Influenster’s Kat Von D Studded Kiss Lipstick Sample: Beautiful Boxes are Still Boxes

A little box in a big box. Wasting cardboard is not beautiful.

Influenster is an online product review platform where certain members (apparently social media analytics are used to choose testers) are given products to test. Reviews are then posted by members based on their experiences.

Recently, I was given a Kat Von D lipstick to test (Kat Von D Beauty Studded Kiss VoxBox) for free. The packaging on this was out of this world wasteful. Firstly, the lipstick was in a cardboard box (a safety seal would have done). Secondly, the regular sized lipstick in a box came in a much bigger box filled with tissue paper with a paper insert. This is a big waste of paper and cardboard (at least it is recyclable though) and definite overpackaging.

This box came in the mail (the mailing label is on the bottom).

This is how the box looked when opened.

When the tissue paper was removed it was just empty, empty space and this little lipstick.

The lipstick, the lipstick's box, the paper insert on top of the Influenster box (the tissue paper is not even in this picture).

In case you're wondering, the colour of the lipstick is "OG Lolita."

To their credit though, Influenster has an article on their site where they suggest ways in which members can reuse and repurpose the boxes that their sample products come in. The Kat Von D box was very colourful and I ended up cutting the top off of it and using it as an open box to store lipsticks on my makeup table. But reducing is better than reusing, so it would have been better if it had just come in a much smaller package like a small bubble mailer.

I reused the box to store my lipsticks.

Sephora: Overpackaging Like This Won’t Make For a Beautiful World

Another Sephora order, another box that's too large . . .

I've blogged about Sephora's packaging (and the packaging of the brands that they carry) before (you can find some of my blog posts here and here and here and here and here and here and here.). Sephora sometimes gets their packaging just right. Unfortunately, though, when I shop online, I often receive an overpackaged package. The problem seems to originate from the fact that Sephora insists on using cardboard boxes (with a strip of bubble wrap in the bottom) and never bubble envelopes (at least in my experience), so there will often be a lot of room in the box (for instance if one only orders one small item and this can happen a lot either if the item is high value so as to grant free shipping or if the person has VIB Rouge status which entitles the holder to free shipping on everything).

The other packaging problem that Sephora seems to have is that they carry a lot of items that have lots and lots of packaging. If a company like Sephora could influence the brands that it carries to use less packaging (for instance putting a safety seal around a lipstick, face mask, face cream, or mascara instead of using a box) then the amount of waste surrounding cosmetics and skincare would significantly decrease since Sephora is a big company with many customers.

I received this order in December (I'm just getting around to this now, since I've been busy with my baby!). I only ordered a lip gloss from Bite Beauty and a small jar of face mask from GlamGlow. Everything else below is either 100 point bonuses (in the Beauty Insider program at Sephora, each purchase gives the member points that they can then put towards deluxe samples), free samples with order (normally three with each order, but sometimes they go up to five), or the "free" makeup bag packed with samples that came with this order.

A special mention to GlamGlow for their excellent packaging of the face mask that I ordered. It had a safety seal around the small plastic jar which was filled to the brim with product. No wasting of materials here and it was fully recyclable.

Lots of packing paper as usual.

This box is definitely too big for the order.

GlamGlow is a great example of minimal packaging. Only a safety seal on this small size face mask and fully recyclable jar.

Why put a little lip gloss in such a big box? Why not use a safety seal like the face mask above?

There's nothing pretty about this wasted space or cardboard.

This lip gloss does not need any box, let alone such a big one.

This 100 point bonus bronzer had ridiculous packaging for a sample sized product.

Why make the box this thick and waste all this space?

This 100 point bonus lipstick came in a box. It is a sample size. Why not put a safety seal on it?

This 100 point bonus lipstick came in a box. It is a sample size. Why not put a safety seal on it?

Two out of three samples with the order had minimal packaging, the third, on the right, way too much.

The order came with a "free" makeup bag with samples in it. For some reason the bag was in a bag.

A bag in a bag with tissue paper too. Talk about overpackaging.

All of these samples came in the "free" cosmetics bag. Some had surplus packaging of their own.

I think that Sephora has a real chance to lead by example with their own packaging and working with the brands that they carry to create less waste and packaging or perhaps by making it easier to recycle packaging for cosmetics and skincare (mixed materials create problems, for instance in compacts that have plastic, metal, and glass or mascara that has perhaps rubber, plastic, metal, and/or bristles). While the cardboard boxes are recyclable, reducing is better than recycling. Overpackaging is never pretty (although some people on the Sephora website will disagree with me, because items that have more spartan packaging are sometimes called ugly or not pretty enough in the reviews).

Sephora: 500 Point Beauty Reward from Nars with More Packaging than Product

The four mini products are in the bottom left of the picture, the rest is all packaging.

If one shops at Sephora regularly, one might become a member of their Beauty Insider Program. Like any rewards program, this has different tiers. If one spends $350.00 a year, one moves up to Very Important Beauty Insider (VIB) or if one spends $1,000.00 a year at Sephora, one moves into the top tier, VIB Rouge. As one spends money at Sephora, one earns points. Usually it is a dollar spent that produces one point. However, there are also bonus points events, so this is not always the case.

In any event, if one accumulates enough points (100 for the lowest rewards), one can redeem them for beauty rewards from Sephora. These change each month and in the past couple of years they have been rolling out different rewards (generally for higher reward amounts) during the week and in very limited quantities. Many of these higher point rewards go quickly, so there must be a lot of people redeeming their points regularly.

I had only ever redeemed for the 100 point rewards, however, this December, I decided to redeem some of my points for a 500 point reward or “set” as they called it. It was the Nars 500 point reward. It had a mini version of one of their bronzers, blushes, primers, and lip glosses (so four minis in this set). I was expecting a pretty small package, but a large one appeared a few days later.

I was staggered by the amount of packaging that housed these tiny products. It was a beautiful polka dot black and white box, housed in a colourful sheath, but definitely unnecessary. Inside, there was a bunch of black paper confetti to pad the products, as well as an explanation of how "sought after" and “coveted” the products in the 500 point sets from Sephora are.

There was a sheath that had to be pulled off to reveal the box that had the mini products in it.

Lots of cardboard.

Inside there were the four little products in a bunch confetti.

The inside of the box stated how sought after and coveted the 500 point reward products are.

Actually, I was just trying to use up points and I needed some blush.

The box was really overly large.

Each product, except for one, was in its own packaging.

After digging through the confetti, there were the four little products. They were cute and beautiful, but they mostly had packaging around them too. Once I had taken off the packaging around the products, I was left with a sheath, a box, confetti, and a bunch of cardboard product boxes (and this doesn’t count the packaging that I will be left with after the products are done, which would be much harder to recycle as it is made of mixed materials of plastic, metal, foam, and glass). What amazed me was how the little blush and bronzer each had a complete compact with a mirror, just like the full sized products. I have put pictures below that show them open and on a full sized product.

The bronzer and blush compacts were just like the full sized ones in that they had mirrors, but they were about half the size.

Full sized on the left, mini product on the right.

Mini size over a full size.

Lip gloss in a box.

Primer in a box.

The four minis now without their packaging.

The products are really nice and I can try some different products from Nars for “free” (I had to spend money to accumulate the points though so they’re not really free), but wow there’s a lot of packaging wasted on this reward. I managed to reuse part of the box (I cut out the polka dot parts) and confetti at Christmas doing crafts, but really, most of the packaging had to go in the recycling and this is a great waste of resources (safety seals with less boxes would be better).  I have blogged before about products and bonuses from Sephora and how much unnecessary packaging they seem to have, including all the free cosmetics bags and how I have reused them for other purposes (you can find some of my blog posts here and here and here and here and here and here). 

Products at the bottom left and everything else in the picture is packaging.

All of this is packaging that I had to recycle (or reuse in the case of a small part of it).

 It does not seem like the overpackaging situation at Sephora is improving at all. While the packaging may be “pretty” and may make us feel special like we’re receiving a gift for ourselves not on our birthday, perhaps we’d all enjoy the products just as much if the packaging were reduced and we could feel good that we were not burning up limited resources unnecessarily. I know some people complain on Sephora in the reviews when packaging is not “pretty” enough, but surely the majority of people would survive with less packaging. The world certainly won’t look pretty if we keep using superfluous amounts of packaging. If large beauty retailers like Sephora could lead the way by reducing packaging and making product packaging easier to recycle, the world would be a more beautiful place.

Sephora: Why Do Cosmetics and Skincare Companies Insist on Overpackaging?

When excess packaging is removed, this Sephora box looks way too large.

I ordered from Sephora a few days ago and received my package promptly. The box was a bit overly large, though not as bad as some other orders I have received. There was a lot of packing paper on top of the items ordered and then some bubble wrap under the items. 

Not that big of a box.

What struck me the most about this order though, was the amount that cosmetics and skincare companies continue to overpackage their products. I’m not sure if this is just to attract attention on overcrowded shelves (I have even seen people complain online that packaging on a particular cosmetics item wasn’t “pretty” enough) or if it’s to justify their high prices, but it really should be dialed back. Most of the products that have a ton of packaging don’t actually need it (ie. they’re not breakable, etc.).

For instance, I ordered a Boscia facial cleansing sponge. The sponge is quite small, about three inches in diameter and maybe an inch or slightly higher in height. However, the package that it came in was far, far bigger and made of hard plastic. The sponge wasn’t breakable and it was already wrapped in shrink-wrap too, so all of this plastic packaging seems very wasteful and unnecessary. Yes, it’s recyclable, but it’s a waste, so it should not exist in the first place (and the instructions printed on the plastic could have been printed on a little slip of paper to go with a shrink-wrapped sponge).

A big plastic package for a tiny sponge.

This package is ridiculously large and unnecessary since the sponge is already wrapped in plastic.

Redundant plastic.

I also ordered some Bite Beauty lipsticks that were on sale. I had forgotten the packaging that this lipstick came in as I had not bought one in quite a while. I opened the box thinking that I had received the wrong lipstick because the size and shape of the box were so different than my lipstick. But it was my lipstick. It was in a box at least two times bigger than necessary. I have blogged more than once about how I think that items like mascara and lipstick should just have a safety seal or maybe shrink-wrap around them and no box to reduce packaging. I stand by this.

Three lipsticks, three unnecessary boxes.

When one opens a box one finds the lipstick and then tons of empty space and a cardboard spacer.

The box is way bigger than the lipstick tube.

What a waste of cardboard.

Then there’s the matter of samples. With each Sephora order one receives three samples. But I also received a gift bag packed with a ton of other samples as a bonus. Plus, I ordered a 100 point sample of hair detangler (this was just in a bottle with no unnecessary box). The samples were all sparely packaged except for the Bumble & Bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil, which had a glass and plastic vial and then a folded cardboard jacket which I thought overly large.

The Bumble & Bumble sample had too much packaging.

That's a huge jacket of cardboard for such a small vial.

I have talked before on this blog about “free” makeup or cosmetics bags and samples (you can find the links here and here and here and here and here). Many women (and some men too) end up with way too many free makeup or cosmetics bags from buying cosmetics and/or skincare products over the years and receiving these as a bonus or “free” item (really these are probably built into the price of the products sold by the company). A lot of these bags probably end up as garbage or collecting dust. I have also seen a lot in thrift shops. Even with giving away these bags or repurposing or reusing them for other things like packing (see my blog post) I still have way more than I ever needed.

Naturally, the cosmetics bag comes wrapped in a plastic bag and tissue paper. That makes sense!

Garbage before one even makes it to the cosmetics bag.

The tiny samples definitely don't need such a large package.

All the samples around the cosmetics bag that they came in.

The other samples added to the bonus samples and the 100 point sample show just how many things I didn't pay for in this order and how much more garbage and recycling there will be out of this order in the end.

A special mention goes out to Bumble & Bumble for not placing their hair product, Don’t Blow It, that I ordered in a box and just having it in its tube. A facial oil I ordered came in a box, but as it’s a glass bottle, this is acceptable because of the risk of it breaking in shipping.

Excellent packaging. No excess box.

When I removed all of the unnecessary packaging from the products that I ordered and put them back in the box from Sephora, there was so much more empty space. What a waste. If we keep heading in this direction, we’re going to be left drowning in a huge pile of recycling, without the resources to process it.

These are all empty packages and the paper and plastic and cardboard from just this one Sephora order before I've even used anything. So, after I use up things there will be even more waste.

A much smaller box or bubble mailer envelope could have been used for this tiny amount of stuff if packaging had been less to begin with.

Let's reduce packaging.