#Itsaboxparty MEMEBOX shopping haul & Review

Hello fellow Foxes! Its been a rough weekend so I hope everyone is shaking some bushy tails this Monday. This little Fox is hopeful for a good and productive week.

And to start the week off right, today I'm going to share a shopping haul from Memebox. This is my first time ordering from Memebox and they had a sale going (40% off everything) so I ordered three boxes to get a solid introduction to Memebox's themed boxes. This is not a sponsored post, everything was selected and paid for out of pocket.

I like the general idea of Memebox and they carry a lot of my favorite brands, as well as some interesting collaborations with some K-bloggers I follow. For this reason I chose to get one collaboration box and two theme boxes.

Each box comes with a detailed product card, listing the average retail price of each product, a brief description and directions for use. (although, in this order the Yeondukong box lacked a card, so I'm not certain if that is normal for that box, or it was left out by mistake. The products in that box are self explanatory though.)

The boxes themselves are sturdy and the items are padded in tissue. There was no bubble wrap used, but none of the products in this order really needed it, so I'm not sure if that detail would vary based on contents. I like that the boxes are sturdy and would be easy to reuse for storage, organizing, wrapping gifts... Yes, I'm odd and I think of these things. I have a thing for reusing boxes & packing supplies. Don't look at me that way. :p

When I was planning my order, I did message with a question about one of the sets on July 2. I did this fairly early during the sales period and hoped to get a reply before the sales period ended. Due to lack of initial response, I did go ahead and decide to make the purchase as I figured the answer on my own. It wasn't until after the sales period was in the last hour or so that I received a response on July 6. I would attribute this to the sale & holiday weekend though, so the time between response isn't concerning.

And now, onto the boxes!

Yeondukong First Date Box #01

* Yeondukong Brightener
* Yeongdukong Blusher
* Yeondukong Highlighter
* Yeondukong Shader
* I'm Eyeshadow
* I'm Lipcrayon
* TonyMoly lip tint

This was a cute little box, I was intrigued by the advertisement photo. The face sticks are pretty interesting, I think the blusher & shade stick is a bit too dark for me based on just looking at the tint, so maybe it will end up in a give-away here soon rather than swatching it and it going to waste. So be on the look out for that. I'm looking forward to trying out the highlighter and brightener though. The I'm lip crayon is a bright red, which I know I can't pull off, so that will go to a friend of mine who rocks red like she was born for it. The shadow is a very pretty shade of gold accented brown. I've already tried out the Tonymoly when I opened the box. I've been wanting to try this lip tint of theirs for a while, and I was not disappointed. So I'll save further details on each product for dedicated reviews.

Over all, I'd say the box is a very good value. The shade sticks alone seem to be selling for $17-18 each on ebay, so the box is a steal at $37.

May Flower Box #flowerpower

* Secret Key Starting Treatment Rose Edition

* Secret Key Argan Angel Moisture Steam Cream

* Holika Holika Floral Shea Hand Cream set A

* Skinfood Lavender Tea Salt Mask Foam
* Botanic farm Natural Energy Mask Sheet Rose

This box is one that didn't list its contents on the website. I had a general idea of what would be in it based on reading reviews though. This box was purchased as a set with the Bulletproof box. This will be my first time trying out Secret Key products, and there are two in this box. I'm also looking forward to the Skinfood foam mask. I selected two of the Holika Holika handcreams to test and will be saving the other three for a future giveaway.

Bulletproof Box #CantTouchThis

* Clio Wholly Deep Waterproof Dense Volume

* Holika Holika Jewel Light Waterproof Liquid eyeliner

* Missha M Blending Ball Brusher

* Peripera Letter Me Waterproof Eye crayon

* RiRe Lip Manicure High Fix #10

This box is probably my favorite. I've been looking for a new blush & mascara, desperately needed a new liner and dying to try out a lipmanicure type product. This box hit all those notes. And to top it off, the Letter Me crayon I received is a wonderful Halloween orange. I tried the Clio Wholly Deep Mascara today and was thrilled with the results, its definitely going to get its own dedicated review and I'm now thinking of buying the others as well to try out!

As a two box set, this was a great value. You could find the individual items a bit cheaper than the listed retail if you shop around. But as a box of mixed products to try out, its an excellent value with popular brand items.

If you have any questions about my experience with this order or questions about a specific product I received in this order, please don't hesitate to ask and I will do my best to answer your questions below and try to cover the answers in the product reviews.

The Basics:

Site:  MemeBox

Type: Korean Cosmetics

Date Ordered: 7/3

Date Shipped: 7/6

Arrived: 7/10

Sales offered: Yes

Coupon Codes offered: Yes (40% off this order)

Freebies offered: No

Shop Ratings Overall:  5/5

Customer Service: 4/5  slow response to inquiry, but did eventually respond and courteously. 

Website navigation: 5/5

Ease of ordering: 5/5

Clear descriptions on sight: 4/5  some listings include product list, some don't

Packaging quality: 5/5 

Shipping Speed: 5/5

Quality of products: 5/5

Value: 5/5

Closing one Chapter, and a note on cancer.

So as I mentioned before things have been insanely busy and well, not the best of fortunes in some ways. I'm going to close up most of that chapter in this blog and go with a more light-hearted outlook as I move forward, but I want to share an important PSA of sorts. Please bare with me for a bit.

I mentioned that we moved from Korea to Florida to be closer and help with my Mother. She passed away May 4 of Cancer. Its still seems really unreal, I keep feeling like its just another one of her trips, but its not. And I can't call her every time I find something neat or need to talk to her. Its difficult to really accept. She was only 45, just shy of her 46th birthday. Right before Mothers day, her anniversary and her first grandson's birthday.

A couple years ago, while caring for my Grandfather who also had Cancer (lung), my Mother was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. She'd been having problems for a long while, and she herself had a history of cancer, not just a family history. But not much of any symptoms specifically tied to colon cancer, mostly feminine related issues. For a long time, she got the brush off from doctors about it being anything serious. And of course she was "too young" to bother screening for Cancer. A huge, huge medical lie. The problems got to the point that she had to have uterine surgery, for a problem with an unknown cause. In the course of the surgery, they found the cause. Cancer. Samples were sent off for confirmation. It was confirmed and it was advanced.

I later learned that at the time of diagnosis, she was told she potentially had 8 weeks to live without treatment. Fortunately, a Doctor she knew from working as a physical therapist recommended her to the oncologist that treated him... This Doctor and the Surgeon that treated her (and later me), turned out to be a blessing and its through their care she managed to have two extra years with us. There are some amazing doctors out there...

There are also some shamefully negligent ones.

Upon my Mother's diagnosis and with the history of cancer in my family, her Doctors made it explicitly clear that my siblings and I needed to get tested.

I spent the following couple years trying to get referrals to do so, but most of the doctors were dismissive. You're under 50 and you don't have symptoms of colon cancer. Granted, I had during this time also developed odd symptoms unrelated to colon cancer and, like my mother, related to feminine issues instead.

So by chance, I eventually managed to put up enough of a huff that I at least got sent to a women's health specialist. This Doctor LISTENED and did not dismiss my family history. She was concerned and not only did she have me screened & tested thoroughly for things in her specialty that could cause the issues, but she pushed to see to it that I got screened for colon cancer as well. She is the one that not only got me the referral I needed, but the operation appointment too, so that the referral didn't result in another dismissal because of my age. And it probably would have, as the surgeon initially seemed annoyed like it was a waste of her time when she realized I was a young woman of 29 in for a colonoscopy. It was only after I pointed out: My Mother is 45 and slowly dying of colon cancer and is in a hospital as we speak, that her general attitude changed more to a "Yeah, I guess its worth the look".

And it was. I had a pre-cancerous tumor and multiple polyps. At 29. My younger sister's screening turned up multiple polyps as well, as did my 20 year old brother. The biopsy showed the tumor was pre-cancerous, but no signs of cancer yet. But the rest needed to be removed to prevent it from getting to that point and to ensure none of the remaining tissue already had.

So within the month, I was admitted for surgery, fortunately with the same surgeon that had been treating my Mother. I was fortunate, it was removed, the biopsy of the removed portions showed no cancer and visual inspection showed nothing as well. And I didn't end up with a colostomy. Just a nifty, big ole scar. Not long after, while I was still recovering from my own surgery, we lost my Mother.

My Mother, My Gynecologist and my Mother's Doctors, saved my life. After multiple doctors dismissive attitudes led to my Mother's advanced condition that resulted in her eventual death... And after that same dismissive attitude that could have eventually led to me facing the same future.

The point of sharing this is this: You are NEVER too young to get cancer. The cancer forums are FILLED with patients under 50, many of them terminal or already having gone through multiple rounds with cancer. And there isn't always symptoms and sometimes the symptoms aren't normal for the condition. If you have a family history of cancer, get screened. If you have symptoms or any concerns what so ever, get screened. If a Doctor is dismissive and pulls the age crap... Put your foot down and call them on it. If you don't have symptoms and they won't screen without symptoms being present (stupidity at its finest for a doctor), well then... To quote my Surgeon's advise for insisting upon future follow ups:

"If you don't have symptoms, you HAVE SYMPTOMS."

You have a right to pursue *preventive* care. And that is what early screening is. The earlier you catch a problem like cancer, the better your odds are. It is wrong for a doctor to be dismissive of that.

So, I'm going to tie things up here. I promise to try and keep things more cheery around here, but this is something I needed to put out there for some of my peers below 50.

To lighten the atmosphere and sweep away the awkward silence if you read all the way through... The next few posts will be shopping haul reviews. Huge change of topic, right? I know, its random. It happens. Please look forward to some shopping hauls from Koreadepart, MemeBox, Missha and Jolse in the coming weeks. As well as periodic product reviews. If you have any product review requests, please feel free to ask and I will try to accommodate the requests.