I've Made a Lot of Bad Gift Boxes... Until Now

I've been making Wild Venus gift boxes for years, and looking back, I can see exactly why so many of them were, let's face it - BAD.  

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They weren't necessarily bad-looking. Some of them were actually quite lovely, but lovely isn't enough to make a gift box successful. Over the years I've tried boxes that contained too much, boxes that contained too little, boxes that had fab products but were far too expensive, and boxes that made perfect sense to me at the time.

I've also put products together because they made sense as a collection, rather than because they actually made a good gift. I've definitely had those moments where I've thought, ‘THIS IS THE ONE!’  only to discover that Christmas came and went and I still had a shelf full of them and even a half price sale couldn’t shift them.

So when I started working on this year's gift boxes in preparation for Christmas, I decided to do things a little differently. Rather than simply finding some products that complemented each other, putting them into a box and making it look pretty, I wanted to work out what had actually gone wrong with the previous ones, and then use all of those lessons to create something that I would genuinely be happy to give as a gift.

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So, what have I been doing wrong?

Let's look at some of my previous gift boxes.

One of the first was Mystic Moments, which was very much built around a theme. It was purple, with a crystal-embedded lavender soap, a Starry Night bath melt and a candle called The Fortune Teller. I loved the idea of it, and The Fortune Teller is actually one of my all-time favourite candles that I've made, but it also has the honour of being one of my customers' least favourite scents.

The whole thing was probably just a little too niche. It was priced very reasonably at £21.99, but I think I was so focused on creating a particular theme that I hadn't really stopped to think about whether it was something that lots of people would actually want to buy as a gift.

Then there was Winter Wonderland, which contained a bath bomb, two wax melts or a mini candle, and a very cool soap. I thought these were great, but they only sold a couple over several months, despite being priced at £19.99.

The Damson Roses, Sugar Plum and Starry Night gift boxes were probably my most ambitious attempt. These were built around my best-selling scents and contained an ICONIC body butter, soap, bath truffles and either a wax melt or mini candle. Although the individual products are all solid sellers, when grouped together at £37 they were starting to become quite an expensive gift, largely because the body butter was one of the higher-priced products at Wild Venus.

There was also the packaging. I'd used a fairly simple box with a small sticker on the outside to tell me which version it was, and although it did the job, looking back it still felt quite crafty and homemade. Which, of course, it was, but I didn't really want it to feel that way.

In the same year, I also made smaller gift boxes, which contained a wax melt, a bath bomb and a soap for £15, with four different scent options. These were actually the most popular of the lot, but they still didn't exactly blow anyone away.

And I think this is where I started to see the bigger problem.

I had a LOT of different gift boxes, and none of them were particularly brilliant.

There were too many choices, it created too much work for me, and there simply wasn't enough appeal for the customer.

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The problem with displaying them

Another issue was how I actually displayed and communicated the gift boxes.

I was using white or brown cardboard postal boxes, which quickly started to look a little battered and messy at markets. They were also quite difficult to display because it wasn't immediately obvious what was inside, and I needed to use quite a lot of stuffing to prop everything up and make the products visible.

At a busy Christmas market, that isn't ideal, having to touch up the display every 5 minutes.

They also look pretty drab! Looking at these photos from last year it's easy to see why I hardly sold any of these, despite giving them so much room on my display. At this time of year we're always working so hard, it's impossible to see in front of you clearly. 

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The packaging itself had a similar problem. I was using a simple sticker on the outside of each box, which was useful because I could see at a glance which gift box was which, but I didn't really like the stickers and they didn't do anything to make the gift feel particularly special.

So, after years of making gift boxes that were okay, but never quite right, I decided it was time to go back to the drawing board.

And I've finally cracked it.

This year's gift boxes have been years in the making, even though they've only taken a few months to actually put together, because every failed attempt has taught me something about what I don't want to do.

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The first thing I've done is streamline the choice. There are four options this year, but they are all essentially the same gift, with the scent being the only real decision you need to make.

I've realised that the more choices you give people, the harder it can be to decide. Previously, someone could be trying to work out which box to buy, which products the recipient would like, which scent they would prefer and whether they'd actually use everything inside. This time, the decision is much simpler: which scent would they like?

I've also thought much more carefully about whether the products actually make sense as a gift.

Some of my previous gift boxes were built around wax melts and bath bombs, but you don't always know whether the person you're buying for will actually use those things. Candles are lovely, but adding one to a gift box quickly pushes the price up, so I didn't want to rely on either of those things to make the gift feel substantial.

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Instead, the new boxes contain a real smorgasbord of Wild Venus products, so there is much more to discover and much more chance of the recipient finding something they absolutely love. Even if one particular product isn't quite their thing, there are plenty of other things inside for them to enjoy.

There is still a bath product in the box, but it isn't a major part of the gift anymore. It's simply one small part of the overall sensory experience.

The packaging had to change too

This time I've moved away from the white postal boxes and I'm using aluminium window tins instead, and I think they make a huge difference.

They feel much more intentional and polished, and definitely much more like a proper gift. The window also means that you can immediately see what's inside, which makes displaying them at markets much easier and means the customer doesn't have to guess what they're buying.

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I've also moved away from the little stickers I used previously and designed proper printed belly bands for each gift. The front has the design and the name of the gift, while the back lists everything that's inside, so you can see exactly what you're getting without having to open the tin.

And then there's the feeling

I think this is probably the biggest difference between these gift boxes and the ones I've made before.

Rather than simply putting together a collection of products that happen to work well together, I've thought much more about the overall feeling of each gift. Each one has its own atmosphere, with the scents, colours, products and packaging all working together to create a particular sensory experience.

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That was something I was missing before. I was trying to make a collection of products that looked good together, whereas this time I've been much more focused on creating an actual gift.

And after years of trying different combinations, making things that didn't sell, changing the packaging, learning what people actually want and occasionally being left with a shelf full of Christmas gift boxes that I thought were brilliant at the time...

I've finally made some gift boxes that I'm really proud of.

So far, the sales have been really positive and already after only a couple of events, I’ve sold more of these gift boxes than the previous year combined!

They do demand quite a bit of work and planning in making sure I have so many individual components made for each one, but it’s definitely been worth it so far - and if it means that more people will be able to try Wild Venus products then I’m all for it!

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I’ve deliberately kept the price point as low as I could because I know that these are going to be a hit and allow people to sample all the great things I make.

Now - it’s up to you to choose which Self Care Collection you’d like to try first!