Glossybox March 2012 - South by SW1X

The February 2012 Glossybox, it turns out, wasn't very popular. Quite a few people had issues with the low overall monetary value of the box's contents and the shortage of full-size products. I would much rather have a box with products I will actually use, even if the items are a little cheaper and "safer" (shower gels, neutral lip glosses, and so on) than the contents of other recent boxes. I've used my DuWop Venom Gloss and Paul Mitchell Quick Slip almost every day and like them both. I'm still rationing myself with the Como Shambhala shower gel because I love the smell but wouldn't pay £20 for a 300 ml full-size bottle. Oh, and I haven't used the scary bright orange stick-on nails.

And so to March. This month, Glossybox promised its subscribers something special. Indeed, in the February box, there was a card directing us to the URL www.glossybox.co.uk/mysterybox and it turned out that each day, the site would reveal different letters, which, when added together, would form a clue to Glossybox's "most exciting project so far." I hoped this would mean a freebie or the chance to win a special Glossybox but it turned out that the clue was "Knightsbridge" and the special project was a collaboration with Harrods. There weren't any extra freebies but the box would be extra special, they promised. I try not to read any Glossybox reviews until I have received my own box but I did notice a Burberry lipstick in the photos posted by one of the bloggers invited to the press launch of the Harrods Glossybox, which seemed promising.

Top: Clarins cream, Burberry lip mist, Molton Brown shower gel. Bottom: YSL serum, Narciso Rodriguez perfume

The theme of the March Glossybox is, then, products you can buy in the beauty hall at Harrods. Technically, you can buy all of the products in most other London department stores too, but if it means a more luxurious Glossybox than usual, I don't want to complain too much. So, here's what I got in my box:

1. Narciso Rodriguez for Her eau de parfum (1 ml). I am not a huge perfume junkie—the only perfume I really like is the one I use, Hermès’s Un Jardin en Méditerranée—but this is OK. It’s sweet and a little too floral for my tastes so I don’t mind too much that it comes in such a tiny sample. These mini-vials are, I suppose, useful for keeping in an office drawer. In this Glossybox, prices for the full sizes aren’t listed but this perfume is £55.50 for 50 ml on the Harrods website (you can get it cheaper online, though).

2. Molton Brown Moisture Bath & Shower Gel in heavenly gingerlily (50 ml). Molton Brown shower gels are lovely, if pricey, and I I like this scent so I’m fairly pleased with the sample, even though I did get a big gift pack of travel-size Molton Brown shower gels a couple of years ago, which I’m still working my way through. £18 for the 300 ml full size.

3. YSL Forever Youth Liberator Serum (5 ml). I’m interested to try this anti-ageing serum as it’s not something I would spend my money on at this stage. They use lots of “science” in their description (“glycobiology is a revolutionary science which M.I.T. calls one of the 10 fields of science that will change the future of medicine”), which can be a bad sign; equally the card in my box says the results (“helping to increase youthful activity in skin cells”) were from in vitro tests (in cultured cells) rather than, say, on real live people. Still, I will test the product with an open mind. £60 for the 30 ml full size.

4. Burberry Lip Mist in copper 202 (0.8 g). And so here’s the biggie. Except, it’s actually a tiny sample. My second concern was the colour “copper” sounded very orangey to me. In fact, it is quite a subtle brownish peach, which is sheer enough to be fairly flattering on my warm skintone. This lipstick isn’t super-moisturizing but it isn’t drying, either. And to be fair, the sample will probably last me until I find my next new lip product. It is a shame, though, that we didn’t get a bigger product to test. £23 for the full size lipstick.

5. Clarins Extra-Firming Body Cream (30 ml). Meh. I don’t really use body moisturisers very much and, in any case, I have a huge backlog of them (including this onefrom my January Glossybox). I will probably use this eventually or give it to Maman but I’m not overly excited about this product. £39.50 for the 200 ml full size.

Total value of the products in this month's Glossybox: about £25 (depending on how big the full-size lipstick is).  Also, almost half of the value comes from the eye serum, so if you don’t like that, the rest of the contents of your box are pretty low-value. The perfume sample, for example, is worth about £1.11!

Overall rating: 2.5/5. This is probably my least favourite box so far: it doesn’t contain any products I love, and two of the products come from my least favourite categories (perfumes and body creams). The lipstick and the shower gel are both really nice and I will definitely use them, and I plan to use up the serum, even if it is highly unlikely that I will repurchase it.