Pakistan's Beauty Subscription Services Comparison
3:23 PM
Hello Beautiful!
Beauty Box/Mystery
Box by Beauty Enhancers
This Sub service happens to be
another fish in the pond. I would classify this one to be suitable for tweens,
teens and beginners. Style Me
Box offers a unique combination of jewelry and makeup products but all drug
store. What I would admire about them is the way they marketed themselves. They
came up with a very serious, professional looking, no bullshit website, quick cash
on delivery services and a good-looking box. The lacking factors were low
quality of the box, misleading information and thinking their customers to be
fools with no knowledge of prices. By misleading information, I mean, they
would show an amazing Box containing Colorpop and Soap and Glory items and some
nice jewelry and would implant in your head that you might get these items in
your box. On inquiring, these boxes were always sold out and funny thing, I
never saw anyone sharing images or feedback of happily receiving such boxes.
All people used to get was drug store makeup items and jewelry. The most off-putting
thing was giving the customers the impression that they are saving multiples of
money by mentioning very high prices of items when we all know how much
drugstore items actually cost.
Black Bag
I recently did a guest blog post for another blog discussing the Beauty Subscription services available in Pakistan. I am posting the same post on my blog for readers. Its a lengthy in detail review of each Beauty sub service, I had the chance of trying. Enjoy!
Beauty Subscription Services in Pakistan |
The recent Subscription Service
fad in Pakistan has taken us by storm. In the past 2.5 years, I have had my
fair share of Beauty Sub services; some good, some bad. Purpose of my post is
to compare these Sub services and help my readers make wise decisions when
opting for any Beauty Subscription Service. My opinions may vary from your
depending upon my taste and likings, I have tried to stay as objective as I
can. Hopefully this post will serve as a benchmark before subscribing to any
service. Let’s start off with the very first box I tried.
ST Effects Box
ST Effect Box by The Brand Hub |
So the Sub service began with The
Brand Hub’s “ST Effects Box”. It’s safe to say that Sarah Tariq of Brand Hub is
our Subscription Momma as she introduced the concept of Sub service in
Pakistan. The service began with 3-4 full sized items and a deluxe sized item
for Rs. 1500 as Subscription box cost and Rs. 300 as delivery charges as introductory
price. The very next month the price of the box was increased to Rs. 2000 with
additional Rs. 300 as delivery charges. Since the concept of Sub service was
fairly new, ST Effects Box was by far my most favorite Sub service due to its
specially designed box, a proper service name and the presentation skills. I
subscribed to it for a few months, ST Effects Box was afterwards made exclusive
for members only. People who become members of Brand Hub by paying Rs. 5000
valid for 2 years are the only ones who can subscribe to ST Effects Box. This
membership does not limit you to sub service only it offers you a lot of
discounts, surprise birthday gifts and a special bridal gift if you are getting
married. Since I am not a member I am not sure how it’s going and neither I
have seen any pictures being shared by people. However, I have heard it’s still
functional. You can inquire about the details of it from The Brand Hub’s
Facebook page.
Mystery Bag/ Beauty Box by Beauty Enhancers |
When Sara Tariq came up with her
ST Effects Box, a lot of Facebook stores copied her idea and started off with
their own Sub services. Beauty Enhancers claims to have started off with the
Sub idea before Sarah Tariq. It may be true but in any case, it didn’t get much
attention and only became known after ST Effects Box. My main emphasis here
would be, “Naqal kay liye Aqal ki bhi zroorat hoti ha” (you need brains to even
copy an idea). With slight changes to the Sub service concept all boarded the
band wagon without considering how much thought and effort goes into the
process. Same is the case with Beauty Enhancers Beauty box. This has to be the
most thoughtless Sub service in my opinion. The name does not even represent the
service. Each time I subscribed to this service, the presentation left me
disappointed. For starters, the items came in a pouch and not a box. The
pouches were not customized, it was like the owner had a few extra makeup
pouches bought at a flee store and decided to use them for Sub service. Upon
asking I was told, she ran out of boxes. For someone who had begun a new
service and was building customer ship, one should have been making more
effort. This wasn’t something one does with a first-time customer. This
happened the second time as well. I got my items in Emirates men’s shaving bag.
Also, the items were not value for money. The service went by posting a picture
of couple of items available to go into Sub boxes. The items were chosen on
first come first serve basis. So if an item had been chosen already, one had to
opt for some other item. This allowed a person to choose at least 1 item of personal
choice and the remaining items were added by owner’s choice. The 3 to 4 items
additional was also a miscommunication.
The service was then changed to
Mystery box where the prices were reduced to Rs. 1000 and Rs. 1500. Again the
bag turned out to be a disappointment with a lot of miscommittment on the
seller’s part. Hence, I stopped opting for this service and also suggest others
not to opt for it. You can check their Facebook store by clicking on this link.
Beauty Bar by Beauty
Broadway
Beauty Bar by Beauty Broadway |
In January 2015, another Sub
service started by the name of Beauty Bar. Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of
Sub services started around this time with slight variations in their ideas.
Beauty Bar was a Sub service for deluxe sized items only. There were 5 to 6
deluxe sized items for Rs. 1500 inclusive of delivery charges and 3 to 4 items
inclusive of delivery charges for Rs. 1000. This service allowed you to
experience new and upcoming products and existing ones without having to spend
huge amounts on full sized items. I was pretty okay with the products and price
but the only off setting thing was 1-time usable samples. As a blogger or a
layman, it’s hard to judge the performance of a product with single use.
The service was then modified
into Mystery boxes and Beauty Bags. I found it to be quite confusing since there
wasn’t a pattern to this service. There were some mystery bags that had
different items but also there were some boxes and each box was priced
differently and contained different array of products. To me it gave the
impression as if the seller was only trying to get rid of the products by
selling them quickly in the form of mystery boxes. But the items were mostly
worth the splurge. So no complains here. You can inquire about Beauty Broadway’s Mystery
Boxes by inboxing them on their Facebook store.
Glam Bag by Infinity
Glam Bag by Infinity |
Glam bag in my opinion is
inspired by Ipsy. Even the service name is same and also the design. Glam bag
costs Rs. 2600 inclusive of delivery charges and includes 3 to 4 full sized
items with 1 to 2 deluxe sized items. For the price, the service is worth the
money. I availed Glam bag twice and both the times my experience was pleasant.
I appreciate how all items were usable and none of the times they had weird
shades in lipsticks. Many services place clearance stock items or weird shades
which do not suit Asian/desi skin tones but this is not the case with Glam Bag.
For Rs. 2600 you get value for money products which you actually get to use.
One of the items will be from a high end brand while all others will be
drugstore.
The only thing that disappointed
me with Glam Bag is slight lack of professionalism on Store owner’s part. You
really need to make an effort to get her to respond and most of the times, Glam
Bag isn’t advertised on their Facebook page. A lot of people might not even
know this service exists. I believe the page owner needs to put more effort
into being more active on Facebook. You can get in touch with Infinity by
clicking on this link.
Style Me Box
Style Me Box |
I subscribed to this service
twice only as the makeup items were entirely useless for me. However, the jewelry
items were really nice both the times. I did not find value for money with this
box for Rs 2700. I think this Sub service has vanished as I have not seen any
updates or posts on Facebook account. If they are active, well good for them.
Glam Bag by Brand
Empires
Glam Bag by Brand Empires |
This has to be the worst Sub service in the history of Man
kind. The items I received in my Glam Bags were a disgrace and
humiliating. I subscribed to this
service twice and both the times the items were worth way less than the cost.
The woman needs to learn the Business basics and Makeup terminologies. Her
concepts about High end brands and how a sub service works is way off and from
some other planet. I wasted almost Rs. 9000 in total for both the Glam Bags
while the items were somewhere around Rs. 3000 to Rs. 4000. Brand Empires is an
Instagram store and that’s where she run her Sub service as well. There is no
consistency in her Sub service. The price of the Glam Bag keeps fluctuating
each time and is dependent on what items she has included in your bag. The
items tend to be crappy and mostly freebies collected at hotels and such or
high end deluxe items that come free with certain amount of shopping. Rest of
the items are all drugstore and not worth the money. I suggest you run far away
from this one and delete it from your memory as well. You can check her
Instagram store if you are that daring. She runs her story by the name of Brand.Empires.
Black Bag |
Black
Bag is a prime example of staring something without thinking it through.
The service started off nicely and professionally and went good for about 2
months before landing flat. There were so many things wrong with this one. One,
Black Bag being the name, the items used to come in a thin cardboard fragile
box. Two, the delivery charges to same city were as high as Rs. 300 and
moreover each time the delivery guy wanted to charges Rs. 100 extra as a
commission for himself for delivering the items. I got the chance of
subscribing to this service twice. I was very pleased the first time since the
items were worth way more than Rs. 2300 and also it provided the opportunity to
try new and unheard brands. The second time I was blue with disappointment. The
items were all substandard and senselessly gathered and were worth way less
than Rs. 2300. The customer services was very shitty as no one picked up the
phone call or bothered responding to messages on Facebook. This service has
closed down for the good and you won’t find them on Social media any longer.
GlowyBox
Glowy Box |
Glowybox,
I believe was introduced somewhere around December 2016. May I say, its by far
the most professional and proper Sub service. They are professional to the core
with prompt services, unique items and value for money. The design,
presentation and creativity is outstanding. The box quality and paraphernalia it
contains is simply beautiful. Each month you get to experience new and unheard
brand products with some high end and well-known brands. Moreover, they keep
releasing teasers on social media of what might be included in the box so you
get to decide if you want to opt for the box or not based on your likeness of
items. For Rs. 3000 inclusive of delivery charges, this service is worth every
penny. Did I mention, the box is perfect for reuse? Use it as a gift box for
birthdays, weddings or even to store tid bits.
Cosmetic Candy Beauty
Box
Cosmetic Candy Silver Box |
Cosmetic Candy Beauty box is a
subscription service started by a Facebook store by the name of Cosmetic Candy.
It started in March and so far they have only managed to deliver 3 boxes.
Cosmetic Candy box is of 3 types:
1. Silver
Box (Rs. 3000)
2. Gold
Box (Rs. 5000)
3. Black
Box (Rs. 7000)
Silver Box contains 6 to 8 drug
store items. Gold box contains a mixture of drug store and high-end brands
while the Black box contains mostly high-end brands and full sized items. The
basic items remain the same in each box. More items are added depending upon
the box type which means, the Black beauty box subscriber will get all items of
a Silver box, Gold Box and will additionally get full sized items of high-end
brands.
I actually want to rate this
service as second best so far in the league of Subscription boxes but sadly
they are not consistent. From March till now they have only managed to hand out
3 month’s boxes out of 5. I like how well thought the product combination is
each time. I loved my first box and found my second box to be average but still
would opt for the next box whenever they open up orders.
Glam Box by
Just4girls
Glam Bag by Just4girls.pk |
Just4girls.pk has now become a
household name over the years. Anyone living in Pakistan who happens to be a
Makeup lover is aware of this website. It is THE place to buy cosmetics and one
of the pioneers to introduce the concept of online makeup shopping portal. Some
months back they also introduced their Subscription Service by the name of Glam
Box. I was thrilled to hear this news and quickly subscribed to their first
box.
My take on their service is, for
a professional Business you have become a Brand name now, I expected a way
better presentation by you people. I was disappointed with your choice of Box
quality and the art work. It was not professional at all considering the
magnitude of your Business and years in market. The black and red box with
antique gold colored inscription looked half-heartedly done. The box lacked
finishing and the wrapping was a dud. Come on guys, you can do better. The second
box which happened to be the Eid Special box was a torture to the eyes with its
royal blue color, messy finishing and haphazard placement of items. It looked
so tacky that I have fallen short of words to express my disappointment.
Coming to the items in the box, I
like what I received but I am not awed in anyway. I am unable to pin point what
exactly is wrong with the items but they just failed to thrill me both times.
For Rs. 3000 I’ll say the box is worth the money. But they need to work on
quality of their boxes. I would suggest opting for a new vendor.
Ignite Box
Ignite Box |
Oh man I don’t even know where to
begin with this one. As much as the box was value for money the service was a
huge disappointment. I waited for more than two months to receive my box. The
owner of this service is very unprofessional and unable to meet her
commitments. Her Snap chat is full of apologies she keeps throwing to her
customers for delays. Also, I believe she needs to streamline her operations as
there is a logistics company problem, moreover, she needs to keep a track of
her orders. She suffers from bad memory and poor accounting skills which hinder
her from recalling who ordered what and when. There are 2 types of Ignite
boxes:
1. Smart
Box (Rs. 5500)
2. Spoilt
Box (Rs. 11,000)
Smart Box is a low cost option
for people on budget while Spoilt Box is for people who like to indulge in high
end brands.
I had only opted once for a Smart
Box and once was enough for me to last a life time. I would never opt for this
service because of extreme unprofessionalism of the service provider. Also, the
service provider isn’t consistent with the service. It was discontinued for
quite some months and almost 3 months back I received an email that the service
is available again with a hike in prices, starting at Rs. 8,500 and also the
products are pre-informed to buyers. However I have seen no updates further on Ignite Box Instagram account,
probably no one bothered ordering.
This was my analysis of the
Subscription services trending in Pakistan. If I have missed any, do let me
know I would love to try some new ones. My closing remarks would be, there are
a lot of fish in the pond. We are all different and have different expectations
and requirements. Some might agree with my opinion and some might not. I have
tried my best to stay as neutral as possible and analyze them with one criteria
i.e. Products being value for money. Stay healthy and beautiful. xoxo!!!
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