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Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review – December 2015

Ragan Buckley
ByRagan BuckleyDec 21, 2015 | 14 comments

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - box

The Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box was available for a limited time during the holiday shopping season.  It contained samples of various beauty items that Amazon sells.  It was available to buy directly or as a gift with purchase of a variety of beauty items.  I shop on Amazon all the time, and I’ve been on an eyeshadow palette-buying binge lately, so I had to check it out. 

This box was free with the purchase (by me) of a luxury beauty item (this is the item I chose) on Amazon. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

The Box: Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box 

The Cost: $8.99 (or free with the purchase of select luxury beauty items)

The Products: Samples of luxury makeup, fragrances, skincare, and haircare items sold by Amazon.com. 

Note: This box is no longer available.  Visit My Subscription Addiction often and sign up for the daily newsletter to learn about new offers of this type.

Check out the Beauty Subscription Box Directory for more great luxury beauty deals!

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - inside

I can’t be the only one who is kind of glad this didn’t come in a makeup bag.  I recently had to move all my makeup bags during a bathroom sink repair and I have far too many of them. 

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - color1

Bliss Triple Oxygen Instant Energizing Mask (0.16 fl oz)

You only need to leave this mask on for five minutes, so it could be a nice alternative if you don’t have 15 or 20 or even 30 minutes like a lot of other masks recommend!

MAKE Cosmetics Eyeshadow in Santa Fe

This is a very wearable color for me.  I am pale and I gravitate towards pinks and neutrals for eyeshadow (and then wear bold, bold lipstick…).

Jane Iredale Just Kissed Lip & Cheek Stain in Forever Peach

I have gotten samples of this in other boxes.  I’ve bought another color in full size before.  So I know this is a product I like.  I tend to use it on the cheeks only because it is so light in color (although now they have a red one that may be worth trying on the lips…).

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - color2

Sadly, my Jane Iredale lip and cheek stain was broken off in the tube.  I have another one of these in this same color (from Birchbox) so I didn’t bother to contact them.  I’m pretty sure I can dig the rest out with a brush.  I tend to use them more as cheek stains (I’m super pale, so it works).

And sorry, but I totally spaced on swatching these. 

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - foils

Nuxe Gentle Toning Lotion 

I’m happy to get a product from Nuxe that’s not their multipurpose dry oil.  Don’t get me wrong, I like that stuff, but I have SO MUCH of it from subscriptions and mystery boxes.

L'Occitane Almond Milk Concentrate Body Cream (0.2 oz)

I love the almond milk scent from L’Occitane in some of their other products so this is another win.

Rituals Magic Touch Body Cream 

I like a lot of the Rituals products I’ve tried in the past.  This is pretty small for a body cream, but maybe I can use it on my arms or something?

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - foils2

Wen Pomegranate Cleansing Conditioner (2 fl oz)

I have tried Wen before and know it is not for me.  (Also the idea of using it as intended kind of scares me these days.  People are suing the company alleging the product causes hair loss!)  It works pretty well as a leave-in conditioner, though, so that is how I will use it. 

Juice Beauty Skin Care Packette

I probably have 4 or 5 of these exact sets in my box of skincare foils.  This includes a cleanser, serum, and moisturizer from the Green Apple Age Defy product line.  Juice Beauty products are a little hit or miss for me but now I’ve collected enough of these samples to do a real trial.  (Note: I’ve linked to a kit that contains most of these products, as well as a few extra.)

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - fragrance

Euphoria by Calvin Klein 

Lacoste L!VE 

Catherine Malandrino Style de Paris 

Riviera by English Laundry

I’ve gotten the Catherine Malandrino fragrance from Birchbox a few times (I’ve had multiple subscriptions in the past).  It’s not my favorite, but I certainly don’t hate it like I do some other Birchbox fragrances (cough, cough, Harvey Prince and Folle de Joie).  I’ll use it. 

Maybe this is picky, but I kind of wish I hadn’t gotten any men’s fragrances.  I generally love receiving fragrance samples and subscribe to a couple of perfume subscriptions.  But my fiancé has absolutely no interest in these, so I’m not really sure what to do with them?  Mail them to my brothers or something, I guess. 

At any rate, if you are going to buy fragrances from Amazon, here is my advice.  (1) Buy only fragrances marked “ships from and sold by Amazon.com,” no third party sellers.  There are a lot of problems with counterfeit fragrances on Amazon, but avoiding the third party sellers should get you around that.  (2) Don’t expect it to get there quickly.  Fragrances are flammable and have to go via ground shipping.  (3) The fragrances are not returnable due to shipping restrictions.

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - lotion

Proraso Liquid After Shave Cream (0.8 fl oz) 

I may see if I can use this myself since my fiancé isn’t interested.  (I cannot get him into subscription boxes outside of Raw Spice Bar and Love with Food.)  Or I’ll put it aside to send to one of my brothers or my brother-in-law or something like that.

StriVectin-AR Advanced Retinol Night Treatment (0.25 fl oz)

On Amazon, 0.5 oz of this product sells for $60.  Which would make this worth about $30 (maybe a little less – the per-ounce price you get varies based on package size).  So this sample alone makes the cost of the box worthwhile, if you want to analyze it that way.  It’s too soon to tell if this is doing much for me, although I kind of don’t want to fall in love with it at this price. 

Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box Review December 2015 - coupon

This also came with a $10 off $50 purchase of a luxury beauty item through Amazon.  I didn’t blur it out because I have seen this promoted elsewhere and it is not an individualized code. 

Verdict: I did not calculate a value for this box.  I was happy with it as a GWP (some of the Ulta ones are not much better), the coupon code is worth more than the cost of the box, and if you compare some of the products/sizes to Birchbox samples, I think you get more products (for about a dollar less).  Plus, the cost of the StriVectin product is about three times the cost of the box, so the value is there, even if there are a lot of foils and perfume vials.

What did you think of the Amazon Luxury Beauty Sample Box?  Did you buy one?  Or if you got one as a GWP, what other item(s) did you purchase?

Ragan Buckley
Ragan Buckley
Ragan stumbled across My Subscription Addiction in late 2013 and immediately subscribed to way too many beauty boxes. She's now focused on boxes for her cats and dog, vegan/vegetarian food boxes, and craft subscriptions (and she didn't give up beauty boxes entirely).

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14 comments

kapikani

Does anyone know how often Amazon offers sample boxes? What can I do to make sure I never miss these offers?

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Jessica

I actually ordered this, mainly because there was nothing I wanted in the ‘luxury’ section but I wanted the box of samples. However, when I received it, my eyeshadow from MAKE was missing. However, Amazon’s customer service was amazing. They got back to me within a couple of hours and refunded my money, plus said I could keep the box anyway. I probably would have chosen to keep the box if they asked for it back to get a refund, but I’m extra happy they were extremely understanding. Even without the eyeshadow, I’m still pretty happy with it. I wish I received it in the color you got, though! Right up my alley.

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Tillia

I have already enjoyed some of the products from this box. I think it is a pretty great deal. The $10.00 off a next purchase from the line and the chance to try new products makes this a no cost-no brainer in my book. I hope Amazon continues w/ this. And expands on the concept!

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Flubs

Thanks Ragan for not blurring the code. Also, if you shave (and are not sensitive to the ingredients), you could use the aftershave lotion yourself. You can use it for it’s intended purposes or just as a regular lotion.

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Ragan

I’ve seen the code listed on other sites (including in some Amazon forums) so I figured it was public knowledge. If Amazon sees it getting a lot of use, maybe they will do more things like this!

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Bets

I thought the box was real cute!

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Dea

A few of my samples were different, and the people who are suing Wen have not shown any proof that they (1) lost hair, or (2) the loss was caused by Wen.

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Rena

What do you mean they haven’t proven they lost hair? I’ve seen some scary pictures on instagram of bald spots and giant clumps of hair. Some dermatologists have also been quoted in interviews that it is entirely possible that the loss is caused by Wen. Instead of cleansing your hair and scalp you are depositing the product at the root and potentially clogging the opening of the shaft. It might only impact a small percentage of people with sensitivities but it seems like a real problem.

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Heather Rudow

Exactly! I, for one, am obsessed with my WEN & have found that I’ve lost less hair than when not using it. I fully believe that anyone that has lost hair from using it (not that anyone has proven they have) has done so due to allergies, which is not WEN’s fault.

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Ally

I like that there were deluxe samples that made it worth the price, and then just a few foil packets. I don’t get seething angry at foil packets like I see some people do, I think because in Korean beauty products it is the standard for samples and I got used to it. I really like the foil packets (especially hand lotion ones) for travel.

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Kiki

I bought a dozen of those little plastic jars they were really cheap and so cute clear with plastic lids that screw on for only around $3.00 so now when I get foil packets if there is two of them or even one sometimes I will mix them too..I just use a credit card and get every last drop into my little jars and that works out great plus it’s kinda fun :p lol

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Jen

I received this and liked it ok. I paid for it (8 dollars or so?). I love the Jane Iredale product so I am happy to have more. The striVectin product is great. I don’t mind all the foils and perfume samples because I travel a lot. If they do this box a second time, I’m in.

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Karissa

I’m jealous of the eye shadow color you got! It’s so much prettier than mine; I got cement and it’s pretty much just a matte grey shadow. ): I don’t wear greys.

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Jocelyn

I actually love juice beauty’s face wash–I’ve had acne my entire life since puberty (except ironically during my pregnancy when I had perfect skin for 9 amazing months) and coupled with anti aging retinoid serums, it works as well as my prescriptions did. It’s super runny but perfect on a clarisonic. Anyway, I was almost out and about to purchase (without points) a new one from birchbox, but saw this on MSA so I got it from Amazon with my prime shipping and this box free with purchase. I liked it as a free bonus! It was this or the mystery sample pack from BB. 🙂 My husband likes the Lacoste cologne but I have an anaphylactic allergy to limes and it has line oil in it–one test on him and I broke out in hives and had to down tons of benedryl and sit epi pen ready while he showered like crazy. Sad because it smelled good for the first five seconds lmao! (Also why I usually hate getting perfume samples–I expect citrus in women’s but not in men’s. Clinique happy runs me out of elevators so fast to my emergency benedryl stash…glad that one isn’t as popular now as it was ten years ago!)

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