Valentine's Day Beauty Blogger's Love Package Swap

One of the neatest concepts I've been introduced to through the online make-up and beauty community is swapping.  Makeupalley has a sort of Craigslist for makeup swapping.  People can trade their lightly used or unwanted make-up for items that they do want or need.  There are so many country-specific beauty products that are impossible to get in other countries and this is one of the best ways to get your hands on some of those items.

A step up from make-up swapping is a love package exchange.  Cute little packages mailed to friends and other bloggers filled with beauty goodies and adorable decorations.  I love getting love packages but I especially LOVE putting them together for friends.

I've actually searched around the internet to look for holiday swaps to participate in but for some reason they're extremely hard to find.  I also constantly receive e-mails from readers asking if I would be interested in doing a swap.  So I thought, why not organize my own??

Valentiene's Day is the perfect holiday for a love package swap so I figure now is the best time to try to put this all together.  What do you guys think of an international Valentine's Day swap?

I've set up an interest form for those who would like to participate.  I do ask that all participants be bloggers with active blogs as this swap will be based on the honor system and hopefully the blogger integrity will apply to this swap.  Otherwise we'll get a whole bunch of random people just trying to get free stuff.  For those non bloggers who really want to participate, please  include another social media page you have such as Facebook or Twitter in the form.  I will require that you ship your package first and provide a tracking number before your swap partner ships your package to you. (It should only be a day or two apart).

The form will be open for one week from now until January 25th.  I will then e-mail all participants with their swapping partners.   I ask that you have your packages ready to be shipped by February 4th as most international deliveries take a couple of weeks to deliver.  It'd be nice if the recipient could receive their package by Valentine's Day but I know it can take some time so please just have it arrive before the month of February ends.

Also I haven't decided if the swap will be a direct exchange -- two people send packages to each other, or if it will be secret santa style -- everyone gets assigned someone to send the package to.  So please put your preference in the form.  Also please specify if you would like to participate in a $20 swap, $50 swap, or $100 swap.  Obviously we can't all afford expensive exchanges and do keep in mind that shipping can get pretty high.  But I think there should be a decent amount of value to make this swap worthwhile for everyone. The items don't have to be the EXACT value you choose but please keep it around your chosen price range and remember to make sure it's a package that you yourself would enjoy receiving.

Since this swap will be Valentine's Day themed, feel free to get creative with decorations!  Because this is a beauty blog swap, the package should contain primarily beauty products but if you need ideas here are some items you can include:

• Skin Care
• Make-up
• Hair accessories
• Bath Products
• Stationary
• False Eye Lashes
• Nail accessories
• Candy
• Fashion or Beauty magazines from your country
• Hand-made crafts or jewelry

For some great ideas please check out these links from Eki's page.  She seems to always get amazingly creative packages!

• http://www.ekiblog.com/2012/01/iphone-photo-diary-christmas-week.html
• http://www.ekiblog.com/2010/01/love-packages-dolly-wink-eyeliner-and.html
• http://www.ekiblog.com/2010/02/love-packages.html
• http://www.ekiblog.com/2011/06/love-packages.html

Also for those that are participating -- please spread the word so we can get a big variety or swappers and countries!