise such obvious red flags.

Anna

If readers post concerns about whether items are legit I believe there should be some follow up.

Michelke

I’m a little concerned about the authenticity of the Fenty and Bobby Brown products. If they are in fact real than its an amazing box! It’s nice to finally see high-end items in women of color boxes!

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Jackie

I haven’t seen Fenty in any other boxes, and that kind of raises a red flag for me personally. I would do your best to verify that’s a real product before putting it on your face. Fenty gets copied a lot.

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Jessica

Good point. Especially since this is a lessor known Box so I imagine their purchasing power would be less than say Allure

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Jackie

Just googling pictures of the product, it looks different from the ones pictured. Yours doesn’t look as rounded, or nearly as glossy. The color of the packaging also looks off, but that might just be lighting. The packaging should also be magnetic because they stick to each other, and they come in boxes.

I would reach out to Fenty and verify, because that’s super shady.

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Amber

It definitely looks like a knock-off. Super shady if so. There was another box not too long ago that was including fake products as well. I think Tiffany reviewed it, but I can’t remember which box it was.

Jessica

Super jealous of the full sized Fenty! I haven’t seen them in any boxes before- would love to see other boxes follow suit!

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