This month’s theme was Sun, Sea & Sand…very loose theme we felt!
We forgot to cancel our second Birchbox subscription, so ended up with two of these boxes and are able to do a side by side comparison! They were slightly different and we do have a favourite. See what you think…
BOX A:
Weleda: Millet Nourishing Shampoo 18ml
Value: £0.85
“Keep hair in top condition this summer with this natural organic fortifying shampoo.”
BT INITIAL THOUGHTS: Weleda is a good brand that we’d like to try, but this isn’t really a useful sample size, other than for perhaps a night or weekend away. We don’t think it will be enough to determine how good the shampoo is, but at least it’s still useful!
Balance Me: Wonder Eye Cream 7ml
Value: £9.34
“A light, hardworking formula to brighten the eye area and keep wrinkles at bay.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – This is a great brand, but we tend to find that eye creams don’t work as well as eye gels or serums on combination skin. We will still give this a try anyway.
Laqa & Co: Sheer Lip Lube Pencil, Bees Knees 2g
Value: £14 (full size product)
“A high-gloss pencil to add a pop of sheer, nourishing and wearable colour.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – We were really looking forward to trying out this chubby stick-esque lip tint. However, we were dismayed that Birchbox clearly ignored profiling as both the boxes we received had this colour tint, which was lighter than our own lips, rather than the dark pink that was going around and would have been much better. Sad pandas!
Gilchrist & Soames: English Spa Sea Kelp Extract Mineral Bath
Value: £1.91
“This delightfully foamy gel contains marine nutrient sea kelp to invigorate the skin.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – Erm. This is like OK…the kind of thing you get at an OK hotel? Not really at all exciting, but it is at least useful.
Compagnie de Provence: Mediterranean Sea Hand Cream 30ml
Value: £0.85
“This luxe, hydrating lotion direct from Provence hydrates hands and leaves them silky-soft.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – Again, just OK. Pretty indifferent towards this…but we’ll try it.
LIFESTYLE EXTRA:
ULTRADEX: Fresh Breath Oral Spray
Value: £3.65 (full size product)
“A handbag-friendly spray that kills harmful bacteria and keeps breath minty-fresh.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – Lol. Breath spray? Really? This would be an OK extra if the other items had been more exciting.
BOX B:
Whish: Three Whishes Lavender Body Butter 22ml
Value: £2.13
“Not your granny’s lavender – this sweet-scented antioxidant-rich lotino nourishes skin.”
BT INITIAL THOUGHTS:
Balance Me: Wonder Eye Cream 7ml
Value: £9.34
“A light, hardworking formula to brighten the eye area and keep wrinkles at bay.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – This is a great brand, but we tend to find that eye creams don’t work as well as eye gels or serums on combination skin. We will still give this a try anyway.
Laqa & Co: Sheer Lip Lube Pencil, Bees Knees 2g
Value: £14 (full size product)
“A high-gloss pencil to add a pop of sheer, nourishing and wearable colour.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – We were really looking forward to trying out this chubby stick-esque lip tint. However, we were dismayed that Birchbox clearly ignored profiling as both the boxes we received had this colour tint, which was lighter than our own lips, rather than the dark pink that was going around and would have been much better. Sad pandas!
Gilchrist & Soames: English Spa Sea Kelp Extract Mineral Bath
Value: £1.91
“This delightfully foamy gel contains marine nutrient sea kelp to invigorate the skin.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – Erm. This is like OK…the kind of thing you get at an OK hotel? Not really at all exciting, but it is at least useful.
Benefit: The Porefessional 7.5ml
Value: £8.36
“An award-winning primer that magically erases pores and leaves skin velvety.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – A great sample that we look forward to trying! Have heard great things about this and given we have combination skin, this is bang-on target for us. Yay!
LIFESTYLE EXTRA:
CHIA SHOT
Value: £0.49
“Bonafide superfood, packed with health-boosting omega 3, protein and more.”
BT INITIAL OPINION – This is a nice little extra that we’re curious to try. Would never had thought about buying this, so a great inclusion!
OVERALL VERDICT:
Well we only ended up with two boxes by accident but am pretty surprised by the marked difference in the boxes…the actual value weren’t too far apart, but Box B was so much more exciting in general, not just because it had a Benefit item, but because the actual selection was a well-rounded box, whereas Box A came across as containing unimpressive small samples of no particular quality.
We used to like Birchbox because everyone got the same thing – our general feeling is it that it’s fair enough for people to get different things but that should be in accordance with their profiling (didn’t get lipglosses that suit our colouring). But the products that differ should be of equivalent quality/value – here, rather than a Porefessional, in box A we got an 85p moisturiser (the equivalent in Box was the handcream!) Terrible.
Considering both boxes – this was an average offering from Birchbox. Judging solely by Box A, this was a lame month. Judging solely by Box B, this was a pretty good month!
Box price: £10.00 plus £2.95 shipping (rolling month by month subscription)
BOX A total value: £30.60
BOX B total value: £36.23
Note: We paid for this Birchbox with our own hard-earnt pennies
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