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Birchbox
Cost: $10/month
Ships To: United States. However France, Spain and the UK also have their own Birchbox subscriptions.
Coupon Code: Subscription Box: “100FORYOU” on gift subscriptions to score 100 Birchbox extra points. Shop: Try “welcomeoffer20” for 20% off your shop purchase. And don’t forget to add a Mystery Sample Pack to your cart with your $35+ shop purchase!

Yay!  My second November 2014 Birchbox has arrived!  I signed up for a second account over the summer when they had an awesome deal going on and I have been loving having two accounts!  You can check out my review on my first November Birchbox – The Happy Holiday Hacks box here.

If you aren’t familiar, Birchbox, which is $10/month, offers 4-6 (sometimes more) hand-picked beauty and lifestyle samples, delivered to your door each month. You can review the samples you receive on a monthly basis to earn points in their shop, which makes the “real” cost of the box even less. Points accumulate until you are ready to spend, so you can stockpile and combine with coupon codes and get some complete steals (which I try to do).

Birchbox ships via UPS Mail Innovations.  My box took only three days to arrive this month which is awesome. The box this month is part of Birchbox’s November partnership with (RED) to help with their fight against AIDS.  Every time a subscriber shares a pictures of the special (RED) November Birchbox box (which will be covered with facts about AIDS) with the hashtag #shaRED, Birchbox will donate $1 to (RED)!

When my account updated online I saw that I would be receiving box #9 (*) this month, which oddly, didn’t include my selected sample (I opted for the Royal Apothic Cuppa Cuppa Firming Tea Treatment Mask). I was totally expecting to get my Birchbox and it not be included.  I also ordered an add-on this month (the candle), so my Birchbox was packaged in a larger box along with the candle and what do you know, the mask was in there too.  Impressive Birchbox!  So not only did I get my sample, but I got an awesome box too!

Since the mask wasn’t actually in my Birchbox it’s not in the first look.  But I would have been pretty happy with just this box!  It looks great!

The November Birchbox theme is “Giving” and their magazine includes a few ways you can  give back this season.  My box included the following items:

~MAKE Dual-Phase Eye Makeup Remover ($5.50): I don’t use a ton of eye-makeup, but I do like most of the MAKE products I have tried a lot.  If I don’t pass this one along to a friend I am sure it will be handy to have around.

~theBalm® cosmetics Cindy-Lou Manizer ($1.61): This is an all in one highlighter that gives you a little color and glow wherever you need it.  Loose highlighters intimidate me, but I can handle this one.

~Vosges Pink Himalayan Crystal Salt Caramel: Of all the snack samples in Birchbox this month (everyone got something to eat), this is the one I wanted most!  I sampled it right away and it was just as good as I had hoped.  Actually it was better.

~Eslor Firming Collagen Day Cream ($17): I received this in a GLOSSYBOX a few months ago and haven’t had a chance to use it yet.  But now I have enough to really tell if it’s going to make me look young again.  I actually really like when something like this happens and I get two fairly largish samples of the same product because it there’s enough of this for at least a month’s worth of use and that’s probably about how long it would take for me to tell if it works.

~Harvey Prince Hello Shampoo ($0.94) & Harvey Prince Hello Conditioner ($0.94): I love Harvey Prince and am so excited I got these.  It smells amazing and I want my hair to smell like this everyday.

~(My Sample Selection) Royal Apothic Cuppa Cuppa Firming Tea Treatment Mask ($9.67): I may not like to drink tea, but I like it in this mask!  It’s one use per tube (I wanted to sneak in two uses but there is just no way), but you can seriously tell a difference after just once.  I don’t know if I will end up buying more because of the price, but I might try and trade for some.

All totaled I came up with a value of $35.66 for my November 2014 Birchbox. Including the points I get for reviewing the items in the box (10 points per item = 60 points = $6 to spend in the Birchbox Shop) plus the points I get for purchasing the box (*) (10 points = $1), I came up with a total value of $43.66 for this box.  I included the mask sample cost in there, but I didn’t include any review points for it.  Since it doesn’t appear in my box online I have no way to review it and earn points.  According  to their revamped website, you can only get up to 50 points for reviewing your items, but I reviewed all mine and received 60 and I know others have this month as well, so I am not sure if it’s a poor wording choice or what.

Do you subscribe to Birchbox? Did you get your box yet this month? What number was it and what was in it?  If you don’t subscribe (it’s only $10/month) and are interested in learning more, click here.  If you are purchasing a gift subscription, you can use the coupon code “100FORYOU” to earn 100 extra Birchbox points which is equal to $10 to spend in the Birchbox store.

(*) If you want to see all the boxes this month, click here and change the 1 at the end to anything from a 1 to 49 since there were 49 (in comparison, last month there were 61 box variations) box variations this month.  I can’t figure out how you can tell which Box # you are receiving anymore without going through all the boxes, so if anyone knows I would love to hear!

(**) You only get points for purchasing the box if you buy an annual subscription (or 3-month, 6-months, etc.). You don’t get points if you are on a month to month subscription.