We all know the saying 'The third time's the charm', but what does that mean for my Birchbox subscription? I loved the first box, and liked the second box, but this third one? I'm having some real issues with the products in it, the brand diversity and the disparity between Birchbox Canada and USA.
Am I just being picky, or are they really just offering Canadians second-tier products? Read on for more.
What Is Birchbox?
Birchbox is a mid-priced monthly box ($10CDN + $5CDN to a neat $15 a month), that offers a unique rewards system. If you write product reviews on the Birchbox site for your products each month, you can redeem those points for items from their beauty shop. You also earn points for referrals and other actions on the site. It's a neat way to give back to your subscribers and I look forward to taking advantage of it. It's similar to Julep's 'Jules' but it doesn't ONLY reward purchases.
Another neat thing about Birchbox is that they allow you to see what your products are before they hit your door, so it can be a surprise or you can spoil yourself if you want. I've spoiled it for myself every, single, time.
In My February 2015 Birchbox I Received:
Usually I try to order my products from my favourite to least favourite, but this month there were no stand-out products. So, let's just go in alphabetical order.
Color Club Art Duo Pen - Lavender
I don't know what these people are smoking, but this is NOT lavender. It's your standard striping polish, but since it's this really bright fuschia I can only see myself using it in very specific instances. I'd actually MUCH prefer a black or a white in this situation. The polish is EXCESSIVELY STRONG smelling though, so I may just put this in the nail polish swap box at work.
Cynthia Rowley Beauty - Creamy Lip Stain in Heartthrob
I had a really great experience with the Cynthia Rowley eyeliner I received a few months ago (note - duplicate brand already in three months) but I had less luck with this lip stain. I couldn't get full coverage on my lips, the product is really patchy once applied, and has a really off smell. It's not glossy enough to be a gloss, but not full-coverage enough to be a proper stain.
Mereadesso - All in one moisturizer
This product claims to be an all-in-one solution for your skin, but if there's one thing I've learned in my twenties, it's that 'all-in-one' products are usually bad-at-most things they claim to be good for. Allegedly this is an anti-aging cream/serum/toner and primer but what did it actually do? It TOTALLY irritated my skin! It felt tight and slightly itchy. It didn't leave a rash or any redness, but I'm not going to give it a second chance to do any sort of damage.
Number 4 - Clarifying Shampoo
This was such a weird thing to find in a beauty box. I've received all kinds of hair products before but never a clarifying shampoo? It's such a basic product to receive, it's like "Hey, you have a lot of buildup in your hair, let's take care of that for you." But it wouldn't be so bad if it worked well and no, this clarifying shampoo was nowhere near as good as the Live Clean one I'm used to.
Whish - Exfoliating Body Wash
When I saw this product in my February box, I thought to myself "Well, I have a lot of body washes to go through, but at least this will be an ok product." Wrong again!
1) It smells like burnt artificial coconut/vanilla.
2) It's not exfoliating enough to be used as a scrub.
3) It doesn't lather enough to be used as a body wash.
So WHAT IS IT?!
The verdict?
This box was a total bust. I disliked pretty much everything in this box, and the quality was surprisingly low. I also was a bit unhappy with a duplicate brand so early in my subscription but it appears that this is a habit oF Birchbox so I guess I'll have to get used to it.
That said, I've already seen my spoilers for my March box and should get it any day now, so I'm grudgingly going to stick around until May, but I'm back on the fence with this sub.