A Beautiful World Christmas Box review, unboxing, photos: International beauty box

Quite a few bloggers in the UK and elsewhere had raved over the Autumn-Winter 2013 edition of A Beautiful World Box - it sold out in six hours and was only £20. A Beautiful World sells luxury organic and natural beauty products online and releases limited edition boxes for A/W and Spring containing their exclusive products which you can't find elsewhere. And yes, these beauty boxes ship worldwide.
Having missed the A/W box, I was thrilled to know that they were coming out with a limited edition "Best Of A Beautiful World" box for Christmas, containing bestsellers from their website.
I bought my box as soon as it went on sale. It was sold out in about eight hours! I also got free shipping and a 10% Christmas discount. My box arrived just seven days later by registered post - the tracking says it has only entered the country! The smells of cardamom, orange, sandalwood and other oils hit my nostrils as soon as I opened the external brown box. Everything inside is so fabulous for a nice bit of pampering over the holidays that it feels like my Christmas came early.

The contents of A Beautiful World Christmas '13 box:

1. Yarok Feed Your Youth Hair and Scalp Serum
2. MuLondon White Chocolate Elbow, Knee and Heel Cream
3. Marble & Milkweed Organic Body Oil
4. Indie Lee Squalene Facial Oil
5. Collagen Face Mask Pack of five (there were six in my box)
6. Konjac Pure White Sponge
7. Two vouchers for 20% off, valid till July next year.

All products are full size. The A/W '13 box had a Butter London nail polish which I missed, but perhaps I'll get one in the Spring box. The Christmas box costs £55 but with the 10% voucher it was £49.50. The value of the products inside is more than double that amount - it comes to a whopping £108.99, excluding postage, just the actual products alone.

Yarok Feed Your Youth hair and scalp serum

I'm going to give this a try first as Sunday is my grand-hair-treatment day. It promises to solve scalp problems and heal dry hair. You have to apply three full droppers and work through, leave on under a towel for heat (or skip the heat if you don't need deep hydration), and then shampoo off. The smell is great. I can't identify everything, but there's definitely orange in there. Like everything else in A Beautiful World boxes, the Yarok Feed Your Youth serum is also organic, cruelty-free and vegan. I have very dry, frizzy hair as a result of shampooing every day for 8-10 years (stopped only in late 2011). But I can't oil my hair overnight as I get a stiff neck the following day, so I hope this serum will give my hair some TLC. This bottle retails at £22.00.

Marble and Milkweed Organic Body Oil

A very light moisturising body oil, I think this would be great before a warm soak. Or maybe a few drops applied all over right after a shower or bath. I've begun the last tub of body butter in my stash and need another all-over body moisturiser, so this is timely. This retails at GBP29.00. Can the ingredients be any more organic?

MuLondon White Chocolate Elbow, Knee and Heel Cream

I hate brown chocolate. Yes, you read that right, and no, I'm not a weirdo. I've inherited that taste so that makes us all weirdos. But I like white chocolate. This cream smells fabulous and looks just like creamy white chocolate! Reminds me of a Nestle milk-dessert you got chilled in packs of four in Sainsbury's - I forget the name but used to eat one a day and not gain weight, much to my flatmates' envy. Anyway, a little dab just after a shower should take care of my reptilian knees and elbows. This jar retails at £19.00.

Indie Lee Squalene Facial Oil

This squalene oil is entirely made from olives. You're supposed to apply two drops on the face and neck and it will bring down discolouration and soften the face. Even people with acne-prone skin can use this. I sometimes apply pure or combo olive/olive pomace oil to my face before a shower and it gives me very good results, so I can try this without problems. It retails at £22.

Naisture Collagen Sheet Mask Pack

The box is supposed to contain five sheet masks, though I've got six. Maybe a first-order freebie? Anyway, I now prefer sheet masks to any other kind because they are cooling and because they give me better results. I need to make myself finish Cosmetic Warrior and Crash Course in Skincare soon. Naisture stands for Nature + Moisturiser. The pack of five retails for £10.00.

Konjac Sponge

Haha, I don't need to buy another Konjac sponge till 2015. And they easily last three years unopened, so no hurry either. It retails at £6.99. I just bought more of them in a 3-for-2 offer from Israel as you can see here. Read my detailed review of the Konjac sponge here - it's my HG cleanser and exfoliator.

A Beautiful World packaging and customer service:

I love the glossy red box with magnetic closure. A great colour choice for a Christmas box and it feels very luxurious. Although my lovely magnetic luxe box was bruised by international mail handlers, I'm keeping it to store hair brushes. All the liquids and creams were in glass bottles. Normally this would have led to heartbreak via international post, but there was so much shredding and nothing was broken.

The box was wrapped in pink tissue and came in a nice white bag.
Shipping via registered mail is free for orders above GBP50 around the world. 

Email turnaround time is a few hours at the most, depending on the time difference. The lovely Liz from A Beautiful World was patient enough to answer all my questions quickly so I could get my Christmas box
I had asked for a free gift card and they've enclosed one without charge in the envelope.

To order A Beautiful World Christmas box:

Sorry, this one sold out a few hours after its launch! Keep a look out for the Spring box, though. Or follow me on Twitter or Facebook and, if I know the date, I'll let you know. They do have a Christmas hamper on sale though, containing several more full size products, and some brand-specific Christmas sets here; do take a look.