Share: Tell us what you love and hate about Gift with Purchases!
my answer: I love when they’re larger sizes, whether half-size or full-size, rather than a bunch that are really, really small (like packets of skin care). They can be great ways to stock-up on travel-friendly favorites for quick weekend trips.
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I love GWPs! Especially when they’re a decent size. I just wish more stores and brands offered them. It’s a great way to try different products I probably wouldn’t have tried otherwise
I love GWP! I think it’s the only reason I keep buying Lancôme!
Snap! 😀 Lancôme does do really good GWPs, generally 😀
I love GWPs with cute bags, and I love them because in the rather dicey NZ beauty economy, they’re a way to get a bit more bang for your buck. I’d do prefer them if they have colour cosmetics in though, especially lipsticks – I’m less keen if it’s only skin care.
I wish brands that do frequent GWPs would change up the products in the gifts. I love the Lilly Pulitzer print makeup and tote bags, but Estee Lauder puts the same stuff in every GWP & I just don’t want any more of those 🙁
I agree! It seems, especially with Estee Lauder, that the GWPs are the same season after season. It’s always the same lipstick color choice (Pink Parfait for cool tone or Tiger Eye for warm tone), Advanced Night Repair, a mascara, maybe an eyeliner or shadow in some boring color, a moisturizer sample, or a cheap blush brush… It’s not that any of it is bad product, I’m just tired of the same uninspiring colors. I’d love to see newly launched products, formulas, and seasonal colors. I do understand their drive to provide colors that everyone is comfortable wearing, but a little innovation wouldn’t hurt… I’ve given up on the Estee Lauder GWP since I have enough Pink Parfait and matte brown/beige eyeshadow to last four lifetimes.
Other staple beauty counters like Lancome and Clinique follow the same GWP formula where they always include their signature skincare (no complaints, good for travel!), but I feel like they do a better job at including newly launched products and formulas for their customers to try.
I totally agree with you about the colors! Estee has an enormous product line and archive and it’s the same two colors. I guess I should be grateful it’s not All Day Rosa Rosa lipstick, which it was at every gift when I first started out using EL in the 1990s. Why not a color from the archive? Why not a discontinued perfume (Honeysuckle Splash!), only available in a GWP? Why not a GWP with colors selected by one of their spokesmodels – wouldn’t you love to see what Carolyn Murphy, or Liu Wen, or even if they brought back Paulina Porizkova?
And for fun’s sake, how about no bag at all? I have so many that I quit getting GWPs altogether for two years.
And if it came down to it, I would rather have a percentage off the total price than a GWP.
I like the larger ones as well. because most of the time the packets are one use and that’s only really good for testing for reactions to the ingredients. lol
I like travel size minis like Sephora’s birthday gifts/point perks/weekly deals, and a lot of the little independent etsy shops will toss in samples that are good for half a dozen uses. I don’t even mind the packets, if it’s something like cleanser or lotion I can bring it on a weekend trip and it’s the perfect amount for 2 days. If I don’t like it I toss them in when I sell something on ebay and people like the little freebies.
On the down side, I’m allergic to so many things that if I get a product I’ve never tried before I’m kind of wary that it will make me break out. I’m also not big on neutrals/nudes and it seems like a lot of gift minis lean that way.
I like a GWP, but I don’t purposely buy a brand just to get the gift.
I do love GWPs if they’re bigger sizes — I think it’s one of the reasons my mom keeps buying Lancome. However, when they’re tiny little pouches of skincare, the only thing I get out of them is whether I like the texture or not, which isn’t very helpful and doesn’t entice me to buy the full-sized products.
I love GWP’s, it’s lovely to try things that maybe you wouldn’t before
I like it when there is a choice of colours – Clinque will often offer a cooler and warmer selection of colour products when they do a GWP. I also like sizes that are big enough that you can get a real sense of whether or not you like a product – a single use packet or squeeze tube really is not enough to tell one way or the other. I do like re-usable/refillable containers too – I’ll decant from the full size into the GWP bottle to take when I’m travelling.
I don’t go out of my way to get GWP items. I like Estée Lauder. Good stuff & I give what I don’t want away. My auntie was like the spokes person for EL. She bought stuff just to get EL. You should see her store stuff. When I started on makeup in the 1979 and until maybe the early 1990’s, it was not extraordinary difficult to get free goods, no limits. Not the samples requests like Nordstroms or the minuscule cheap packages from Sephora. I got generous stuff. All the perfume packages I would ask for if I wanted it and no minimum purchases were needed like today. Sisley doled out samples in a variety, so did Clarins even if I only bought one item. Clinique & EL had nice GWP…..never the same stuff before, except for that moisturizer. Nars gave me a box set of pencil eyeliners. LaMer gave me the moisturizer without a needed amount. Dior had nice makeup bags with a regular size lipstick. Lancôme once had a regular loaf of French bread with the GWP. The only cheapskates were Chanel and Mac. Even Guerlain had nice freebies. YSL got freebies too. Now you practically have to beg to ask for even one item even you bought something and those minimum are outrageous.
I so agree – glad i’m not the only one who thinks those “minimum”s are sometimes ridiculous! It’s all ploy, I’d buy something to get the GWP though, IF the GWP are good enough, I recently got a 75ml Shiseido white lucent foam wash + 50ml white lucent + a makeup pouch with ANY White Lucent purchase. This is what I called “generous” amount.
Oh and those makeup pouches by Clinique, Lancome and Clarins etc, are my pet peeves. How many pouches can one use??!??!?! I only need maybe 5-6 but I have >20! Not all of them are roomy / practical to use either.
I love GWP, especially if they come in pretty bags that I can carry in my purse and have good sized products. I especially love Clinique’s because they often include a full size lipstick, a generous mascara sample or a gloss, plus other goodies I always enjoy. I prefer that GWP have no foundation sample, because those almost never fit my shade.
I always try to buy when there is aGWP they make great travel items and u can always try something new without having to purchase ;)!!!
Gifts with purchase are awesome – especially if it’s a mini mascara or lip gloss, or a purse sized hand lotion! I don’t really care for getting foundation, CC or BB cream samples though – I never use that stuff.
I love Clinique’s GWP. I can always use the skincare and makeup they give.
I’m trying to think when the last time was that I got a gift with purchase……Nope, can’t think of one.
Generally for me, When I buy something its because i like what I’m about to buy and not because I’m getting a GWP. The GWP is just a nice bonus/surprise as far as I’m concerned.
They can be a great way to feel you’re getting more bang for your buck. but often I feel it’s just bait to get you to spend more money (which is exactly what it is!!). Only yesterday, I was at the Guerlain counter, and I saw that you get a GWP if you spend over $110. Now it definitely wouldn’t be hard for me to spend that amount if I buy the foundation and Rouge G I’ve been eyeing off, but I wasn’t planning to spend that much yesterday and I nearly did!! And the gift had two anti-aging skincare products that I KNOW won’t be of any use to me, as I’m 25 with oily, acne prone skin, so I’d really just be getting a gloss sample (which looks amaze, I won’t lie) and a Petite Robe Noir fragrance sample. Do I still want to go back?… heck yeah!!
Honestly, I have a completely neutral opinion on them. I don’t go out of my way to get them, but I won’t complain if they wind up on my cart because I happen to spend enough to get it. I generally go into a store with a pretty specific intent in mind, so I won’t buy extra just to get more, eh?
GWP is a great idea especially when the size is travel sized and not the tiny sample sachets. Wish more and more brands come up with this and help us try number of products.. 🙂