After reading Renu’s post on her A Beautiful World (henceforth referred to as ABW) Christmas box, I was really tempted to get one for myself (check out her blog mybeautyjunction.com). Unfortunately, they were all sold out so I was determined that I would get my hands on the Spring Summer box since it has organic and cruelty free products. When ABW sent out the email that the box would be on sale on the 8th of May at 6am GMT. I realised I would be away in Phuket and wouldn’t be able to log on at the exact time to buy it. So, I told my dad to buy it for me (of course dad wouldn’t say no to his darling daughter 😉 ).
The ABW box costs £20 + £12 shipping which came to around ₹3370 (currency fluctuations plus some tax that was levied by that bank on a foreign transaction). Plus, when the postman came with the box, I was asked to pay customs duty of ₹471!! Ihad no option but to pay it since the postman refused to give it to me if I didn’t pay. Don’t understand why we have to pay so much customs duty in Bombay whereas other cities don’t. Ergo, the ABW box, cost me almost ₹4000!!! Read on to know if what I got in it was worth it or if it was just a waste of money….
Here’s what I got in my box:
* Naisture Collagen Mask Pack (one sheet mask)
* MULondon White Chocolate Elbow, Knee and Heel Cream (60ml)
* The Body Deli Rose Geranium Cleanser (seems to be 15ml)
* Chocolate Sun Nature’s Healthy Tan in Cocoa Glow (seems to be 15ml)
* Dahliana Naturals Overnight Fruit Lift Creme (says Trial Size, seems to be 10ml)
* Bee Yummy Skinfood (seems to be 5ml)
* Marble & Milkweed Spring Tonic Serum (seems to be 2ml)
* Rose and Chamomile White Tea (about 2tsp)
* Tili Ziplock bag.
The Naisture mask and Tili bag were the first things I saw when I opened the box. Underneath them, however, it just seemed to be a box full of shredded paper!
Saw the amount of shreddings as compared to the size and quantity of products? It’s almost as though I paid ₹4k for a box of shredding! Take a look at each product that I received:
Naisture Collagen Mask Pack
This mask is from a Korean brand called Naisture which stands for Natural & Moisturiser. It has vegetable collagen derived from carrots to help improve the skin’s strength, elasticity and reduce the signs of aging. It also has hyaluronic acid, panthenol, Shea butter and raffinose to help achieve smoother, silkier, softer and more radiant looking skin. This is a single mask pack.
MULondon White Chocolate Elbow, Knee and Heel Cream.
The only full sized item in the box, I actually felt like eating it when I smelt it coz it seriously does smell like white chocolate. Since I couldn’t eat it, I devoured four Lindt truffles instead (I’m at mom’s house and the only thing I do here is sleep, read and eat chocolates. Mom keeps her fridge stocked with chocolates only for me…I’m the only chocoholic in the family, here as well as in my sasural). This is supposed to be a super rich cream for the ultra dry areas of the body. Renu has raved about this in her blog, so I’m sure I’ll love it.
The Body Deli Rose Geranium Cleanser
Calming and soothing cleanser for sensitive and rosacea skin with Arnica flower, organic virgin coconut oil, Chamomile, Comfrey. It is supposed to be a balancing cleanser that hydrates the dry areas of the face while normalising the oily T zone. I’m looking forward to trying this but I wish it was a more decent sized sample. The quantity of the sample isn’t mentioned anywhere though it appears to be 15ml.
Chocolate Sun Nature’s Healthy Tan in Cocoa Glow
If there’s one thing I definitely don’t need, it’s a fake tan. My natural skin tone is medium tan anyway and it has bronzed nicely on my recent holiday in Thailand (though my face didn’t tan thanks to the L’Oréal UVPerfect). Again, the quantity isn’t mentioned and the small bottle seems to contain 15ml. I guess I’ll try it as a body lotion but if it gives too dark a tan, I’ll just give it away.
Dahliana Overnight Fruit Lift Creme
There’s no information about this product on the sample jar nor is there any product information card for it. The ABW website states that this Creme boosts collagen production, refines the skin while providing deep hydration at the same time. It is like waking up with new skin. Hmm, pretty tall claims but this teeny tiny sample will probably give me enough for 4-5 uses. No mention of quantity, only Trial Size written on the “jar”.
Bee Yummy Skinfood
If the Dahliana cream was a disappointingly small sample, the Bee Yummy Skinfood is shockingly, even tinier! I don’t think it has more than 5ml of product in it. This is supposed to be a “live and organic moisturiser that feeds your skin with a tremendous amount of nutrients as it moisturises, repairs and improves many skin conditions. Bee Yummy Skinfood has been widely recognised for its nutritive richness and anti-aging power”. Which is all very well, but surely they could have been slightly more generous with the size of the sample.
Marble & Milkweed Spring Tonic Serum
This sample would have ended up in the garbage had I not decided to take a picture of the shreddings to show you just how much of it there was in the box. That’s when I noticed something yellow in it (circled in the pic) and saw that it was a minuscule vial of serum.
No product description card for this either. The website states “this nourishing, organic facial serum is perfect to use under night cream or mix it with your day cream for areas that need special attention. Enriched with botanicals like Chamomile, Neroli, Organic Geranium and Wild Carrot oils that nourish the skin, leaving it smooth, soft and deeply hydrated.” I’m glad that I saw this buried under the mountain of shreddings.
Rose and Chamomile White Tea
Yes, I agree that beauty isn’t just skin deep and what one consumes adds to a person’s external beauty. However, in a beauty box, I prefer not to receive food items and consumables. So I’m not really kicked about receiving a tea bag in a beauty box that cost almost ₹4k!!! And besides, I’m a coffee drinker…..
Tili Ziplock Bag
What is a ziplock bag doing in a beauty box??? I’d rather just get another beauty sample. I get ziplock bags in packs of 100 from Crawford Market and while they don’t have a brand name or a design on them, the quality is the same.
So, except for the MULondon cream which is full size, all the others are samples ranging from small to outright minuscule. Certainly not what I would have expected from a beauty box that cost me £20 + £12 shipping. Add to that ₹471 customs duty and I really repent asking my dad to buy this for me. I have always had to pay customs on all my international orders. Dunno why it is only people residing in Bombay who have to pay such exorbitant customs duties.
Anyway, lesson learnt. While some of these samples really look interesting, the tiny quantities ensure that I won’t be ordering the ABW sampler box again.
I guess for us international customers, the only way to sample these products is through beauty boxes that ship international. But they should really give a decent sized sample, especially when we’re paying for the samples, not asking them to give us for free. Save your money and but a full sized product or a beauty box that’s worth it.
I’m in the UK and I think that is shocking!! Especially when you compare it to Memebox. The companies listed above would give those items away for free as samples. Quite often if I want to try a product I will simply email the relevant company and ask for a small sample, most are more than happy to oblige and they send sizes similar to what you listed here. I’m glad I read this, I’ve been thinking off subscribing!
I guess buyers in UK would feel that the box is reasonable since they are paying 20 quid. For me, the international shipping and customs duty all adds up to make the box quite expensive. And based on reviews of the previous box, I had thought the sample size would be bigger.
I’m looking forward to trying out all these products but the quantity is too little to know whether it is worth buying the full size or not.
I’m so disappointed 🙁
I know 🙁
I got this box too, with slight variations on products. I thought it was a reasonable box in itself, but definitely less variety than the previous one which everyone raved about. The previous one had 12 products, most of which were much bigger sizes, this one has 9, many of which are tiny. I’ve been using the Bee Yummy Skinfood and it seems like a great product that sinks straight in to your skin, but agreed that a bigger sample would’ve been better. As for the teeny tiny serum, I don’t think you were the only person to nearly miss that.
That’s actually a lot of shredded paper! very small size products!
Wait.. Zip lock bag in a beauty box?? :/ This is an oops moment! sigh ..
such a tiny samples….:(
Can’t we complain or protest to ABW for such tiny samples?Anyway, we all need to thank you for telling India about all these international boxes, esp the Memebox…they are really value for money and I have been drooling over all of yours. Hope I get some nice stuff in my nature box.
Or a new fragrance 🙁 Shipping + customs is like looting us bechara buyers.
I hate having to pay customs duty 🙁
They sent me an even tinier Body Deli sample (8ml?) and no Marble and Milkweed 2ml vial either. Disgustoid. The colossal quantities I get in my Memeboxes – most of which are natural as well – make me want to give up on all other beauty boxes. I won’t bite the Autumn/Winter bullet, definitely. Did you know we could order the white chocolate stuff alone from MuLondon for a reasonable price including shipping? They probably include more MuLondon samples with that order. And we both ended up paying this much for just that one product.
what a big waste of money!!! This is the reason I have stopped buying beauty boxes. You could have got a UD naked with this money!!!
such a disappointment na?International shopping and shipping always haunts me