The Beauty Brains are all about making you smarter shoppers. So most of the time Lefty and Righty geek out about the science of products. But sometimes I just want to say “screw it” and just tell you about some of the cool products that I get in the mail.
My latest fave is a subscription service called GlossyBox that delivers a sample kit of delightful products right to your door. For $21 a month you’ll get a beautifully packaged gift box with a minimum of five fabulous products. Here’s what’s in the box that I got today:
GlossyBox Beauty April 2012
- BASQ Cucumber Tea Eye Gel
- OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips
- C.O. Bigelow Lavender and Peppermint Shampoo
- Cargo Eyebronzer
- Erno Laszlo Hollywood Collection
- Kryolan High-Gloss Brilliant Lip Shine
If you’ve got an extra 20 bucks laying around and you like to get cool stuff, you can sign up for glossy box here: GlossyBox.com
PS to Left and Right Brain: They didn’t include ingredient lists with all these products so I can’t blog about them like you usually do in a Look at the Label post. So sue me. And here’s that stupid disclaimers we put in every post.
Even though the Beauty Brains don’t do traditional reviews, from time to time we like to share new products that we’re trying. We want you to know that we received free samples in exchange for a mention on our blog and that we’re not necessarily recommending you buy anything. We’re just sharing new product news; please do your own research before you buy.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, you got a blogger box with full sizes. Normal subscribers will only get 1 full size prduct and the rest are samples. For 20 Bucks! Beware of Glossybox and its promises. Over here in Germany it started out the same way, with an amazing first box and lots of people subscribed and now the boxes are plain rip-offs: we get products worth 1 euro or itsy bitsy tiny samples ( 1ml perfumes ?!)
My advice is to steer clear from them, you’ll only end up bitterly disappointed. By the way the April Box came in May because of some short notice superproduct.But it was on the card, so it couldnt be that short notice or ? Rumors says they have problems to get enough stuff for the box. But sure you ll have to pay 4 weeks in advance. Best stuff is for bloggers – a lot of full sizes and good colours and real high end products – all other boxes are never that good. Sometimes discontinued Make up Lines, old last season crap. Drugstore Samples you can buy yourself or 1ml perfumes youll get free in stores if you’ll ask for. Now they changed the price from 10 Euros to 15, to hold on to their good quality standards (err yes, which good quality ?)The other box we have in Germany is the Douglas Box (Sephora like). Youll ge one full size (worth minimum 10 Euros) and 4 real luxury travel sizes for 10 Euros. And you’ll be able to choose the travel producst if youd like from next month on. If not you’ll get a surprise box. Thumb up. If you are interested what it is about the Glossybox: It is owned by the Samwer Brothers who make millions in cloning Internet Ideas and selling them to the original like ebay. So i think they only come to the U.S. to find finally an international buyer.
http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/04/features/inside-the-clone-factory?page=all
I had a subscription and was disappointed with every box. I seem to be the person who gets the collection of the crappiest products of the month since I’m not a beauty blogger or a youtuber. I even had to return a box for a refund that’s how bad it was. last box was tiny samples that I could have gotten in the department store without much hassle, surely not worth £12.95! the shu uemura sample was so tiny, i distinctly remember my sample from Harvey Nichols was 10 times bigger. Stingy…
@Mia and Ally: For what it’s worth I shared your concerns with the Glossybox team. Here’s the response I received:
“I understand the girls concern but every country acts independently even though we share the same corporate identity. We are planning for a great future in the USA and hope to be very successful.”
I’m not sure it helps assuage your concerns but it looks like GB is handled differently in different countries. If anyone else in the US gets this product let us know what you think.
I like the idea of a monthly fun box delivery but I am still waiting to be somewhat compelled to subscribe to one. If all of their monthly boxes were this good it’d be tempting, but the others on here seem to suggest that the first box is nice and afterward they are not so nice.
Also, fyi, all of the products list their ingredients on their website.
http://www.glossybox.com/index.php/the-box/
@Tiffany: Thanks for the heads up on the ingredient lists. Sarah is a bit lazy when it comes to details like that.
Well, it says right on glossybox’s website that you get “5 exciting travel-sized beauty products delivered each month.” Sounds like samples to me….I wouldn’t waste any money on this. I can get 5 exciting travel-sized products for *free* any day at the department store…customized specially for me! BTW most such companies get their samples for free from the manufacturers…