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Escape Monthly
Cost: $49.95/month (Full Size). $24.95/month (Escape Mini)
Ships To: United States and its territories.
Coupon Code: Use the coupon code “MYESCAPE” to score 20% off not only your first box, but all full-size boxes for the life of your subscription.
My November 2014 Escape Monthly appeared today and I was anxious to check it out! They had promised this to be the “most valuable” Escape Monthly yet so I wanted to see what they did with it.
If you aren’t familiar with them, Escape Monthly, which is $49.95/month, is a monthly vacation in a box. Each month you will discover products from a different location. Products consist of local and destination-inspired foods, relaxation and beauty essentials, and the highest quality products that bring the life of the destination right to you. They also offer an “Escape Mini” ($24.95/month) which contains 4 to 5 luxury, locally-made products and a travel brochure.
Escape Monthly ships via USPS Priority Mail. They generally ship on the 20th of the month, but this month shipped a few days earlier.
The first look wasn’t overly impressive. I didn’t open it up and feel like I was in Hawaii which I think is the goal.
The November 2014 Escape Monthly destination was Hawaii and included the following luxurious products to help you take a break and lose yourself in Hawaii as the winter months close in:
~Moon Hawaii Travel Guide ($13.32): I have actually never been to Hawaii (it’s on my list of places I want to visit for sure) so this book is fun. It gives me a little taste of what I am missing out on.
~Honey Girl Organics Face & Eye Cream (Per Information Card: $32.99, Per My Calculation: $7.54) and Night Creme (Per Information Card: $7, Per My Calculation: ~$1): I believe that this Face & Eye Cream also arrived in the first Escape Monthly Hawaii box. I didn’t subscribe back them so it’s not a duplicate for me. I’ll give both of these a go after I finish up my Lancer face cream from the Neiman Marcus box! ETA: Prices on these were originally obtained from the information card. No sizes were listed on the containers themselves so I ended up weighing the Face & Eye Cream to see what size it actually was. The full jar weighed 2.1oz while the empty jar weighed 1.7oz, meaning that the cream itself weighed 0.4oz. According to my calculations, that gives it a value of $7.54 which is far less than the information card value of $32.99.
~Personal Paradise Noni Papaya Pineapple Body Wash and Lotion ($3.75): These actually remind me of a hotel / spa line. That’s not a bad thing, that’s just what I thought of when I saw this. These smell great and I will certainly use them, but I do wish we would have gotten a conditioner instead of (or in addition to) the body lotion. I like to be able to try a shampoo and conditioner together!
~Kona Glazed Macadamia Nut Bag ($5.31): These are going to be a B item. I don’t really love macadamia nuts so I wouldn’t be a good judge of these. I do think of Hawaii when I think of them though, so they are a good fit for this box.
~Royal Hawaiian Orchards Kona Coffee Banana Macadamia Crunch ($4.15): I know I just said I didn’t like macadamia nuts, but I do like these. I guess I just don’t like them alone?
~Hawaiian Rainforest Naturals – Stress Relief Bath Crystals ($2.80): These bath crystals smell good and I think I would be less stressed if I actually did take a long bath with them!
~Bonus: Seashell Lei (~$1): The information card says that these retail for $10, but that seems super high. These are totally Hawaii though and I also think these were a good fit for the box.
All totaled I came up with a value of $38.87 (that’s after my revised calculation on the creams) $70.32 for the November 2014 Escape Monthly. Escape Monthly had originally promised a value of $113.95 for this box, which was later revised to $89.95 (their math still seems to be off). According to Escape Monthly, the variance in their numbers was the result of an error in the size of one of the products included. They originally had thought it would be full-sized, but it turned out to be a sample size. I think they should have noted the reason for the decrease in the value of the box with an e-mail or Facebook post, but instead I had to e-mail them to find out what happened. While I liked this box better than the last few months, I decided to take a little break for a while. I didn’t like the switch up in the value and just haven’t been wow’ed by them lately.
What do you think of Escape Monthly this month? If you are interested in subscribing or just want to learn more, click here. You can use the code “MYESCAPE” to score 20% off not only your first box, but all your other boxes for the life of your subscription. That gets you a discount of $10/month on the regular box (it doesn’t work on the Escape Mini)! The December destination is “Europe” and promises a “Luxury European Christmas”.
