Birchbox: beauty samples, $10/month
Promo: subscribenow50 to get an extra 50 points when you sign up
I paid: $0 – Box retail value: $28.5, My value: $19.5
Enjoyment factor: ☺
Caneling: painless, through website
Birchbox is a monthly subscription which sends you five beauty samples every month, generally a mixture of skin/haircare and makeup. It comes in a cute little box that you can reuse. You can review each sample and receive for 10 points, and exchange 100 points for $10 off their online store, including gift subscriptions to their box. When you subscribe, you can fill out a questionnaire telling Birchbox which type of products interest you, though you may still get products you don’t care for. Lately, Birchbox has allowed subscribers to choose between a curated box that lists what samples are included, and a mystery box, with a choice of selecting one sample while supplies last.
This month, I had one my of my accounts use Birchbox points to gift my other account with a 3-month subscription. Unfortunately, gift subscriptions don’t start with the current month’s box, but a “customer favorites” box. Personally I think it should be called a “leftover” box, as most of the items in it came from September boxes.
I was disappointed that this box included two items I actually got in my September box that I hadn’t liked very much. This is particularly irking as you are only allowed to review a sample once – if you get it a second time, you cannot get the 10 points for the review. I contacted Birchbox asking for different samples and they said they couldn’t do that, but would give me 50 points instead. As this box contained six samples (albeit one of them is a foil) I thought it was a fair resolution.
I was actually happy enough with the rest of the box. The whole value of the box came to about $28 and the value of the products I’ll use is almost $20.
This is what I got:
100% Pure Organic Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream, 8 ml, $6.5
This vegan, natural cream has caffeine to help reduce your dark circles and puffiness. I can’t really say whether it works, but I love the smell of this cream. It smells like the vanilla filling in sandwich cookies. I want to lick it all off! Made in USA.
Davines Love Smoothing Shampoo and Conditioner, 75 ml bottle & 12 ml foil, $7.5 + $1
I was happy to get a large enough bottle of shampoo that I can use multiple times and a conditioner to go along with it, even it it came in a foil and might give me two washes worth at most. Alas, these products are not for me. They are formulated for “coarse and frizzy” hair, I have very fine, short, straight hair that has never been fizzy. The shampoo and conditioner did a good job of leaving my hair clean and soft, and the light scent was pleasant, but they are overkill for me. They left my daughter’s hair pretty soft as well. Still, I’m happy to try them. Both are made in Italy.
ModelCo Ultra Long-Lasting Lipstick in Stiletto (red), .12 oz, mini value $7
I got a different color of this same lipstick in my September box. I didn’t bother opening this one as I already know that red is not my color and I have enough red lipsticks for the few occasions my daughters may want to wear one. I found the other ModelCo lipstick I tried to be very short-lasting and stainy, so I would not recommend it. It’s made in Taiwan (at least purportedly).
Harvey Prince Hello perfume, 1.5 ml sample vial, $2
I got this sample last month, and for the third time this year. It smells like fruit candy. I’m swapping it.
TOCCA Esfoliante da Corpo – Nourishing Body Scrub in Green Tea & Lemon, 1 oz, $4.5
I don’t use body scrubs nearly enough, but this one may make me a believer. It left my skin feeling super soft and skin and smelling clean and fresh. I appreciated that the exfoliant is not purely sugar. I will no doubt use it all. Made in Canada.