i actually talked to someone who has a beauty blog about it, and she said she has had to work really hard to make connections in order to get the products early to do reviews on them. You have to work your way into the P.R system basically to get free products well before its official launch date.
MAC employees sometimes get new collections weeks before they come out, sometimes we get it after the debut. With style warriors I got my gratis early but i didnt get special packaging.