Choix Subscription Box Review – July 2015

Thanks so much for your review! I ordered immediately as I’ve been wanting to try some high end orange lipsticks (I wore a Chanel orange lipstick in high school and when it was discontinued i bought more in Paris. now 30 years later, want to find an equivalent color. I’ve ordered three lipsticks, Dior foundation and Guerlein meteorites. Since they sell these products I’m sure it’s safe to presume the samples from testers are real. I’m totally afraid of trying on tester lipsticks in department stores, plus it’s so much work to counter hop looking for colors.
I can’t wait!!

My question is does this company have permission from these other companies to repackage their products into samples like this? i don’t know if they need permission but alot of high end companies like chanel and dior are super picky about what samples they give out and to whom

Great idea but terrible execution. Not only do you have to trust that they are being sanitary but you also have to trust that you are actually getting what they say you are. Anyone can put say Cover Girl powder in a jar and call it Chanel. And even if it’s authentic product how is the consumer to know how old it is without an expiration date? Gross. Definitely passing on this.

Seems like this might be easiest for liquid foundations or glosses something like the pearls. Seems like a pain for lipsticks etc.

I actually think I’ll sign up for this, for maybe a month or two. They have great brands and really seem to emphasize hygiene so I’ll trust them with making samples. Their points system is hardly a selling point, though, since it’s a maximum $15 off a minimum $50 purchase. Celicia (or anyone else who knows), do they require you to pick something from each category, like eyes, face, lips, or can I pick 5 different lipsticks if I wanted?

There’s certainly a way to make these samples sanitary. Use gloves, use fresh utensils when spooning out/cutting, pouring, etc the samples. It’s just a matter of confirming that they always use them.

They do address the hygiene issue in their FAQ. We just have to decide if we believe them. I’m inclined to, but I tend to be trusting. 🙂

(Meanwhile, I must be excited about this, as I have now commented 3 frigging times. Lol.)

Oh! And I’m with everyone on enjoying reading your reviews! 😀

Okay, those are some SERIOUS brands!! Cle de Peau?? NICE!

This of course reminds me of the free samples Sephora will make for you- but not all of these brands are available there. They don’t carry Cle de Peau at all -or, I think, Ellis Faas. I believe they carry Channel and D&G, but the selection is limited. I know they carry Meteorites, but I’m not sure they’ll give you some balls (heh).

Also, this could relieve the sanitary issues of many Sephora hand-made samples. It’s not uncommon to see people just dipping their hands into jars or putting mascara wands back into the tubes. No. Thank. You. Also, I’m pretty sure they can’t send you home with a sample of any pressed powder product.

If we can establish that the samples from this sub are indeed clean, this seems like a GREAT option to try these brands! I’m excited!! 😀

I was dying to see the weight so I could do a price comparison myself because it was not included. I was dying to ditch Glossy finally and replace it with this sub, I love high end beauty products, my wallet might not, but I do 🙂 lol And the concept is great, choose what you want, get points & [limited] discount (not found of only getting $15 off, but better than nothing!).

However, the execution seems totally flawed. I am not really a fan of someone handling stuff that is eventually going to go on my face! I don’t know if we all are germaphobes or just have common sense! I cannot explain why subscription has gone up so fast (maybe they’re lying? If something seems like the next hottest thing and everybody is signing up, herd mentality basically. That’s my only reasonable conclusion!! Jk)

If I can get over a few of these issues, if love to try this box. I know those peals are like magic and last a while. And I let they cut the lip liners up and then sharpen one end so you have a mini lip liner. But not being able to really use the mascara is pretty bad.

What would I do without all these wonderful MSA reviews?! Thank you & sorry this was long!!

I tried Choix for a few months to try out some of the products I can’t find easily here. For those who are unsure, they make the samples themselves from full sized products. For things like pressed samples, they will re-press them into the sample jar. Lipstick samples are slices of the actual lipstick bullet in jars. I quit Choix after I was able to sample all of the products that I was interested in. I did end up buying a Kevyn Aucoin pressed highlighter from them one time when they had offered a $10 credit each month. The item I received was indeed an authentic product.

I would recommend them IF you do not have access to most of the brands they carry and you really want to try out a certain item. I highly recommend trying Cle de Peau products if you can’t find them locally. Everything I’ve been able to sample from them has always been of amazing quality.

Does anyone know of a sampling service where you can choose your samples like choix, but unlike choix the samples are the packaged deluxe samples you get from ipsu, birchbox, etc and they tell you the size of the sample. I would love it if I could choose advanced night repair, sea salt spray, rose water face tonic, argan oil for your face and Kate spade live colorfully perfume. That would be my dream pick of 5 delux samples and I would pay more for that then what I pay for the surprise assortment I get from ipsy. I actually have to accounts with ipsy with different customization quiz choices and I rarely get repeats. I like it a lot because I find the sizing of their samples usually fairly generous. If what I described isn’t out there, anyone who reads this amazing blog, thanks Liz and your partner reviewers – you do a great job, I bet if you can find a way to work out the logistics of sample choice, the business would stand out from the others.

I sort of get the concept, but I don’t really like the idea of someone handling things that I’m going to be putting on my face. I would much prefer a pre-packaged sample. Also, I don’t see how this can be feasible long term-I guess they have employees who literally cut chunks off of full-sized lipsticks? If I wasn’t a borderline germaphobe, I’d much rather save my $20 and visit my local Sephora or Blue Mercury and try out the samples there. Really enjoying your reviews, Celicia!

Comment

The printed labels make me question the authenticity of these products. If they’re authentic, why not use original packaging? Or list the full prices? It reminds me of the hair stores that sell “brand name” perfume samples but they’re totally labeled and aren’t in packing that seems remotely original.

I love the curls in the one picture. The owners of this box is smart in finding an unmet need in the beauty sub box market. There are many comments on blogs and forums about the inability to select products and more importantly shades. I like how they included the tools needed for application.

My concern is the same that others have voiced. I was shocked to see labels on the products. It begets the question how are they being repackaged? I did read the FAQ and saw they anticipated these concerns.

Your excitement comes across in the review. I can see why they are picking up tons of new subscribers. The pearls are beautiful.

I used Choix for a few months and unfortunately didn’t like it. The lipstick was hard to use because they just cut a chunk off and put it in a small pot. The blush was hard to use because it was in a tiny pot. The mascara was hard to use because of the issue you described. Also, there’s no way you’d be able to tell how the mascara really is because if you buy the mascara, it’ll have a different wand. The only things that were actually reasonably easy to use were the lipgloss, liquid foundation, and liquid eyeshadow. Just didn’t really seem like a good value to me.

I wish they would do a value breakdown themselves. The values you listed are for full size products. They don’t label the net weight of each sample they repackage, so it’s hard to know what the actual value of the samples is.

Also, I wonder how sanitary the repackaging process is.

I am so glad to see that these brands actually show up on brown skin. Sometimes its hard to tell from a computer screen and I never really looked into them since I wasn’t sure. Guerlin for instance I never would have thought would work for my my nc45. I only new the ef and cdp did from wayne goss and crystalis007 but had never actually read a review of them from someone of color.

why do they have printed labels and not the actual ones? Have they changed bottles?

This box looks interesting. Your reviews are always so much fun to read, Celicia! I love your sense of humor.