Who doesn’t love a good goodie bag or surprise box? Whether you’re a three year-old unwrapping a treasure trove of Christmas presents or someone at the Academy Awards seeing what things await you in your $168,000 swag bag, there’s just something magical about unwrapping a mystery box of goodies and anticipating the wonders you’ll find inside.
Mystery boxes are nothing new, of course. You can buy care packages to send to your child in college; if you’re a parent you can receive goodies like the Baby Registry Welcome Box
But an organization called FabFitFun (which for some reason I keep calling “FitFabFun”) has taken it to a whole new level. They’ve designed a box filled with premium products for women. If there’s a woman in your life who you’d like to give a fantastic gift to–or if you just want to pamper yourself–this is one of the best options.
FabFitFun releases a new box every quarter to start each season. You can order each season’s box for $49.99, or if you’d like to get four boxes in a year, they have a deal where you can pay $179.99 for the year.
For your $49.99 you’re guaranteed a box filled with products worth well more than $200 in retail value. These aren’t just beauty items, but also fashion accessories, fitness products, health and wellness items, and items for your home. And unlike other similar boxes you might have seen, these aren’t sample items or trial size products, but full retail packages of high-end products.
I received a Fall 2105 box in the mail. Here was the unboxing.
The package was a gorgeously printed cardboard box with the FabFitFun logo on the front. A pull tab on the front of the box made it easy to open.
The first thing you see is this magazine that details all the goodies you’ll find inside the box and provides some interesting feature articles about some of the gifts in the box. For the fall 2015 box they have an interview with Ashkahn, the artist who designed the custom umbrella (which you’ll see me unpack below) as well as a feature on the Purple Purse Charm which I’ll write about as well.
Then we got to reveal the surprise goodies themselves, nicely packaged behind curtain #1.
Unveiling the curtain revealed an amazing haul of goodies.
The first was a set of two facial masks by Passport to Beauty. These masks by themselves retail for $65.00, or $11 over the $49 the entire box cost! The collagen and rose oil help stimulate circulation, increase enzyme activity, and sooth skin.
Next was the beautiful Glass Crystal Bead Bracelet by Tribe Alive. What’s neat about Tribe Alive is that in addition to producing gorgeous handmade jewelry, they work with female artisans around the world, including in impoverished areas, paying a living wage for their work. Contrast that with jewelry you find in your local department store that’s made by workers in conditions we can probably guess.
The next item was the purple purse charm, provided by the Allstate Foundation Purple Purse.The Allstate Foundation Purple Purse is a charity that helps women who deal with the horrific issue of domestic abuse. The purple color of the FabFitFun box is in support of bringing awareness to this important issue that is too often swept under the rug.
This is a beautiful brass-colored charm imprinted with a purple purse logo and attached to a beautiful purple tassel and a card that tells the story of a woman who survived the horrors of domestic violence. By attaching this charm to your purse, or by purchasing the limited edition purple purse at Saks Fifth Avenue, you can further help be a voice to the voiceless.
The next full retail product is Flawless Skin Fluid by Doctor D. Schwab. This is a 30 milliliter tube of lightweight moisturizer that helps balance and brighten your skin. It’s a high quality product that retails at $39 and has 5 stars on Amazon
Next comes this battery pack by HiSY that’s great for adding juice to your smartphone when you’re on the road; in fact, it’ll add a full charge to most phones, but is barely larger than a tube of lipstick or a lighter. This one came in nice blue color that looked as stylish as it is functional. It retails for $25.
We’re not done yet. Next came a Merrithew Total Body Tone with Tubing: Lower Body and Core DVD, rated at 5 stars on Amazon
The next item is a designer, one-of-a-kind umbrella designed in conjunction with the Tappan Collective, an online community of up-and-coming artists. This bright pink umbrella was designed by LA artist Ashkahn Shahparnia, who is also interviewed in this month’s magazine. It’s a whimsical umbrella with the words “Rain Rain Go Away” playfully repeated as a pattern that looks beautiful from afar. This umbrella goes for $32 normally.
Next came a box of lip stain from Manna Kadar Cosmetics. It’s a primer, lip gloss, and lip stain all in one that also moisturizes your lips. It retails at $24.
Usually in boxes like these you end up throwing away the paper on the bottom, as it’s usually just some advertising. In this case I was glad I saved this; it’s a personalized $75 voucher to Picture It On Canvas, which lets you take your digital photographs and print them on canvas prints, slates, metal prints, or posters. And unlike other “vouchers” that give you that big a discount only if you spend hundreds of dollars more, this one was good for any size purchase.
Another gift card came from The Jeweler’s Wife, and lets you spend $15 on any order.
Finally, came “the ad”, but even this one was valuable–it’s a sample of Crest’s new toothpaste and whitening finisher.
And of course, I scoured the shredded paper filler to make sure I wasn’t missing anything (I wasn’t).
I feel like a game show host here, but the total retail value of this whole package was…$357. At $49.99, you not only get all these products, but perhaps even better you get the anticipation of waiting for the box in the mail and the great feeling of opening it and finding product after product of things you’d use and love.
FabFitFun is probably one of the best gift ideas for women there is, and it’s all the more special that they dedicate so much of their time and efforts to help charities such as the Purple Purse Foundation, as well as merchants who themselves do great things, such as Tribe Alive. It’s too late for you to order this Fall box, but they’re taking orders for the Winter Box now, and if all past boxes is any indication it’s going to be a great one. If there’s a woman in your life who’s hard to shop for, why not get her a box (or four) that’ll be sure to have plenty to surprise her and delight her and be lots of fun for both of you!