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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: “PIXIPALETTE” to get a free Pixi by Petra Palette with all new Birchbox subscription purchases (valid thru 5/25)!

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 almost 4 years now and would say they are one of the most (maybe the most) well known subscription boxes out there. They are certainly one of the longest lasting boxes.

Birchbox ships via USPS and all boxes generally ship by the 10th of the month. Mine have been arriving earlier and earlier every month and I love it.

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 May 2016 “Naturally Radiant” Featured Box.

With the featured box you know what is coming, but I always love opening it up so I can see the sizes of the samples included.

The May 2016 Birchbox “Naturally Radiant” Featured Box included the following items:

~Clean Blossom Eau de Parfum (.05fl.oz) ($1.68): Clean Blossom has notes of Tunisian neroli, orange blossom, and sandalwood.  It’s pretty, but I don’t know that I love it.  I think it’s too floral for me.

~Davines LOVE Smoothing Shampoo (75mL) ($7.50): I knew that the shampoo was coming in this box, but I didn’t realize that we’d receive a conditioner packet too.  It’s designed to smooth frizzed-out and tangle-prone hair.  My hair has been extra tangly lately, but I don’t know that this helped a ton.  Maybe I need to use it more than once to see some effects.  It did smell good though.

~COOLA SPF 30 Organic Makeup Setting Spray (10mL) ($7.20): This setting spray “sets” your look, hydrates skin and blocks UV rays.  I love that it has built in SPF because if you aren’t wearing a moisturizer with SPF you NEED something like this.

~ModelCo Lip Lacquer in Creme Brulee (1.5mL) ($12):  I love this formula, but the color is almost concealer like on me?  I think mixed with something a tad darker though will make it amazing.

~Benefit Hoola Matte Bronzer (0.1 oz) ($10.36): This is what I was most excited about in this box!  Hoola bronzer!  The color is perfect for my skin tone – not too dark, but still enough to  give me a great “tan” and the sample size is amazing (it’s about 1/3 of the full-size).

~Swatches:

All totaled I came up with a value of $38.74 for the May 2016 “Naturally Radiant” featured Birchbox. Including the points I get for purchasing the box (10 points = $1 to spend in the Birchbox Shop) and reviewing / sharing the items in the box (70 points = $7), the value increases to $46.74.  I am super happy with this one and can’t wait to get my “regular” box this month.

Have you gotten your Birchbox yet this month? What’d you think?  If you are interested in subscribing, use coupon code “PIXIPALETTE” to get a free Pixi by Petra Palette with all new Birchbox subscription purchases (valid thru 5/25)!