CEOLA

I was inspired to look into the beauty subscription service – Birchbox – after watching unboxing videos by one of the YT girls I subscribe to LeighAnnSays. I love samples, and I also love travel-sized anything, so it made perfect sense to me to pay a fixed amount every month to get a grab bag/box of sample-sized goodies for me to obsess over. I chose Birchbox over Ipsy because I’m honestly not that into trying new makeup – I stick to a very simple routine with very simple tools and I’m very happy that way. Birchbox offers a lot more skincare/haircare products, as well as a ‘lifestyle’ bonus which I’ve gathered is usually food of some kind.

So I got my February Birchbox…in March. I’d seen numerous reviews of this box on Reddit’s Beauty Boxes subreddit, and a lot of people complained about their beauty protector oil (you’ll see a pic later) arriving broken in their box. I sincerely hoped the Trans-Atlantic journey didn’t bode poorly for my beauty oil as well.

Edit: I should add here that not all Birchbox subscriptions are the same. While the range of products anyone can receive pulls from the same pool every month, you may end up getting totally different products from me, based on your personal profile which you fill out when signing up.

Anyhoo! So I opened up my box today to reveal! Ta Da! Not a broken bottle of beauty oil!

Just a card inside with random words…I think they try to rationalize the items in the box with some kind of special context…uh huh…not too interested.

Here you see the cost of the full sized items to the sample items you receive in your box. Some of the items you get CAN be full-sized…like I think the eyeliner is full-sized. Thank God for this little card…since I almost forgot how to use soap and perfume…and how to make tea.

The contents.

The item that made this box worth it for me – Cynthia Rowley Liquid Eyeliner. I don’t get too adventurous with my makeup but if there’s one thing I consider a staple, it’s eyeliner. I’m open to trying new brands as well, especially if they make my morning ritual a bit easier.

Check out the nib on this baby. I used it this morning and can confirm that it’s highly pigmented. Actually applies just like you’d expect a marker to.

A Juicy Couture perfume sample. I usually don’t get too crazy with my scents – I’ve been switching between Miss Dior Cherie and Daisy by Marc Jacobs for about two years now – but this is a nice scent to throw in your purse for the days you forget to apply any perfume before rushing out the house.

The dreaded Beauty Protector that I was almost certain would have come broken. Nope! Totally intact. Smells really great. I’m super low maintenance with my hair but I figure adding a few drops of this to my hair before I blow dry shouldn’t be too tough for me to manage.

This soap sample is going straight in my gym bag. It smells really great by the way.

I got more tea than this, but I drank two of the samples today – an English Breakfast tea and a Lemon tea. I know some people wouldn’t be too keen on getting tea in a beauty box…but luckily I love tea.

Some of you asked me about the cost. The box itself was USD$10, so let’s call that about TTD$67 and to clear the box came up to a whopping TTD$102. So $169 in total. Mind you I think I got completely ripped off by the shipping company I used (my workplace’s). They charged TTD$20 just to deliver it to the office, so please bear in mind that the cost to clear for you may be a bit cheaper. I’ve changed the delivery address to my usual Skybox so I’ll see how the cost compares then and update accordingly.

For now it looks like I’m keeping my Birchbox subscription active, because I’ve previewed my March box and I like what I see. Hoping to get more skincare stuff in the future as well.