Birchbox September 2013: My First Birchbox Subscription Box

My nonexistent beauty routine was in dire need of a shake up.  Once upon a time, I was a product junkie, with a hug lip gloss addiction, and I was missing it!  However, my two year old has a tendency to throw tantrums if I try to shop for more than 15 minutes at a time, giving me zero time for browsing make up counters or aisles.

Birchbox's monthly subscription kit is the perfect solution.  It's only $10 a month, including shipping.  Each box comes with a selection of samples and sometimes even full sized products.  My very first box came 5 samples, one was a full sized Ruffian nail polish with a retail value of $10.  That equals the cost of my box so, so far I think Birchbox is a great value!  

This is how it looked, once I opened the hot pink mailer.  Each month is themed, this one is "Heritage" and on the reverse is a little information about each of the 5 samples included this month.  I also got a cute little card, that is perfect for popping into my Project Life album, with a discount code on the back and also a lip shaped flier from one of the featured sponsors with a special offer.

Here is a little bit about each of the samples I received:

Ruffian's Fox Hunt is a vibrant, saturated orange hue with a glossy metallic finish and a touch of shimmer.  It's quite a bit brighter than what I normally pick for my nails and to be honest I would never ever have bought it at the store.  That being said, I really love it!  The more I wear it, the more I dig it.  It's a great color for fall too.  I am super tough on my nails and my polish still looks beautiful.  Since I don't always have time to sit down and polish my nails, I really want it to last and not get all chipped when I do.  I'm really impressed with this high end polish.  

These are Protect & Shampoo and Protect & Condition travel sized samples from Beauty Protector.  I am really excited about these!  They have a light smell and are really thick and creamy feeling.  I am about three weeks past due for a trim and my hair has been really hard to manage lately.  I thought they worked very well and felt there was a immediate difference.

I thought my hair looked quite good right after using them!  It's all shiny again and the ends aren't fuzzy looking.   It was easier to style as well.  I already use pretty expensive salon products so switching over will only slight increase in what I spend and I'm thinking it's a must!  It's not often that I feel the need to take picture in my pajamas at 10 o'clock at night!

Did you notice the blue pillow box inside of the Birchbox in the top photo?  Here's what was inside.  I'm actually wearing the Jouer Moisturizing Lip Gloss in Monaco in the photo above.  It's a much more subtle shade on that it looks in the bottle.  It's the perfect hint of sheer color and I wish the sample had been bigger!  It's another color I probably wouldn't have picked out for myself but that I ended up loving.  It comes in many other shades; it's going to be hard to pick if I decide to get a full sized shade to pick up.  For now, the sample is a cute size that's perfect for slipping into my purse.

The last sample in this month's box is a Daily Correct SPF 35 CC Cream by Supergloop!  Besides providing SPF protection, it also works as both a primer and foundation.  I've yet to try this one, but anything that combines functions and saves time is something I'm interested in!

Over All Opinion:

I'm extremely happy with my first Birchbox!  I discovered some great new products and I think I'm going to really like every single one.  While I know that won't happen all the time, it was certainly a nice way to start off.  I think $10 per month is a really great price, especially when I consider the nail polish my daughter picked out at the drug store was $8 all by itself.

It's nice that you can define some of your preferences upon sign up and what you share does effect which products you receive, so some tailoring to taste is done.  For example, I found two other September Birchboxes that had different products, click here and here to see them.

Another fun perk is that if you sign up for a year at a time, you even get one month free.  It also looks like if you like something you get, the monthly featured full size products ship free.  If Birchbox sounds like something you are interested in, I recommend signing up for their waiting list.  My wait time was just one week before I found out I got in for the next month's box.  It's super fun to get a little treat just for me in the mail!



Disclosure:While I do frequently do sponsored product review on my blog, this is not one of them.  I subscribed and pay for this monthly service myself.