Roxanne Assoulin: costume jewelry, and a $10 fee off every refund

Two hundred and ninety-eight of the 949 variants on Roxanne Assoulin's own site carried a discount when we sampled it on 5 September 2026 — roughly 40% off, under an "AugSale26" tag. That is 31% of the catalogue. Every one of those items is final sale, because the brand's terms make all sale stock final. Which means that on the day we looked, about a third of what was for sale could not be sent back for any reason.

That runs the other way from the usual advice. At most brands the sale rack is where the value is. At this one it is where the return right goes.

What they actually sell — and it is not fine jewelry

Costume jewelry, in the brand's own vocabulary. Beaded and enamel stretch bracelet stacks, charm-and-cord necklaces, puffy heart and initial charms, earrings, anklets, bag charms and necklace extenders, across 413 products and 949 variants. There is also a customisation line, corporate gifting, private events, and a store on Madison Avenue.

The materials language is unambiguous and the brand does not hide it. Across those 413 descriptions the recurring words are brass (75 mentions), enamel (73), crystal (52), cubic zirconia (28), glass (25), freshwater pearl (15), acrylic (8) and plated (4). Diamond appears once, in one description out of 413. Metal is described as "gold tone", "silver tone", "gold-tone brass" or "silver plated brass": no 14k or 18k claim anywhere, no solid gold, no sterling, no gold-filled, no vermeil, and no plating-thickness disclosure at all.

Stones are crystal, cubic zirconia, glass, freshwater pearls, acrylic and enamel beads, with named semi-precious stones — moss agate, dalmatian, tiger's eye, carnelian — plus striped agate, coral and "imitation bone" on higher-priced pieces. Our file records no nickel-free, lead-free or hypoallergenic claim.

The brand's own care guide is the most honest document in the file. It describes the pieces as "happy but fragile", says enamel "has a tendency to chip", says the jewelry "isn't designed to be precious", and instructs customers to keep it away from the ocean, the pool and the shower.

Who makes it, and where

Not stated. No country-of-origin statement appears across any of the 413 product descriptions, and none appears on the story, FAQ, care-guide, shipping, returns, sizing or customisation pages. The brand is designed and headquartered in New York, with a showroom at 49 W. 27th Street and a store at 1069 Madison Avenue, and it does not publish where the jewelry is manufactured.

Our file records no founding year for the label, so this profile states none.

What it costs — and why the site price is the wrong number

Because 298 of 949 variants were marked down when we sampled, the on-site figures understate the brand's real positioning: the site ran $24 to $1,150 excluding gift cards, median variant $75, 75th percentile $110, 90th percentile $160.

The wholesale channels are the cleaner read, because they are not carrying the same sale. Shopbop's sample ran $95–$220, Nordstrom's $95–$265, Ylang 23's collection $120–$325. Full-price positioning sits at roughly $95–$325 for the core, with entry charms at $30–$55.

Prices recorded 5 September 2026:

Signature pieces

• Camp Bracelets, the beaded stretch bracelet bunch that is the brand's calling card, $45 from $75
• The Happy Cord family of charm necklaces and bracelets on coloured cord, $30–$135
• Puffy heart charms in three scales: Big at $145, Mini at $100, Itsy Bitsy at $75–$95
• Initial and monogram pieces, including the made-to-order Just Say It and Monogram custom bracelets
• Rainbow Brite Bracelets, including a men's version, $144–$153
• The Pavé Stone Hinged Bracelets at $1,150 and the Twinkle Twinkle sets at $285–$475, the top of the range

The terms

There are no affiliate links on this page. Every term below is the brand's own published statement, recorded 4–5 September 2026, not ours.

Returns. Fourteen days from delivery, unworn, in original condition and with original packaging where possible. A $10 handling fee is deducted automatically from every refund. On The Cylinder Cord Necklace at $125, that fee is 8% of the purchase price, taken for changing your mind. Refunds typically post within seven business days. Returns are not accepted in person, and shipping fees and international duties are non-refundable. Our return-window reference sheet puts the brand in the fourteen-day cluster that nine of our fifteen covered labels share.

Final sale. All sale items and all customisation are final sale. That is the term doing the most work here, given the share of the catalogue on markdown.

Lead times. Custom bracelets ship within three to four weeks and are final sale. Custom sizing must be arranged by email before ordering, takes two to three weeks, and is also final sale. If a customised piece is a gift with a date attached, the order-by maths starts a month out.

Shipping. Allow three to six business days for an order to ship, then five to ten for US ground. US ground is complimentary on orders of $250 and over, calculated before shipping and tax and applied after discounts. International ships via DHL in seven to fourteen business days with the customer responsible for duties. Orders cannot be cancelled or changed once placed.

Sizing and damage. A standard 7-inch bracelet has a 2-inch inner diameter, and 2-inch extenders are sold in pairs. Damaged or defective items must be reported within fourteen days of delivery; outside that window, repairs are case by case. Customer service is email-only, with a stated one-to-two business day response time.

Press, with provenance

Three citations in our file are verified as coverage the outlet published. WWD published an exclusive on the brand opening its first Upper East Side pop-up in 2025; Yahoo News carries the same WWD story in syndication, so the two entries are one piece of reporting, not two. Refinery29 published an interview with the founder in 2018.

Three further citations we have not independently read: a Business of Fashion company profile, and two PopSugar headlines pulled from a news index whose articles and dates we could not confirm. Those are listings we hold, not coverage we can vouch for, and they are not counted toward anything.

On the review side, Trustpilot shows 1.8 out of 5 from just 20 reviews, on a profile the brand has not claimed. The six most recent, running January to April 2026, cite tarnishing, breakage and slow email-only support. Twenty reviews on an unclaimed profile is a weak signal in both directions — but the complaints line up with what the brand's own care guide says about fragility and chipping enamel.

Comparable brands

BaubleBar, Lele Sadoughi, Susan Alexandra, Eliou and Julie Vos work the same ground: colour-forward costume jewelry at prices that overlap real gold. What separates them is not design but disclosure — whether the metal is described by karat or by tone, whether plating thickness is published anywhere, and what the return terms do to a discounted piece.

THE PENNYWEIGHT VERDICT

Buy at full price. The sale is the trap, not the bargain.

The number is 298 of 949 — the share of variants, about 31%, carrying a roughly 40% markdown when we sampled, every one of them final sale under the brand's own terms. Full price is the only version of this purchase that comes with a return right at all, and even that costs $10 off the refund, which is 8% of a $125 cord necklace.

So the arithmetic is straightforward. A $145 puffy heart charm necklace at full price is returnable for fourteen days, minus $10. The same necklace at 40% off is $87 and yours forever, on a brand whose own care guide calls the pieces "happy but fragile" and warns that enamel chips. The $58 you save is the price of every future decision about the piece.

Prices, catalogue counts, materials vocabulary, policy terms, press citations and review figures are drawn from Roxanne Assoulin's own pages and product data, from the named stockists' listings, and from Trustpilot's own record, as recorded in our brand files on 4–5 September 2026. Terms change without notice. The Pennyweight buys nothing, accepts no gifted product, and is not affiliated with any brand or retailer named here.