I was one of the lucky ones who managed to get my hands on one of the popular Harvey Nichols special edition Glossyboxes. This box wasn’t the usual monthly subscription box, it was a seperate purchase in limited quantities. I had no trouble placing my order at all, about half an hour into it going on sale, but I’ve heard a lot of people were disappointed.
One thing that differentiated this box from the norm (aside from the premium price and premium products) was that the contents were revealed beforehand. Perhaps this made it so popular, as people could see that the premium cost was going to be worth it! It did take away the nice element of surprise that comes with a beauty box though!
A lot of bloggers had already given their opinions on the contents even pre-release, so this will all be old news. Nonetheless, I’ll share my thoughts.
Let’s start with the box itself. Matt white with silver stars and Glossybox branding. Classy, with a nod toward the festive season but in a subtle enough way to be on display all year round. This one’s a keeper.
In the box I received the following;
Laura Mercier Foundation Primer (30ml) – I only recently started using primers, and now I love them, they really help hide my large pores. I’ve heard good things about this Laura Mercier one, and I can’t wait to try it! A full size one of these (50ml) is £29, so this smaller size is worth £17.40.
Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream – I have an Aunt who is a QVC shopaholic and I get all her Elemis hand me downs, but this is one product she always keeps for herself so it must be good! I have high hopes for this anti-ageing cream. A full size 100ml costs £135 – so this is worth an impressive £20.25.
Dermalogica Overnight Repair Serum (5ml) – Serums are a bit of an unknown to me at the moment, but as I’m trying to step up my age defense routine, I’m sure I’ll be trying a fair few. I love Dermalogica, so this product is a great one for me to start off with. A full size serum is £57.50 for 15ml, making this sample worth £19.16.
Rodial Bee Venom Moisturiser (5ml) – I’ve never tried any Rodial, so I’m excited to try this one! I don’t know much about the product at this stage but it seems to be another skincare product with anti ageing properties, which seems to be a common feature of this box (I’m not complaining!). For a moisturiser this inclusion is pretty small, but a full size (50ml) is a pricey £150, so this tiny tube has £15 worth of product! When getting the link to this product I saw ‘stem cell technology’ which concerned me, but reading on revealed it was actually plant stem cells!
Benefit Cosmetics They’re Real Mascara (3g) – The first time I tried this mascara I wasn’t impressed. It sat in my makeup bag for a while before I heard everyone suddenly raving about it! So I gave it another shot and, while I don’t find it as lash enhancing as I’d like, it’s a great everyday mascara. This is the tiniest size I’ve seen this in, but it’ll be handy for my handbag! It’s almost half the size of a £19.50 full size at 8.5g, and is worth £6.88.
SHOW Beauty Pure Treatment Oil (60ml) – I haven’t come across this brand before, and I immediately jumped to the incorrect conclusion it was another skincare product. But it’s for hair! I’m one of those messy hair don’t care people who doesn’t use much product, so most haircare is lost on me. But with the bleaching my hair could always do with a bit of repair so this will actually come in handy if it works! This is a full size product worth a whopping £50! I have to say, on opening the box I was impressed – the bottle is a beautiful vintage style glass bottle, and screams luxury. Even if I hate the product this will take pride of place on my dressing table. And it smells lovely. I’ve seen other boxes containing different SHOW Beauty products.
OPI Nail Lacquer in shade ‘Viking in a Vinter Vonderland’ (15ml) – I’m so, so happy I received this! I’m a big OPI fan, and I love a good dark purple. Plus how awesome is the shade name? I had heard some boxes had Avoplex instead and I hate hand cream so I’m really pleased with this item. Another full size item, this one retails for £12.
NARS Satin Lip Pencil (1.7g) in shade ‘Rikugien’ – I believe that there are a few different shades of this in the boxes. I received a lovely wearable rosy pink shade, perfect for everyday. This was one of the products I was most looking forward to in the box so I’m happy I got a shade I like! This is only barely smaller than a full size pencil which retails at £18 for 2.2g, making it worth £13.90.
La Coupe Coconut and Macadamia Oil (40g) – I’ve already said how I feel about haircare, and I’m not sure two hair oils were necessary in one box. But this is a single sachet, so more of a deep treatment. I don’t feel any particular way about this item. I’ll give it a go, it can only help the condition of my hair! These sachets are sold individually in this size for £3.50.
Percy & Reed No Fuss Flawlessness Dry Conditioner (150ml) – I’ve not used a dry conditioner before. Dry shampoo is pretty much a daily use item for me (as I try to wash my hair as little as possible), not so much for cleaning but for volume, and I’m loyal to Batiste Tropical. I imagine this will give a similar result. No matter how good this one is, I doubt I’ll make a switch to a product three times the price, but it’ll be nice to try! This is a full size product retailing at £12.
Harvey Nichols Mini Scented Party Candle – I’m not a fan of candles. I’m not keen on fire, which may explain it, I’m not sure. Anyway, I’ll likely gift this. There were 4 different scents across all the boxes – I received Party. They are sold as a pack of 4 for £30, making them worth £7.50 each. A larger single candle is £35.
Haircare
Given that I knew the contents of this box before I ordered it, it’s obvious that I’m happy with it. To be honest, I ordered it for a few specific products; Laura Mercier primer, NARS lip pencil and OPI polish. Those alone made the price tag of £30 plus postage (£35 plus postage to non subscribers) a bargain, everything else was a bonus! In total, the contents of my box are worth a huge £177.59! I’m pretty speechless if I’m honest!
If I’m looking for criticism, this box didn’t contain too much variation in products. Three skincare items focusing on anti ageing and two haircare oils make up almost half the box, and weight it in favour of a particular demographic. I’d have liked to instead have seen a couple of these substituted for a bodycare product and another cosmetic item. But I have no complaints, it’s a very impressive box!
I think this is actually the best beauty box I’ve received, with the Selfridges boxes a close second. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for special edition Glossyboxes in the future. In fact, if you fancy a special ESpa box worth £30, you can get one free with the purchase of a Glossybox giftcard using the code ‘GIFTCARDOFFER’.
Did you receive the Harvey Nichols Glossybox? Or did you miss out? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
L xx
*All photo’s are our own.
Milk & 2 Sugars 