January 2014 Birchbox

Oh Birchbox, I have a love/hate relationship with you, mostly bordering on hate, sometimes you send me stuff I really like, at other times, it's just meh :/

Fortunately, I really LIKED January's Box, it might be the first box, where I actually have a use for every product.

Birchbox is a company that sends you a box of samples every month. It's ten dollars, and you get all sorts of samples sent you ranging from hair products, to skin products,  to perfume, to nailpolish and makeup. You can tweak your profile to try to get things you want, but in my experience, it doesn't always work.

There's usually a waiting list, I think I was on it for a month before I got my first box in June.

First of all, shipping sucked this month. Usually my box gets to me in a reasonable amount of time, but it came about five days after it was scheduled to get to me, but whatevs.

Here's the pretty birchbox.

This months theme is "Go Time", birchbox says 2014 is the time to take on more: "more things to try [maybe that's why I got a perfume sample this month], to conquer, to integrate into our lives."

The inside of the box.

Nail Rock, Sequin, and I got a full-size, so it's worth $7.00. It's "The UK brand's two step system for the world's brightest disco mani." I really like sparkly glittery things, hence the name of this blog, and my quest to get shiny Charmanders in Pokemon X [I think I've had 50 non-shiny charmanders born now, and they're all named after rappers and world traded], so I am intrigued. You paint your nails with two coats of the clear stuff, then stick them in glitter, and let it dry for a twenty minutes, and you get glitter nails. I so really like the color too, it's sort of a sea green glitter :) I'm not sure how I feel about waiting twenty minutes, however, so we shall see. I do like it though.

Beauty Protecter, Protect & Detangle. A regular size is eight ounces, and costs $21.95, my sample is maybe a quarter of that? I'm not sure, it's a decent-sized sample. So I'll price it at $5.50. It's a "best selling elixir that locks in color, protects from heat damage, and adds silkiness." I like water parks. My fiance likes water parks.  Every summer we go to Schlitterbahn, and a spray in de-tangler is a great product for me [and him, he has longer hair than me] to help with heat/chlorine damage, and it's a perfect travel-size. It also smells like vanilla marshmallows, which is a nice touch. 

INIKA Mineral Eye-Shadow in Eternal Marine, "packed with certified-organic ingredients, these natural pigments stay vibrant for hours." I got a full-size, which makes it worth $20.00. I really like loose eyeshadow, and this color is really pretty.

 

It's sort of a turquoise color. I did a swatch of it, and this is the color without any sort of primer, just swatched on my arm. It's a green/gray/turquoise color, which is my favorite eyeshadow colors because it brings out my blue-gray eyes, and it goes on so nice and thick, that a little bit will go a long way. 

Juicy Couture Viva La Juicy, a perfume sample, where "wild berries flirt with mandarin and soft floral notes for a scent that's fun and happy." It's about 70 dollars. [Seriously why is perfume so expensive?]. My sample is little. I'm not sure how to price a perfume sample. Maybe $3.00?  I don't like perfume, I don't wear it, I don't like it, this is the first time I ever got a perfume sample. It doesn't smell bad, for a perfume, it's sort of fruity? It's bearable.  I can't imagine when I'll have a use for a perfume, but if I do... at least it's one I don't mind?

Burt's Bee's Intense Hydration Day Lotion, and a coupon. This is a "Birchbox find alert", where you basically get it for free, and it doesn't count towards your samples, in any way. I really like Burt's Bees, and I like moisturizer, especially in winter, when my skin gets dry, so I'm happy with it. Probably worth about $2.00 or so.

Let's add:  I paid ten dollars for this box, and got products worth $37.50, so my box really paid out this month, and for once, I like most of what I received. Good job, Birchbox.

January has been a slow month for subscription boxes. I know Ipsy shipped, but they have notoriously slow shipping. There's a few more coming. A few more I may have to tweak the credit card on it, thanks to the Target identity theft ploy, where they got my credit card number, and I had to get a new card. Hm, I should get on that.