September Birchbox: The Good, The Bad, and the Disappointing

For the most part, I’m never disappointed with my Birchbox. It’s always filled with cool stuff and nifty new products I want to try. There have been, of course, one or two misses (sunless tanning wipes? ick.) but who can know me perfectly well all the time?

Then there was September.

You know its a rough month when my one of favorite things in the Birchbox is the teal tissue paper. (Seriously, the color is a-may-zing.)

I received face scrub, gray-black nail polish, one twistband hair tie (yes, one lonely, lonesome hair tie), aromatherapy drops, a few tea pouches, and Nexxus shampoo. There was also a coupon code and a postcard for Madewell.

I like the face scrub, and the nail polish color looks fun to try. And its cold here, so tea is good to have on hand. I’ll even forgive the aromatherapy drops. It’ll help me get in touch with my crunchy-granola side.

BUT THE NEXXUS SHAMPOO? First off, I can get these free from the Nexxus website at any time, so why am I paying to receive them in a Birchbox? Second, a beauty product that I can buy at Walmart is in no way something I would consider Birchbox-worthy. And pillow packs? Worst. Sample. Packaging. Ever. Too much shampoo for one use, but no good way to store it. Let’s not even get into how T-rex birchbox was with the one lonely hair tie. #Birchboxfail.

The saddest part? I fared better than most this month. My sister ended up with chartreuse nail polish in her Birchbox. Yuck.

I’m not writing Birchbox off quite yet – I have high hopes for October. As long as Birchbox doesn’t try to pass off candy corn as a ‘classic, luxury candy.’

Advertisement

August Birchbox: Back-to-School Beauty

So I received my August Birchbox in the mail a few weeks ago, and decided to wait a few weeks to try some of the products before posting about it.

First, let me just say I was SHOCKED to see it came in a yellow package. Where was the familiar pink box that I race to the mailbox for each month?

After I recovered from my horror, I discovered that the August Birchbox theme is “Back-to-Beauty School,” and then the yellow box made sense. (Each month has a different theme—last month was picks from Glamour.)

Here’s what was in my Birchbox this month:

• DDF Brightening Cleanser
• Miss Jessie’s Original Pillow Soft Curls
• Whish Three Wishes Body Butter in pomegranate
• Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy La Fleur
• Schick Hydro Silk Razor

My favorite sample this month is the DDF cleanser. I don’t know if I believe that it will ‘brighten’ my skin, but it I like the way my skin feels after (not dry) and it has a light, citrus-y scent. And the sample is a really nice size—definitely large enough to use for a few weeks to a month.

I also like the pillow soft curls, but the packaging is really sub-par. The total sample amount is great—but there is no way I would use all of it at once. Which makes a pillow-pack really inconvenient. I also must say, the product describes itself as “fabric softener for your hair,” and lives up to that as it looks like and smells like fabric softener. I do however like that it doesn’t make my hair (which is naturally wavy-curly) stiff or greasy.

The other samples I am “eh” on. Lotion is just lotion to me, and the Juicy perfume is way too sweet-smelling for my liking. I haven’t tried the razor yet, and this is the sample that gets my “WTF Birchbox?” vote.

If you want to check out Birchbox for yourself (or Birchbox Man for that matter) I’m always happy to share my invite link.