It's that time of month again - Mintd Box! After my stellar review of last month's 'Spring Clean' box, I was so excited to get the chance to unbox the new monthly edit, themed 'The Upkeep'. The Upkeep features 4 full size products and 1 super deluxe size from a mixture of some of the most well known, as well as new and upcoming brands. This month's box has a value of over £140, for the cost of £65 and contains products chosen specifically to help perfect and maintain the balance of the skin. Let's take a look at what's inside, shall we?

First up is a full size of Skyn Iceland's Brightening Eye Serum (£30.00/10ml) which is a beautiful gel textured eye product that glides on smoothly and refreshes the under-eye area instantly. What's even better is that this product is packed full of beautiful ingredients such as glycerin, panthentol (vitamin B5) and hyaluronic acid for hydration, as well as peptides and a mixture of oils, including jojoba and arctic cranberry to soothe the eyes and keep signs of aging at bay. Last but not least, we've got some lactic and glycolic acid towards the end of the ingredients list to offer some mild, safe exfoliation around this delicate area.

This beautiful serum can be used by anyone of any ages and is a great place to look if you're in the market for a new eye gel/serum. My only bug bare is the dropper format packaging: this would be a 10/10 product if it came in a metal-topped roller-ball, for even more cooling upon application. Hopefully they consider a future repackage!

I was so shocked (and excited!) to see Sunday Riley's Martian (£48.00/130ml) included in this month's Mintd Box! We are getting treated to a 50ml deluxe trial size of this 'mattifying, melting water-gel toner', which is the perfect size to trial this product for around a month (if not longer) before deciding whether to commit to a full size. Sunday Riley products are always quite polarizing in the beauty community and this product is certainly no exception. If your skin is not oily, combination or blemish-prone, then this is probably not for you. The name of this product can be quite confusing, as it is a toner inside a pump bottle, that dispenses as a gel. I think the best way to view this product is an all-in-one serum/moisturiser hybrid treatment, as it will feel like a cooling, refreshing gel moisturiser immediately upon application.

Bentonite clay works to control excess sebum and help keep skin refined all day long, whilst manuka and green tea extract help reduce inflammation and redness from breakouts, to help your skin get back to its best as quickly as possible! Definitely a product to look out for, for those love a simple, 2/3 product routine where effectiveness isn't compromised by simplicity.

The other 3 full size products in the box are brands that I admittedly have not heard of before! Upon reading the ingredients list of Rosalena's Beauty & The Beast Face Oil (£42.00/15ml) I was immediately impressed: I've grown tired of brands throwing a single oil in a bottle, mixing in a few essential oils, slapping a £60 price tag on it and calling it a 'serum' (*yawn*). This yellow bottle surprised me, as it contains apricot kernal, grapeseed, rosehip and watermelon oils, as well as vitamin E and CoQ10 (wonderful anti-aging ingredients), which means that it can actually function as a daily oil for every skin type! I think this is more suited to those with normal to combination skins, but that is merely a suggestion - I think everyone should try this. Keep an eye on this brand.. The Apa Beauty Lip Loopah (£11.00/11g) is a new take on a traditional sugar scrub for the lips. My lips are the one area of my face that I will use a 'scrub' on (although I still take all of my acid products over my lips, but shhh..) and this little pot left my lips feeling renewed and above all else, clean. It contains a mixture of butters and oils to deeply nourish the lips as it exfoliates them with the tried and tested sugar base and I find that after using, I don't need to apply a lip balm, as the residual hydration from this is more than enough! I much prefer this to older favourites from when I was younger, like the sugar scrubs from Lush (why can't this be licked off in just the same way though?!) The final product from the box is a bottle of the Potion London The Beauty Formula supplement (£25.00/60 tablets), aimed to strengthen hair, skin and nails. I personally did not use this product as I already have a dedicated supplement program that I follow, but I think this would be a great product for those who are not currently using a multivitamin and mineral supplement. Granted, there are supplements out there that offer the exact same vitamins and minerals as this for a fraction of the price (supermarket own-brands, I'm looking at you!) that scientifically, will function in the exact same manner, but I wouldn't imagine anyone would purchase the April Mintd Box specifically for this product, anyway. Think of this as an added extra to your 4 fantastic skincare products and hey, at £65 for £140 of product, even if we take the £25 supplement out of the equation, your investment is being given back to you by more than double in product value! The April 2017 Upkeep Edit is available to purchase now from Mintd Box.

Images & Article by www.inthenameofskin.com