What’s in your bag?

Looking inside the Oscar awards gift bag

 EVERYBODY WINS. While only one lucky nominee from each of the five individual categories will walk away with a golden statue in hand, all of them will receive an extravagant gift bag filled to the brim with a diverse array of products. From a stay in a Spanish lighthouse, to amethyst bath bombs, these bags really do have it all. “If I had to pick one item to keep from the bag it would definitely be the cruise, but it all sounds amazing,” said Julia Mott, 10.

EVERYBODY WINS. While only one lucky nominee from each of the five individual categories will walk away with a golden statue in hand, all of them will receive an extravagant gift bag filled to the brim with a diverse array of products. From a stay in a Spanish lighthouse, to amethyst bath bombs, these bags really do have it all. “If I had to pick one item to keep from the bag it would definitely be the cruise, but it all sounds amazing,” said Julia Mott, 10.

   Party favors—a time-honored tradition of children’s birthday parties, usually containing a few pieces of candy, and maybe some fun trinkets from the dollar store. These small bags usually cost a total of about $2 a piece, but still manage to light up the eyes of the receiver.

   At the Oscars, however, pieces of fun-sized candy and a mini rainbow slinky do not exactly fit the bill of $225,000 for this goody bag.

   For this prestigious awards ceremony, all 24 nominees in the categories of Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Director receive one of the extravagant gift bags. Lash Fary, founder of company Distinctive Assets, designs and assembles the high-priced gifts.

  Known as “the Sultan of Swag” according to Forbes, Fary began distributing branded gifts to celebrities at the Grammys in 2000, but now produces gift suites for almost every top award show around.

  But what exactly makes this year’s bag extra special?

  First of all, the price tag alone makes the gift unique, valued at $225,000, which, according to Forbes, is nearly $80,000 more than last year’s haul. One of the main items contributing to the hefty price tag is a $78,190 cruise on the Scenic Eclipse, a gigantic yacht. Another get-away includes a trip to a Spanish lighthouse transformed into a luxury hotel, priced at about $1,800 per night.

  In addition to the big-ticket voucher items, celebrities will also receive hydrogen-infused water, amethyst bath bombs, and even a meditation headband that senses brain waves—not to mention the $25,000 worth of cosmetic treatments that will also be included in the array of gifts. 

   Moving onto the less expensive side, Fary did not forget to include more random items, including the game Throw Throw Burrito, which is noted as a dodgeball card game from the creators of Exploding Kittens, as per Insider. The card game Exploding Kittens is also included in the vast array of products.

   The winner for cheapest item goes to a two-pack of dark chocolate Milano cookies, which costs $4.89 for a set of 10.

   “Sometimes it’s the little things that people like most, not the most expensive thing in the gift bag,” Fary told Forbes.

  Julia Mott, 10, an Academy Awards fan, also claims that the cookies would be one of her favorite parts of the bag. “Being at the Oscars would be rewarding enough, so the cookies would serve as an added bonus,” Mott said.

   Besides the inclusion of games involving exploding kittens and burritos, other odd items include products such as the Peezy Midstream, a medical urine test for certain infections. The bags also include a smart bra from Soma that measures the wearer for a perfect fit.

  From cookies to cruises, it would be difficult to claim that this gift bag does not check all of the boxes. Even though only one nominee from each category will win the most coveted Oscar award, everybody can walk away a winner with these prizes in hand.