Weekly Poll: Discontinued products in beauty boxes? | Hello Pretty Bird! - A beauty and not-so-glamorous lifestyle blog

29 January, 2014

Weekly Poll: Discontinued products in beauty boxes?

So in case you hadn't noticed, I'm officially back from my blogging break. You can stop panicking now. I know these past few days have been difficult.


This week's poll topic was inspired by a couple of posts on other blogs I read recently. To make a long story short, it seems that some beauty subscription boxes are sending out discontinued items alongside the newer stuff. For a couple of examples, check out this Boxycharm review by My Subscription Addiction and this Wantable review by Brightest Bulb In The Box. I'm reserving judgment about the "mold" pictured in that second review because I have no way of verifying whether or not it is actually mold, (Wantable claims it isn't on their blog), but it seems to be a discontinued product at the very least. So here's my question for you:


Is it OK for beauty boxes to send out discontinued products?


I'm  not entirely certain how I feel about this. It seems there are two basic models for beauty subscription boxes: Number one, a box consisting of small samples for discovery purposes (like Birchbox), and number two being value-for-money (like Wantable, where you pay $36 for a bunch of full-sized products that supposedly have a much higher retail value). Obviously it makes no sense to send out discontinued stuff in a discovery box, but with a value-for-money box? I don't know. I guess it depends partially on what the items are (a discontinued makeup brush still has value and doesn't "expire", for example), and how old they are (a nail polish that's a season old might be OK, but one that's several years old might be dried out). But at the same time, I think I would end up being annoyed if I liked one of the discontinued items I got in the box and couldn't buy it anywhere.

What do you think? Would you be OK receiving discontinued products in your beauty boxes some of the time if they were still usable?

9 comments:

  1. Hm... no. I'd be a bit annoyed as well if I found out the product I really liked was a discontinued one. Plus no matter what it's always possible for the product to be expired or near expiration. Oh but if it's not something that could possibly expire, like a brush, then I guess that would be okay.

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  2. From what I can tell the old items are from at least a previous season, so it's not like they were discontinued right after the boxes were sent out. Beauty boxes have their merits, but I can understand why someone would want to know for sure what they were getting in advance. :)

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  3. That's a good point... unless the product has the date of manufacture stamped on it it can be difficult to tell how old something actually is. Some cosmetics don't really "expire" in the sense that they get moldy or smelly, but after a while they will harden or separate which obviously makes them unusable.

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  4. Hmmm....only if it was like a makeup brush or tool! i would be annoyed if it was a beauty makeup product that I could not repurchase if i loved it or if it was an expired product.

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  5. Shalunya TheChronicBeautyJanuary 29, 2014 at 9:53 PM

    This is such a tough subject. I would think that companies working with the subscription boxes would want to promote current products since so many bloggers subscribe which is basically free publicity for them. We all know that bloggers can influence purchases so I would think manufacturers would want to play into that by providing current products that everyone can purchase.

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  6. Agreed! Even if the product isn't expired, I would want to buy more of it if I liked it.

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  7. I completely agree and think that's really logical. This is just a wild guess, but I wonder if it happens sometimes because newer subscription box companies have trouble hooking up with the bigger brands... closeout items would probably be a more cost-effective way to fill out a box.

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  8. No. I don't approve of the practice. I have received plenty of discontinued or out of date products (I juggle about 20 subscriptions at any given time) that are perfectly fine, but it cheapens the reputation of the subscription box. It does the subscription company a great disservice - it's a bad business move.

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  9. Well, to be fair discontinued doesn't always = expired. But I agree, it is detrimental to the box's reputation. There are so many subscription options now that a box has to be really good to survive, and I'm not sure that offering a bunch of discontinued products at a low price is the best way to be competitive...

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