Little Lace Box, $60/first box, $50/every other month with subscription, theme lifestyle box
Promo: Use LLB10 for $10 off your first box
I paid: $40
Box retail value: $113, My value: $80
Little Lace Box (LLB) is a bimonthly subscription box curated by three style-loving 20-something sisters from Florida. Boxes usually follow a whimsical theme and are best suited for women with a sense of fun and imagination. While the boxes are usually a very good value money wise, their true value is on the curation and the fun you can have with the items included if you allow yourself to step beyond your box. These boxes also make great gifts.
Little Lace Box restructured a few months back in order to improve the quality and curation of their boxes. Boxes now come every other month and cost $60 if purchased individually and $50 if you subscribe (you will be given the option to subscribe when you go to purchase a single box). Existing customers at the time of the change were grandfathered in at the $40 price. LLB now offers Serendipity, a mystery pouch, on the off months.
Every box contains a letter giving the thought process behind the theme and the curation, as well as information on the specific items included.
The letter also includes information about what the theme for the following box is. The December ’15 box theme will be “It’s Only with the Heart”, from the Little Prince.
October’s box theme was “Authentic Autumn. Your Style. Your Way.” Many people had trouble understanding how the items in the box fit the theme, but when I first saw the spoilers it occurred to me that it was about giving you the basics/foundations to then add your style on top. Nope, it didn’t include underwear, but things of the sort. I’m not so sure of my interpretation after seeing the color variations included, but I definitely like the box more from that perspective.
Otherwise, I was not really thrilled with the box. This month I got two boxes, one from my existing subscription and another using a Groupon promo that they had in September. It was a bad decision. The box didn’t have any “wow” item as previous boxes had (I’m actually enjoying the gift certificates for extra gifts they had in the past), three of the items were makeup from what has now become an overtired brand, and the other two looked cheap and blah. Immediately upon seeing the spoilers, I put up an entire box for swap – as well as all the items from the second box. Once I got my box, however, I had second thoughts. I ended up enjoying most of the items from one of the boxes, though I did swap most of the items from the second one.
I paid $40 for the regular box and around $32 for the discounted box. The box had a total value of around $113 – using a realistic value for the pashmina -, and the value of the items I will use is around $80. The only thing in the box that I would have bought on my own, however, was the atomizer – and I don’t think I’d pay more than $15 for it.
This is what I got:
A Pashmina, $32 ($10)
This is an unbranded pashmina of unknown fabric. It says 100% pashmina, which is pretty much a guarantee that it’s 100% polyester – the term “pashmina” is not regulated, so you can use it to describe anything, including a lamp. The pashmina does not have a tag indicating what it’s made of, in violation of US federal law.
Pashminas were sent in a variety of colors, I’m guessing I got “soft cream” in one box and “amethyst orchid” in another one. I didn’t take them out, as I plan to swap both of them, but they seem pretty generic. LLB priced them at $32, but you can get comparable pashminas for $8.
Travalo Skyline Refillable Spray, $25
This was, by far, my favorite item in the box. It’s a travel-size (or even purse size) perfume atomizer that has a mechanism that allows it to be filled from other perfume bottles with spray pumps. Basically, you just remove the spray button from your perfume bottle, place the bottom of this atomizer in the little tube where the spray button was, pump a few times and it’s filled. It’s a great way to take along your favorite perfume without having to buy a purse-size bottle of it. I tried it already, it was very easy to fill and works great.
The spray bottle is also absolutely gorgeous. I got two silver ones, but they also sent out a pink one. The spray bottles were designed by Hong Kong designer Millicent Lai and were produced originally to be sold in duty free shops and airline magazines, where they were set to retail for $40. I found them listed in a couple of airline magazines from 2013, but the product seems to have been a bust. One problem may be that photographs don’t quite show how nice the bottles are, but it may also be that people who are willing to pay $40 for this, don’t think twice about spending $25 in a rollerball of their favorite perfume. Travalo now sells a slightly smaller, not-as-fancy spray for around $10.
I’m keeping both to these, however, and I will try to swap for one in pink.
Ofra Absolute Cover Face Primer, 1 oz, $35
I’d never used primer before and I’d never have bought a $35 one, but given that I had two of them, I decided to keep one and try it. It certainly does a good job of smoothing the face and preparing it for makeup. I don’t wear makeup very often, but I’ll try it next time I do. It’s made in the USA.
Ofra Eye Gel Primer, 8 g, $19.5
I’ve never used eye primer before, but this one gets good reviews. It definitely smoothes out your eyelid and apparently does help eye shadow stay longer. I’ll try it on my kids this Halloween. It’s made in the USA (I think).
I kept just one of this, and swapped the other one for a perfume mini and a lip balm.
Ofra Long Lasting Liquid Lipstick, 8g, $20
These were sent in one of two colors: Rio (a pale pink/coral) and Santa Ana (a light burgundy) and I got a different color in each of my two boxes. None of the colors are for me, and I’ve already passed on more than enough lip glosses/sticks/etc to my kids, so I’ll be swapping both of these.
Tea Forte sample, in lemon sorbetti $1
I absolutely loved the packaging of this tea. Inside is just a tea pyramid with a little paper leaf at the top of the string. There is definite overpackaging going on here, but at $1 a tea bag this is not every day tea. Unfortunately, the tea bags are made of plastic and are not compostable. They say that the plastic fibers are recyclable, but opening the used tea bag took some time and the use of a knife, and I am not sure that our recycling company will actually recycle the bag. I doubt many people will go through the trouble of opening them.
The lemon sorbetti was a nice flavor, but I didn’t fall in love with it. I think it could have been more lemony and bright.
I appreciate that while the tea is from China, the company does extensive third party testing on their teas and they assure compliance with California Prop 65.
Tea Forte minteas mints, .81 oz, $3
This seems to be a discontinued product. They are no longer available on the Tea Fore website, and the last review on Amazon.com was from 2013. Still, the mints don’t expire until the end of 2016. These came in different flavors and I got the matcha chai in one box and the lime mojito in another. The former had a very strong and spicy artificial cinnamon flavor which I had to spit out. Nobody else tried more than one. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the other package. They are also made in China.