Beauty Bar Sample Society Program

The premier beauty retailer, Beauty Bar, is collaborating with The Beauty Expert, Allure magazine, to introduce Sample Society—a breakthrough in beauty sampling. A members-only subscription service, Sample Society delivers the most exclusive samples of hair-care, makeup, skin-care and fragrance products plus expert information each month.

As the number-one driver of discovery and purchase, sampling has solidified its position as the backbone of the 30-billion-dollar beauty industry. Product sampling has long been a marketing tool, with samples of all kinds reaching 70 million households each quarter.* In fact, according to a national poll, 49 percent of women say sampling is the top purchase motivator when it comes to new beauty products.** Beauty is the only industry to reinvent sampling and turn it into a paid service.

The beauty sampling experience has evolved from the passive and free department store gift-with-purchase model to a sought-after service women are willing to pay to join. Beauty Bar and Allure are reinventing it yet again—by marrying expert advice and insight from Allure editors with deluxe samples culled from Beauty Bar’s expansive selection of high-end domestic and international products—to create the ultimate beauty Sample Society.

“Given the thousands of beauty products that are introduced each year, sampling just makes sense,” says Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure. “Who can really buy all those products? Who has the time to try them all? With Sample Society, the products are edited, and the sizes are ideal for multiple uses—so you can really figure out if the product is right for you. And what I also love about it is that the box feels like a present. It offers the pleasure of discovery.”

A Sample Society membership introduces consumers to the latest trends and innovations in beauty through sampling. As members, customers receive the following every month:

• Five deluxe-size samples from premium brands such as By Terry, Dermalogica, Fekkai Advanced, and Bond No. 9. Samples are deluxe-size, meaning they are intended for more than one use, allowing customers to truly experience and test products’ efficacy.

• Original content written by Allure editors with each month’s samples, giving the customer relevant expert information that can optimize her experience and ultimately help her make purchase decisions.

• A $15 gift code that can be used toward the purchase of any product from the featured brands received that month (not just the specific product sampled), meaning that each box pays for itself .

About Allure: Allure, the only magazine dedicated to beauty, is an insider’s guide to a woman’s total image. Allure investigates and celebrates skin care, hair, makeup, fragrance, and fashion with objectivity and candor, and places appearance in a larger cultural context.

About Beauty Bar: The premier online beauty boutique, BeautyBar.com proudly delivers a carefully-curated selection of the world’s chicest domestic and international brands. From the latest must-haves to the go-to essentials, BeautyBar.com caters to sophisticated, beauty-savvy customers with high standards and no time to waste. The flagship Beauty Bar store at the Americana Manhasset features skincare treatments, makeup artistry and a blow dry bar, in addition to the exclusive products available on the site.

About Quidsi, Inc: Quidsi is one of the world’s fastest growing e-commerce companies and parent of Diapers.com (baby care), Soap.com (household essentials), BeautyBar.com (prestige beauty), Wag.com (pet supplies), and Yoyo.com (toys). The company’s mission is to make life easier by creating a new type of e-commerce experience, delivering in 1-2 days and providing incredible customer service. Quidsi is redefining e-commerce by combining the focus and customer connection of a specialty store with the scale, efficiency, choice, value and reliability of a large retailer.

*This was a press release sent to me from a PR firm that I work with