It has been a while since we’ve seen one of these, at least, since I have seen one of these and I am not talking about seeing one in person, just you know, one being released. This previous phrase just turned into a confusing mess that should have never seen the light of day. You already know by now that I am awkward, don’t you? Plus with me not being a native English speaker, you are already in for a surprise, as it is impossible to predict which weird thing I will come up with next.
Before we get into the whole new M&S beauty bag, how do you type anything with long(ish) nails? I feel like I am misspelling every other word and have to go back and re-write it, except sometimes I do not spot the mistake which is why you might have seen more grammar mistakes than usual in my articles. Argh, it is so frustrating, but since I was too lazy to trim my nails and surprisingly they did not break so far, I let them grow way more than I normally do. By way more, I mean 4-5 mm, but that is a lot for me. I wanted to see how the other half lives, but so far, I am extremely confused about how people can survive when I am struggling with basic stuff. Please help me elucidate this mystery!
Okay, so now let’s go back to the Marks & Spencer Summer Beauty Bag.
I mentioned this a few times on here, but it has been a while so you might have missed it, it might have been before your time (reading this blog) or you might have ignore the articles all together for whatever reason, however I am a huge fan of Marks and Spencer. That has not changed. The store is a British staple, I guess we could say that the store is pretty much iconic and even better, it also employs (is this the word I am looking for?) good CSR practices. In English, it seems to care about sustainably and its employees and not just about the bottom line. However, you need to dig deep, really deep.
The store has been facing major issues regarding designs. No matter how many times they changed designers, they just do not seem to get it right. They are simply unable to compete with fast fashion retailers in terms of designs. They do not attract younger crowds which is an issue. Their stuff is high quality for the most part, I have T-shirts and essentials from them that lasted me years and by years I am talking 7+ years here. That is incredible. Those items still look brand new. However, that there is one issue. Okay, no, I am not talking about the items lasting years which could also be an issue for a retailer and a benefit to the customer, but about the fact that it is essentials the stuff I get from them. It is the cotton underwear, loungewear, tops etc that is worth purchasing from them. Sure, some of the office wear as well is actually pretty well made and whatnot, but if you are looking for something special and different or trendy. you will probably not find it. They try, but they keep on failing. Even modern patterns or designs they manage to screw up somehow. They managed to generate this imagine which is hard to shake off so people end up missing the gems they do manage to came out with and ignore some of their other departments as well.
I won’t go into details about their food section as that is probably the best one from all the retailers, short of Whole Foods and other more luxurious ones. What I am getting at is that people also tend to skip or miss their beauty section as well. It is so rare that I encountered someone else browsing their beauty department which is such as shame. This happened both in small/high street stores, but also in their huge ones from shopping centres as as Westfield ones. Look, M&S might not carry the most beauty brands, but the stuff they do carry tends to be quite good. I always left with something I never knew I needed. Okay, I know I have a tendency to do that in general, but what I mean is that I always found a product I had no idea even existed, sometimes from their own brands, other times from brands I never heard of or even from some more famous/mainstream brands. There is a lot to uncover. Trust me on this one.
and this brings me to the beauty bag. I know, finally!
So every once in a while, Marks & Spencer release these beauty bags and sometimes even advent calendars. They skipped on the advent calendar last year which is why I was a bit unsure about the beauty bag. I have gotten quite a few of their beauty bags or boxes over the years and I never regretted getting any of them. With that being said, let’s see what the latest edition has in store for us. I know you’ve been waiting for this moment ever since I started going on one of my infamous rants. This one was probably the worst one yet…
Marks & Spencer Summer Beauty Bag Contents
- Origins Ginzing™ Refreshing Eye Cream to Brighten & Depuff 15ml, full size – worth £22
- Aveda Botanical Repair™ Leave-In Treatment 100ml, full size – worth £28
- Emma Hardie Protect & Prime SPF30 20ml, deluxe size – worth £18.4
- L’Occitane Almond Shower Oil 75ml, travel size – worth £7
- Nails Inc 45 Second Speedy Gloss 14 ml, full size – worth £8 (shade)
- Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse® Multipurpose Oil 10ml, sample size – worth £2.95
- Colour WOW Raise the Root Thicken & Lift Spray 50ml, deluxe size – worth £6.33
- REN Skincare Overnight Glow Dark Spot Sleeping Cream 10ml, deluxe sample size – £9.8
- Formula Your Time To Glow Rapid Morning Mask 60ml, full size – worth £12
- Autograph Colour Shine Lip Lacquer 6ml, full size – worth £10
- M&S Discover Spiced Bergamot, Pink Pepper Fragrances Duo – worth around £6.33
- Transparent Make-up Bag
Price and Value
The beauty box is priced at £20 and has a value of around £130. However, here comes the catch. If you want to get the beauty box for £20, you need to spend £30 across beauty, home or clothing. Otherwise, you can still get the box but at full price, well you normally can do that…
The box is available for purchase here.
Update: according to M&S the value of the box is actually £140. Also, in order to get the beauty box, you need to add it to your basket and the price will be discounted once you meet the £30 spending requirement.
Comments
Like I said in the long a** intro, it has been a minute since we’ve last seen one of these boxes. I have to say that I really missed them, especially after M&S decided to skip the advent calendar last winter. However, I could not help but notice that they did not do anything different when it comes to the content of this box. You can find pretty much the same old M&S content. That is pretty understandable as they do have a more limited number of beauty brands than other retailers, but I wished for something more.
I know that I always want to be surprised and I was, but not necessarily in a good way. The reason why I am so stuck on the content this time around is the increase in price. I do not recall ever getting one of their boxes for £20. Do you? Weren’t these boxes like £10/£15? I know inflation is a thing, but disposable income hasn’t gone up for most people. In any case, it has gone down. I know this ties back to the whole CSR part which I do support, but that leaves me a bit torn, you know? If they’ve managed to keep on their staff then I can look past it this once.
Okay, I rambled enough and I have no clue what even came over me this time. I guess I always looked at M&S as being part of the community and this whole year created a huge disconnect of sorts. Seeing them come out with a higher priced beauty box made me a bit sad, but it could potentially give back through their social responsibility aspects, as mentioned above. What do you think?
As for the products, I have to say that I love the spread quite a lot. These are products that are perfect fro everyday use and they did manage to include a little bit of everything without resorting to makeup but rather sticking to stuff we have more use for right now. I don’t know about you, but I still have tons of makeup that will probably end up in the rubbish before I manage to work my way through it. Just the other day I saw myself forced to throw away part of my lip glosses, some that were part of my to go selection. I don’t even want to think about how many things I will find in the box of lip products I rarely use. Not wearing makeup has been sort of refreshing, but I am sorry for the waste of product.
I haven’t used any of the specific products included above so no comment on that on this occasion. I am sorry!
Overall, I am actually tempted to get this beauty box. It is not some ‘wow’ offer, but I missed my M&S shopping trips and I do need to get some more leggings and stuff so why not now?
Grab the Summer Beauty Box here.
What do you think of this new beauty offer from Marks & Spencer?
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