The WORST Art Box I’ve EVER Seen. TOTAL Scam?? 

it's a shame they did not include any instructional materials, because metallic watercolours really work best when you let the water sit on them for a while - a pipette helps a lot with just dumping water in the pan! it's not necessarily that the paint is bad, that's just how metallic watercolours work. the mica is a lot heavier and bigger than traditional paint pigments, so it takes more work for the binder around them to reactivate. it does mean you get the option of easily having a much more subtle shimmer, especially useful with opalescent watercolors, but waiting a few minutes to soften the paint really does give you suuuuper opaque results even with cheap metallic watercolours

My goodness for getting such an awful box, you were very generous to say you would give them a second chance.

id guess the reason why there’s no brochure is that it’s not really “curated” with any intent. it’s probably just overstock they need to get rid of

I purchased a year ago an empty watercolor mini palette for $20+ and then I saw the same one in Aliexpress for $7. That was enough for me to never even look again at any of their adds in my social media. They are particular expensive also with the shipping to USA, California (that was my experience). Thank you for this genuine review.

Grabie, where you grab whatever cheap art supplies you can find, and toss them in a box. Enjoy!

Thank you for trying this; i would be BEYOND PISSED to find that the $55 is double the cost of each item. The final straw for me is that they misspelled "sourcing" on their webpage.

Oh not the CIY box! 😆 But this one is also a shock… Value who? 🙃

All of the cheap brands from China like Timu, Wish, have really ruined the idea of low price, high quality art supplies.

Ok so, for the first marker set you got, is pretty common in China, I’m from China and the cheapest I’ve seen is 8$ China for 4 markers, so that would be 1.129925 usd. The marker set ranges from 8-27 China dollars.. (Edit: most of these things are like in every stationary store you can get your hands on in China, it’s quite disappointing on how expensive this entire box is)

I got so sick of these over expensive loot boxes but love the idea of themed boxes as gifts. So I just make them up myself. It's much more affordable and you can splash out on good stuff if you want.

Grabie claims on their website that there’s 100$ worth of value in their art boxes. It makes me wonder if that’s what they’re referring to by the pricing that makes it looks like the box is on sale. So they are definitely making some pretty concrete monetary claims that aren’t being delivered on.

Paletteful Packs now has their “card” online instead of inside the box. I would be very upset if I bought that Grabie box. They either need to seriously lower their price, or drastically increase the quality of the items included. Congrats on your engagement!

I love that you stayed unbiased until the end! Maybe because they're just starting they used some overflow items from their scrapbook box and bought some easier products in bulk to make sure they had enough for a soft launch....I like the packaging though

I love the new setup! She always do a great job of explaining the things she doesn't like about a box and explains how it could better!

I would be bummed to get a box like that. On the bright side, we did get some good news in this video. Congrats on your engagement!

The rules of subscription box club 1) mail day needs to be Christmas: you need to have a the full “experience” if you’re selling at a price higher than the retail for the products (have a theme, have good packaging design, documentation/communication, etc) or 2) if you’re box doesn’t make people giddy to open, then you better be getting them a deal on products. And tbh, almost all the ones I’ve stuck with have done both. Because I only have so much room for whatever stuff if you’re not making me excited to go to the mailbox.

I have seen several unboxings of the scrapbooking box and they seem really good. That art box though, wow. Congratulations on the engagement!

I honestly thought they were a scam company every time they popped up on my TikTok and Instagram because I never seen a video that wasn't either from an influencer paid to unbox it or of art down from obviously different supplies than what was shown.

I really love seeing the bright windows behind you, I think it’s a great background! Know how hard it’s been with the move and everything going on to put a video up, so well done!! 🤗 Really enjoyed the video, think it’s bad when a box costs so much and has so little inside! Not good value! Will definitely look for blueland as haven’t heard of them before! Xx

I'm taking a wild stab in the dark and guessing that this box is from a company that bought or produced the items in bulk, and they're finding extra ways to unload what they have for as much profit as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the company disappears within the next few months once their predetermined stock runs out. It's kind of you to want to give them a second chance like that, but I've seen too many fake clothing brands pop up and vanish on sites like Amazon to have much faith.

Grats on your engagement! Curious to see if you’ve kept the big honking art cabinet thing (that hinges open 3 times). I’ve considered buying it for myself but it seems difficult to assemble and then open and close. Update us if you have time please. Love your vids.

Congrats on your engagement! That part of your home looks so cozy and bright.

First of all: CONGRATULATIONS!!! 😍🥳 Second: I always seriously appreciate honest, unbiased reviews about things so much, so thank you for being one of those people who we can trust to be honest. ☺

Girl, do you understand it's a scam and nothing more? They know what they doing

I am so glad you're updating videos again, We Missed you Chloe 😁

Yay chole posted it's finally a good day

Congratulations on your engagement! 🎉 but aww that sucks the box wasn’t what it was cut out to be. Still I loved getting the notification you made a new video 😊 hope you’re doing well!

so I took a look through Taobao and I priced out "every" single item that was in that box. I took some liberties with the self branded watercolour pad and found a popular brand of equal size, and didn't include the two envelopes/black paper since those probably came from a large pack, and I can maybe see where they got the "110.99". 110 CNY... which is about 16USD. disgraceful

I have to say, I really do love the space you ended up filming in - so much gorgeous lighting!

I saw some promos on tiktok. A set of watercolor for 40 bucks and looks exactly the same as some aliexpress watercolor set with just their branding slapped onto it. I've never heard of Grabie either so I was hella sus.

Congrats on getting engaged! The only brand I’d heard of was STA (the gold marker) because I have some fine liners from that brand. A brochure is definitely helpful.

WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THE ENGAGEMENT? CONGRATS!!

I’ve seen this online a lot too. Thanks for taking one for the team 😁

Congrats on your engagement!=3 This box is lazy - just cheap art supplies dumped into one place. It is a shame they didn't include any instructions - metallic paints can be a really nice supply if you let them sit a bit with some water dropped on the pigment - it helps it to get moovin=) But I have hopes they can improve=)

0:22 I love how you can hear someone laughing while playing the kazoo 😂😂😂

Congratulations on your engagement and new space Chloe. Those cleaning products look interesting.

the editing around the crayola box subscription had me dying😂

Weird that this video was suggested to me today.. I JUST found out about the grabie boxes and had just looked at them… with severe disappointment.. Especially when I realized that 1/2 the stuff I ordered from temu for my bday art splurge was listed on the grabie site as a regular product.. for exponentially more money.. 😮😮😮.. like.. woah… I live in a college loaded area, there’s a LOT of them within 10 miles.. and there used to be so many book stores and art supply stores 😢😢 It’s the thing I miss the most about the internet age, is the loss of so many incredible little shops and all the books.. ((yah I’m approaching old)) .. I’m only mentioning it because the experience of going through a loaded and stocked art supply store was just amazing.. being relegated to temu and Amazon for art supplies these days is a loss that’s hard to explain.. sigh.. at least they’re inexpensive.. even if I have to spend hours following down product suggestion rabbit holes to find the best stuff 😝

So happy to see you again! CONGRATULATIONS on your engagement! Such happiness! As always, I appreciate your honesty. And I love your haircut.😊

congrats on the engagement and the new house!!!!

Congratulations on getting engaged!!! Very happy for you!!! That box just sucks! I’d demand my money back.

Congrats on your engagement! Also thank you for being the sacrifice and trying this craft box!! It's been advertised to me non stop, but I recognized a lot of the items in the promo pictures from aliexpress.

Congratulations 🎉. You are the queen of editing and a great storyteller ❤. Thank you for reviewing this honestly.

Congratulations on your engagement ❤ Thank you for sharing this 😊 Love your videos.

Congratulations on your engagement!!

“Natural. Interesting. Fine.” 😂 PS your nails are sooooo funnn! 🫶

Congratulations on your engagement! Lovely to see you posting a new video xx

The sad Kazoo kills me 😂❤

Congratulations Chloe!! I’m so happy for you!😊The sub box was a disappointment. Man that sux! I get the Pallet Full box and by and large it’s a very good box. I find myself going back to the items I’ve gotten from them more often than not. All of their items are quality. I may not get very many of the colors but that’s because they are top brands. If you haven’t you should try them. Thanks for such a great channel!

Congrats on your engagement ❤❤🎉🎉

I don’t understand how people get away with this.

I want to thank you for being so honest with everything, I love your videos ❤

I don't know if it would help at all but with metallic watercolors it's good to put a drop of water about for 1min before using it. I don't know if you did or not. I have several high quality watercolors that look like s**t when used before letting the water do it's job.

Congratulations on your engagement! Wishing you two health and happiness in abundance. ✨🥂🍾✨

I think this is way too expensive for what it is. It's ridiculous. technically not a scam I guess, but I'd call it a ripoff. Wasn't one of the appeals for subscription boxes a higher value than what you actually pay?😅 instead of the other way around 6:34 I can. It's not cotton😂 (sorry, I had to) Tip for budget: the new fabriano 1264 line has a 25% cotton pad with 30 pages, and can be found for under €10 for a4. Can recommend.

You were so generous and kind and I appreciate artists like you who are honest about stuff like this! But that box is ridiculous, any artist understands that art supplies that’s quality is EXPENSIVE, artists don’t normally have the monetary availability to pay $50 for garbage off off drop shipping websites like TEMU only to have half of those products break or stop working wAY too soon. That company is BLATANTLY disregarding the artist community seeing as how they tried to make it seem like it was worth even MORE. It seems like they are just a distribution chain in LA for the company that runs TEMU in China trying to pass off as a different company. TEMU and WISH have ruined the trust the general public has for small businesses because of BRANDS LIKE THIS that pretend like they are small. Etsy and other companies allow this problem to FESTER by allowing big companies to play pretend as an individual seller on their platforms 😡 😡

I thought those were distress pigments at first! Try them with a dry brush and see if it picks up like a slightly greasy eyeshadow and if so, you can use them as a dry pigment with stencils.

I usually prefer to select my art supplies and craft supplies individually rather than over-paying some stranger for assembling what they think is a good collection. I also prefer to not have a lot of decorative and expensive packaging material that will only go into the trash. If I can re-use unusual packaging material to make collages or greeting cards or fun jewelry, then that is a different matter, but most packing material is just not useful this way. Why would I gamble my hard-earned money on buying someone's art products collection when I can shop in person at several local art supply stores or order art supplies from Amazon or specialty online shops? And choose the level of quality I want? And the colors or the medium I want? I have no interest in paint pens or lower quality ink markers and would be very disappointed to receive such items. And what artist does not already have canvases or watercolor paper? When I have bought curated collections, it is to learn a new technique and see if I like it or to purchase limited edition items that I know I will want to use. For example, I have several card-making collections of cutting dies and specialty cardstock designed by Anna Griffin. I also have a monthly subscription to a company that specializes in unusual shapes and colors of Czech two-hole beads. For alcohol markers, I will stick with Copic brand. For coloring pencils and watercolor pencils, give me Prismacolor or Derwent brands. Inferior quality products are frustrating to use and a waste of money.

Yeah it is a rip off, not worth the cash. I personally dislike the art style on the box. The box is not the point of an art subscription box…. Not a scam but not worth the money. Congratulations as well!

CONGRATS ON THE ENGAGEMENT!

Congrats on your engagement so happy for you both lots of love from New Jersey ❤

Yay!!! Congrats on engagement! I just got married last Saturday! Happy for you!

Congratulations on the engagement!

A few years back, I looked into subscription boxes for comics and sci-fi memorabilia and decided not to bother with them. I did buy a comics box - it was more of a mystery box than a subscription box and you could indicate what kind of comics that you like to read and they would send you a random selection based on it - I was expecting a mix of well known Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Buffy, etc, but got a bunch of things that I'd never heard of - it was disappointing - I was hoping to find something that would kick start a collection but it just seemed to be made up of comics that wouldn't sell otherwise. With the sci-fi memorabilia, I watched a few unboxing videos for those before I made up my mind, and I didn't like what I saw with them - most of the items seemed to be freebees that you would get from conventions, broken items and stuff that a shop would have difficulty selling - you have to be careful about what you sign up for with these boxes. I also find them including items from Temu and Aliexpress to be concerning since you expect brands that you can recognize and it doesn't seem well put together. The claim that the box should cost over a hundred dollars is silly. There is a company in the UK, artful, that has a similar price tag on it, though it is a quarterly box, rather than a monthly one with a similar price, but although you do get a lot supplies in them, they aren't from a known professional brand which is off putting as you don't know if it is good quality. Having struggled with cheap, low quality supplies in the past, I'd rather spend a little more on getting less than getting lots of low quality supplies.

Congratulations on getting engaged! Woop woop! 🎉🥳🎉

Also: they say this is ethically sourced!!

The thing about Ali express and Ali baba is the shipping costs added on. I wanted some tops for a ren faire stall, when I added 14 items to my cart for a total of about 190 bucks the shipping was going to be almost 130!

Congratulations on your engagement! 😊

I can't believe i caught this video so earlyy!

About metalic paints - you need to put drop of water on each colour and leave it for few minutes and then ypu will have great paint. Most of metalic paints work that way, you need to activate them

Congratulations on getting engaged chloe!!! im so happy for you both ❤

From the minute I saw markers and other stuff my brain was screaming "I saw them on aliexpress, joom any marketplace with chinese products" 😂

Ayyyy, my family uses blueland for laundry! It works really well, and it gets the yucky spots off my work jeans just as well as some fancier brands

Congratulations chloe❤

Congratulations on the engagement!!!❤❤❤

Congrats on your engagement. I agree with you, everyone (thing) deserves a second chance. Maybe go back in 6 months and see if they have improved. 🎉🎊🎨🎉💗💐

Congratulations! Yeah, I agree, I don't expect every month of every subscription box to give me a true discount every time, but they literally charged almost double. That tells me they either aren't getting the bulk deals that individual customers can't get, or they didn't figure out their costs and budgeting soon enough. I hope they iron it all out and are able to deliver something closer to the value claim.

I love your subscription box reviews! Especially the scathing ones!

Congratulations on your engagement Chloe! I wish you both the best ! Love your videos !

Congratulations on your engagement 🥳

So happy for you!!!! May you have many years of happiness together!!!

I actually thought about this myself and I wonder how subscription boxes make any money. On one hand, $30 for a $50 box doesn't sound HORRIBLE when you think about taxes and shipping... like some are like $14 shipping?? And I get they have to make some kind of profit, even if it's $5-$10 a box. I'm curious about it though, because either the items they send are so undervalued in order to make a profit on what they charge per box... or they're losing money on things that value more than the box costs... how do they do it?

9:27 they put all there money into the nice box probably 😭

Congrats on getting engaged

This is really bad, feels like a website that does this, when found out will just close down, enjoy their money made, and make a new website with another subscription box idea and will repeat the process over and over like that.

They spent all the budget on the boxes

Yikes. That's steep for off-brand products outright, much less off-brand products you can easily get yourself elsewhere for next to nothing. I've spent way less on other art subscription boxes that sent actual big name materials like Copic, Derwent, Holbein, etc. plus art prompts and instructions on how to use. Hard pass, for me. Congratulations on your engagement!!

Congratulations on your engagement! 🎉🥰 So happy for the both of you!!!

Better to change the name of their product to "Cash Grabie" xDD

Omg love the set up ❤❤

Congratulations on your engagement!!!

Congratulations!!!! 🎊🥰 I just got married a few months ago. I wish you the best of luck and love on your new journey

I'm loving how bright and sunny the dining space is, but I imagine that must make managing lighting in editing difficult

That's awful value! Also I'm sure, being that the company have a base in Shang Hai that they would have paid even less than the price on Ali Express. To me it just stinks of a greedy company taking artists for fools, hoping that only beginner artists pick it up, because as an experienced artist its very quick to tell whether an item is good quality vs Temu "standard". Also to put it in a nice quality box is leading in to a false impression that the products are of high quality. It hasnt got any curated sense about it, like the others, just how cheap can we make it and how high can we charge!

I don't trust any company that has misspelled words in a prominent place on their website (9:44) and I certainly wouldn't trust a company that makes a point to talk about "responsible sourcing" and "zero waste production" but sells products that seem quite unlikely to measure up to those standards😬

Congratulations on the engagement!!! So exciting!

Theres another craft subscription i have purchased from before that buys things off AliExpress and makes a box. But they come with a video guide, tutorial etc. So they're actual projects. And irs aimed at adults.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm a little suspect when a website has misspelled words. Sourcing - spelled with a C, not an S. With all the scams out there, this is one clue I look for. Thank you for taking one for the team! Is there any art box out there that you recommend? I paint as a hobby, but would like to buy better products than what you find at superstores. Congratulations on your engagement!

CONGRATULATIONS ON GETTING ENGAGED 🎉❤ , im soooo happy 4 you chole and congrats on the new house! Im waiting for a tour 😊, and i like the filming and quality! I have to say something about the metallic water colors, idk if you have used them before or not but you are supposed to to put 5 - 4 drops of water on the color and wait for the color to observe the water and then use it❤.

Congratulations on the engagement!! 🎉😊