Glamabox
www.glamabox.com
Never judge a book by its cover, nor a box of beauty samples by its packaging, apparently.
Glamabox's flimsy cardboard shell leaves an unimpressive first impression, but the products that lie within make up for shoddy appearances.
Instead of whimsical sachet-packed samples, Glamabox is packed to the brim with several travel-sized tubes and bottles.
It carries more well-recognised brands than the other two boxes. At $18, it also has the best value among the three as far as sizes go.
March's package contained an 88ml bottle of Moroccan argan oil shampoo from Organix, a 5ml nightcream and 10ml anti-ageing serum from French brand Lierac, a 25g hand cream from Crabtree and Evelyn, an eyeshadow and blush sampler from Clinique and a 30ml toner and 20 per cent discount on Nature's.
Previous boxes have carried brands like Shiseido and Bio-essence, and products such as slimming shake mixes, lip balms and BB cream.
Users earn points when they sign up, and these can be accumulated to redeem free full-size products or discounts on selected merchandise.
If you buy into the celebrity marketing gimmick, each of the four to five items delivered on the first week of each month are personally selected by Hong Kong model Lisa S, who co-founded Glamabox in Hong Kong last October and expanded to Singapore last December.
Lisa S is also the wife of actor Daniel Wu.
Co-founder Cristina Ng claims that full-sized products of the items can be ordered through their month-old online store, but when we checked, the items from March's box were not listed for retail yet.
The site also lists all the ingredients used in each product and offers tips on how to use these products, although some of these are so basic - such as "apply gloss to lips with applicator", it seems almost a redundant feature.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
