Birchbox: Thoughts After a Subscription

For my past birthday, I was the lucky recipient of a 6 month subscription to the popular sample service, Birchbox.  I have long lusted after Birchbox and admired them as a company and service, and have debated on signing up for myself, but just never got around to doing it.  I was also torn between other popular services, such as Ipsy.  However, I couldn’t help but be over the moon at receiving the email informing me of my gift, and immediately went on the Birchbox website and filled out my profile, indicating my personal tastes.

Now that I have received all 6 boxes I thought I would share my experience with the company and its’ service with all of you.

First off, I just want to begin by saying that Birchbox has an incredible concept behind it.  For those of you that are not familiar with the company, Birchbox allows you to set up an online profile where you fill out ‘preferences,’ or ‘needs.’  These things can vary in skin type, hair type, to what type of products you are most interested in receiving and learning about (nails, hair, skin, body, health, etc.).  Then, each month, you receive a box in the mail filled with 4-6 sample-sized products of various items based on those preferences.  Then, once you’ve sampled the products, you may purchase the items of your choice through the company’s website.

Overall, the idea of getting samples of interesting products is fantastic.  It enables you to discover more ‘high-end’ products that you would not necessarily think to try otherwise.  (That’s another thing- almost all of the products you will receive are high-end items)  However, often times, the sample sizes are tiny when compared to sizes given in other sample services, and are not large enough to decide whether a product is truly right for you.  In addition, it’s been said that perhaps you should be able to go online and decide which samples you receive on your own.  While this may cost slightly more, would this be more worthwhile for the consumer?

Product-wise, I definitely got some duds over the six months I had the service.  But that’s to be expected.  I did get some products I loved, though.  I also haven’t tried all of the products yet.  I’ve accumulated so many samples now, that it’s quite difficult to try all of them, with my skin type, changing products and things – even slightly- doesn’t always work well, so I have to be careful.  Definitely something to think about when choosing preferences in your profile!

When broken down by price, a Birchbox subscription is $10 a month.  Ipsy, the most popular competitor, is also $10 a month.  I’ve linked both services’ websites below.

https://www.birchbox.com/

http://www.ipsy.com/

For more information on my own personal experience with Birchbox, or to see specifically what I’ve received in my boxes, check out my main channel on YouTube.  I’ve done unboxing videos for all of my boxes.  My most recent one can be found at the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm36lq53jOg

Do you have a subscription to a sample service?  Let me know which one and what your experiences have been in the comments below!  I’d love to hear what you guys think!