What's going on?

Always time for a quick wrap-sie! (This is a Yara La Vita wrap. Me love.)

One of the perks of working for Beauty Review is that we're all working mamas, so we get it, some days you arrive looking less than put-together.  Some days you'll find yourself singing a Daniel Tiger song as you "clean up, pick up, put away'.  And some days you just have to work from home.  

Case in point.  Today. 

Me and Bean had been discussing at length, that yes, teething at 7 weeks does suck, but life doesn't throw you more than you can handle.  With my tummy rumbling after a morning of full-on comforting, I decided to head out and meet The Husband for lunch.  When suddenly a royal telegram arrives.  Well, the modern day equivalent.  A text from the boss.

"OMG Jay Jay Harvey has just posted about the BBBE on FB.   Can you get online?"

Eh?  That's random.  I check in.  Site traffic was through the roof.  Emails were flooding in.  Live Chat was ping-pinging like bad dubstep.

"Give me two ticks" I reply, before strapping that baby on, grabbing a Diet Coke and turning on the tunes.

And there, at the kitchen bench I stood for the next 4 hours, answering queries while listening to music and getting my bounce on so Bean would stay content.  He started cooing to Biggie.  I only have the uncensored songs.  We went with it.  When life is gracious enough to throw you a Jay Jay, you say thank you, and you go with it.

That's the thing about working for the largest beauty site in NZ.  You never know when the internet is going to go gaga for you.  You never know when you're going to have to settle for Pepsi because you've ran out of DC and you can't leave your computer, let alone the house.   You never know when you're going to have to juggle a teething newborn and a celebrity endorsement.   

There they were stacked in the warehouse - boxes and boxes and boxes containing thousands and thousands and THOUSANDS of products. All to be lovingly picked and packed and sent off to their lucky owners.

What a job. A two-day job at that.

The weekend arrived and ten or so elves met with the sole intention of preparing the NZ Brands box. An easy task? Well let’s juts say Queenie’s Fitbit had registered 10,000 steps by 10am.

Boxes were torn apart, products were carefully placed upon trestle tables, instructions were given for every single aspect of the process – from what to pick to how to seal the boxes, and we were off.

I’ve never seen such focus, such dedication, as the Beauty Crew moved from station to station, preparing those boxes like a well-oiled machine. Only stopping for a picnic-style lunch of filled rolls, chips, fruit, Coke Zero, and chocolate milk. Queenie sure knows how to keep us motivated!

The first day drew to an end, and we meandered off, some going home for a power nap, others going home for a well deserved beverage. Then the next day we were back at 9am and into it. Perhaps going faster than ever as we began to see the piles of product diminish whilst the piles to be sent out increased.

Finally, at a record time of midday, we packed the last box, tidied away tables, prepped the recycling (like the good little elves that we are) and high-fived ourselves for getting to see the good end of a Sunday.

So what were the highlights? Knowing we’d just packed what is truly the best beauty box ever (with more to come!). Seeing how teamwork really does make for light work. And the Hellers Pulled Pork option for our make your own buns. So tangy, so moist - it’s a winner!

So do tell… have you got your NZ Brands box yet? Did you sense the loving care we put into each and every single one?

What's worse than a fancy dress party?  A fancy dress party without a theme.

I mean seriously, when asking someone to not only get out of their relaxy-pants, put on a bra and leave the house after 7pm, but also to don a costume, you need to make it easy.  Don't give us carte blanche on what to turn up dressed as.  The scope is too big and embarrassment in one form or another a guarantee.  Limit the probability of failure by giving us a theme.  A Game of Thrones party.  A 'V' party.  (Vampires, Vikings, Vin Diesel.  Good things come in Vs).  

Well curating a beauty box is a bit like a fancy dress party.  It's really easy to get it wrong unless you're very specific about what's going in it.  

We actually went undercover and signed up to the other subscription boxes available in New Zealand.  And what we found ranged from double-up disappointment to what does a museli bar have to do with beauty?  It seemed what we'd heard was true.  Subscription boxes were simply throwing together whatever products they could get their hands on and flinging them out in boxes and bags, with no thought to the process.   One company promised a mix of skincare and cosmetics.  And the three full sized products were all face masks...really?!

Determined to do better, the Beauty Crew grabbed a calendar and we planned out the year in Best Beauty Box Evers.  Waitangi Day inspired February's NZ Brand box.  May we'll be celebrating and pampering Mamas across the country.  We've curated a special box for Ball Season.   There's even talk about a Get The Look Box for Halloween.   

Just like a fancy dress party, our themes are the core to a good box (and a good time!)  And with no subscriptions here, it's win-win for you.  You choose which themes interest you, and buy only those boxes.

Now if only we could find a way to get those 3 Vs delivered to your door, hey?!

And of course, we're always open to suggestions and ideas, so what themed boxes would you like to see us curate?  

So we had the idea.  We were going to make the best beauty box ever.  Every month.  

The idea, it turns out was the easy part.  Curating a year's worth of boxes that would live up to their name?  Now that's a bit of a mission!

Any product found in a BBBE must meet the following criteria: 

- The products in the BBBE must be readily available in NZ

- The products must be current stock, no discontinued lines, or leftovers from Parallel Importer's clearances.

- The products must be gorgeous, usable, wearable shades.

That still leaves a LOT of beauty products to choose from.  Like seriously, a lot. 

So we, the Beauty Crew, sat down and discussed, at length, how we could choose the best products for each box.  We came up with a few questions to ask when considering a product:

1. Is there anything like it already in the box?  We don't want you to open your box and find 4 body lotions.  Or 3 face masks. 
2. Would we personally buy it?  The majority consensus of the Beauty Crew must be 'I would buy this product'.  Not just use this product, but actually part with our own hard-earned cash for it.
3. Is the product any good?  You might not know it, but we have a sister site, Beauty Review which currently hosts nearly 100000 beauty product reviews, written by real Kiwi women.  So we really have the advantage when curating a beauty box!

Which leaves us in the incredible position of turning down more products than are accepted to go in to our boxes.  Brands are securing product spaces months in advance, because they want to be a part of this, and the Beauty Crew...Well if possible, we're living, sleeping and breathing beauty products more than before.

So there you go, you know you're getting the very best beauty box ever.

What products or brands would you love to see in an upcoming BBBE?  Comment below and you never know..

It's interesting to see where a simple idea can lead you.

Inspiration is all around us - things that appear in one form can be magically transposed to another, and indeed the extension of our first beauty boxes into what you see here now came simply from a throw away comment by a colleague over a coffee.

When we first decided to expand our beauty box concept and indeed make it live up to the name of the "Best beauty Box Ever"(a tough gig!)  we wanted to have a concept of packaging that for each box that would be different from anything else that was out there. One that would surprise and delight our readers receiving the boxes. So we started searching..

It was a bit like going shopping for a dress actually, often you have in your head what you're wanting, but do you think you can find it when you need it? 

Our team was searching high and low, the office looked like a packaging warehouse...and then...just like that, out of nowhere..there it was.

One of our kids got given a soap making kit for Christmas - and included in the many components were these tiny foldable gift boxes. They measure no more than 5cm across, and you need to assemble each box from a flat cut out - but oh my, each box once assembled turned into a magical gift each representing the type of soap that would be contained inside.

It was tiny, beautiful, scalable and the idea was just right. So there you have it, in 2016 we're going to be getting on our soap box.

So here's some of the soap boxes the shape of the packaging of our beauty boxes have been inspired by. If you're lucky enough to get one when they go on sale, come back and let us know what you think!

Well we can't give it all away - but here's a clue below. We doubt if these will stick around for long so grab one while you can!  What's to resist about a whole box crammed full of gorgeous NZ brands?

All of the products in the NZ box have some sort of connection with NZ. Did you know that Moisture Mist for example is specifically formulated for NZ women and NZ is the only country that it is sold in?

Some brands in the box are made in NZ whilst others are designed and created in NZ with US, the NZ beauty lover in mind.

We think this will be one of our favourite boxes of the year. What do you think? Can you resist?