My April Luxe Box

Why am I reviewing my April Luxe Box in May? Because I didn’t receive it until Monday, April 30. But let’s hold off on that fact for a moment and instead focus on what I received this month:

• Essie Nail Polish in Pink-a-Boo (Full-size)
• Yves Rocher Gentle Eye Makeup Remover for Sensitive Eyes (50ml)
• Bobos Remi Leave-in Conditioner (80ml)

In honour of April being Daffodil month, Luxe Box gave its members the option to donate an item from their boxes to the Canadian Cancer Society (the organization behind Daffodil month). I chose to do this and that’s why this box is smaller than past months.

But while it’s small, it’s a great box, and I’ll use all three items in it. I quite like the pale, but pretty colour of the nail polish while the makeup remover’s timing is great as I’m in need of that product.

So that’s the good side of this month’s box. The not-so-good side is that it was very, very late.

I believe the reason for this lateness has to do with April’s First in Line program crashing and burning. First in Line is Loose Button’s way of differentiating Luxe Box from other beauty box programs. It allows Luxe Box subscribers to reserve a specific product, usually from a list of four options, at a certain date and time.

This program has been plagued by problems in the past but April’s selection, set to take place at noon on April 19, found itself on a whole new level of fail when almost no one could access the First in Line section of the Loose Button site because too many people were hitting it at the same time.

Now, Loose Button did quickly realize their problem and came up with what sounded like a great idea: Subscribers would select one of three time slots in which they would reserve their product and to ensure that they could only access their selected time, they would be sent individualized passwords.

 Unfortunately, not everyone received the email that explained this new approach while others (including me) didn’t receive the password-containing email until after the selected time slot had passed.

For a while, it looked like I (and many other subscribers) weren’t going to get to participate in the April First in Line program. Thankfully, Loose Button did send a hey-we-noticed-you-didn’t-pick-anything;-here’s-your-password-if-you-want-to-participate-email and I was able to select an item (the nail polish) though of course by then, late Sunday night, the item I really wanted was completely reserved.

While I am happy that I was able to participate in the program, I would have been happier with a box that arrived when it was supposed to, mid-month. Here’s hoping that May’s box doesn’t show up on the cusp of June.