Last September was Saladbox's 4th Anniversary and they celebrated the special occasion by having another exclusive box with Benefit Cosmetics. Subscribers will get five samples of Benefit's best collections, hence the title "Best of Benefit". I think Benefit is a good brand so I was very eager to get my hands on this loot. Let's proceed, shall we? :)
Saladbox's New Packaging
The main Saladbox now has an outer box to protect it from damage. Some of my past boxes arrived smooshed and while the items inside are not affected, it made Saladbox a liiittle bit unpresentable. As you can see from the pic above, the new outer box took the shipping damage and left the main box and the items inside in pristine condition.
The Items Inside My Box
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| such a festive box - love the colors! |
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| Best of Benefit Greeting card and the Product list (click to read in full size) |
POREfesional Primer & POREfessional License to Blot
The first two samples came in this cute box. If there is one thing you can't fault Benefit items, it's their packaging! Just look at it! So adorable. |
| My first Choice in Saladbox's Sample Select |
"Benefit Porefessional Primer.
This translucent, oil-free primer quickly minizes the appearance of pores & fine lines for smoother-than-smooth skin!
Full Size: Php 1,700. Sample Value: Php 500"
This wonder with tiny invisible blottting spheres mattifies shine. The specially designed triangular tip targets shiny zones: sides of your nose, forehead, and chin. Oil has finally met its matte!
Full Size: Php 1,100. Sample Value: Php 500"
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| packaging is A+ |
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| they are so smol in real life |
That aside, I'm quite content to get both of these! I'm gonna test these items in the next few weeks so keep watch!
The Last Three Items In My Box
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| Front of the booklet The POREfessional - Your Secret Weapon Against Pores! |
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| The goodies inside the booklet |
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| Porefessional Instant Wipeout Mask This dual-sided face mask cleans and smooths out the look of pores around your nose, forehead, and cheeks. The specially textured fabric woven from cottony fibers helps exfoliate and remove pore impurities. Has mushroom extract known to clarify pores. Full size: Php 1,800. Sample Value: Php 400 |
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| Porefessional Matte Rescue This invisible-finish mattifying gel is like liquid blotting paper! Absorbs excess face oil in an instant! Perfect for oil "emergencies", we LOVE this product!Full Size: Php 1,600. Sample Value: Php 100 |
I won't even bother calculating prices. \_(ツ)_/¯ This little guy is 0.5 ML while the full size product is 50 ML. Lastly, I got...
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| another Porefessional Primer sample. This one is another single-use sample. "Full Size: Php 1,700. Sample value: Php 100" |
Anyway, this sample is 0.17 ML, it's a pea-sized amount. I read somewhere you really shouldn't need more than a pea- or raisin-sized dab to cover the entire face and neck.
My first impressions: this primer applies like a dream! It is so smooth and velvety. I can go on forever touching my face after applying this. It smoothed out my skin, filled in fine lines and made my pores look smaller. I like that it is very lightweight and isn't shiny at all. Seriously, I looked airbrushed after applying foundation and some setting powder! Another plus is I don't remember it having an unpleasant smell. It's the first time I've used this primer (or a primer honestly) so I'll try it again and hopefully, we'll see if my first impressions last.
No Benecash
A 500 php Benecash (a discount voucher redeemable in Benefit stores) is supposed to be included as a treat but it's nowhere to be found in my box. I'm not mad about it since I probably won't ever use it by expiry date but I'm still quite disappointed since it's the highlight of this box ("our gift to you... this box is practically free...", etcetera). Saladbox reached out and offered to send it to me but I declined. Well, at least they tried to make it right. *shrugs*Saladbox Misses
This is the 3rd box I got from my one-year subscription so I guess it's time to do some feedback? Here are a couple of things they could improve on:Inflated Sample Values - From Saladbox's list, my box is supposedly worth Php 1,600 (minus the Benecash). Benefit product prices are easily checked online. Using my own computations, my box has an estimate value of Php 930 (minus the Benecash). I think that's good enough and it's about twice of what I paid for! I can't think of any other reason why they'd inflate the sample values aside from trying to make the box value appear even higher. They didn't do this with their previous boxes. It's shady and makes Saladbox look dishonest. I mean.. Php 400 for the single wipeout mask? Really?
Delays in Shipping - My excitement kinda died because of the late delivery. It is a September box, I want to open it in September, not in October. They sent an email why this box is delayed - reason is because of the printing and production of some of their materials. I am actually okay with the old flimsy box and not-so-premium product cards if that means timely delivery. I just want my loot okay?
If you have subscribed earlier this year, they merged the May-June 2016 boxes into one so that they can change their delivery schedule. Saladbox promised they would get the beauty boxes delivered within the first two weeks of the month so that subscribers will get their boxes within the same month. What happened to that? October is ending in just a few days and still, there is no October box in sight. I guess we are back to square one? Late boxes again?
Do I sound like a mean, hateful, bitter old curmudgeon? Haha, maybe... but know that I'm only mentioning these because I only want the best for Saladbox, for myself and for the rest of the customers like me who trusted them. They have recently launched Saladbox Man (a box that caters to men) but if they want to expand and grow even more, they should improve their internal management first. Saladbox posted a mysterious teaser (and another one) on IG so I guess they have something special coming up soon. (Update: the teasers turned out to be their new Saladbox Premier and them moving to a new website)
I don't know what's going on inside their HQ but at the end of the day, from a customer's point of view, my only need is for them to deliver what I signed up for.
Verdict
I like the Benefit products in my box but the things mentioned I above mostly killed my hype. Overall, I feel so-so about this box.What do you think of this month's box? Which of the Benefit sets did you get? Comment down below!
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Check out Benefit Cosmetics: Facebook, Twitter, Website, Instagram
