I love Sephora (but maybe not as much as the VIB Rouge folks…I just don’t have that kind of budget). But I don’t really wear a lot of makeup, so I use my Sephora Play! subscription as it was meant to be -a product discovery tool. Besides, few things bring me joy like seeing that striped box arrive each month.
Just for fun, I want to share my January 2018 box with you all. We’ll open the box, lay out the goods, and you can see how I organize my plethora of samples.
Despite the unboxing fun, this will be my last box for a while. Why? I simply have too many tiny samples! I’m sure plenty of users try a product and immediately throw it away if they don’t like it. I can’t do that, my inner hoarder forces me to try the entire sample.
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Here’s the tiny unboxing slideshow I made for you:
Overall I am most excited to try Smashbox’s new moisturizing primer (and the Ouai masque, and the Glamglow cleanser…), but I am a little disappointed that there wasn’t a fragrance sample. I dislike most of the fragrances, but I at least like knowing that Replica Flower Shop smells great initially, but then I smell like an old lady an hour later.
I accumulated so many samples that I started organizing them by quarter received just so that I could focus on using the older samples first (unless I had to try something sooner like the Ouai Rose Oil -love). I have a cache of tall bags that fit great in this tall shoe box from The Container Store. I keep small things organized like this because we move a lot and this is an easy way to stay organized anywhere.
By the way, I originally tried to organize by product type (hair, face moisturizer, mask, etc) but it didn’t work because my priority is expiration. If you feel the need to index your stuff (you know that I love indexing, right?) by product type, maybe apply little Post-It flags to products to note age (if you won’t use them quickly).
So while I loved the service -and especially loved the products- it is time to say goodbye. This is good because I can better enjoy my remaining treasure trove of samples.
Why did you sign up in the first place? I signed up because I love trying things, even though I don’t have much patience for makeup. I don’t wear mascara, eyeshadow, or trending lipsticks, but I love sampling cleansers and moisturizers. Plus, Play! subscribers get to try out Sephora branded products that other boxes can’t offer.
What do you do with samples you won’t use? I usually pawn them off on my sisters at gifting times. When I am in gift-wrap mode I make a pile and separate by type, then I arbitrarily decide which sister will receive what product pile that year. I usually do this for samples collected past July. Between January and June I save those samples and donate them to local womens’ shelters. Especially nice (unopened) eyeliners that I don’t wear.
You don’t wear eyeliner?! But, your photos… I know, you see eyeliner and my statement seems impossible. The truth is that my eyeliner is the result of cosmetic tattooing. I love the look of eyeliner, but I lack the patience. I’m a five minute makeup kind of lady, and I paid to look like I am not. Bonus -I have parallel eyelid creases and I don’t have to worry about pesky transference anymore.
Was it hard to get into? Isn’t it expensive? No and no! Just signup for the waitlist and be patient. Their distribution has surely expanded since I started. Either way I was only on the waitlist for about six weeks, and the box is only $10 each month. It’s affordable in every way! www.sephora.com/play
Will you opt-in again? I probably will! I enjoy stuff-of-the-month memberships, and will be ready to Play! again after trying out some other discovery boxes for fun. But right now I am excited to take it slow with all of my current little samples.
Lady Jupiter 