January 2019 Birchbox Review

Birchbox is a subscription service that provides members with 5 sample sized beauty, makeup or hair care items for $10 a month right to your front door. Now, unfortunately it looks like the price will be going up to $13 a month (there damn well better be an improvement for that price point) but you can lock in a year for $110 if you subscribe before 24 Mar 2019.

October 2018 Birchbox Review

Birchbox is one of the OG subscription boxes and arguably one of the most popular. Birchbox is known for providing members with high end brands and focusing on skincare and hair care but the sample sizes are typically smaller than what you would find in Ipsy, Allure and Target and items aren’t always as accessible for purchase like Play! by Sephora. October’s box featured:

August 2018 Birchbox Review

Birchbox is a subscription service that delivers 5 sample sized beauty items to your doorstep for $10 a month. Birchbox sends out a variety of items so each box is tailored to subscribers based on a profile they set up upon signing up. Brands often range from mestige to high end but it’s a great way for people like me to try products and brands they would have a hard time otherwise dropping that kind of money on. 

June 2018 Birchbox Review

Birchbox is a monthly subscription that delivers 5 beauty samples to members for $10 a month. Samples are curated for members based on profile answers, beauty preferences, comfort and adventure level and skin tone and hair type. My samples almost never match my needs or profile. And yet I cannot unsubscribe for fear of missing out.

My June box had:

February 2018 Birchbox Review

It snowed quite a bit today and felt like February outside so sure, why not throw in a February review mid-April? I feel like Birchbox did not really try in February and yet I still managed to benefit a bit in value in just the first item I noticed.

February's box included:

• The Balance Me Wonder Eye Cream - $11.53
• Briogeo Rosarco Milk Reparative Leave-In Conditioning Spray - $3.00, Cruelty Free
• CLEAN Reserve Amber Saffron Eau de Parfum - $3.68
• MAC Cosmetics False Lashes Mascara - $2.00 (estimate)
• ARROW BOOST Color Enhancing Lip Balm in Berry Busy - $14.00 Vegan, Cruelty Free

 

Birchbox Review for September 2017

I was just sitting back washing my face and masking (something I haven't had time to do for most of this month) and I had a quick feeling of what bliss is. My husband is out working, the kids are in bed (and actually quiet), my mother-in-law is visiting her other son and his wife for most of the evening. I have found silence. And as I type this I hear the door and slowly whither inside. It was sweet while it lasted. But in my short reverie I decided I'm going to color with Lizzie when I wake up tomorrow.

What does any of this have to do with a Birchbox review, you ask?

This!

August Birchbox Review

Birchbox is a $10 a month subscription that sends out a box with 5 beauty samples. Samples range from beauty to skincare, hair care, fragrances and the occasional snack or lifestyle item of which I have yet to receive. It's August 31st and I'm just now getting around to reviewing my Birchbox because according to the company's site they partnered with a new shipping company and shit met fan. Full disclosure: It's not my favorite subscription box but if you're into poorly matched lip shades and tiny samples of high end brands I'll just drop my referral link right here.

 

• Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow Volumizing Fiber Gel in 5 Deep
• Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream
• Etat Libre d'Orange
• Glamglow Thirsty Mud Hydrating Treatment 
• Stila Cosmetics Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Perla
• Oribe Shampoo and Conditioner for Brilliance And Shine

I loved the box design itself this month. It reminded me so much of home and my heart did swell just a little bit seeing the sunset and palm trees. Up to this point I didn't really realize I was homesick.

Homesick

I'm perfectly fine with my broken, bushy brows but I found myself falling into the Benefit Brow craze. Fortunately I scored the Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow this month and I must say I do like it. I got the shade 5 deep and it's a really nice, cool toned match for my brows. I was a bit concerned that it would pull more red than ashy and look strangely warm and brown against my face but my fears were all for naught. I really really need to go get my brows threaded but at least now I feel confident enough to get them done a bit thinner to fit my face shape and my ginormous glasses. Last time I got them done I was not assertive enough and ended up with a straight brow. While I do like the straight brow style on Cara D, mine looked nowhere near as glamorous in part due to my huge Maurice Moss sized glasses.

The Dr. Jart+ Ceramidin Cream is the second Dr. Jart+ product I've received and so far they're not really scoring many points with me. This moisturizer is a fairly thick cream that is full of ceramides, waxy fatty acids that help the skin maintain moisture and is also a component of vernix caeseosa (or baby cheese) on newborn babies. Cool beans, I can respect that. Except I have combination leaning toward oily skin so... no dice. Unfortunately this cream is just a bit too thick and tacky for my taste but I imagine it would work wonders on somebody with normal or dry skin. My biggest hangup is that it has that thicker tacky consistency after application which drives me insane (yeah, I know it's probably more mental than anything) so it's definitely an evening cream for me.

I received another perfume this month called Like This. It is a collaboration between the brand by Etat Libre d'Orange and Tilda Swinton, whom I've had a total girl crush on since Constantine. This fragrance has a very deep, woodsy, musky, almost gourmand scent to it. I'm not sure if what I'm smelling is gourmand or floral though because the scent tends to evolve on me rapidly for the first 10 minutes then gradually over the next few hours. It definitely has a deep autumn scent to it (love!). The info card describes it as having notes of ginger, rose and pumpkin. Omg I just want to roll in a pile of leaves with every sniff.
 

I received Glamglow Thirsty Mud H this month! Please excuse my excitement but teeny samples by this brand were part of the reason I had subscribed to Play! by Sephora so I was too excited to receive this tiny sample in my Birchbox instead of say, another dry shampoo. This is a wash-off mud mask that you apply to a damp face and leave on for roughly 20 minutes. It contains hylauronic acid, raw honey and ginger and smells amazing. I applied this before bed and my skin felt calm and refreshed and moisturized without that tacky post-moisturizer feeling I get. It did take quite a while to wash off though so if that's a point of annoyance this mask might not be for you.

For the love of fuck I wish Birchbox would either take my skin tone into consideration or just stop sending me colored lip products entirely. I had been eyeballing Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipsticks for a while on Hautelook while never biting the bullet and buying one. I got the shade Perla, a rosey "nude" shade. My husband worded it best: "I imagine a manatee floating dead, absorbing all that water. Turning sort of sickly purple/gray with hints of what used to be pink. That's what your lips look like in that color." Mind you, this is after I attempted to fix the color with a nude toned NYX lip liner in the shade Coffee. It smells the way fondant tastes. It applies a bit patchy on my lips and requires at least two coats. The downside to this is that after the second coat the lipstick begins to pearl (no pun intended) a bit on itself. It has a very offputting fragrance that smells almost exactly what cake fondant tastes like and has a bit of a sweet flavor to it as well. The formula is not transfer proof and it dries to leave a powdery finish on my lips. Overall this product was a resounding no with me but I wonder if I would have given it a higher rating if I were able to at least wear it for an extended period of time.

Stila Perla swatched in very shitty lighting

Left: Stila Stay All Day in Perla alone, Right: Stila Stay All day on top of NYX lip pencil in coffee

Too cool that I got two bonus foil packets this month. It feels like that has been happening more frequently, actually. This month's foil bonuses were Oribe Shampoo and Conditioner for Brilliance And Shine. I'll be honest, I didn't get a chance to use these yet because my box came in  after weekly wash day. Please somebody explain to me though why the full size of the shampoo and conditioner are $49 and $52 respectively? Is it the brand we're supposed to be paying for or are these comprised of some form of infant tears and unicorn farts? I would also love to meet the people who are willing to shell out that kind of money for a shampoo and conditioner because I will take that opportunity to ask him or her to buy me a latte.

Am I happy? Yes and no. I could absolutely do without shipping delays and poorly matching shades. I hate the liquid lipstick shade (as I often do because I highly doubt they take my profile's skin tone into consideration) but I did get Glam Glow, Oribe foil packets, a questionably nice smelling perfume and Benefit Gimme Brow (score!). I accidentally ended up with two boxes this month. I had sent an email around August 21st saying I never received my box and my shipping hadn't updated since the original notice on August 9th so they apologized to me and sent a replacement box. My original "lost" box arrived 4 days ago while my replacement box just showed up in the mail today. Oops. My one comfort is that I'm not the only person who has had shipping issues and concerns. I've also been toeing the line about whether or not I wanted to cancel but I believe this shipping issue is the last straw. My subscription is up for renewal in December but I think I feel more comfortable moving to a monthly plan from my current annual subscription. Shipping delays and vendor changes make me pretty nervous.

Birchbox Review May 2017

Every month Birchbox sends out a box (sometimes cute, usually not) with 5 samples at a cost of $10. Birchbox likes to send higher end brands so sample sizes tend to be on the smaller side but I won't complain about that unless they're sending foil packets. Another Birchbox trait is that they are more skincare/haircare heavy as opposed to Ipsy or GlossyBox which are more makeup heavy. This is fine with me (the skincare side at least) since I am also subscribed to Ipsy so that more or less covers my makeup fix. If you're interested, you can click my referral link here. This month was pretty decent. I received:

• Visanti Brighten Up Enzymatic Face Rejuvenator -$5.53, CF & V

• Marcelle New-Age LumiPOWER 3-in-1 Moisturizer - $3.65, CF

• Whish Firming Body Cream - $5.40, CF

• Living Proof Perfect Hair Day In-Shower Styler - $4.80

• ModelCo Lip Enhancer Illusion Lip Liner - $11.00 (from the company's website), CF

February Birchbox First Impressions

Birchbox is a $10 a month subscription that sends 5 samples of mid-to-high-end products right to your doorstep. The samples are on the small size by if you like high end and skincare, keep reading. If larger sample sizes and more makeup oriented subscriptions are more your thing then check out my Ipsy reviews.

I won't Bullshit you, I prefer Ipsy because they have a superior points system (Ipsy gives you points for every item you review, Birchbox only offers points for 5 reviews throughout the lifetime of your account), Ipsy offers larger sample sizes (though you run the risk of getting drugstore brand things which honestly doesn't bother me), and Ipsy leans more toward makeup while Birchbox is pretty haircare (boo!) and skincare (yay!) heavy. That being said, Birchbox gives me the opportunity to try different brands that I otherwise wouldn't splurge for blindly (Hi, Dr. Brandt!) I would say my biggest Birchbox complaint is paying $10 for frequently getting foil packets. Or the inability to opt or of something like dry shampoo (more below on this). Ok, maybe more than one complaint. I would complain about shades but it took Ipsy a very long time to hit a stride with my profile. Now that I can check turning people off from potentially subscribing (sorry) on to this month's samples.