Blog

Disclosure: If you make a purchase through the links posted below, I may receive a small compensation. Read the full disclosure.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Birchbox
Cost: $10/month
Ships To: United States. However France, Spain and the UK also have their own Birchbox subscriptions.
Coupon Code:Subscription Box: “FIVEOFFBOX” to get $5 off your first Birchbox. 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!

Birchbox 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 to get some complete steals (which I try to do).  I have been subscribing to Birchbox for over 3 years now and would say they are one of the best known subscription boxes out there.

Birchbox ships via USPS and all boxes generally ship by the 10th of the month.

Since I have two accounts I generally opt for that month’s curated box on one account and opt for the standard Birchbox on the other account.  This review is on the October 2015 “Positive Force” Box. You can check out the curated “Power Pose” box review here.

All the pink this month is in honor or Breast Cancer Awareness. Birchbox partnered with The Estee Lauder Companies’ Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign to support the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) to fund one year of breast cancer lab research hours.

My October 2015 “Positive Force” themed Birchbox included the following items:

~Avene Thermal Spring Water (1.76oz) ($9): I don’t know that thermal water is a necessary product (although all these “water” products seem to be all the rage these days), but I love it.  It’s super refreshing and is fantastic on warm days. It really helps with dryness as well.

~BioRepublic Cucumber Breeze Soothing Mask (1 Mask) ($4.83): I haven’t gotten a chance to use this yet (I am in mask overload around here), but it’s said to calm stressed skin and minimize the look of pores and fine lines.  I will never be disappointed about getting a mask in a subscription box so I was pleased to see this.

~Manna Kadar Cosmetics Lip Locked – Lucky (2.7g / 0.09oz) ($12.70): The gloss itself is great (not sticky, long-lastesting, etc.), but the color?  I’m not in love.  It’s a lot more coral than I was expecting.  It’s just not for me.

~Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray (37mL / 1oz) ($10): Oribe has the best hair products. Their dry texture spray does everything it promises. It soaks up oil and gives your hair fantastic texture and body.  I have super straight hair and this really helps give me some volume.

~Stila Huge Extreme Lash Mascara (6mL / 0.2fl.oz) ($10.45): This month’s Sample Choice featured a variety of mascaras for customers to select from.  I opted for this stila huge extreme lash mascara which is a totally new product to me.  This.is.awesome. I looked like I was ready for a big night out when I tested it.  My lashes were crazy long.  And I loved it. It didn’t clump and was just fantastic.  Try this!

All totaled I came up with a value of $46.98 for my October 2015 Birchbox “Positive Force” box. Including the points I get for purchasing the box (10 points = $1 to spend at Birchbox) and reviewing / sharing the items in the box (60 points = $6), the value increases to $53.98. I feel like I hit the Birchbox lottery this month.  First the Power Pose box and now this?  Amazing!!

Have you gotten your Birchbox yet this month? What’d you think?  If your box hasn’t arrived yet and you want to peek in it, you can use this link to see if it’s been posted.  Just remember, these boxes are NOT final and may change when boxes are officially posted by Birchbox on the 10th.  If you are interested in subscribing, new customers can use one of the following coupon codes (I think they are still active):

~”FIVEOFFBOX” to get $5 off your first Birchbox subscription purchase.
~”2FOR1BOX” to get a free Customer Favorites Box with all new subscription purchases.