Review // October Birchbox

Image via Birchbox.com

After three months of Birchboxing, I'm content with my decision to cancel today. Although I did find Befine facial scrub through this program, I think that overall my boxes have been pretty unexciting and filled with items that I would never buy. I'll start with what came in this month's box.

▲ Wool and Cashmere Shampoo — I have zero interest in this. I really don't know what else to say. I can see how it would benefit someone who owns cashmere and wool, but I don't. I'll probably shove this in the back of a drawer and forget about it until I thrift some crazy wool item.

▲ Clark's Botanicals Intense Radiance Mask — Initially I was excited about this, but after using it realized that it had very little effect on my skin. I love the packaging of it and it has a nice, clean smell, but the results just don't come close to justifying the $72 (what?!?) price tag. I still love the Rainbow Research green clay mask I got in my GoGoGirlfriend box a few months ago.

▲ Amika Obliphica Hair Treatment — Firstly, this was already open (as in, the seal was broken) and half-leaked out all over my box when I received it. I was pretty disappointed. The product itself made my hair a strange texture. I'm not sure if it is because of the bleaching or if it's the oil itself. Definitely not something I would every buy. As far as hair treatments go, I recently tried the Macadamia Hair Mask and it made my locks silky and smooth!

▲ Anastasia Beverly Hills HydraFull Gloss — This sticky concoction did nothing for my pout. If it was a different shade, I could have at least looked past the texture, but I have enough coral and peach tones to hold me over for a while.

▲ Laura Geller Spackle Tinted Primer im Bronze — I'm not really sure who thought it was a good idea to send a woman as pale as I am this bronzing primer with winter approaching. I rarely ever use bronzer to begin with. I tried it, though, and didn't really see any reason to switch from my $6 ELF Primer. I ended up trading this with Tish for the Blinc Mascara that came in her box.

Okay, so I'm pretty disappointed with the products, but the service is a whole other story. Initially I tweeted @birchbox that one of my products was open and had leaked. They instructed me to email [email protected] to resolve the issue. I did. And I waited.

A few days later (this morning), I hadn't heard a thing, so I tweeted again. Then they gave me a separate email address and told me to forward my previous email to this second place. Talk about a run-around. Eventually the second email address responded to my concerns (very long-winded-like), which spanned not only from leaking samples but to the glaring comparison to what other bloggers and YouTubers seem to be getting in their boxes. She insisted that there is no "preferred" program where they send better boxes to certain folks, so maybe it's all coincidence. Either way, I'm dissatisfied with how downhill Birchbox has gone since Tish first introduced me to them earlier this year and I cancelled my subscription today.

I will keep watching the YouTubers, and if they improve then I may pick it up later on down the road. Until then, I'll save my $10/month and just go to Ulta and try samples of things that I'm actually interested in buying.