Sometimes you can get gift packs with a lot of different smaller items in them, particularly beauty gift packs. In the past I've split these down to use as stocking fillers at Christmas or little gifts for people as a thank you gift. I've also bought packs that happened to contain two people's favorite items and split the pack to use it for both of those people. If you can get these packs on a buy one get one free type of deal this means you can give even more people gifts from those gift packs. Does anyone else do this?
I've also done this. I have 3 nieces who enjoy having a variety of make up and skin care type products, so I sometimes buy 'lots' of those types of products, or as you mentioned, purchase gift packs, and split up the items among the 3 girls, for their Christmas stockings. At other times of the year, I simply give the set to one of them, unless it is around the time frame where 2 have close birthdays, then I have sometimes split the products between them.
Yes, I did that last Christmas. I had some cute,little olive oil containers I bought in a pack from a retailer I like. I gave myself one bottle and split the other two with family members. I think splitting gift packs is perfectly fine. Someone doesn't typically need 12 nail polishes at once, or somehting like that anyway.
I think many people do this, not only from a cost cutting point of view, but simply because it is a better idea and some items are more suited to others. I used to suggest to people when I worked on a beauty counter to buy coffrets and to split up the items ( that's what gift packs are called with a fragrance and the free body lotion, soap or shower gel in them) or to keep them for themselves. My selling point was you pay an extra £1 and get two extra gifts of a shower gel and a body lotion and it always worked.
Yeah, those big packs are great. A pack of twelve bottles of nail polish can make 3 or 4 gifts. I usually give something else as well, but these kinds of deals work great for stocking stuffers and other small gifts. I've done this with other stuff as well. I recently came across a pack that had two body washes and a lotion. I don't know why it was packaged that way, and I suspect it was a mistake. Maybe something else was meant to replace one of the bottles of body wash. I'm guessing that's why it was on discount, but that's fine by me. I picked up a pack of bath poufs and put one with each body wash. The lotion I will add to another gift basket.
The latest thing is beauty advent calendars where you buy a calendar packed with 24 beauty items. They are great to then split up or keep for yourself. The Clarins one even includes gift tags and three beauty bags for you to do this already. Most are travel or special sized items, and there are usually one or two full sized items too.
I didn't know there was a name for the free gift with purchase. Coffrets, huh? Cool. Thanks for educating us. This is a great time of year for such things. I know Estee Lauder always has a free gift with purchase thing around the holidays, and I really like their products. Of course, I'd be more tempted to keep the extra goodies for myself in this case, instead of gifting them. I'm sure there is a nice variety of other brands from which to choose as well. If you do want department store brands, getting them while on special is the best time to get them though.
