I have been subscribing to Birchbox for the last few months. For $10 a month, they send me a box of high-end makeup, skincare and haircare product samples. I have really enjoyed trying new products from companies I have never tried before and most I have never even heard of. I know there are other sites like Birchbox: GLOSSYBOX, Ipsy and a couple of others. Have you used BirchBox or any of these other companies? Have you enjoyed your subscription(s)? What has been your favorite discovery?
I recently signed up for the free trial of the Julep beauty box and was not impressed at all. I cancelled my membership before they could charge me for a box. I just felt that for nearly $25/month, the quality and amount of products just wasn't worth the price. I'm still really interested in trying out a monthly beauty box and I think I've decided to try out Ipsy. I've read some reviews on various subscription blogs and they all seem great. I like that they send you way more than $10 worth of product and most of the samples seem to be deluxe or full sizes. I'm not a big fan of one-time use samples. How are you supposed to find out if it works for you if you can only use it once. I plan on signing up for Ipsy this week so I'm sure I'll next month to give my opinion. Have you (or anyone else) ever tried Ipsy?
I used Birchbox for a little while but stopped because I grew bored with it and figured I should save the $10. Everything that was coming in the box was of no real use to me and I wasn't finding any new cool brands to try out. I almost signed up for Julep a year ago, but didn't. Boy am I glad I passed, I have read that they are hard to cancel with because you have to call in and it is downright impossible to catch someone on the phone--this could have changed recently but that is what I heard and why I passed on signing up.
When you call, they give you an option to leave a message about account issues, including cancelling. Nobody ever answers. I finally bypassed that option and just hit option #1 to speak to a real person. I was able to cancel my account that way. I think they are hoping you won't ever get ahold of anyone so they will have to charge your account. Pretty shady if you ask me.
I have avoided signing up for online beauty samples. Why? There's always seems to be a catch. So, you end up getting free samples, but paying a lot more for shipping. So, I prefer to get my free beauty samples at the mall. It's easier and less costly for me to say no to a makeup lady than be stuck with extra unexpected charges via the mail man.
This is my first time reading about BirchBox. I would love to try them. I always got samples in the mall or a magazine of a fragrance I would like to try. If it's only $10 a month, I can certainly afford that. Thanks for this post because I will look into their company today!
Actually, all the beauty subscriptions I have looked into provide free shipping in the USA. I have read that Birchbox sends mainly one-time use samples while Ipsy sends full-size products and deluxe samples. Since they are the same price, I would obviously go with Ipsy. Ipsy also sends a make-up bag every month and since I like to collect and gift cute bags, I will definitely be trying them out.
Good to know about Julep. I see ads for them all the time, but never really looked into it. I think $25 is a lot to pay for samples! Not sure if I would want to make that kind of commitment. That is one thing I feel good about with Birch Box-it is only $10 a month. I have heard Ipsy has a waiting list-that they aren't even adding new subscribers right now. Have you heard that as well? I HATE that when you sign up with an online site and then they make you call to cancel! That is how Fabletics and FabKids runs. That is so frustrating. If I can order online I should be able to cancel online as well! I know what you mean about getting samples that you didn't really care for from Birchbox. I faced that this month. But I have scored other great samples in my boxes and have even ordered a few things that I really liked. Another great thing about BirchBox is that you can write online reviews for the products that they send to you. When you review your samples you accumulate points that go towards purchases. Also, if you make a full size purchase, you accumulate points for that as well. I had been receiving a subscription for 3 months and had earned $30 credit from ordering product and writing reviews.
