Your Guide to Sustainable Sample Boxes

March 31, 2013 by 3 Comments

Once upon a time, I was subscribed to three monthly beauty box subscription services. As well as finding that my bathroom cupboards were starting to overflow with samples, I also felt the products I was being sent didn’t gel with my personal ethics. Often, I would receive products from brands that I wouldn’t ordinarily touch with a barge pole. I ended up unsubscribing from all of them, one by one. I remember moaning to dear Sabine from Echolife that I wished there was a sample box subscription service that just featured ethical and eco-friendly brands. She suggested I start one up myself, to which I responded that I was 100% too lazy. And unorganised. With no business sense. Thankfully, others were less hopeless, and now there is a range of sustainable sample box subscription services to choose from. Let’s take a look.

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Lust Have It Eco Box ($29.95 AUD incl. shipping/quarter) *

Lust Have It are Australia’s largest beauty box subscription service, with a popular ‘mainstream’ monthly beauty sample box. In September 2012, Lust Have It launched a new quarterly ‘Eco Box’ (actually packaged in a drawstring hessian bag), featuring 6-8 ‘premium sample-sized’ eco-friendly beauty and skincare products. The semi-reformed beauty blogger in me really digs this box. The first box is a thoughtful mix of well-known ‘natural’ brands – Avado, Burt’s Bees, Kosmea – and some previously-undiscovered gems. Thank the lord, there are no sample sachets in sight. FYI: Lust Have It have stated that the dollar value of each Eco Box will be over $100. Some full-size items are available from the Lust Have It online store, but for many of them you will have to scout around the Net.

Biologica Lady Lya Eyeliner in No. 382 ($20), full size = $20 value
Avado Sensitives Organic Gel Exfoliant ($14.95/100mL), full size = $14.95 value
Live Clean Exotic Nectar Argan Oil Treatment ($19.95/110mL), 30mL sample = $5.45 value
Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer in Rhubarb ($9.95), full size = $9.95 value
Sranrom Awakening Vitality Body Lotion ($30/200mL), 75mL sample = $11.25 value
Kosmea Radiance 24/7 Youth Boost ($39.95/20mL), 10mL sample = $21.95 value
Wicked Wix Organix Baby Jar in Bliss ($14.95/57g), full size = $14.95 value

Total value = $98.50 AUD

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Native Box ($20.95 AUD incl. shipping/monthly) *

Launching in November 2012, Native Box is a monthly sample box subscription service, featuring a range of eco-friendly and ethical lifestyle products. Native Box seems designed to give you a little taste of everything – each box contains 10+ samples. The website doesn’t have an online store, but each month you are provided with each brand’s website address. The information sheet also notes which products are vegan, which is brill. In December’s box, there was a balanced mix of skincare products, super foods and supplements, mineral makeup, tea, and snacks. The snacks – the veggie chips and gingerbread man – got snapped up immediately. I’m not so keen on the inclusion of sample sachets (they are packaging-intensive). I’ll also pass on the spirulina sample – there are only select circumstances in which I’ll take tablets divvied up into a little plastic baggie by a stranger, and this is not one of them.

Phytocare Omega Smooth in Sweet Lemon ($19.80/250mL), full size = $19.80 value
Island Sky Hand Made Goat’s Milk Soap (price unavailable)
Adorn Cosmetics Eyeshadow in Coral Pearl [vegan] ($15/1g), full size = $15 value
Ajitas Vege Chips [vegan] ($2), full size = $2 value
Ayana Organics Vanilla Body Butter [vegan] ($37.65/250mL), 5mL sample = 75c value
Morelife Spirulina 1000mg Tabs [vegan] ($27.95/500 tabs), 20 tablet sample = $1.10 value
Gingerbread Folk Chocolate Gingerbread Man [vegan] ($1.60), full size = $1.60 value
Adore Tea Australian Green Tea [vegan] ($9.50/50g), ’2-cup taster’ sample = 95c value
Kuranda Chinoa Health Bar [vegan] ($3), full size = $3 value

Total value = $44.20 AUD value

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Notox Box ($25 AUD incl. shipping) *

Launching in October 2012, Notox Box is a monthly sample box subscription service, featuring a range of eco-friendly and ethical lifestyle products. You can buy a full-size version of all the products included in the Notox Box from their online store – the online store has a very nifty function that allows you to see whether or not each product ticks the following boxes: certified organic, fair trade, cruelty-free, vegetarian, vegan, hand-made, and made in Australia. Notox Box has a smaller number of samples than Native Box, but happily in this case there were no sample sachets to be found (apart from the teabag). This box had the slimmest value-for-money ratio, but I certainly wouldn’t have felt ripped off if I had bought it. February’s box contained a balanced mixture of skincare, homewares, food, tea, super foods and supplements – and that candle smells like heaven, I swear.

Blacktea Soy Candle in White Tea & Ginger [vegan] ($44.95/300g), 57g baby jar = $8.55 value
Olive Oil Skincare Co. Olive Oil Soap with Manuka Honey ($6.95), full size = $6.95 value
Nutra Organics Super Greens + Reds [vegan] ($39.95/250g), 3g sample = $1.20 value
Power Superfoods Cacao Powder Gold [vegan] ($12.95/225g), 5g sample = 30c value
Absolute Organic White Quinoa [vegan] ($5.95/400g), full size = $5.95 value
Spiral Foods Mung Bean Chips [vegan] ($4.95), full size = $4.95 value
Pukka Love Tea [vegan] ($7.95/20 sachets), sample sachet = 40c value

Total value = $28.30 AUD value

I totally get the sustainability arguments against sample box subscription services, no matter what the contents – they are inevitably packaging-intensive, need to be posted in the mail, and can be wasteful (if you do not use some of the products). However, they are also an awesome way to find out about smaller sustainable brands and explore new things, and you all know (if you follow me on Twitter) that I have no issues with palming off my unwanted stuff to anyone who will take it. If you subscribe to one of these sample boxes and you find you do not use some of the products, make sure you find them a good home – I find when I leave a box of goodies on the lunch table at work, everything is gone in a blink of an eye.

* These products were provided for consideration in accordance with the Disclosure Policy.

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Too Many Sardines

January 15, 2013 by 10 Comments

Sketch 2013-01-07 10_07_18My partner Johanis’ first interpretation of The Cat’s Pyjamas — created in the blink of an eye using his finger and an iPad. I love this cat’s deranged little face and his cloud onesie equally. And oh, how I wish for even a scrap of artistic talent.

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Merry Christmas To You

December 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

Thank you so much for all your support in 2012 and I’m so looking forward to what lies ahead in 2013. I hope you’ve had the chance to get in the festive spirit…

{Mirenesse Bullet Proof Nail Lacquer in Berry Boa* | People Tree Beatrice Check Shirt Dress (my absolute favourite).}

… Share a meal with the people you love most…

Vegetarian Christmas Dinner{Golden-Crusted Brussels Sprouts from my last post.}

…And receive at least one excellent gift!

Gorman Sandals, Naomi Murrell Earrings, Simon Bryant 'Veggies' Cookbook

{Simon Bryant’s Vegies cookbook & Gorman sandals from Johanis | Naomi Murrell golden brass & resin earrings from my brother.}

Merry Christmas to you and yours. X

P.S. I didn’t eat any meat!

* This product was provided for consideration in accordance with the Disclosure Policy. 

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Welcome to The Cat’s Pyjamas

December 21, 2012 by 4 Comments

No, it’s not a twenties dive bar, it’s my new blog. My patron saint is a grumpy flat-faced pussycat in flannelette PJs.

The cogs in my little brain have been turning for months. Taking a blogging break (I prefer the term sabbatical, ahem) allowed me to take the time I needed to decide what I wanted my blog to be.  Oh, I still love lipstick, but I want to share more with you. The Cat’s Pyjamas is my opportunity to expand my blogging focus: I want to write about ethical and eco-friendly beauty (of course), fashion (LOL), vegetarian food, home and garden and more.

I want to help make those things accessible. Achievable. Beautiful. Fun. I want to share the things I learn along the way. I want to not be a dickbag about it. I want to have a conversation with you. I want lots of things for The Cat’s Pyjamas. But for now, take a look around and let me know what you think. Most of my old blog posts have been transferred over, but I’m now confident that all feature cruelty-free brands.

Make yourself at home. And thank you so much for all your support.

P.S. You can follow The Cat’s Pyjamas here:

RSS feed: http://www.thecatspjsblog.com/feed/

Bloglovin: http://www.bloglovin.com/en/blog/4287485

Hellocotton: http://www.hellocotton.com/mypage/thecatspjsblog

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Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

January 1, 2012 by 2 Comments

Imagine, if you will, sixteen thousand substance-affected twenty-somethings confronted with a modest forest fire at a music festival campground at three in the morning on New Year’s Eve. That classic, deranged combination of panic and glee.

And imagine that on that very day you had fallen ill with some sort of vaguely-diagnosed gastrointestinal bug and had spent the day in the music festival’s medical centre, by turns vomiting and being injected with anti-vomiting medication.

You’d managed to maintain consciousness long enough to ring in the New Year and then retired to your damp and suspicious-smelling tent, leaving your boyfriend to lose his shit at a Crystal Castles set. Very shortly after, a festival-goer power-walked past your tent, earnestly talking about a nearby forest fire that would QUITE CERTAINLY KILL US ALL, clearly narrating a rubbish iPhone video destined for YouTube.

…And still you debated getting out of bed (and by bed, I really mean an eighty-percent deflated air mattress on the ground).

So yes, that was my New Year’s Eve (but in the end, the CFS arrived to hoots and whistles from the crowd, the firemen waving out of the fire truck windows as if we were all part of a bizarre Christmas pageant, and proceeded to very bravely put the fire out so we could all go back to sleep).

I am at this moment monumentally over-tired and to be fair, for the rest of the four days I was there I had a splendid time. I saw some gorgeous live music, got to openly people-watch, avoided having one of those hushed couple fights in a lineup for drinks tokens or something, ate the best baked potato of my life, and didn’t get particularly sunburnt. My brother, who doles out compliments with wartime thriftiness, even said he was proud of me for being an engaged and useful camper, rather than just sitting in a deck chair ‘supervising,’ which is, to be honest, my usual style.

2011 remains a mystery to me. I’m not able to say whether it was a good year, a bad year, or even if it was an utterly pedestrian year. I just can’t quite get my head around it. Some beautiful things happened this year: I met my current boyfriend, got promoted at work, and blogged (sometimes). I became part of a community of bloggers and readers that makes my heart happy. I also broke up with my long-term partner, continued to self-sabotage at work, struggled to adjust to living in a share-house again, and felt in some vague but persistent way that I lacked boldness or bravery.

2012. I’ve never been one for New Year’s resolutions, seeing as you don’t actually have to wait for a new year to make a change in your life. But what I’ve been thinking about lately is being brave: creating what I want for myself rather than wait for it to magically appear in my life, or if I can’t, ask for it; doing what makes me uncomfortable or scared but is good for my soul; developing the faith in myself I need to take risks even if I’ll almost certainly fail. Okay, maybe one real New Year’s resolution: to avoid camping until next December.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your support in 2011. X

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