The Arrival of the BIRCHBOX!!!!
Waaaa Hooooo 😀
Happy Humpday guys!!!! So today is Wednesday and it was pretty good. Well for the most part.
The GOOD:
My boss told me I am getting promoted and getting a raise, so that’s a bonus!
The sun was shining all day so that was another bonus.
I checked the tracking on my Birchbox and it said out for delivery, so I was REALLY excited for my first Birchbox.
I also found a new friend to replace Nick while I go to Carolina Rebellion which is a 2 day rock festival! So Excited. Butttttttttttt….
The BAD:
Yesterday I found out Nick is going to work in Alaska so he will be gone a few months and then home for a couple weeks and then back to Alaska, so get prepared for Blog OVERLOAD because this girl is going to have a lot of time on her hands. So I was/am really really sad about that. But today made me feel a little better.
The UGLY:
Since I have to get Nick a plane ticket this week, I might not have enough money to cover my ticket to Carolina Rebellion and I can’t get my money back for the hotel. So I might be at a loss. But we shall find out soon.
Anyways, enough about my Wednesday, lets get to Birchbox!
Birchbox was the pioneer of sample subscription boxes. I’m not going to get into detail as far as the background of the company. You can read more about them here.
Their membership costs $10 a month and free shipping.
Every month you receive 4-5 samples from beauty to lifestyle products. You can fill out a profile so your items are based off what you want. You can change your profile and preferences whenever you’d like, which I like because one month you can kind of get things you know you will like, or you can mix it up and try something new. Birchbox has a great reward system that earns you points for purchases you make, reviewing items from your Birchbox that month and you get points just for getting a box that month. You can skip a month if you need to for that extra couple of gallons in your car or if you don’t like the preview for the month, you can skip and renew the next month. All in all it sounds like a pretty good gig.
But what’s the catch? Apparently there’s a lot of complaints of too many foil packets or samples being too small to be useful. And I am about to find out for myself. I have a strong opinion and I’m not afraid to share it 😀
So without further a due, Lets open this bad boy UP!!
BIRCHBOX Rainy Days ~ April 2014
Upon opening the box this was the first view after removing the cute cards on top and pulling back the tissue paper. Presentation was really good. I absolutely love the chevron print inside the box! I will totally be using this for storage on my vanity or in my bathroom.
The goodies:
– Birchbox theme card ‘Rainy Days’ and on the flip side a description of what items are included as well as the prices for the full size products.
– Coupon code for 50 extra Birchbox points
– Tip #6 from Birchbox’s 52 Bright Ideas for a Rainy Day. My tip was to take a bubble bath. What was your tip?
– 1 KIND Snacks Healthy Grains snack bar
– Color Club nail polish
– Beauty Protector leave in conditioner
– Supergoop! CC cream
– Sumita Beauty eyeliner
The KIND Healthy Grains maple pumpkin seeds with sea salt bar. Full Size bar (comes in pack of 15) It was pretty tasty. It’s a softer bar which I prefer over the crunchy ones. You can purchase these babies for $11.88 on the Birchbox website, it comes in a pack of 15. I split the bar with Nick, he was hungry. We both liked it. It reminded us of the crunchy Nature Valley Oats N Honey granola bar as far as taste. It’s gluten free, non GMO and has 5 super grains: oats, millet, quinoa, amaranth and buckwheat. It’s only 150 calories per bar, 22 carbs, 6 sugar, 3 protein and 3 fiber!
Will I buy it in the future? Yes!! They were yummy and they are cheaper and healthier than the Odwalla bars I buy now for 1$ each.
The Beauty Protector Protect & Detangle leave in conditioner. Travel size for sure. The bottle is kind of a squishy rubbery texture, which I guess good be good for traveling so if it gets squished it doesn’t crack? Either way, it’s the product that counts right? Right! 🙂 I have not been able to try it out, but I am looking forward to trying it out and doing a review as I have horribly damaged hair and desperately need a leave in condition and detangler… I am addicted to dying my hair which results in bad hair. LOL What I do know, is that this product has great reviews and smells DIVINE!!! I am sitting here with my nose in the bottle the whole time I’m writing this. haha You can purchase the full sized item for $21.95 on Birchbox’s website.
Will I buy in the future? Maybe, I still have to test it. But does it come in a perfume 😛
The Color Club Gala Gems Collection polish is a mini polish, but its full sized compared to the set it comes in. The set has 4 different colors and they all come in a mini bottle. the color I received was Aquamarine Azulino which is a frosty metallic blue shimmer. It’s very cute. It’s a bit of a thicker polish, but I love the baby blue shade. it would look great with some silver sparkles and white polish 🙂 Sounds like a Tiffany & Co. theme. The set of the 4 mini polishes can be purchased for $13 on the Birchbox website, however it is currently out of stock. . . Must be a hot selling item!
Will I buy in the future? Probably not. I have tons of polish and I am subscribed to a few polish boxes.
Supergoop! CC cream… this bad boy sells for $32 bucks for the full size bottle which isn’t very big to begin with. And it’s a CC cream!! Not a foundation. But I’m not gonna knock it till I try. That is if I can actually try it. The sample is TINY TINY. It’s like one step above foil packets. I swatched it on my hand on the photo below. It seemed to work nice, But I am going to test it tomorrow for work. We shall see if it’s worth the fat sticker price. So this product has SPF 35 which is great, compared to most creams that only have 10-15 SPF. The description card says you only need a nickel sized amount.. Hopefully I can squeeze that much out 😛
Will I buy in the Future? As of now before thoroughly testing it, no. I pay that much for foundation no problem. But CC cream?1 It has to be a miracle for that to happen. I will Update once I actually try it. Have you tried it? What do you think of it?
Sumita Beauty color contrast eyeliner. The full size version sells for $11 on the Birchbox website. I have never heard of Sumita. I am excited to try out a new brand. Sadly I am not much into pencil liners or purple liners, i wish it were black. But it could be fun.. maybe. I did swatch it on my hand, see below photo. It seemed to go on pretty smoothly and its a pretty dark purple so it might not be too bad. I will try it out and let you know how I like it.
Will I buy it in the future? Probably not because I don’t wear pencil liners, I prefer liquid liner. Have you tried Sumita products before? What did you think?
Here’s my swatches of the Sumita eyeliner and the Supergoop! CC cream. I kind of like the liner. It’s like an eggplant purple and frankly, its small enough for travel or for my purse which is a bonus.
The CC cream i blended on the bottom half of my hand, it slightly tinted my hand, but I din’t notice a big difference. But I still need to test it on my face before I can give it a true review.
So my overall impression of Birchbox was pretty good. If you add up the value of all the items you end up with a box value of $14.66 which isn’t bad considering you paid $10. I will definitely continue my subscription! Looking forward to May!!
If you are interested in subscribing click my referral link here to sign up. Their referral program is great. You earn 50 points for every friend that signs up through your link! Plus you earn 10 points for every monthly box and 1 point for every dollar you spend. Once you reach 100 points you get $10 off which is awesome!! You will also earn 10 points for each item you review. If you review every item you can earn 40-50 points for your box, plus the 10 points for your box purchase making a total of 50-60 points per month. That’s like receiving a $10 off coupon every other month which pays the box its self! Its great!!
Ta Ta For Now my dears!!!
~ Red Lips Ritz
Red Lips Ritz 