This was a new adventure for me in August. I signed up for both Love♥Club and Glossybox just to try them out, and I ended up with lots of fun trial and full-size products to play with.
First up is Glossybox. Each month, Glossybox curates a box of five travel-sized beauty products for subscribers to experience. A month-to-month subscription is $21 (shipping is free) and if you purchase multiple months at a time, you get a discount (for example, a three-month subscription is $60).
Each month, Glossybox focuses on a particular beauty theme; August's theme was "Pure Luxury." Past themes have included "Beauty Around the World," "Summer Simplicity," and "Fall Forward." The products arrived at my door in sophisticated, lovely pink-and-black packaging with a mini-magazine and a greeting from the Glossybox folks.
My August Glossybox included, as promised, five trial-sized items (though I think the lip color, nail polish, and moisturizer would be considered full size). The products included were Illamasqua nail varnish in Purity (a really lovely peach creme), Touch in Sol Feel Like Honey moisturizer and makeup base, Biolage ExquisiteOil hair replenishing treatment, Ole Henriksen Anti-Aging Truth Serum, and Ellis Faas Creamy Lips lip color in Chocolate Caramel.
The Glossybox website also enables you to view the products included in each month's box so that once you receive your goodies, you can pop onto the website to learn more about the products you've received (and click to buy full sizes or additional products, if you like). They even have "how the heck do I use this?" videos (my words, not theirs) and coupons for discounts on the full-sized versions of the products. You can also see the brands that have been included in past boxes.
By my calculations, and considering that the nail polish, lip color, and moisturizer were all full size (and Ole Henriksen was only slightly smaller than full size), the products in my Glossybox were worth $93. For a $21 subscription? Kind of a big deal.
I also must praise Glossybox for their customer service; my first Ellis Faas lip color wasn't working (it's one of those tubes where you have to twist the bottom to release the color). I twisted forEVER and nothing was happening. When I mentioned this to Glossybox, they sent me a replacement immediately. Yay!
Small disclaimer: I received my first Glossybox in August as a complimentary gift, but I have already ordered myself a new one for October (and paid for it myself). I'm excited to see what they come up with for mid-autumn beauty picks. :) This is a great way to try new luxury products to see if you like them and if they are worth your hard-earned cash (which some of them definitely are!).
Next up is Love♥Club, produced by Heather over at Just Love.ly Things. I love Heather's accessories so when I saw that Love♥Club included a handmade item from her shop, I jumped on board.
Love♥Club provides an assortment of accessories, beauty products, paper goods, and other items from a handful of independent and handmade businesses. Packages ship on the 15th of the month and include three or four items, plus some discount cards to other shops.
Also in August (like Glossybox), my Love♥Club box arrived full of miniature goodies. I felt like there was more to look at than I expected, but the products tended to be more sample-sized than my Glossybox loot (which is totally fine, just worth mentioning!).
The products enclosed included a totally rad glittery headband from Just Love.ly Things, a couple of hair ties from Knotieties (I wanted to try these anyway so this was definitely a pleasant surprise!), a pocket-sized notebook from Jotters and Journals, chevron nail decals from Nailed It, a sample of Avojuice Skin Quenchers lotion by OPI, paper tags from Fawn and Flora (Heather's other shop, co-owned by Dana of The Wonder Forest), and a hoopla of coupons and redemption codes for freebies from the likes of Mandipity, Acute Deigns, and Neon & Nude, among others (phew, that was a lot of name-dropping!).
Yay for goodies! I intend to use a few of the coupon codes I received in my Love♥Club box (which I need to do soon because some of them expire in September!). And at a super-affordable $12 per month (including shipping to the U.S. or Canada) with at least $20 worth of product, I'd say it's a pretty sweet deal, too!
Oh, and I did buy my Love♥Club box on my own. For the record. :)
Do you have any monthly subscriptions? Maybe Umba Box (handmade, like Love♥Club) or Birchbox (fancy brands, like Glossybox)? Neither of which I have tried, but I'm intrigued. What are your thoughts?
I know in the UK the glossybox subscriptions were like the big thing and every blogger seemed to be getting them. Then everyone started hating them because they'd stick someone in that had been put in before, or it wasn't anything "special". Going but the pictures the box you got is certainly nicer then most of the UK versions!
ReplyDeleteI have, well had, the Birchbox subscription. It was ok, but most things were tiny samples and I cant tell if I like a face wash by using it once, ya know what I mean? Also, they let you fill out a questionaire about your preferences, and even though I was "strongly against perfume -allergy based" I still got a perfume sample every month. This last month was pretty good though, but I cancelled. I also have the Julep nail polish box, and I like it, a lot. They let you see what you're going to get each month before they bill and you can choose different options or even go and skip the month which is great.
ReplyDeleteI've looked at the LoveClub box before and was intrigued but never really sure how to do it, but, I think once we move to the new place, I'll check it out, seems really awesome to discover new small businesses and like minded crafters. :)
I have been getting Birchbox for 8 months, I love it, but was ready to try more. So for the month of October I also subscribed to Glossybox and My Glambag (now ipsy). I wanted to have them all in front of me at the same time so I could decided which I liked best. I'll have to give Love clun a try!
ReplyDeleteI have BirchBox, and am going to be sending in coupon codes to Indie Gift Box for their December release. They're pretty fun.
ReplyDeleteI order BarkBox for my dog. He loves all the toys and treats they send :)
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