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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: “BAGGUGIFT” to get a free BAGGU® bag when you join Birchbox or “WGIFT” to get a Women’s sample bundle when you spent $60+ on Gift Subscriptions.
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 most (maybe the most) well known subscription boxes out there. I actually just saw a commercial for them on HGTV (?) the other night which I always think is SO cool because you never used to see subscription box commercials on tv!
Birchbox ships via USPS and all boxes generally ship by the 10th of the month. Both of my boxes shipped before then this month though.
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 December 2015 “Home for the Holidays” Birchbox. You can check out my review on the curated box option here.
Birchbox reveals the contents of the curated boxes in advance so you can make a decision if you want to skip your “regular” box in favor of the curated option. Since I have two subscriptions I don’t have to make that choice and instead get to make my sample choice selection, plus grab the curated box option.
My December 2015 Birchbox featured the following items:
~Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream (.10 fl.oz. / 3mL) ($1.28): This stuff works amazing to get rid of rough patches and soothe chapped skin, but yeah, it smells pretty medicinal. Sort of like Vicks. If you can get past that though, this stuff is a winner.
~Serge Normant Dream Big Instant Volumizing Spray (1.8oz / 51g) ($10): This was my Sample Choice item this month. With all the hair products I receive in subscription boxes I never have to buy any on my own. And that makes me happy! This stuff smells awesome and really gives my flat straight hair a boost.
~Coastal Scents® formalEYES Palette (0.65g) ($0.61): I received this sample (different shades though) in my curated Birchbox this month, which is why I didn’t opt for one of these as my sample choice. Looks like I got it anyway! I am happy it is different shades than my other one and I do like these colors better, so I don’t mind.
~(MALIN+GOETZ) clarifying clay mask (0.5fl.oz. / 15mL) ($7.20): YES! I always get excited when I see MALIN+GOETZ in subscription boxes. And a mask? Even better! It’s designed to treat oiliness and blemishes and I will for sure be buying a full-size of this!
~theBalm® cosmetics Frat Boy® Blush/Shadow (.57g) ($1.41): I don’t know if I like the packaging on this or the actual product itself more. Both are fabulous. The color looks super natural on my pale skin and gives me a nice rosy glow. I haven’t tried it as a shadow yet, but it doubles as one!
All totaled I came up with a value of $20.50 for my December 2015 Birchbox. 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 $27.50. After months on end of insanely valued Birchbox boxes, I guess it was time to get back to more reasonably valued boxes.
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 what you are getting. If you are interested in subscribing, new customers can use the coupon code “BAGGUGIFT” to get a free BAGGU® bag when you join Birchbox or “WGIFT” to get a Women’s sample bundle when you spent $60+ on Gift Subscriptions.
I love the balm blushes! I own Fray Boy already and just ran out of Hot Mama, best blushes ever!
I received this same exact box! It’s the first box of my annual subscription and I’m THRILLED with it. I’m a little worried about using the M+G mask, only because I received their grapefruit cleanser in my mystery sample pack and that did not like my face. Doesn’t mean the mask won’t work well, though! I just found every single item totally useful in this box and the volumizing spray is surprisingly HUGE. I actually think this is probably my favorite Birchbox that I can recall receiving in a long time!