Should you buy a mystery beauty box without knowing what’s in it?
VICTORIA WOODHALL puts the growing craze to the test
She may not have been the first person to create one, but British make-up icon Charlotte Tilbury has certainly made the ‘mystery box’ beauty’s hottest new trend. her fans have been paying anything from £99 to £140 to get their hands on the Charlotte Tilbury Mystery Boxes — a blind bundle of full-sized products that come in at half the retail price. Released a few times a year for a limited period only, Tilbury’s boxes sell out in hours and are a fairly safe bet, but there’s no doubt that other mystery boxes can be far more of a gamble.
It’s easy to see the appeal for brands — it’s a chance to get their products into the hands of bargain hunters in the hope of winning future custom. Or, in the case of beauty box services such as Cohorted, which sends out a mix of big-name brands, it might tempt you into a monthly subscription. But some firms have come under fire for using it to offload end-of-line stock and excess samples.
So, can they really provide the ‘sample grazing’ opportunity we’re missing while beauty halls are shut? Or are some brands making mugs of us by simply dressing up their unwanted stock in fancy packaging? We put the best mystery boxes to the test…
THE CULT FAVOURITES
The Benefit Mystery Box (£50 — currently reduced to £35 — plus £4.95 postage, benefitcosmetics.com) WHAT WE GOT: Seven Benefit products worth £96. This box definitely delivered on its promise of offering at least £78 worth of goodies, featuring bestsellers and shades to suit everyone. Some products were full-sized, while others were travel-sized.
Two I use already — the Roller Lash Mascara and Gimme Brow+ gel. So far so lucky. I’ve wanted to try false lashes and here were some, plus glue. People rave about Benefit’s Porefessional mattifying gel, but the full-size version (which retails for £25.50) was wasted on me with my dry skin.
The other big hitter was the easy Smokin’ eyes eyeshadow quad worth £20.50 which, on the plus side, was matte — great for older skins — but I’d consign it to the ‘useful’ rather than ‘exciting’ pile. THE HIGHLIGHT: The cute, free PVC make-up bag which opens out flat and saves you having to rummage, and a £12 mascara mini. VERDICT: There were some bestsellers here, which made it feel like a genuine treat. My 17-year-old daughter thinks this is £50 well spent (but then it’s not her money). I’d rather spend £50 on exactly what I need. 3/5
PREMIUM LET DOWN
Cohorted Mystery Beauty Box (£59.99 plus £2.90 postage, cohorted.co.uk) WHAT WE GOT: Fourteen premium and two non- premium products ( and what looked like a free perfume sample) together worth £99.70.
I had high hopes for this box, which promised ‘ at least 13 premium beauty products’ with ‘must-haves’ from the likes of Lancome and Nip + Fab.
The items arrived in a stylish black box where, beneath a pile of advertising leaflets, I found 14 posh minis, including a hair mask by Jo hansford and some The Organic Pharmacy samples (a hand cream, lip balm and cleanser). There was also an 85p Lindor chocolate bar and a £7.50 (discontinued) body lotion from Soaper Duper.
however, having shelled out more than £60, I was expecting a curated selection rather than this somewhat repetitive offering.
There were two identical rather dull lip balms from obscure U.S. brand K.Voss, two tiny illuminating powders (at least they were Laura Mercier), two hand creams and three cleansers, one of which, from Burt’s Bees, was worth £1.35. Is that really premium?
Also, two of my The Organic Pharmacy testers said ‘not for resale’ (I’d just paid!), as did a £6.60 Micro-Derm Regenerator gel by Context, which came with no instructions.
Luckily my face didn’t peel off, and it wasn’t bad as a cleanser. THE HIGHLIGHT: A Lord & Berry Crayon Lipstick, which sells for £14. This, the highest-value item in the box, was not my shade but its great pigment and texture would make me buy from the brand. VERDICT: I’m a sucker for premium brands but I felt deflated. 2/5
USEFUL STAPLES
Superdrug Mystery Box (£25 plus £5.50 postage, superdrug.com) WHAT WE GOT: I was reminded of an oldfashioned chocolate box, with seven budget products ( worth £ 33.92) displayed in mounts to impress.
This is available as a freebie with your Superdrug health & Beautycard, but you’d have to spend £150 to earn it, so paying £25 didn’t seem so bad. Opening it was a pleasant surprise, revealing five full-size products that I wouldn’t have bought, but will definitely use: a Nivea facial cleansing foam, a B by Superdrug fake tan mousse, an impressive ten-shade Rose Gold Sunset eyeshadow palette from elf worth £10 — and who doesn’t need another black mascara?
I’ve never worn fake nails, but the pack included encouraged me to try. There was also a tube of Superdrug sensitive toothpaste and a small Moschino Toy Boy perfume vial — the sort of freebie you get at beauty counters. THE HIGHLIGHT: The Revolution Mascara, £8, which boosted lash length and volume as impressively as a premium brand’s would. VERDICT: They’re handy items, but I wouldn’t buy it again. 3/5
TRENDS ON TRIAL
W7 Mystery Box (£19.95, w7makeup.co.uk) WHAT WE GOT: Ten W7 products worth £48.24.
The brand makes budget ‘dupes’ or near likenesses of bestselling make-up by brands such as MAC and Urban Decay without ever going over the £10 per product mark. It always jumps on the latest trends, too.
This box promised at least six full-size products worth more than £40, including one eyeshadow palette and a highlighter.
I could pretty much do my whole face with this kit, which featured a highlighter, a 14-pan eye palette, contour kit, lipstick, lip pencil, lip gloss, finishing powder, eye gloss, contouring kit and sheet mask.
The vegan contour kit was several tones too dark, while the metallic lipsticks were too try-hard for my 50+ complexion. The On The Rocks eyeshadow palette (£6.95) had some jewel tones I wouldn’t normally try — but I enjoyed the low-cost chance to be a bit adventurous. THE HIGHLIGHT: The Starry eyes Metallic Jelly eyeshadow (worth £3) which made a better bronzer than the contour kit. VERDICT: With a fair amount of sparkle, this is Gen Z heaven, but there’s something for everyone. More fun than functional. 4/5
DATED STOCK DUMP
Lookfantastic Mystery Beauty Box (£15 plus £2.95 postage, look fantastic.com) WHAT WE GOT: Lookfantastic offers a monthly beauty box subscription, as well as this one-off version to tempt you in — and with its weighty blue and gold box with matching tissue paper, it felt exciting.
Inside were six premium products worth £40.79. There was a glossy booklet with tips for using the products, as well as a free copy of elle magazine.
I’d always wanted to try erno Laszlo, a brand celebs often namecheck, and I enjoyed my small pot of its lifting jelly, but not enough to buy one. There was also a mudcoloured lip glaze by Incredible which even my teen rejected, and I shelved the travel-sized Balance Me Pure Skin Face Wash for when I had somewhere to go.
I soon spotted that my box, and the elle magazine, were dated August 2018! What’s more, when I checked the brand’s website, I found I can buy its January beauty box, worth more than £57, with three full- sized goodies, for the same price — much better than this dated stock dump. THE HIGHLIGHT: Molton Brown Bath and Shower Gel worth £7.33, which is always useful. VERDICT: Oldies but definitely not goodies. 1/5
BARGAIN BUY
Roccabox Mystery Box (£10 plus £3.95 postage, roccabox.co.uk) WHAT WE GOT: Six products worth £35.47. Roccabox is a monthly ‘ unseen’ beauty box service offering premium products worth much more than the £10 you paid. It promises an edit of five or six ‘best-loved previous products’, so clearly old stock.
There were some nice finds in here, though — my daughter loved the blackhead-busting charcoal pore strips, while I made a beeline for the Douvall’s citrus body oil (£ 8.95) and Balance Gold Collagen under-eye masks.
But there were also a couple of duff products: a cleansing puff like the Buf-Pufs I used to scour my face with as a teen — which died a death for a reason — and an unexciting Curaprox toothbrush.
The highest-value product, a lip liner worth £10, was so hard I wondered if it had gone off. THE HIGHLIGHT: May Beauty The Incredible Pore Strip. The sample two-pack was great — to buy it on its own would cost £17 for 12. VERDICT: The cheapest of the bunch, this is worth a punt. The ‘previous products’ didn’t seem particularly dated, but in my view a better buy would be the latest monthly subscription box, which can be bought for the same price as a one-off. I suspect more effort goes into curating it. In fact, the current one is teasing a £15 silk eye mask. Yes please. 4/5