Allure Beauty Box or AIA or New Beauty Test Tube?

Member Discussion Question
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#1

OK y’all, so I’ve subscribed to Boxycharm and Ipsy Glam Bag Plus for years. I’ve loved them both so much for many reasons…I love full size products, that’s huge for me and I get that with both subscriptions. I love Boxycharm’s add on sale (aka drop sale), I think it’s hands down the best out there. And I love being able to choose 4 of the 6 products from Ipsy. I like skincare AND makeup…but skincare a little bit more. And both boxes give me pretty good mixes.

That said, ever since Ipsy bought Boxy, I’ve been getting near identical products in each box every month. I’ve literally received 6 bottles of hyaluronic acid serums in the past 3 months from them…different brands but still.

So I’ve decided to cancel one of them (probably Ipsy) and go with either Allure, AIA, or New Beauty Test Tube. I’d really love feedback on these sub boxes. I tried Glossybox 9 months ago and it was the worst experience I’ve ever had​:pleading_face: So I don’t want a repeat experience with my next sub box :grin:

I have a friend who swears by AIA, but I’m not a fan of the idea of receiving items from 1 brand each month. Like if I dislike the line, the whole box is a bust, you know?

So what are y’alls opinions on Allure, AIA, and New Beauty Test Tube? Tia :purple_heart::purple_heart::purple_heart:

3 Likes
#2

Of the 3 I’ve only subscribed to Allure, so that’s the only one I can comment on. Back when Allure was $15/month it was, IMHO, a great box and I loved it. I didn’t always love everything in it, but that’s the nature of subscription boxes, and I felt it was well worth the $15. When they increased the price to $23/month, they promised lots of big improvements. Just before the increase, they offered - and I took - a lock-in price for an annual at the old annual pricing, which basically translated to $13.75/month. I figured hey, I loved the box at $15/month, surely I’d love it at $13.75/month, right? Whelp, for me it didn’t play out that way. Again, just my opinion, but I felt like the quality of the boxes went downhill when the price went up. I was finding more and more that the products were what I would consider mediocre and/or weren’t of interest to me. So I ended up skipping a lot of boxes (3 in a row at one point) - that is a nice thing about Allure, that you can skip boxes, but it just further extended my sub and TBH right now I’m just ready to be done with it, so if there’s anything in the box I like, I’m not skipping at this point.

Full disclosure, I am pretty overloaded with product so that may be impacting my viewpoint. My expectations may be higher as well now that it’s $23, but that would be completely subconscious since I know I’m only paying $13.75, and consciously that’s my reference point.

BTW, the box is 3 full sized products (but typically at least one of them is an iffy one - think black eyeliner, or cheapy lash curler) and then 3 (I think) additional products as deluxe samples.

I will say that more recently, I’ve felt Allure has stepped it up a bit with the boxes. Still not enough to get me to continue my subscription, though. You can subscribe to Allure through Amazon, where it’s super easy to cancel and re-sub, so after my annual is up, if I ever see a “must have” box, I plan to grab it through Amazon. There’s a risk of repeats there (everyone going through Amazon gets the same box, whereas if there is a “this or that” product in the box that month, going directly through Allure you allegedly don’t get repeats of things you’ve previously received in prior boxes - although I did once). But for the convenience in doing one-off box via Amazon, I can accept a possible repeat.

Ok, and that brings us to the end of my novella…

2 Likes
#3

Wow your reply is EXACTLY what I was hoping for! LOVE all the info! And super interesting about the Amazon option :star_struck: And I really like that you can skip months! I’m super intrigued with this month’s allure box simply for the Sunday Riley eye serum! Plus there’s a coupon that would drop the cost to $13 for the first month. But I will say that it would sting a bit paying $23 for a mix of full and deluxe sample size products, when ipsy gives all full size plus you can choose 4 of the 6. But you’re :100: right in that it’s just the nature of a sub box to get a “meh” product product or 2.

I’m sorry you had some salty experience with allure though. I can relate with my glossybox experience. It was the same in that you got a combo of full size and deluxe samples. But of the 3 months I was a member, my box was shorted 1 of the full size products each time, and 1 of the deluxe samples. And they didn’t replace the full size products, just the deluxe. Instead they gave me a $5 credit for the full size. So I was paying almost $30/mo for 1 full size product, and the rest deluxe. Plus not once did I receive the products that we’re featured. I got a combo of 1 or 2 featured, and the rest were whatever random products they had laying around. Finally when I received a duplicate full size product 2 months in a row, and I was done. Or so I thought. Bc they continued charging me for 2 months AFTER I cancelled, and refused to let me return the UNOPENED box for my money back. It was a nightmare.

1 Like
#4

OMG - Glossybox CS is the WORST. I subbed a while ago and cancelled (on time under their terms), and still got charged.for a renewal… it was a whole ridiculous long story, but I ended up having to go through my credit card to contest the charge, which was reversed, but then “un-reversed” because I was shipped a box under my new subscription (which I had been, but I didn’t ask for it, that was their fault), and at that point my credit card company couldn’t help anymore because “proof” had been given that my order had been fulfilled. :woman_facepalming:t2: It took me MONTHS to get it resolved, it was horrible. The box itself, when you get it on a good discount (I think I got mine for like $10/box), is ok, but sooooo not worth it because of their horrible CS. So I feel your pain!

#5

How Glossybox is in business is beyond me. That’s similar to what I dealt with trying to cancel. And I forgot to mention the $5.40 credit they gave me was to Lookfantastic, their own affiliated store. There’s not a single product you can buy for that. Plus it’s $6 for shipping.

So basically I had to spend more money just to use the “credit.” I tried buying a pack of invisibobbles that were on sale for $6.70 (originally $8.30). AFTER I applied my whopping $5.40 credit, I still owed $8.54!! Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll take the loss :rage: with a side of lesson learned :woman_shrugging:t3:

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#6

BTW - in case you didn’t know. The Hut Group (THG) owns Glossybox and Lookfantastic. THG recently (maybe a year ago?) bought out Dermstore, and ever since then BeautyFix has gone way downhill.

1 Like
#7

@jaqhurleyrn I have been buying NBTT for a few years. It used to have really high end items and then these last two years things changed. I am still salty for them including Vagisil bath bombs! They seem to have changed things up without changing the marketing of the tube. I do like that it is every other month. I think it would be good to try out because it does have full size and high value.
Allure was great for me as well but then these past two years things changed. I don’t like the price increase either.
If you don’t have tons of products like I do I think both would be a good fit.
A1A is one I always put in the cart but never have gotten. It’s just so many items from one brand. Most times I like my samples to play around or decide if it’s worth full size.
I hope this helps you.
My other thought is all boxes have changed due to the world crisis these past two years.

#8

All of the above! :joy:

I subscribe to all three. If I had to pick one it would be Allure. It has a nice variety of high quality products at the lowest price of the three. Just last month everyone got a full size Sunday Riley Eye Cream valued at $65.

AIA is nice too if you like the brand they feature each month. It reminds me of Trendmood but less expensive. The January box featured Naturium products. This month is Jason Wu. I don’t like the lip colors they are sending but there’s always one or two products I end up liking that make it worth it.

New Beauty is similar to Allure but costs more and only ships every other month. On some Fridays, they have a “freebie” you can get by paying $11 shipping. The freebies are hit or miss. Sometimes older products but never expired.

Here are my latest of the 3:

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2 Likes
#9

If you’re looking to really build a skincare/makeup/haircare collection, AIA. If you’re looking to try some higher end products mixed in with drugstore or “filler” products, allure. I agree that the past few allure months have been way better than the previous year.

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#10

I have subscribed to all three, allure, AIA, And Test Tube… Personally I would hold onto Allure. In my opinion and from my experience, Allure is always great brands that are familiar and most of the time includes brands and products that I’ve been dying to try And thrilled when I receive. Test Tube is nice but a little on the pricier side, usually a lot of brands that I’m unfamiliar with, and always seems full of really random products… And on a lighter note, It’s always so dang hard to get everything back in those test tubes and I’m like “I know it all fits because they had all of the items in there to start so what the heck?!” Haha. Seems like a nonsense problem and it is but I we’re nitpicking…

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#11

In case anyone is looking for more info about Test Tube, Taryn’s January review went up yesterday:

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#12

I subscribe to all three and they’re all different, so it depends on what you want. AIA has been hit or miss, depending on the brand featured each month. The Herbivore box was one of the best boxes I’ve ever gotten. Some of the others have been, well, less impressive. When they promise a value of at least $100 and the total is $101 of stuff I can buy at Target, in colors I can’t wear, I feel like I’m just not getting that much value. Test Tube has some amazing items, and lately, some disappointing stuff as well (vag deodorant, armpit soap, the aforementioned Vagisil bath bomb.) I’d rather have fewer high-quality items than this stuff that I can’t even give away. I mean, SOAP JUST FOR MY ARMPITS? I just can’t. I love Allure, but if I were you I would sign up through Amazon for now to see how you like it, and then, if you do, grab an annual subscription when they’re discounted, which happens a couple times a year. The January box was an amazing value, but I tend to get at least $20 worth of value from each box, and I’m still paying $16 per box because they offered me the old price to stay a subscriber. Worst case, I give the leftovers to my niece. Even she passed on the pit soap, though.