Birchbox March 2013 Review

Birchbox March 2013

So Birchbox, I know I said I was going to cancel this subscription, and I meant to...but then tons of things sort of hit the fan. This last month and a half has just been extremely hectic for this household, we are moving, I've been severely sick with no end in sight, so with hospital and doctor visits, packing and just overall upheaval, I never got around to actually cancelling my Birchbox subscription. 

My Birchbox arrived on Monday, and the theme for this month's box being March Madness. What is actually has to do with March Madness is beyond me. 

So without further adieu I bring you Birchbox's March box.

March Madness theme??? I don't see it.

The cure for lazy days?

Serge Normant Meta Revive Dry Shampoo- value $12
This item was a disappointment  I've been hearing so much about dry shampoo products lately, they are all the rage. It is supposed to revive your hair if you haven't had a chance to shampoo it, and give you a quick get up and go look. I tried it this morning, and thought I would go without shampooing my hair for the day, but oh it was horrible.  It came out like white powder and instead of reviving my hair, all it did was make it look greasy and gross. It is supposed to take the oil out of your hair, but that didn't seem to work.  I washed my  hair as planned and this will end up in my random beauty things for my guests when they visit box.  This may work for someone else, but my hair is so thick and prone to oil that is just exacerbated the issue.

Mostly Empty Shaving Cream....cute packaging

Whish Shave Crave Shaving Cream- value about $3
In the March 2013 spoiler video from Birchbox, they showcased this product, and I was hoping it would be in my sample box. I was very happy to see it and used it this morning. The shaving cream smells lightly like blueberry- but the sample was pretty much empty. This is the second time that Birchbox has sent me a sample that was mostly air, and last time I said nothing, but this time I did write them to let them know it was an issue. Curious to see what they say about that, but overall, I loved this shaving cream, the area I was able to attack with the amount in the tube felt super smooth, and the scent was amazing. However with a full size price of $20- I will stick to my current shaving cream.

cute colors, for a cheap look 

Incoco Nail Polish Applique- value $9
These are nail polish strips that you can apply to your nails for a flawless manicured look. I thought they would be stickers, but they are in fact actually layers of nail polish- you can smell it as soon as you open the package. I like the colors that my set came in, and was curious to try them- they look like fun, a very summery look. I am horrible at painting my own nails, they always come out a mess, so I was hoping these would work out and be a blessing for me. However, they were a total bust. My nails are very tiny and even with stretching the nail polish they were difficult to cover even my pinky finger. Once that was all worked out, and one was on, I immediately took it off, it looked cheap. Really cheap.

In case you didn't know what an emery board looked like

Madewell for Birchbox Emery Board - value $5
This had a cute little floral print, but its an emery board. What can you even say about an emery board? 

The twistband

Twistband- value about $3
You guys may remember my rant about Birchbox's love of sending these out, and of course I had to get one this month. Even though people seem to love them, and say they are one of the best headbands on the market, I didn't see the big deal. It didn't even want to stay on my head. I felt that throwing in the twistband and emery board was pure laziness on the part of birchbox, just throwing in random things to fill up a box. 

oh Birchbox, its just not going to work out between us. This was the second date that I gave you even though the first date was a bust, and well, its not you, its...oh who am I  kidding, its you. It's definitely you. 

Birchbox Sample Box February 2013

Birchbox

I joined Birchbox this month after a four week wait; they are so popular right now that they have a crazy waiting list. Four weeks, and apparently that is one of the shorter waits.  The box costs ten dollars a month which also includes shipping. They boast that they send out deluxe and full size samples. Each box should have four or five samples per month. They are one of the original sample box subscription services, allegedly the one that started it all.   With such hype, I was sure that I would be blown away by this subscription, since it was something that everyone wanted to get in on.  I’m not kidding, there was so much hype. Surely, I wouldn't be disappointed in it.

The FAMOUS Birchbox has arrived......

My February Birchbox was a Red Carpet theme (real original). 

My box included the following five products:

Juicy Perfume Sample- I don’t even care about the value, because I hated this scent. It reminded me of something a tween would wear, and felt it was a rip off to be in the box. It certainly wasn't a deluxe sample size of a perfume. I could have gotten this for FREE from pretty much any beauty place.

perfume 

Color Club Professional Nail Lacquer Mini in Wild Cactus - .25 oz Value $4- This is a really cute color that’s more of an emerald shade. Very fun. 

So adorable! I just wish it was bigger......

Beauty Protector Protect and Detangle - estimated 1.25 oz. - The value of this sample was $4.12. I really liked this product, and have been using it on my hair, the scent makes me feel like I just came from the salon.  It reminds me of coconut.

Perfume for the hair

Ghiradelli Caramel Chocolate Square- Um, Seriously???? No. Sure I love chocolate as much as the next person, but I don’t want chocolate in my sample box, this is not a sample, this is just a random piece of chocolate and a brand I could find anywhere.   Just No.  (okay so my snark could be coming from the fact that I can’t have chocolate right now and had to relinquish this to my husband). But even so- no. 

Dr. Jart+ Black Label Detox Beauty Balm-0.1 oz -The value of this is around $2.00.  Well, I would imagine it was the value if it actually had much of anything in it. Mostly air in this one, and the little that I got out didn’t work on my skin tone. I was excited to get this at first because of all the hype about BB creams. 

Mostly air

Value: The total value of this box is maybe $12 or $13. Not impressed. Not impressed at all.  

PROS

I will be nice and say that one pro that I have heard about Birchbox is that they send out a variety of boxes each month. I think it’s almost forty (or maybe even more) different varieties, which I think is pretty cool. It makes it a bit of a surprise.  My box was not overwhelming by any means, but some of the boxes that I saw other people received looked really great.  The big thing was that Lancôme had finally signed on with them as a brand this month, so everything on their site was all about the arrival of Lancôme. That’s wonderful-if I had ACTUALLY received a Lancôme product in my bag.

CONS

Birchbox was a big letdown for me- I had a hard time even coming up with a single pro since I was just so disappointed with this box.  Everyone claims that this is THE sample box to have, and I wanted to cancel my subscription as soon as it arrived. They claim that they send out deluxe and full size samples, but their version of deluxe is no different than the tiny samples that you can get at any Sephora or cosmetics counter. I’d rather just go to those places and possibly pick out what I want, and not  get these tiny RANDOM things in my box. I feel it’s ridiculous to pay ten dollars a month to get samples that come FREE with any purchase elsewhere.  The value just wasn't there for me.  I paid ten dollars to get $10.00 worth of products, no thanks.  This was not a bargain, not when you compare them to the value of the other boxes.

Second, I've heard some horrible things about delivering. This was the last of my sample boxes to arrive, all of which are supposed to mail out around the same time. I will mark this up to Nemo being a huge issue that week, BUT I have read that other people have had many incidences where their box didn't arrive until the last day of the month. 

Next, Birchbox offers a variety in boxes, this I think is great- however don’t bother sending out varieties if you aren't going to take into consideration the beauty profile. Many people complained that they received products that were the opposite of what they had for hair type or skin color.  Variety is wonderful, but not if it’s a useless variety to the person.

Also, the amount of samples was a letdown. They claim they send four or five samples.  Mine had four with the chocolate.  Okay so it is four samples BUT you’re not fooling anyone with that chocolate and honestly- what does that even have to do with red carpet? Everyone knows you don’t eat for weeks before going on the red carpet.

Lastly, Birchbox like Sample Society loves to repeat items. Many people complained that they received hair bands in this month’s box, last month’s box, and in DECEMBER’s box. Ugh. No.  Do NOT send the same thing three months in a row.  Birchbox also has a fondness for sending out their Birchbox pillow boxes in their bags and love putting Juicy perfume samples in them as well.  I’m not a fan of juicy perfume, and have no use for those little boxes.  This doesn’t just apply to the women’s boxes- one of my friends did the male box for almost a year, and cancelled because he felt there were only so many shaving cream samples you could get.  He thought they lacked in variety of product.

If you can’t guess by now, this is not a subscription that I will be continuing.