Travalo - A Perfume Lover's Dream

Shopper`s Drug Mart, like many companies has a loyalty points program where you get points through in-store purchases on pretty much anything in the store, including prescription drugs. They have even come out with a rewards points bank account with the Royal Bank of Canada. So of course, I had to get that since this is pretty much my favourite local store!

On one of my recent trips to Shoppers, I discovered they had a Spend Your Points bonus event going on. Normally, I could spend 22,000 points and receive $30 free, BUT last time, they were offering a $20 bonus! So I used my points to pick up some cream blushes for a beauty swap I am working on with a friend in the US, and picked up 2 bottles of CoverFX brush cleaner (which I love because it has Tea Tree Oil in it, rather than alcohol as a sterilizer, which helps keep your brushes nice and healthy). I also grabbed some more disposable eye shadow applicators for my Mary Kay kit, and THEN I saw the Travalo.





The Travalo is a mini perfume atomizer. You simply take the spray top off your perfume and stick this little guy on top and pump perfume into it until it`s full. It`s purse sized, and airline friendly. This is awesome because now I can take my favourite perfume - Viva La Juicy - anywhere I go and don`t have to risk breaking the gorgeous bottle. It is also much lighter than the bottle, so I`m not carrying a loaded weapon in purse form! (Ok maybe I am with everything ELSE that`s in there, but you know what I mean!)

They also come in a huge selection of colours  and prints, so there is pretty much something for everyone - including men! I`m actually thinking of getting one of these for my husband as a stocking stuffer because often when we travel for a weekend, we like to pack light, and his full-sized bottles of Polo are certainly not light. Not to mention, we live in the mountains, so traveling up and down the different altitudes messes with the bottle pressure and leaks perfume/cologne into our bags.

If I remember correctly, one of this will run you around $10 or $12, but for the convenience of being able to use your perfume on the go, and saving yourself from potentially breaking a MUCH more expensive bottle, I think this is an excellent investment!

Beauty Boxes

So for the past few months, I have been subscribed to a few different beauty boxes available in Canada. I signed up for them because I was under the impression that they would provide me with the chance to sample products I would not normally be able to try for various reasons. A big reason is that I live in a small, remote-ish community and don't have access to a lot of products. The second reason is that even if I can access some of these products, many of them are quite pricy and therefore hard to justify purchasing to try something and potentially find out they either don't work for me or I don't like them.

The three Canadian boxes I signed up for are Glymm, Glossybox, and Luxe Box.

Each of these companies claims to send out "deluxe" beauty samples or "exclusive" beauty samples in every box. Glymm - $12/month, who claims to send out the deluxe samples, only ever sent me small samples of anything - and I mean small! They sent me a lip gloss sample in July's box that was in a smaller tube than the perfume sample I was also sent! Well, when I think of deluxe, I think of something a little more special than the standard sample size you can get at most beauty stores or counters, or miniatures. When I think of deluxe samples, I think of slightly larger sizes than normal, or even travel-sized items - something that would actually make you want to purchase the items - not samples that make one think "wow... how cheap". I told them I was thinking of cancelling my subscription and they offered to send me something "special" in the next box. So I figure I'll see what's in it this month, but in all reality even after my special gift, I'm done. I'm not paying $12/month for samples. Canadian shipping doesn't cost THAT much!

Which brings me to the next company - Glossybox - $15/month. While SOME of the items in my boxes have been ok - like a full-sized Wella Beach Waves Spray, and a full-sized Zoya nail polish, the majority of these samples are items that a person can find at the bargain shop, or your local drug store. The best item I've received to date is a toss-up between the Zoya polish in the colour Wednesday that came in my July box, and the glitter eye liner that came in my August box. The problem with the nailpolish? I can't get it in Canada!! Why send me a product I CANNOT repurchase!? So, sadly I am done with Glossybox as well. If they step up their game and decide to work with higher end companies more often, I might go back because not everything in every box was disappointing.

Finally we have Luxe Box - $24/quarter. I'm actually pretty impressed with this company! In the few months I've been subscribed to them, I've always gotten at least one full-sized item, usually two or three. I've received several China Glaze nail polishes, which I love, lots of Cargo product, including a full-sized eye liner, a lipstick quad palette, and a large lip gloss sample which I still have and am still using, along with many little samples of some pretty great products.

Recently, Loose Button (the company that sends out the Luxe Box) decided to try a new concept and offered their customers a free box, regardless of how they chose to proceed. You could either sign up for the new quarterly Seasonally Themed boxes, or you could choose to cancel. If you cancelled, you got a free box in August and if you stayed, you got a free box in September. I chose to stay, and got my first free seasonal box. And I am in LOVE! I ended up with 7 or 8 pretty decent items, including 2 full-sized, a deluxe (real deluxe!!) perfume sample and 5 sachets of Vichy's spot corrector cream to try. And for only $24 Canadian every 3 months, it's definitely an easier chunk of change to swallow for the amount of great, usually higher-end, products you get to try.

In my opinion, Luxe Box is the way to go from the ones I've tried. They seem to actually make an effort to pair up with higher end companies and actually send out items you want to try. And I'll admit, I have gone out and repurchased several of the items that have come in their boxes! And really, isn't that what the point of these are? Shouldn't the companies supplying the samples realize that this is an incredible marketing opportunity for them? And in all honesty, a higher end company that is willing to send out full-sized samples has a lot more pull on my wallet strings than a company that sends out the tiniest samples possible.