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Friday, January 6, 2017

Unboxing: Amazon Winter 2016 Prime Beauty Boxes (Luxury Box Still Available for Purchase)


Before I get into this unboxing, a few bits of important information:

These beauty boxes are available to Amazon Prime members only. After you purchase a box, you will receive a credit for the full purchase price of the box to be used on a future Amazon purchase (you will receive an email with a link to the items that qualify, and you can also view the qualifying items in the link below, after you purchase a box). You should receive your email from Amazon letting you know that your credit is in your account after your box has SHIPPED.

CREDIT: in the case of the Luxury Beauty Box, you can use the credit on anything in the Amazon Luxury Beauty Department, which is awesome (I think I'm going to use my credit on the Bioderma micellar water and I'll still have about $5 left over in credit that I can apply to another purchase). For the regular Beauty Box (which I'm also unboxing today but is now out of stock), there is a limited selection of items that you can use with your credit (about five pages worth of products; mostly full-size versions of the items in the actual box, but there are other drugstore products to choose from as well).

I want to thank several of you for letting me know that the Prime Luxury Beauty Box still in stock HERE for $19.99 + free shipping (be sure you're logged into your Prime account and then go to the Available Boxes tab to purchase). Again, you will receive a credit for $19.99 once this box has shipped. I first posted about these boxes at the end of November (that's when I ordered both boxes) and the regular Beauty Box is now out of stock. But if you're a Prime member and you want the Luxury Beauty Box, it's still in stock as of the time of publication. There is also a Men's Grooming box that is still available as well (I didn't purchase that one). You can view that through the same link above.

So let's take a look!

Amazon Prime Luxury Beauty Box

Again, this box is $19.99 + free shipping, exclusively for Prime members. When my box shipped, I receive the email from Amazon letting me know that my credit for the full purchase price of the box was in my account ($19.99) to be used on a future Amazon purchase. 

This is the second Prime Luxury Beauty Box that Amazon has offered, and you can view my unboxing of Spring 2016 Luxury Beauty Box here. That box was $8.99 + free shipping and you also received a full credit for that purchase, so this time around they basically doubled the price (this new box is $19.99 + free shipping + credit for the full purchase price). This box contains 20 items, while the first box contained 16 items. See my thoughts at the end for more info.

There are three repeats in this new box, which I will explain in detail below.


This box arrived in the same packaging as the first Luxury Beauty Box. This is a nice, sturdy box with a magnetic closure and a black bow on the outside of the packaging.


 

Fragrance samples

Fragrance samples:
  • Calvin Klein Euphoria
  • Clean Cashmere
  • John Varvatos Parfum por Homme
  • Calvin Klein Eternity for Men

The Euphoria fragrance sample is a repeat from the Spring 2016 box.

Skincare samples

Skincare samples:
  • La Roche-Posay Redermic R Intensive Anti-Aging Concentrate with Retinol (0.17 oz.)
  • Proraso After Shave Balm (0.5 oz.)
  • NuFace Prep-N-Glow (1 dual-sided cloth)
  • Juice Beauty Stem Cellular CC Cream SPF 30 (0.17 oz.)
  • Skin & Co Truffle Therapy Eye Concentrate (0.17 oz.)
  • MD Solar Sciences Daily Anti-Aging Moisturizer SPF 30 (0.25 oz.)
  • Meaningful Beauty Cindy Crawford Skin Renewing Peel (0.33 oz.)
  • AHAVA Time to Clear Purifying Mud Mask (0.68 oz.)

More skincare samples

More skincare samples:
  • Bliss Glow-sion Moisture Cream (0.17 oz.)
  • Jane Iredale Smooth Affair Facial Primer & Brightener (0.24 oz.)
  • Vichy Aqualia Thermal Mineral Water Gel (0.05 oz.)

Haircare samples

Haircare samples:
  • Agave Healing Oil Oil Treatment (0.1 oz.)
  • Obliphica Seaberry Hair Serum (0.5 oz.)
  • Phyto Phytobaume Express Conditioner (1.7 oz.)

PLEASE NOTE: the Phyto conditioner is a travel size 1.7 oz. tube, which you can purchase at Sephora for $10 (full-size is 5.2 oz for $26). So this product alone is worth half the price of the entire box. 


Other items

Other items:
  • Marvis Cinnamon Mint Toothpaste (0.5 oz.)
  • Julep Nail Color in Linda from the It Girl collection (0.24 oz.)

PLEASE NOTE: The Julep nail polish is the only full-size item in this box (you can purchase this exact polish from the Julep website for $14). So between the Phyto travel-size conditioner (retail price $10) and this Julep polish, you have covered the cost of the entire box ($19.99) and then some. The Marvis toothpaste and Julep nail polish are the other two repeats in this box when compared to the Spring 2016 box (in addition to the Euphoria perfume sample). But to be fair, I received a Marvis toothpaste in Mint and a Julep polish in Carla (a light pink creme from the It Girl collection) in the Spring 2016 box, so these are not EXACT repeats.

All in all, I would say that this box is worth $19.99 since you're getting that back in credit to be used on a future Amazon Luxury Beauty purchase of your choice. This box contains 20 items, so that's like you're paying $1 per item (but getting that all back anyway). As I said before, this box is still in stock as of the time of publication if you are a Prime member and you want to purchase HERE.

My thoughts about this box compared to the previous Luxury Beauty Box:
I think the last box was a better value at $8.99 + free shipping + credit, because I received 16 items in that box, including a full-size Vincent Longo eyeshadow and a full-size Julep nail polish. However, on a personal level, there are more items in this new box that I have already been wanting to try, so I'm not disappointed when you consider that you get the full purchase price of the box back in credit. I think it really depends on if these items appeal to you personally, and luckily almost all of the items in this box are things that I will actually use. 

Amazon Beauty Box

As I mentioned at the top of this blog post, the regular Amazon Prime Beauty Box is no longer in stock (if it goes back in stock, you will able to purchase here). I still wanted to do an unboxing so that I have this for my archives. It's interesting to compare the contents of these boxes for the next time they roll around.

This box retailed for $11.99 + free shipping for Prime members only, and as with the Luxury Beauty Box, you received a credit for the full purchase price to be used on a future Amazon purchase. The choices for how to use this credit were not a broad as the Luxury Beauty Box, with only about five pages worth of options (mostly full-size versions of the items in the box, with other drugstore-level options as well).

So let's take a look:



  • Gillette Venus Swirl Razor (one razor)
  • Crest 3D White Toothpaste in Radiant Mint (2.5 oz.)



  • Tom's Naturally Dry Antiperspirant Deodorant in Natural Powder (0.47 oz.)
  • Acure Brightening Facial Scrub (1.0 oz.)
  • Glide Pro Health Dental Floss (4.3 yd)
  • Pantene Moisture Renewal Shampoo (0.7 oz.)
  • Dove Deep Moisture Body Wash (1.8 oz.)
  • Aveeno Skin Relief Body Wash (0.29 oz.)
  • Aveeno Skin Relief Body Lotion (0.29 oz.)


  • Crest 3D White 1HR Express Treatment (1 upper and 1 lower strip)
  • Nivea Nourishing Body Oil (0.31 oz.)
  • The Body Shop Drops of Youth Concentrate (2 x 0.05 oz.)
  • L'Oreal Age Perfect Eye Balm, Facial Oil with Sunscreen, and Golden Balm (sizes not listed, I'm guessing each foil back is 0.05 oz.)

Overall, I'm disappointed with this box. The previous Amazon Beauty Box was $9.99 + free shipping + credit. This new box is $11.99 + free shipping + credit, and unlike the first box which included a full-size L'Oreal mascara, L'Oreal brow pencil and Mineral Fusion mascara, the only full-size item in this new box is the razor. Yes, there were only 8 items in the first box, while this box contains 15 items, but 6 of the items in this box are foil packets. For $11.99, I just don't think the value is here this time around, considering all that we received in the last box for only $9.99. The only thing that redeems it, for me personally, is that I'll get my money back when I make a future purchase with the credit. 

Did you order either of these boxes? What are YOUR thoughts? If you haven't ordered the Luxury Beauty Box yet, do you think you'll order it before it goes out of stock?


The products featured in this post were purchased with personal funds. For more information, click here.

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9 comments

  1. What a great unboxing! I loved that it wasn't a chatty video and I could quickly scroll through (I did read it in its entirety, however). I agree that the value of the products plus the credit made the whole exercise worthwhile. I was also able to get an idea of what I liked (particularly from the fragrance samples, some of which are not available to test in my local Ulta, for example). I did discover some products I really liked and plan for future purchase (Obliphica hair oil, for one). I did ended up buying a full size Vichy Mineral Water Gel and even bought enough other beauty items totaling $50 (before the credit!) and used another Amazon code to get another $25 credit towards another future luxury beauty purchase. Thanks for continuing to help us stack savings for great beauty products!

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  2. I agree the regular Amazon box's quality was not as good as the 1st one. Also the choices for my credit are not great.

    I feel disappointed.

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  3. One of the samples AHAVA Purifying Mud Mask 0.68 oz. costs 10.00$ on Amazon.com. Sometimes price of the full size of this mask drops to 15.00$. It is a very good deal. You just need to wait and regularly check the price. I highly recommend this mask for oily and acne prone skin. This mud mask calms my skin as nothing else.

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  4. I ordered both of these and I struggled to find something to use the Luxury credit on. Their brand choices need to be broader in my opinion. It was a good deal but only because of the credit. Not sure if I'd do it again. At least the Target boxes this month seem to be back on track. Hopefully that continues!

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  5. Wish Loreal deluxe samples would have atleast been included

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  6. Do you know when the cvs semi annual sale will start this year?

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  7. After passing on this a couple times, I ordered this because my family uses Aveeno lotions, so I knew there was something I could spend my credit on that I would buy anyway.

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  8. I got the same color of Julep polish in this one and the last one. I never wear pale pink but maybe I can use it under something else (glitter, or a sheer color, or something).

    I subscribe to Julep so I already have hundreds of their polishes, though (usually purchased for much less than $10). And I can't complain too much -- I often fall for their mystery boxes and end up with multiples of colors I don't particularly care for (just to get one spoilered color I do want).

    ReplyDelete
  9. These are so interesting! Id definitely try one if they offered them for amazon prime canadian members.. but $19.99 is a little steep. The credit back makes it worth it depending on what kind of products you can use it towards right!

    ReplyDelete

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