On Friday I went through the gift bags of Beauty Bay, calculating which of the bags gave a huge discount, and which were barely any cheaper than buying the items individually. Now it’s Soap & Glory’s turn.
Gift sets are great, and presented so nicely, but you never really seem to use every single thing included – or I don’t anyway. I’m almost out of Soap & Glory shower gel, and make up remover. I’ve used my Soap & Glory hand cream maybe a handful of times (haha. ha.), but I’ve barely touched the foot cream, or the tinted moisturiser. They’re just not my thing.
And sure in every palette (for example) there’s a colour that’s not going to suit you, them’s the rules, but I’ve never felt ripped off by a palette. Or like I’m wasting a big tangible chunk of it. When buying gift sets, on the other hand, I half suspect I’m paying extra for the packaging, which I’m instantly going to throw away, as well as surplus items.
Answer honestly – how many cosmetic/skincare sets did you get last Christmas? How many different versions of the same products did you get? My boyfriend came back from his family with at least six different shower gels – and I don’t think they were trying to heavily hint at anything.
Don’t mistake me for being ungrateful. I loooove gift sets. I love smelling everything, arranging my new things nicely on a shelf or something. But if we’re wasting money, packaging and the products themselves, is it really worth it? Would we not be better off with some kind of pick and mix system? Our friends and family would know we’d chosen everything especially for them – we’d so get bonus brownie points for that.
Soap & Glory has always been a big favourite of mine, so I feel slightly bad revealing that some of their biggest seeming deals aren’t giving you much of a discount at all, but like Beauty Bay, you’re generally always saving at least a little bit – you’re never actually ripped off (actually that’s debatable this time, but we’ll get to that later). First let’s look at how much you are really saving when you buy these sets:
Soap & Glory cosmetic gift sets this year have an average saving of 27%, which is pretty good if you ask me. However the savings go as low as 10%, which in my book is just not worth it.
Also, as mentioned above, the Soap and Glory Merry Kiss Much set is just three lipstick pencils that are actually cheaper in Boots’ 3 for 2 deal (an entire pound cheaper!).
Now the part you’ve been waiting for:
How do I get the most Soap & Glory for my money?
So let’s take the three biggest savings this year (because who wants to buy the same kit 3 times, boring!) – Soap & Glory™ Khol-Eyed™ (33%), SOAP & GLORY™ GLAMORAMA™ (42%), and SOAP & GLORY™ EYES BOX™ (43%).
Now the gift sets themselves are in the 3 for 2 Soap and Glory deal, so if we combine these, we get the best value for money – the contents of all three are worth over £80, and it’ll cost you just £38. That’s 53% off.
What do we get for that £38?
- ARCHERY™ Brow Tint & Precision Shaping Pencil in BROWNIE POINTS
- 2 x CRAZY SEXY KOHL™ Limited Edition Twist-up Eyeliner in SMOULDER*
- CRAZY SEXY KOHL™ Limited Edition Twist-up Eyeliner in FOIL IN LOVE*
- CRAZY SEXY KOHL™ Limited Edition Twist-up Eyeliner in WHAT A NIGHT*
- 2 x SUPERCAT™ Carbon Black Extreme Liquid Eyeliner Pen
- 2 x THICK & FAST™ High Definition Collagen Coat™ Mascara in FILM NOIR
- SEXY MOTHER PUCKER™ Lip Shine Lacquer in CHARM OFFENSIVE
- GLOW ALL OUT™ Luminising Face Powder
This is a pretty great spread of products for just shy of £40, so sure, you could get 3 kick ass cheap gift sets for your friends, or you could get yourself a nice new selection of goodies. Or both!
All I know is, I like getting 50% off things.
Article disclaimer: It’s worth mentioning that you don’t always get full size products in gift sets, so as always I try and work out the value proportionally. In the case of the limited edition twist up eyeliners, they weigh 0.5g. I have guessed they are the same size (ish) as the regular Soap & Glory Kohl liners, although the weight of a regular version was not available on the site so I don’t know if this is 100% correct. I have however checked full sized liners of other brands and these have weighed between 0.3 and 0.8g.
University drop-out, pretend artist, makeup enthusiast. Uses too many brackets when writing. Can’t be stopped.
It is used as the most secret formula. I like that.