This should have been announced at the beginning of September, not the end. We are now looking at Septembers ROTM. But in mitigation, we have had computer changes / glitches / fixes / updates, plus a major stocktake and refit (still ongoing) not to mention a wee holiday - so please forgive the delay. It does mean of course, that you get two chances in quick succession to win a tenner. But only if you wrote a review!

And the winner for August is Marion K!

Marion has been an effusive supporter of Smashbox since the shop opened and has written many honest and ‘hands on’ reviews of the products she has purchased. The one that caught my eye though, was her review of the Softlights Fusion Celebrity and Brush. Marion says

Bought this exactly for what it’s for; to take away on holiday or for in my handbag. But it’s going to see more use than that! The colour is so ‘me’ it’s unbelievable.
I must have had one of my ‘Mystic Maz’ moments (lol), because I popped in another one with my order (without the travel brush). Very pleased I did, because this is going to be a favourite. The brush is fab and soft as a feather. Am a happy, and now also glamorous, bunny !!!

Many congratulations Marion - and hope you have many more Mystic Maz moments!
A £10 JBD voucher will appear in your inbox very soon!

Now then - July’s review of the month - hard to choose - but eventually we went for Claire Olson’s review of the Smashbox Softlights Palette in AGlow. Some of you may remember this was actually in the Smashbox TSV in June 2007. Such was its popularity, it is now a permanent item on QVC. It received remarkable reviews on ST.com - most thought it was a sensational face brightener - although others were disappointed in the lack of ‘colour’ it gave. What was amazing was that after people went back and tried it again they fell in love with the soft healthy gleam it gives to the skin and most of us cannot live without it these days.

Claire’s review, along with others (both of whom, co-incidentally are previous review winners), really hit the nail on the head as to why I like it so much.

Claire said

I love this product - can’t rave on about it enough! I don’t know how it does it, but there is definitely a noticeable difference when I apply this powder over my make-up. It sort of diffuses everything so I look all ‘a-glow’, smooth and finished. It’s fantastic, more luminous than shimmery and I wouldn’t be without it now!!

Many congratulations Claire - a £10 JBD voucher is on its way to you. And Aglow is available on its own, as part of a Softlights threesome (with Sunset and Matrix) or as part of the US TSV set.

The backlogged mail is estimated at around 8 million items and growing at 1 million a day. Consequently mail is taking a lot longer to get through to people and to get out of the country, and also via Heathrow, which is where 90% of international mail leaves this country. Particularly hard hit areas within the UK are Wolverhampton, London, Southampton, Milton Keynes, Uxbridge, Hull and Slough. Wolverhampton alone has a backlog of over 1 million items, which is understandable when you appreciate that Staffordshire is home to a very large quantity of mail order companies and fulfillment houses.

In theory the backlogged mail should be getting processed in an “oldest first” rota, but in reality we have been told this is not happening. What is occurring is that when mail is being sorted, the private postings (from postboxes and Post Offices) are getting done first, simply because there’s “less of it” and being collected daily from the boxes etc it tends to be smaller sacks, i.e. the “easy option”. Therefore we have found that items posted more recently are arriving faster than items posted earlier last week and last weekend. I know this causes worry as if more recent orders arrive, customers automatically assume that older parcels are lost.

Some areas are particularly badly affected also as post is not being collected from some businesses AT ALL. So far we have missed one business collection, but have posted out today (Saturday) to make up for this.

Please therefore accept our apologies for the delay to your delivery. You will need to allow a reasonable amount of time for deliveries to arrive during this difficult time, and accept our apologies for Royal Mail’s actions which are beyond our control.

Thank you for your continued patience - please do not hesitate to contact us if you require further information.

For more details and for up to date information on the strike, please click here.

Actually - that thought makes me think of the film Sliding Doors, you know, the one with Gwyneth Paltrow where the film splits into two paths/ future scenarios, depending on whether she catches a particular tube train. I love that film - it shows to go that whatever conscious or subconscious choices or actions we take in life there is a consequence. And I suppose when one regrets ones choices in life (as I think we all do from time to time) what we think of is only the positive aspects of the ‘what might have been’ - you never think about the negatives.

Anyway, enough of my musings on ‘the world according to a Smashbox addict…..’

Much more pleasant - *the fanfare rolls* ……. the June 2007 reviewer of the month is Christina Carlson from Denmark. All of Christina’s reviews have been clear and thoughtful opinions of what she has purchased - but her delight on discovering Smashbox eyeliner was clearly apparent. See here for the full review of the Beauty Bargain Scene Marker Eyeliner Trio.
Christina says

I’M IN LOVE!!! This is fantastic! I have never used eyeliner, I always thought it looked kind of strange on me. But this has changed now. The texture of this small palette is so smooth and silky, it just glides on like a dream and the colours look very natural and pretty. I am particularly fond of the dark brown colour, it makes my eyes look fantastic, almost mysterious and sexy. I am really impressed! It will stay on forever if you powder your eyelids lightly before you apply it. I’m so impressed by this, that my next buy will be the eyeliner palette in Proof.

I couldn’t agree more about Smashbox eyeliner - I personally love the lighter colours - Putty and Image are my favourites - although Lava comes a close second. And I also love the palettes - so much choice and they last for AGES.

Look out for a great little ‘try me’ eyeliner palette coming soon - called Composition, it is identical to the superb little Brow Tech palette except of course, it has four little pots of eyeliner in classic colours, rather than the brow tech colours and wax.

Anyway - congratulations to Christina - and please keep those reviews coming - we now have over 140 reviews - all from our customers - and remember, you don’t have to have purchased from us do a review of a product you have an opinion about - if there is something you love (or hate) tell us why - and you never know - a £10 voucher could be winging its way to you next month!