**REVIEW** Marrakesh Hair Care Original Skin Butter

Let me start this review by saying that the seller I got this from on Amazon is The Beauty Box. It's important to know the seller because, well, some sellers might not be as good as others. Recently, I was extremely unhappy with the Marrakesh Hair Care Argan and Hemp Styling Oil that I got from a particular seller. (The review for that will be up soon. I wrote it a while back but messed up the scheduling of the publishing... My bad.) Anyway, keep track of sellers you do an don't like! Now, on to this review.

If you love the smell of Marrakesh Oil (in the original scent) and I have never met anyone who does not love it, then this is a nice product to have.

Marrakesh did an awesome job on this skin butter which, on the product page, has this full title: Marrakesh Hair Care Original Skin Butter.  You can tell they know that people are buying the skin butter for the scent of the hair products!

It has that amazing soft and sultry and kind of sugar-musk scent or the hair oil and it's surprisingly more moisturizing than I expected. Because I love the Marrakesh scent, I would probably loved this as a lotion anyway, but thankfully, it is highly moisturizing. I used to rub some of the hair oil on my cleavage just because of the scent. Now I have the lotion and don't have to waste the more expensive oil just for the fragrance.

While I can only ever buy the oil ($22.99) when it's on sale or when I have a gift card or something, the $12.99 Skin Butter is more in my price range. And it will last a lot longer. (By the way, I also tried the Marrakesh Leave-in and will not be buying it ever again because, well, what a waste. It only does a so-so job and only if you use a LOT of it. No thanks.)

It's hard to tell from a photo, but the butter is medium thick but has a lot of slip on the skin. I kind of wish it came in a glass jar instead of the plastic one, but...

There is not much else to tell you about the Skin Butter. Like I said, I can tell that it is going to last a while because it only takes a little dab to moisturize both my hands. I can also rub my palms across my hair for a nice fragrance. The downside is that the scent is not long-lasting. That might totally be my fault. Since I've aged, my body chemistry kills perfumes like crazy.

Bottom line is, the price is good and the quality (from this particular seller) was good. Also, I don't have to buy the hair oil just to get that lovely fragrance.

Peace
--Free

UPDATED **REVIEW** Marrakesh Oil from Amazon Seller SleekHair

*UPDATED** I finally found a candle-fragrance oil that mimics the smell of this hair product. I don't think that the producers of Marrakesh Oil would appreciate my sharing that info. I can tell you that if you shop for fragrance oils containing various Amber blends or Egyptian-African-type scents. I think that if you can find some of these fragrances separately, you could come up with your own Marrakesh-type fragrance. I have been mixing my oil into my lotions and hair products.



Ugh.

Nothing worse than getting a bum product. Well, maybe it's worse when you needed the product asap and when it arrives, it's a bum product.

This right here is what I am talking about

I LOVE Marrakesh Oil, but I am not happy with this seller. And, yes, since I review so many Amazon products, I am going to start calling out poor seller performance. I got this particular oil from Amazon seller SleekHair. They seem to have a good rating but there are a couple of complaints. Anyway, on to the product.

Marrakesh Oil and I are old friends. It's great stuff for 2 reasons: it smells delicious and it does a good job on my hair. Of course, like so many things I like, the oil tends to be pricey. I only indulge myself every blue moon.

When I got the oil (I also ordered another Marrakesh product from a different seller), I was so happy that it arrived on time and intact that I went ahead and gave the seller with a 5-star rating. That was a mistake.

As soon as I opened the oil and I should have known something was wrong. It felt like Marrakesh Oil and the bottle looks legit. The giveaway was the scent - or I should say lack of scent.

Anyone who has ever used (good) Marrakesh Oil knows what I mean. The oil has a unique, smoky, musk-ish fragrance that I'd love to have in a perfume. I was so busy treating my hair that it took a moment before I realized that I wasn't being soothed by that lovely aroma. Matter of fact, there was no aroma at all with this oil.

Now understand that a small 2-ounce bottle of the oil goes for around 22 bucks - no matter where you buy it. In the past several years, I've gotten it from Sephora, Ulta, beauty supply stores, and Amazon. I think that at one point some years ago, I got a bottle for around $17. Times change.

At any rate, this oil lacked the distinctive fragrance and that scent is a big part of why I splurge on the product. Since I had it though, I decided to go ahead and try using it as a part of my moisture sealing routine.

It looked normal.

My hair was freshly washed and towel-dried. I worked in a little bit of leave-in conditioner - the Marrakesh that I will review in another post - and then applied the oil in sections. It looked and felt a lot like legit Marrakesh but... something just wasn't right. I checked in the mirror and saw that the oil had added none of the usual shine.  First, no smell, then lackluster performance. I pulled out my magnifying glass and flipped the bottle around.

Huh.

That's odd. Most labels like this on Amazon-purchased products are very clear. I couldn't see an expiration or sell-by date or anything. And my feeling was that this bottle was either old and expired or just not the real deal. Most likely, the former. I want to think that I probably smeared the label when I was using the oil, but it doesn't matter. I'm not happy with the product.

I finished applying the oil to the rest of my hair, wrapped it for the night and awaited results. Next morning, no shine and none of the sealing I am used to.

Of course, I got in touch with Amazon and they refunded my money. I'm scared to buy any more of the oil online so I will wait until I go to Arizona and look for some in a beauty supply or (if my family is feeling generous) a Sephora or Ulta.

By the way, I deleted the Seller rating and am waiting to be able to update it. If nothing else, they need to be better about quality control.

Peace
--Free

P.S.: For those who just love the smell of (a legit) Marrakesh Oil Orignal Scent, I found a whipped body butter. The scent doesn't last as long as I would like, but the butter is actually very moisturizing. I use it as a body cream and as a light hairdressing.

**REVIEW** FabFitFun Starter Box

So. I finally broke down and tried this particular subscription box. I didn't even think about trying the fifty-dollar seasonal box, but I had a coupon to try the Starter box for $19.00.

INSERT PHOTO of the box outside

The box had some really good items in it and was well worth the intro $19.00 but I would never even consider paying fifty bucks for even a quarterly subscription beauty box.  Also, I happened to love everything I got in the Starter box but I looked back over some of the past boxes and wasn't impressed with the contents I saw.

This Starter box though... It was pretty nice. Let's take a look.

The box outside my door looked festive enough. It wasn't that heavy though so I was super curious to open it.

Anticipation...

The teasing just never ends. I like the care that was taken to nicely wrap the contents. Just like getting a gift. Well, one that you pay for anyway.

I'm not kidding about the tease. It seems to go on and on. The magazine inside was nice and there's the thoughtful note included.

Whew. Finally, right? It's almost like Christmas. You pay for the gift, but the element of surprise is fun. For about ten seconds, I was a little disappointed.  I saw these 3 items and thought, is that it?

Actually, there was more. Four items in total. I think that every box includes a bag of some kind. This one did not disappoint, but I can't help but...

I would personally never pay $62 for this one, as cute as it is. I think the name is the reason for the high price tag.

There's a cute and sassy little tasselI like and the strap is a good length. I couldn't wait to fill this one up. There are no inner pockets but I managed to fit my phone, wallet, some tissues, lip gloss, a tube of lotion, and a perfume roller inside easily enough. I do like this bag more than I expected to.  Simple and classy.

This Ahava hand cream... This is some luscious stuff. I have a thing for Dead Sea minerals and this lotion's ingredient list includes mineral waters and dead sea water. It feels wonderful and is immediately hydrating. I would definitely buy more of this in the future, but I don't know if I can afford the $33 price tag. I will be looking forward to seeing more products from the brand.

Doucce is a new brand name to me. I'm seeing more of the products. The tubes are so sleek and chic looking. What surprised me was how much I like this lip stain duo. I have issues with most lip stain products. Either they are very drying or, depending on the color, they look dry. This is a medium brown color, which I didn't think would suit my complexion.

It is a bit lighter than I like when I wear just the stain and it tended to look muddy-ish, but when I add the gloss, it looks nice and I have paid more for a good lipstick. Now, if I just do my hair the rest of my makeup and clean my bathroom mirror...

that's toothpaste on the mirror, not something in my hair

I saved my all-time favorite from this box for last. I LOVE the smell of this Marrakesh oil. If I could find a matching perfume, I'd stock up. This does add some shine to my hair, but the scent just makes me happy.

I can tell that the pricing given was pretty accurate because everywhere I priced this oil, it is as shown; $22.99.

Love the smell of this oil!!!

Honestly, everything in the box was good quality, and quality does cost. I really like that they include a bag. I needed a crossbody bag and the Summer & Rose bag replaces the poor, worn-out, raggedy thing that I've been carrying.

So...

Is Fab Fit Fun worth it? I guess it all depends on your budget and the kinds of items you like getting in a box subscription. Fab Fit Fun is just way out of my budget at that $50 each for the Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall boxes.

If I could afford the FFF subscription, I would try it at least for a year. Since I cannot afford FFF, courtesy of my angel sponsor, I am trying out at least one each of the cheaper boxes from Birch and Sephora Play. I will be reviewing those as soon as they come in.

Peace
--Free