Picture the scene. It’s a drizzly Friday in September. You hear a rap at the door, and there, in a glorious monogrammed cardboard box is something that will completely brighten your day, the Glossy Box.

Ease open the outer casing, and inside you will find a perfectly darling pale pink box. Remove the lid…there, nestled under ribbon ties and a layer of tissue, are 5 samples of new products on the beauty market. Not feeling convinced? Read on.

Glossy Box – a beauty bundle

Glossy Box is part of a fairly recent phenomenon. After all, what with us still being in the depths of a recession, buying high end beauty products isn’t top of anyone’s list. So this sampling system works perfectly. You simply subscribe, with no knowledge of what you’ll get, then after completely forgetting you ordered the thing in the first place (like me), you’ll get a very pleasant surprise indeed. Boxes are £10 a month, with a £2.95 postage charge. It’s difficult to review the Glossy Box as obviously you get a different one every month, but I’ll give you an idea of the service and a quick skim of what I got, in the hope that it’ll tickle your fancy.

‘Samples’ is actually a misleading title. Glossy Box got a lot of press for their brainstorming first box back in May, which contained a full sized Nars Orgasm illuminator (market value £21.50). From previous posts, it seems that you tend to get a full sized product in every box, plus several other generous offerings. The details inside the pack informed me that this box consisted of ‘Future Classics’. Excited, I pushed apart the tissue to reveal a full sized HD Brows palette (retails at £19.99), full sized ‘Glow: Super Shine Spray’ from Neal & Wolf (retails at £11.95), two sachets of Dead Sea Spa Magik salt brushing scrub, a mini pot of Moa’s ‘Green balm’, and a sample of ‘Plum’, a perfume by Mary Greenwell.

First impressions

The HD Brows palette is genius. I love that it can be used on brows, eyelids and as eyeliner, but it’s still small enough to pop into the teeniest of clutch bags. It definitely earns the right to be dubbed as a ‘future classic’, and has garnered a lot of well deserved press coverage already.

The Dead Sea Spa Magik salt brushing scrub has long been part of my little coterie of ‘must have’ products. A delicious combination of chunky sea salt, coconut oil and Vitamin E, this will make you feel absolutely reborn. Just be sure to shake the packet up first.

Neal & Wolf Super Shine Spray is luxurious and an utter delight to use. I was amazed to see the difference instantly. Getting a shine on my poor, abused hair is a miracle, but this product achieved it.

MOA Green Balm intrigued me. I love multi-tasking products, and this can do everything from cleanse your face to heal burns. It’s all natural, and feels light as air on the skin.

Plum by Mary Greenwell got mixed reviews, as I know some people felt it was perhaps a little heavy for them, but scent is so subjective. The second I saw it was a chypre, I knew I was onto a winner. I adore scents like Agent Provocateur – slightly powdery but with depth. I adored this. It had a flash of fruit, and wore beautifully.

So that’s the Glossy Box, folks! For £12.95 a month, I really don’t think you can go wrong. Even if you don’t like some products in the box, you can gift them to other people, who will doubtless be chuffed. I paid for this myself, and was not asked to review it, so these are my genuine reactions to the Box. Find out more at www.glossybox.co.uk.