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Golden Tote Surprise Tote Review – July 2016

Haley Faye
ByHaley FayeJul 8, 2016 | 14 comments

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - BOX

Golden Tote
4 overall rating
72 Ratings | 8 Reviews

One of Golden Tote’s purchasing options is a Surprise Tote, which is a 3-item tote filled with items their stylists pick for you based on your profile and preferences! Recently, Golden Tote ran a promotion for virtual styling sessions (done over Skype or FaceTime) with the purchase of a Surprise or Golden Tote! I couldn’t resist meeting the stylists and picking my items, so I grabbed one!

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - packaging 1

My Subscription Addiction paid for this box. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - packaging 2

Every month, GT designs a new tote bag that you receive you orders in! June’s was these pineapples – this order was placed in June, but delivered in July, FYI, so I got June’s design.

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - all items

FYI – Golden Tote isn’t a typical subscription service. Their totes are one-time purchases. Every month, they come out with a collection (and release spoilers) and you decide if you want to buy that month. The regular tote purchases allow you to pick 1-2 items from that collection, and receive 1-3 surprise items that aren’t a part of that collection (depending on which options you go with).

Surprise totes are just the surprise items, and you usually don’t get to pick any of them, except for this recent Virtual Styling Session promotion.

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - all items 2

The Subscription Box: Golden Tote Surprise Tote

The Cost: $89

The Products: 3 women’s clothing items, chosen for you by the Golden Tote stylists based off of your profile and preferences.

Ships to: Everywhere! Flat rate ground shipping within the US is $9.95. International is $30. Free shipping on US orders of $149 or more and International orders of $149 or more are charged $25.

Check out all of our Golden Tote reviews and the Women’s Clothing Subscription Box Directory!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - info 1

Every box includes a packing slip.

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - info 2

Golden Tote has recently made updates to their return policy – now you can easily go into your order history and return individual items (it used to be an all-or-nothing deal). This month they’re also promoting their Facebook trading group, which is a great group for finding items you missed (whether or not you bought a tote), selling items that don’t work for you, and seeing a lot of reveals of the totes others get.

Personally, I think the Facebook group is a great idea and really helps reduce the amount of risk involved in getting surprise items/clothing online. You can also swap for any subscription box goodies on our swap site, too!

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My stylist was Katey (AKA “KB”). She was so sweet and adorable! She had picked a whole rack of items based off of my style profile before calling me, and she went through them with me and we got to talk about them and choose which ones to put in my surprise tote!

Also, I didn’t know this at the time, but apparently you could also add on extra surprise totes during your styling session. It’s probably for my bank account’s best interest that I didn’t know, haha.

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - items 1

Gilli Striped Midi Dress – value: $40

I’m starting off with my favorite item in the tote! This Gilli dress is fantastic, and it is definitely up there as one of my favorite items from GT ever. The midi length is great for me, and I love me some stripes. This is modest, stylish, comfortable, and flattering.

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - items 2

Gilli Empire Waist Maxi – value: $40

I’ve learned that Gilli dresses are just perfect for me all the time. Katey helped make sure this one would be long enough for me, and the length is perfect. It’s a lot of one color though – I’m so used to wearing prints or separates that an entire solid maxi is a little intimidating for me. I feel great in it, though, so I still love it. This will be easy to nurse in, too.

GOLDEN TOTE SURPRISE TOTE JULY 2016 - items 3

Skies Are Blue Lightweight Blazer – value: $40

(this needs steamed – sorry!) I kind of went on a whim when picking this piece. I was drawn to the color and I don’t have anything like it in my wardrobe. However I just don’t love it as much as I want to. I picked this over a Chris & Carol cardigan and I wish I had just picked another Gilli dress! But that’s okay – I’ll try trading it for something else! I should have just stayed with what I know I like.

Verdict: All in all, I absolutely loved my experience with this surprised tote and virtual styling session. Katey was so sweet and going through the rack of clothing with her was a great time. I think next time I’m going to ask about more specific items than I ask about for my regular totes (maybe I just want to see all the Gilli dresses??). I think the value is generally fantastic for this because you get to pick what’s in it and can know you’re getting all things you like or are interested in. I had fun and found a couple new favorite pieces – I’m happy!

What do you think about Golden Tote? Did you get one of the virtual styling sessions?

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Golden tote is a surprise shopping spree bundled up in a cute, canvas tote bag and delivered to your door without doing any of the work. It's a great assortment of ready-to-wear clothing and accessories curated just for you. Select one or two items, and the Golden Tote stylists surprise you with the... read more.
Haley Faye
Haley Faye
Haley Faye first discovered the wonderful world of subscription boxes in 2012 and began writing for MSA in 2014. Over the years, she has found many subscriptions to love. Now a mom of three, her favorite boxes are ones that dress her kids, help her get organized, feed her family, send her snacks, and offer educational fun for her children.

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14 comments

Amy S.

That blue/stripes dress was made for you! I love clothing reviews, I’m living vicariously!

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Andi

I got one of the mystery totes during this promo, but I never received information on my Virtual Styling Session. I ordered on 6/25 and it hasn’t processed yet. What is their general turn around time on totes? I sent them an inquiring email yesterday, so hopefully they will get back with me soon!

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Haley Faye

Andi, they should have sent out an email requiring you to sign up for a time slot a couple days after ordering! Check your spam folders? You can also join the Golden Tote Trading facebook page and tag Jen GoldenTote to get a hold of CS that way. Make sure you have your facetime/Skype info in your comments section of styling profile too. Hope this helps!

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Ali

Do you have any clue how I can get that blue dress? I really want to get it for my girlfriend (also 6 ft tall) because of how fantastic it looks, but I haven’t had any luck finding it on the internet (some other nice ones, but not that one). If I signed up for a single tote asap do you think I could somehow get it specifically?

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Haley Faye

Ali, do you mean the first dress that’s navy and striped, or the second one (which I think is green but may also be interpreted as a light blue by some)? Either way, your best bet is probably the Golden Tote Trading facebook group. There’s some info about it in this post near the top. You can ask to join and then when you’re accepted search the FSOT (“for sale or trade”) photo album to see if anyone has it listed, search the “sale listings” and I would also recommend stating this – feel free to use the photo from here if you want – and ask if anyone has it for sale or willing to sell. As far as buying a tote to try and get it, you can try. You could order a tote (probably best to get a surprise or a large/golden tote (5 items)) and put in your style profile that you’re desperately hoping for the dress (use the name they use, which is what I call it in this post). However if you go that route, requests are only requests. They are often granted but because their inventory for surprise items is secret, they may not have it or may not have it in her size. It’s not like typical stock of an item where they want to make sure to have a set amount of each size, I don’t think.

Hope this helps – good luck!

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ali.lee13

Thanks Haley; I did mean the first striped one. The second one looks fabulous on you as well, but she’s most interested in patterned looks. I’ll definitely go check out the facebook swap page 🙂
If I don’t have any luck, I’ll see if she wants to order a tote; she might get some other awesome looks if we do that!

Also, thanks for the reviews, it’s great seeing what clothes look like on a person, and finding out about some styles 🙂

Jen

Is the extra customization only available for the mystery boxes? I’ve gotten golden tote before but no one has ever gone through a whole rack of items with me before. How did you make that happen?

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Haley Faye

Jen, a weekend or two ago, GT ran a promotion where if you bought a Surprise Tote or Golden Tote you would get the styling session. I’m sorry – I should have clarified in the review that this promotion was over. However it seems to have been crazy popular and very well received so I’m hoping they’ll do more in the future!

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Alli A

It was a weekend special, if you purchased a tote during a specific time frame you got a special styling session.

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Mamo

The Gili dress is absolute perfection on you!

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Christine Gavin

You look stunning in all these outfits!!! I love the color of that blue blazer! Enjoy!

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Katy

Haley!

I love the green! Its a great color for you and a very flattering design. Both blues look really nice too. Do you ever do lilac? Im a very pale redhead with blue eyes and I really like how lilac looks on me sometimes.

I think that white with floral piece your stylist is holding up in the top right pic is divine. Do you happen to know what brand that is?

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Haley Faye

Oh, thanks! I love the color lilac but I feel like there’s not much lilac clothing out there! And no, I don’t know the name of it, sorry! I know it’s not great quality but you may be able to include a cropped version of that pic to show the pattern/tank in your picture as a request for you stylist? Thanks for reading!

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Katy

I read all your reviews. I am 6ft tall as well as having similar coloring to you so being that you are so awesome about modeling both the clothing and makeup you recieve in your reviews, its very helpful for me in deciding what may or may not work for my own frame and coloring. So thank you for being so open with sharing for us.