Allure Customization for February 2026

When it comes to Allure's monthly Beauty Box, they select all the items for you but you get to customize one selection to your preference. This month, the item in question is a solid perfume, SIDIA Solid Perfume, to be exact, and your options are either Braless or Soaked.

So Braless has top notes of black pepper, Spanish rosemary, and coconut. The middle notes are violet, black tea, peony, cedar, and orris. The bottom notes are patchouli, papyrus, vanilla cream, musk, and leather. Now there are some issues. I'm concerned that the cedar might be powerful and that would be a problem. I don't want to smell like a tree. Normally, I hate patchouli, though admittedly, some of the other scents I have contain it as a bottom note and it doesn't bother me when mixed with everything else. What it has going for it is the peony, vanilla cream, and leather. These are scents I really do adore. I also do love the name of this one and it seems like something I would have.

Soaked, on the other hand, has top notes of Juniper, lemon, and olibanum. Its middle notes are oregano, cypress, and cedarwood. For base notes, it has amber, leather, and sensuous musk. This has a lot working against it. For one thing, there are two trees in the middle and the only thing there to balance it out is a spice that I like in food but not on me. I'm not sure the lemon and oregano wouldn't make this gourmand in a way I wouldn't enjoy. Speaking of trees, we also have that Juniper and olibanum (frankincense) as well and I suspect this might be way too woody for me. The bottom notes here appeal to me, but I don't know that they would balance the rest of it.

Given all of that, my selection for the month was Braless. It seemed to be the least risky option and I really love the name.  

October Box Surprises

This box was a delight for the eyes. There were so many cute little packages and so many great colors. One of them was purple and I had no idea what it would do. When I found out, I was quite delighted. This happened to be the BECCA First Light Filter Face Primer. An oz of this will cost you 38$.

One of the unique features of this primer is the fact that the violet tint allows it to work with any skin tone. It goes on purplish but as it bonds with your skin, it becomes sheer. My roommate said he could still see it on my skin. Perhaps it takes a bit longer? Anyway, what I liked about it was its ability to color correct the brownness that happens around my eyes. The ginger and citrus in it give it a very fresh scent and I enjoyed that quite a lot.

Would I buy it? As just a primer, no. But as a color corrector, I think I would.

The biggest surprise in the box was the perfume sample. When I pulled it out, I didn't have high hopes. After all, CHANEL GABRIELLE CHANEL Eau de Parfum just didn't seem like something that would work on me. I'm just not the 105$ for 1.7 oz kind of person. I don't want to smell like some rich lady. especially not Coco Chanel.

I was so wrong. This perfume is wonderful. It's light and delicate, which actually works well with my body chemistry. It also lasts a very long time. I find it delightful. It has notes of jasmine, orange blossom, grasse tuberose, and ylang-ylang. Ylang-ylang is very fun to say, by the way. All of it works together to create this very smooth, flowing, clean, inviting scent that I absolutely love. It doesn't make you smell like some old rich lady. It makes you smell like her garden. And who wouldn't want that?

Even still, that is a lot of money to pay for a scent. However, in this case, it would probably be worth it.

So that ends my October box. It is bringing me a lot of happiness.

May Box: Final Items

The last three items in the box were the best. I know I said I only got five items because that's all one is really paying for. The last item, a bonus perfume sample, is, well, a bonus. More on that later.

The last two purchased items were by far my favorites. The first is SUNDAY RILEY Ceramic Slip Clay Cleanser and it retails for 45$. This cleanser is designed to help skin that has problems with acne and issues with oiliness. The two clays (a green French one and a Moroccan rhassoul) clean out the pores and then tighten them. When I first got this product, I thought it was going to be a thick clay mask kind of thing, but it wasn't. It rubs into the skin like a lotion. It smells really, well, organic. It isn't unpleasant . . . okay, it kind of is. It smells like dirt. The smell is something you can live with though because this stuff is great!

My skin feels so good after using this. In fact, even after the first application, I was basically dazzled by the level of result. I know it's probably just the change of pace from what I usually do, but seriously, wow. If I had the money, I would totally buy this product.

The next time was the Christophe Robin Cleansing Purifying Scrub with Sea Salt. It retails for 53$. This whole thing started a funny conversation between my roommate and me. I got the name wrong at first and told him it was made by Christopher Robin. He asked me if it was ground up Winnie the Pooh. I pretended to be reading the back of it and told him it was. I should have actually read it because I didn't realize this was a shampoo. I thought it was a scrub to put on after you shampooed with something else. This caused things to sud up in a pretty massive way.

Unlike the mask, this product smells amazing. It smells really clean and fresh. The crystals in it are large and I had to make sure I really scrubbed to get them to all dissolve. My hair felt really good afterward. Hair products are always tricky on me because I have really, really oily hair and things tend to look awful after only a little while. My hope is that I can get some of that handled with this product while it lasts.

Like the lip plumper, I think this is one that will take repeated applications to really give me some results.  However, from what I've experienced so far, I like it. Would I pay this much for it? I'm not sure. If it does wonderful things to my hair, in the long run, I just might.

The bonus scent was MAISON MARGIELA ’REPLICA’ Beach Walk and if you want to purchase this, it will cost you 126$. I am sure you can guess that I have never put anything this fancy or expensive on my skin. I'm not really a perfume person. My body chemistry amplifies scents and projects them. Honestly, some people don't put on too much scent as much as their body just makes it seem that way.

The perfume aspect of the monthly box is another thing that really appealed to me. Scent is probably the aspect of cosmetics that I know the least about. I know what smells good on other people, but I've never really had the experience of being able to test to see what smells good on me. I wouldn't even know where to start.

Replica was a good place. It isn't anything like what I would have bought for myself. For one thing, it's beachy. Even though I like the beach scents, it's not really my scene. I wouldn't see this as something to use. I liked it, though. The beach scent was deepened by a sense of freshness and an undercurrent of watermelon. Of course, there was no actual watermelon in it. It's Bergamot, Pink Pepper, Lemon, Ylang Ylang, Coconut Milk, Heliotrope, Musk, Cedarwood, Benzoin. All of that added up to something quite nice.

Now, would I spend that much money on this? You know, if I had it to spare, I think I would. I love the scent and the actual bottle it comes in looks like an old an apothecary jar. I'm kind of a sucker for things like that.

Anyway, that's the review of my first Sephora box. Overall, I'm pleased.