Unboxing Overpackaging

Earlier this month, I placed an online order with Sephora to buy a tube of Bobbi Brown lipstick and a face illuminating powder by Too Faced. Sephora has a policy that you get three free samples with an online order. I chose three, but one turned out to be sold out, so only two were sent. In addition, there was a promotion for a Sephora cosmetics bag filled with deluxe samples.

When the package arrived, it was in a box much larger than one that could have held just a tube of lipstick and a face illuminating powder, due to the two samples plus the cosmetics bag full of samples.

There was the box (about one foot by half a foot by half a foot), a large amount of brown paper, bubble wrap, an insert with the packing list, two samples, the lipstick, the powder, and the cosmetics bag full of samples and their accompanying packaging.

For only having ordered two items, this was a large bulk of packaging. Overpackaging was evident everywhere. Why does the tube of lipstick need to come in a box? Why not just have a sticker seal?

Why does the powder come in a box with an insert? Couldn't a seal be used instead of a box? Or couldn't the box have the directions on it instead of an insert?

Look at this fancy box that just gets thrown out. It shines and glimmers. What resources were required to produce this waste?

Why does a cosmetics bag need tissue paper and a plastic bag around it? Talk about overpackaging.

The cosmetics bag full of samples came in a plastic bag with tissue paper. Why? So much packaging.

Then the samples all have their own packaging, whether it be plastic, metal, paper, or mixed.

More samples, more packaging, more waste. This does not include the other two samples that came with the order.

I understand that items have to make it somewhere safely and that we don't want to use items that are unsealed, but surely there is a better way to do this without using so many precious materials.