Birchbox September 2018 Featured Box Review
I used the $10 Birchbox awarded to Aces from Customer Appreciation Day to purchase the featured box for September. Subscribers can always receive the featured box in place of a surprise box for their subscription or purchase the featured box for $10 if they want it in addition to whatever box they receive. It discounts automatically after you’ve logged into an account with an active subscription. Everyone else can purchase the featured box for $15. Because I used my $10 automatic credit on the 13th, I got this box for free. As this was not my September Subscription Box, I will review this in a different way than I do with my subscription boxes. Before I even saw the offer for $10, I was already considering buying this box. In other words, this is how I chose to let Birchbox appreciate me.
Birchbox makes a custom box design for each month.
The first thing you normally see when you open a Birchbox is a product card. This box did not have one. While it is not the first time I received a box without a card, it does not happen often.
Contents are loose inside the box with a single piece of black foam at the bottom. As you can imagine, fragile samples move around too much inside the box and are subject to breaking.
The featured box has one hair product, one skincare item, one makeup product, one makeup primer, one pillow spray, and one serving of vitamins.
The 0.17oz thisworks® deep sleep™ pillow spray is worth $1.97. I really love this pillow spray. On top of smelling like a meadow, it does really work. Whenever I spray this for me or either of my boys, we fall asleep shortly after spraying it. We typically only use it on days where we have trouble sleeping, so it is not habit-forming. Having this mini is great for travel, because it is always harder to fall asleep in an unfamiliar place.
The 0.17oz Sunday Riley Good Genes All-in-One Lactic Acid Treatment is worth $17.85. I am still experimenting with this to see if it is worth the very high price tag. Getting samples is the perfect way to do that. At first, I did not notice enough change to justify the price tag, but I definitely noticed enough difference to keep using samples. My skin does seem brighter, but my dark spots seem unchanged. Then again, I’ve only used small samples. I’d like to get several small samples and use them back to back to see how this works long-term.
The 0.5oz R+Co PARK AVE Blow Out Balm is worth $2.90. I do not blow dry my hair often, so I love getting samples for the rare times I do. Certainly beats letting a full-size of something go bad before I finish it. This is one I have not tried yet, and it is new to my collection. It boasts smoothing and volume so it sounds promising.
The 0.05oz Stila Cosmetics Stay All Day® Liquid Lipstick in Patina Shimmer is worth $11. I have tried the matte version of this liquid lipstick and find it drying, like most liquid lipsticks. This one is new to my collection.
Patina is a shimmering dusty rose. Most liquid lipsticks are matte, so it will be neat to see if a shimmer one wears with less drying effect to the lips. Plus, I already love the color of the matte Patina.
The 0.11oz Touch in Sol No Poreblem Primer is worth $1.98. I’ve heard nice things about this primer, but I did not own it. Most pore primers are too drying for my skin, so I only place them over larger pores and use a more hydrating primer on other areas of my face. My goal is to find a pore primer that does not dry my skin out at all, so I love trying new ones.
The 2-count HUM Nutrition Hair Sweet Hair Gummies are worth $0.83. This is a single serving. I generally hate gummy vitamins, because I sincerely dislike the taste of vitamins. My ideal vitamin is coated, so I do not taste it at all. Gummies add a lot of sugar to make them tolerable, but I can typically still taste that awful vitamin anyway. That is not the case with these. They are extremely tart, which I am not a fan of, but the awful vitamin taste is not present. There are only a few ingredients in this, so that awful taste must come from certain things inside multivitamins. It would be impossible to see if these do what they claim based off a single serving, so I can only say they do not taste awful.
This box has a $36.53 value. I am not including this in the average box value, because it was not my regular subscription. View my September review to see what the average is after 9 boxes. My personal value is also $36.53, because I will probably keep everything in it. Both of the duplicates in this box are things I want, so it is highly likely I will keep them. Everything else is new to me and things I really want to try. As I did not pay anything, I definitely think this was an awesome deal. After careful consideration, I like this more than my regular September Box, so I would have happily paid $10 for this.
If you want to subscribe, remember to look at start-up offers and all available offers. When you’re ready to spend your rewards points, remember to add your free two piece sample pack when spending $35 from the Bonus Shop. Tips For Getting the Best Deal lays out all the ways I know to save money at Birchbox. Product reviews do not always make it into the haul article, but you can always type the product into the search bar to see if I’ve mentioned it or reviewed it elsewhere. See other Birchbox Subscription articles. View my main page for the guide map to the site and deeper deal exploration.
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