Birchbox July 2019 Review of Sample Choice Plus Subscription Box Offers

My July 2019 Birchbox review is ready. Birchbox subscriptions get customized to your beauty profile. All boxes are a mixture of haircare, makeup, and skincare. There are times when body care items pop up, and you can select an option to receive no more than 6 fragrance vials a year in your profile. You could get a box with 2 haircare items, 2 makeup items, and 1 skincare item or any similar variety, but you will rarely see more than 2 items from any category unless the third is a foil. If you are looking for a box that is mostly makeup or mostly skincare, this is not it. Those looking for a well-rounded sample box may enjoy this subscription.

Annual Birchbox Review

This is my July 2019 Birchbox review, but you can see a synopsis of a year of Sephora Play Box reviews vs a year of Birchbox reviews. Every year, I review my $10 boxes (for me at least) against each other, so I can declare the annual winner. This is also helpful for those who would like to see a year of reviews for either box in one place. Birchbox did raise its prices for select members, but it is still $10 for me. For those who are not ACES on the $10 plan, I will consider that when I do the annual comparison for 2019.

About the Birchbox Subscription

The $10-$15 charge processes immediately for new subscribers and on the 1st in succeeding months. Boxes usually ship from the 8th through the 12th. At the end of every month (actual date varies), Birchbox will email an option to select a sample (from a choice of 3-5 items), or the featured box where you know all samples up front. Those who respond to that email can also opt out of one type of sample. If you want a sample choice and the featured box, I suggest making a choice and purchasing the featured box separately. Subscribers can review 5 samples for 10 points each once during the lifetime of the account. Those who pay full-price for their subscriptions up front get points to use toward shop purchases. People who use a discount code on up front subscriptions will not get points. No one on a month-to-month plan gets points for the subscription either. The amount spent for the subscription goes toward the $300 annual minimum to achieve Aces status.

July 2019 Birchbox Theme

Birchbox makes a custom box design for each month. The lemon and orange design does give me summer vibes.

The first thing you normally see when you open a Birchbox is a product card.

The back of the card goes over the theme, love, you. It mentions that self care is different for everyone, and it is important for all. It wants us to get over what we’re self conscious about and embrace them.

Contents are loose inside the box with a single piece of black foam at the bottom and a single sheet of tissue paper encircling the items. The tissue does seem to help the items from moving around a lot.

July 2019 Birchbox Sample Choices

The three items to choose from were: Balance Me Congested Skin Serum, MAC Cosmetics Lipglass Prrr, or Kiehl’s Rare Earth Deep Pore Daily Cleanser. There were four options for the curated boxes. Curated Box 1- Ingredient Conscious includes: Beautycounter Countersun Mineral Sunscreen Lotion SPF 30, Davines SU Hair & Body Wash, W3LL PEOPLE Bio Bronzer Loose Powder, Beautaniq Beauty Blush Serum, DERMA E Overnight Peel with AHAs, and Lavanila The Healthy Fragrance Pure Vanilla Eau de Parfum. Curated Box 2- Customer Favorites includes: R+Co ANALOG Cleansing Foam Conditioner, MAC Cosmetics Strobe Cream, Balance Me Congested Skin Serum, Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray, and Love of Color Liquid Shimmer Shadow. Curated Box 3- Pop of Color includes: Benefit Cosmetics Gimme Brow+ Volumizing Eyebrow Gel, butter LONDON Glazen Eye Gloss, Grande Cosmetics Grande Mascara, Dr. Jart+ Cicapair™ Tiger Grass Color Correcting Treatment, Davines MINU Illuminating Shampoo, Davines MINU Illuminating Conditioner, and Davines MINU Hair Serum. Curated Box 4- Low Effort, High Impact includes: COOLA® Dawn Patrol™ Classic Primer SPF 30, Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara 4D, ARROW BOOST Color Enhancing Lip Balm, Bumble and bumble. Don’t Blow It (H)air Styler Fine, Number 4 Super Comb Prep & Protect, and invisibobble® POWER. Subscribers can always purchase these featured boxes separately for $15 if they want that and a sample choice. Everyone else can purchase a featured box for $20. There was also an option to Swap Your Box For a Full-Size Set Love of Color Luminous Lia Shine Trio in Glow, Beam, and Glisten.

Some members were given the option to swap the box for Birchbox Loyalty points. I get 1.3 points per dollar as an Ace, so I would never pay $10 for 100 points. That is equivalent of 1 point per dollar.

My choice was the MAC Lipglass.

My July 2019 Birchbox Subscription Review

My July 2019 Birchbox review is from box version 65403394. It has 2 skincare products, two makeup products, one hair product, and one makeup-skincare hybrid.

The 0.08oz MAC Cosmetics Lipglass Prrr is worth $14. I prefer other formulas over this one, because it is a little sticky. It is not too sticky though, so I do not mind it.

This pinky-peach color is nice. It will look great this summer.

The 0.5oz Georgette Klinger Volcanic Mineral Scrub is worth $3.57. This seems interesting. I’ve never used an ash scrub.

The Hero Cosmetics Mighty Patch Invisible+ set of 6 is worth $2.77. I still get acne, so I like having these patches on hand. I’ve purchased these in the past. My nieces and nephews stole most of them, but I did like it. There is a brand I like more than this one, but I will use these (if they’re not stolen from me).

The 0.1oz Clarins Wonder Perfect Mascara 4D is worth $14. This is a mascara I have not tried yet, so I will probably hold onto it. My Sephora Box preview showed this but then it changed. Glad I got one anyway.

The 0.16oz Dr. Jart+ V7™ Priming Moisturizer is worth $4.54. I’ve been getting into priming moisturizers, because I find them even more hydrating than a hydrating primer. My skin can always use the extra boost. This is one I have not tried yet.

The 0.85oz Alterna CAVIAR Anti-Aging Restructuring Bond Repair Leave-In Heat Protection Spray is worth $6.48. This is a product I’ve wanted to try. It made me really happy to see it.

Was my July 2019 Birchbox worth it?

The July 2019 Birchbox has a $45.36 value. That brings the value for the average box in 2019 to $46.33. This is the first box since the price increase in April that does not have any full-size products. It also slightly brought down the average value for the year. I wish the trend with full-size products would have continued, because one extra sample is not enough to justify the price increase. There was also a curated box with only five products even though we are now promised six. That makes me wonder if there were any random boxes with less than six items.

My personal value is $45.36, because I will probably keep everything in the box. That makes it a successful box for me. A six for six hit on products I want to try does not happen often. Only one item of the six is a repeat to my collection. Because that is an item I like, I never mind getting more of it. There is nothing overly exciting in here other than the hair product, but I am still happy with this box.

Subscription Start-Up Offers

See my list of Birchbox subscription offers. Want to subscribe? Click that link to see the current start-up offers. If you’re reading this around the time I’ve posted it, the one I posted below will work.

Get three Bombas socks with a six month sub.

What are your thoughts on my July 2019 Birchbox review? Do you think it is better than past boxes so far? Let me know below. If your purchase is over $25 (longer subscriptions or purchasing something from the shop with the subscription), you can pick a free item from the bonus shop if you do not use a subscription start-up offer or discount code, which I cover on my Birchbox Deals Page. Some discount codes on that page will not work on subscriptions, but I will post any that work on my Birchbox Subscription Deals Page. You can always add a free two piece sample pack when spending $35, because it combines with any promo code. 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. Subscribe to the blog to get updates on all posts. View my main page for the guide map to the site and deeper deal exploration.

Disclosure: Affiliate Links