Are your beauty box subscriptions starting to pile up (literally)? Welp. Make room in your mailbox. There’s a new kid on da block.
Modere contacted us about giving their Beauty Box a test run. Don’t mind if I do!
Who is Modere? When Rachel from Modere first reached out to us, she wrote that the brand offers “lifestyle essentials, personal care, health & wellness and household products that are equal parts safe, high performing and beautifully designed.” Amen to the beautifully designed piece. The two products that I’ve used repeatedly from the box are definitely high-performing. And on the safety front: I’ve noted some ingredients, like phenoxyethanol, that aren’t ideal, but for the most part, these are pretty clean. Impressed.
The concept of their beauty box is pretty clever. Unlike other boxes that send you a variety of samples, Modere includes four full-size products with four corresponding sample sizes, plus a full-size gift that you get to keep fo’ free. You try the samples over a seven-day trial period, decide what you like, keep the full-size products you love and send back the full-size products that you don’t love with a pre-paid shipping label. For any of you who have received a beauty box, fell in love with a sample, used it down to the sad, last drop and then bemoaned the fact that it was gone…this is an *instant gratification* solution. So, props to Modere on that biz model.
BUT: this box is not cheap. Your card isn’t charged until the end of your seven-day trial period, so it’s technically a risk-free investment…assuming you don’t pull a Rip Van Winkle and sleep through the week. But you won’t, because this is a $79.99 box (though, contents are valued at $139.99, according to Modere, and you are receiving five full-size products). You’ll get the most bang for your buck if you keep all of the products: if you only select one or a few of them to keep, you’ll have to pay retail price for each.
The box I received included the following products:
I’ve written about my two faves below. I immediately gravitated toward these two because they’re products I’d use in my daily routine – I’m always looking to up my exfoliation and hair game. WHO ISN’T?
Antioxidant Hair Serum
This hair serum ($21.99 for 1.5 fl. oz.) was a major standout for me. At a li’l over 20 bucks, it’s worth every penny. All the pennies. ALL OF YOUR DOLL HAIRS.
This is a silky, slippery, clear gel that I’ve been applying to wet, combed-through hair just before blow drying. I tend to get greasy around my roots, so I confine it to my ends/mid-sections of my hair, and give a little extra TLC to my bangs, which get the brunt of my flat ironing. I’ll also apply a tiny bit once I’ve finished styling. After using it for the first time, I noticed an immediate change: my hair looked and felt silkier and smoother, and my flyaways were (relatively) tamed…that’s kind of a tall order for my Brillo pad hair. I haven’t found an excess of leave-in conditioners in the natural beauty realm, so this one was very memorable for its mere existence and the fact that it really, really worked.
The only ingredient to flag here is cyclopentasiloxane, a silicon-based conditioning agent, which comes in at a three (“moderate hazard”) on Skin Deep Database. I’ll also draw your attention to the fragrance that Modere has included: I asked Modere about their formula, and they said, it was “it is all-natural, organic products we use for our fragrance. Mainly, our fragrance includes natural plants such as lavender and mints, as well as natural fruits that include orange, grapefruit.” I tend to be a bit suspicious and surly whenever I see “fragrance” on product labels, even natural ones, but this one sounds innocuous, which is great news.
Exfoliant
I hesitate to use the word perfect…ever. (Unless we’re talking about chocolate peanut butta ice cream or *maybe* the film Heavyweights.) So, I won’t. BUT. This extremely well-priced, fragrance-free exfoliant ($12.99 for 1.7 fl. oz.) is right up there with my all-time favorite scrub: One Love Organics’ Brand New Day. This superfine exfoliant is incredibly gentle, feels silky and doesn’t dry out my winter skin in the slightest. I’ve incorporated this subtle exfoliant into my skincare regimen, and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon. Where it falls just a bit short = the ingredient list. Whereas Brand New Day smartly keeps its ingredient list short and clean, since it’s a powder-based product, Modere’s Exfoliant is liquid and contains water, so it requires a preservative. It contains phenoxyethanol, which many of you are aware of and may even avoid (it comes in with a score of four – “moderate hazard” – on the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep Database). I’d prefer a product without phenoxyethanol, but I’m willing to make an exception since this exfoliant has such an ideal texture and application (not having to mix a powder with water = time-saving + convenient + less gunky) . Despite the fact that I can’t pronounce a number of the ingredients in this scrub, I ran them all through Skin Deep and found nothing else alarming, apart from tocopheryl acetate, a skin-conditiong agent that earned a ranking of three (also a “moderate hazard”). On the natural ingredients front, this exfoliant contains jojoba to condition and prickly pear extract (which bears the chemical name “opuntia” in the ingredients list below).
If you’re a natural skin care purist, this ain’t the exfoliant for you. But if you’re looking for a pretty clean, simple and wonderfully textured scrub – suitable for use on the daily – this is worth looking into.
Exfoliant ingredients:
Water, Cetearyl Alcohol, Glycerin, Glyceryl Stearate, Jojoba Esters, Potassium Olivoyl, Hydrolyzed Wheat Protein, Ethylhexyl Palmitate, Glyceryl Oleate, Lauryl Betaine, Bambusa Arundinacea Stem Extract, Sodium Lauroyl, Silk Amino Acids, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Betaine, Tocopheryl Acetate, Caprylyl Glycol, Hydrolyzed Opuntia Ficus-Indica Flower Extract, Disodium EDTA, Phenoxyethanol, Chlorphenesin.
Antioxidant Hair Serum ingredients:
Cyclopentasiloxane, Dimethiconol, Ethyl Macadamiate, Aleurites Moluccana Seed Oil, Argania Spinosa Kernel Oil, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Calophyllum Inophyllum Seed Oil, Fragrance.
**These products were generously sent to us for review by the product manufacturer. Check out our policy on product reviews.
