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Beauty Brands Holiday Hair Bag, 1 time bag, $16 ($10 + $6 shipping)
I paid: $11, with expired promo
Promised Value: $100+; Actual Bag value: $49 ; My value:$47
Beauty Brands is a combo salon, spa and beauty product store with locations in several midwestern and southwestern states. It’s poised as budget alternative to Ulta and Sephora. It has a large online presence and it’s seeking to grow its physical stores nationwide. Unfortunately for them, this Holiday Hair Bag was a terrible way to introduce themselves to customers that don’t already know them, like me. While the bag wasn’t bad, it was not at all what Beauty Brands had advertised and their customer service was a complete failure.
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The Holiday Beauty Bag listed fifteen items that might be included while also stating that the bag was valued at over $100. Unfortunately, this was not the case. Most of the items in the bag were not-for-sale samples, which is typical of beauty boxes. As with other boxes, I calculate the value of the samples by looking at what the retail value for the full size item is, and then calculating what the value for the amount in the sample would be. Using this method, the box has a value of around $50 – if I only looked at the items in the box that can be legally sold in the US, the value would have been much lower.
I contacted the company expressing my disappointment at the fact that the bag did not reach its advertised value, and asking that they either send me the three listed products that they hadn’t sent before or that they sent me something else to bring the value of he bag to around $100. I did not get a response. The product page for the bag has been removed, but the cached version remains (for the time being) on Google.com.
This is what came in my bag:
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It’s a 10 miracle live-in product, 2 oz, $7-12
I got this live-in conditioner before in a Popsugar MH box and my daughters liked it. I tried it today but I must have applied too much, as it left my hair feeling heavy and greasy. This is good size for travel and I’m sure it’ll be used. It’s made in the USA. Note that while Beauty Brands does offer a 2 oz bottle of this for sale at $12, the sample I got is marked “not for sale” and I couldn’t find the 2 oz size anywhere else. The 4 oz sized sells for $14-18.
, 1.7 oz, $5
My youngest can always use more leave in conditioners and this one is made in the USA, and actually packaged as a mini, not a free sample.
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Redken Cerafill Maximize Dense Fx Hair Diameter Thickening Treatment, 1 oz, $11
This product gets great customer reviews. There is a whole line of products surrounding it, but it’s supposed to work by itself as well. I used it at night, on damp hair, after a shower. It made my hair more difficult to comb through in the morning, but it didn’t give it any more body than usual.
amika Perk Up Dry Shampoo, .75 oz, $3.5
I’ve gotten this dry shampoo from Birchbox twice before and it works fine. My daughter likes the name and the container. It’s a pretty small sample, though they could be more generous. Made in US.
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Matrix Oil Wonders Micro-Oil Shampoo and Conditioner, 10 ml foils, $<1.5
I’m not a huge fan of getting foils, but it’s nice trying new products. If you do like these products, make sure you buy the 1 litter (aka 33oz) bottle, which you can get for around the same price than the 10 oz one. Made in USA.
Wella EIMI Perfect Me Lightweight BB Lotion, 6 ml foil, $1
This lotion is supposed to help protect your hair from hot irons while helping to style it. I’ll probably send it out as a freebie.
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and Conditioner, 5 ml foils, 75-cents
If there is something worse than foils, it’s tiny foils. But I’m sure my daughter will be happy to try this.
Tigi S-factor Serious Shampoo and Conditioner, 10 ml foils, $<3.5
This is a new line from Tigi and Beauty Brands does not seem to be carrying it yet. My daughter tried the sample and wasn’t happy with the smell. As far as results go, it left her hair feeling no different than drugstore products. Made in the USA.
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O.P.I. Nail Lacquer in Step Right Up (pale pink), 3.75 ml, $2.5
I’ve gotten one of these super cute, tiny O.P.I. sample bottles before and I now my daughters will want it for their dolls. I wish it was a color I didn’t have, however. Made in USA.
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Mr. Clip Micro Butterfly Clip Professional Hair Styling Clips, 6-pack, $7
These mini clips are not actually available at Beauty Brands and I could only find them at Amazon.com, with no reviews. They look pretty cheap but I haven’t taken them out of the package. I’m sure they’ll be useful for when I dye the girls’ hair.
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Hair Brush, no brand, $5?
Having thin, fine, straight hair, my brush requirements are not particularly high. This brush is small (purse size) and other of smelling strongly of rubber, it seems fine. It has no brand and I couldn’t find it for sale anywhere, but similar brushes sell for around 50-cents wholesale.
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Matrix toiletry bag
This bag originally came with a Matrix Biolage gift set that included a shampoo, a conditioner and a shower puff. As far as toiletry bags go, it’s very inconvenient as the zipper is on one of the small sides, rather than the wide side. I can’t imagine what it’d be useful for other than carrying full size hair products, which I’m sure most people don’t want to tug around.
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Shower puff, no brand, $1
This is one of those hard mesh, cheap shower puffs you can get at the dollar store. I imagine it’s the one that came in the gift set with the bag, but it’s not something I’d use myself and it’s too squeezed up to use for crafts.
When you order anything from Beauty Brands, they’ll throw in a couple of samples. I was able to chose two of them:
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These are 3 individual use foil samples. I gave it to my young teen who deals with the occasional pimple to see if it works well. It seems really expensive for a .5% salicylic acid cream.
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I didn’t think about looking at the ingredients when I selected this, but it has octinoxate. Plus the product gets bad reviews and it’s ridiculously overpriced. I’ll use the sample myself, but I wouldn’t buy the product.
They also sent me a free sample:
Laura Geller BB cream in medium, 5 ml, $4
It’s winter so medium is far too dark for me. Oh well.