Allure Sample Society: $15 monthly/ beauty products.
Promo: 5foryou for $5 off your first month
I paid: $5 after promo + $5 refund for missing item
Allure Sample Society sends you (in theory) 5 full size or deluxe samples of beauty products.
The Allure Sample Society box is sold by BeautyBar.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com. It’d be a great box if you could get everything it promises. However, my box came without the most expensive item they had guaranteed would be in the box – the StriVectin intensive illuminating serum ($22 for the sample) – and BeautyBar.com then refused to either substitute it or do a full refund on the box. As if that wasn’t enough, it double billed many of its customers (I haven’t gotten my credit card bill yet, so I’m not sure if I was among them). For these reasons, I unsubscribed from the box and would not do business with them again. I have written to Allure about this and their response was to contact BeautyBar, also not acceptable.
It’s a pity that BeautyBar.com has such terrible customer service practices, because I rather enjoyed the box. Had it included the serum, it would have been my favorite subscription box so far. This is what it did include:
nügg face masks, 3 single-use masks, $9
The box included 3 single-use packages of nügg gel face masks. There is a cucumber extract & jojoba oil deep cleansing mask, a camellia seed oil hydrating mask and a flaxseed & peppermint oil revitalizing mask. The mask is a thick, viscous gel that you apply, leave on for 5-10 minutes and then wash off. There is plenty of product in each individual tub to apply on your face, neck and chest area – or to share with someone else. I tried out the hydrating mask tonight. The application was easy enough, though I applied a thick layer so it took a while to wash it off. I expected it to feel more refreshing than it did, but it was only slightly tingling while drying on my face. It didn’t have a particularly strong fragrance, which was good because it didn’t smell particularly great either. For that reason alone, I prefer the juice beauty mask I got on my FabFitFun winter box. It left my skin feeling soft and smooth, though not more than other masks.
Chloé Love Story perfume, 1.2 ml atomizer sample, $1.50
I love getting perfume samples, and I really liked Chloé Love Story. I smell the floral, and it’s light and feminine, but I don’t quite get the citrus. Unfortunately, I can’t smell this perfume on me after a few minutes, so I probably won’t rush to buy it, but it’s definitely a nice, fresh, springy, non-challenging scent that I’m glad I received.
Batiste Dry Shampoo, in Blush, 1.6 oz $1.75
I’d heard of dry shampoos before, but I hadn’t tried them. Batiste was not a miracle worker, but it did do a good job of absorbing oil from my dirty hair and making it look and feel cleaner. This is a product that is well worth keeping around for when you don’t have time for a shower but need to revitalize your hair. I’ll probably buy a full size version of this to keep for emergencies.
Nails Inc. polish in Princess palace, full size, $9.50
This is a light bluish/purplish pastel color. At first I found it dull and boring – but then I realized that I’m 45 and “old and boring” might as well be my nickname. I like that it was fairly easy to apply – which to me is important, because I have a hard time painting within the lines. They look pretty well without a top coat as well, though apparently it looks better with a matte topcoat. It dried fairly quickly.