Like most thirteen year olds, Miss Frugal is a huge fan of Youtube.
So obviously, when one of her favourite Youtubers suggested that everyone write to beauty companies to try and get free samples of make up, she was all over it and had a list as long as her arm of companies who she wanted to email.
I agreed to help her but only if she narrowed the list down to ten (which took a lot of deliberating) and was OK with me sending the emails rather than the coming from her.
She readily agreed so we set about emailing her 10 chosen companies with a very polite (and honest) email explaining that Miss Frugal was starting to experiment a little with make up and would like to try each particular brand to see if it was suitable for her before we went out and bought anything. To be honest, I was quite pleased with our little email and I had my fingers crossed for her sake that even just a couple of the companies would send her something.
After we sent our emails we sat back and waited for the freebies to start rolling in (or at least Miss Frugal did).
We waited.
And we waited.
And then we waited some more.
We did get a few lovely emails back with some suggestions to visit local makeup counters but on the whole we were pretty much ignored and not one parcel arrived for her.
I’ve left it about six weeks now before writing this post to give any stragglers time to arrive but I think we have to accept that the myth that beauty companies will send out free samples just because you email them is factually incorrect.
Oh well!
** Just to be clear, we were completely honest and I explained that my teenage daughter was make-up mad and was wanting to try out some new brands. I explained that we’d be very grateful if they would send us some samples so we could try out their particular brand before we bought anything. Some websites I read beforehand suggested lying and making up a silly complaint in the hope that vouchers or samples would be sent as an apology but that’s completely wrong in my eyes – fair enough, send a cheeky email to see what you can get but don’t lie to get it! Oh, and the emails I sent weren’t from my blog email address as I thought that might influence the decision if they thought I was offering to do a review for them. **
Don’t miss out on future posts like this – receive updates directly to your inbox by email by adding your email address to the box on the top right of this page and hitting subscribe. You can also find me on BlogLovin, Yummly and Networked Blogs and I’d love to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram.
Image credit: Shutterstock,Dmitry Zimin
Discover more from The Diary of a Frugal Family
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
A really nice post, you should continue this great flow of information sharing.
It just goes to show, these make-up companies aren't willing to give anything away for free! Maybe they've had tons of requests though, after the youtubers suggested it…
Awww that's a shame your daughter didn't get anywhere with her request 🙁 x
What a shame that no-one sent anything, but I guess postal charges might put them off. I have always got my samples from the counters
A shame considering she might become a lifelong customer. I think you might have better luck over the counter. x
Interesting, it just goes to show that as with most things its who you are that gets you things. I hope some companies see this and get in touch
I am sorry to hear that you did not receive any samples, its disappointing but may be you could drop into some stores where they have makeup counters, they often offer free 5 min makeovers and even give out free tester samples.
When I was Miss F's age I used to pop to the local chemists and they would give me all the samples from the display counter. You know the ones with the plastic lipsticks! I can not image how many people had used them, but I loved that every so often I got a huge wad of sample!
When I was a teenager I remember that I could go to the beauty counters and ask for samples – they'd usually put something in a small pot to take away but it usually works best with skincare products rather than make-up!
I’m from Australia and emailed an Aussie sunscreen company to compliment their product. (My daughter has excema and it doesn’t flare it up). Plus none of us have ever been sunburnt using it. They sent a $40 pack to us for free for our feedback. Totally unexpected but generous!
I had no idea it was a thing… Would never have occurred to me to write the companies, but when you explained what you wrote I actually thought – why not? I mean she is completely right in wanting to try out as many products as she can, and I am sure if they did send it to her they would have achieved free publicity among teenage girls at least… I hope she wasn't disappointed too badly.
It’s a shame you didn’t get a reply from each company at least, customer service and all that! Hope your daughter wasn’t too disappointed
It would never occur to me to do that! Can you imagine if everyone did, they'd all go bust!
Thanks for putting the theory to the test for us though.