Birchbox
Birchbox is a beauty and lifestyle sampling service that mails you an adorable box full of goodies each month that are specially tailored to your likes and needs. Members complete a profile that includes their hair and eye color, skin tone, beauty concerns, lifestyle habits and more that help the Birchbox team make their boxes as unique as they are. A subscription costs $10 a month, which includes shipping, handling, and taxes. You can either choose to have a monthly rebillable subscription, or pay for a year's subscription in full (which offers you a discount). Each monthly box contains 4-5 samples and usually a special small "Birchbox extra" which, in my boxes, have been everything from tea, to nail files, to hair ties.
In addition to the fun of trying new products, Birchbox has an awesome rewards program. Every $1 spent in the Birchbox shop is awarded 1 point. Also, subscribers are able to review the samples in their box on the Birchbox website and are awarded 10 points for each review. You can also earn points by referring new subscribers. For every friend of yours that joins with your unique referral link, you get 50 points. Every 100 points equates to $10 to use towards anything you'd like in the Birchbox shop. In the end, racking up points is incredibly easy to do, and I've been able to snag full-sized versions of some of my favorite sampled products at insane discounts.
All-in-all I've found that Birchbox tends to sample some really awesome, often high-end products, many of which are from up-and-coming brands. They also offer a wide range of types of samples and from month to month offer a good balance of skincare, haircare, makeup, and lifestyle products. If you're interested in subscribing to Birchbox, I would totally appreciate it if you used my referral link to join (but I'll still love you even if you don't).
Browse my previous boxes
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| June 2013 | July 2013 | Prestige Headliners |
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| Mass Appeal | August 2013 | Birchbox Local |
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| September 2013 | October 2013 | November 2013 |
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| December 2013 | January 2014 | February 2014 |
Ipsy
Ipsy's Glambag subscription works in a very similar way to that of Birchbox. For $10 you get an adorable cosmetics bag filled with 4-5 deluxe beauty samples delivered to your doorstep each month. The beauty profile you complete tailors the products you receive to your specific looks and needs. Also, if you get a red lipstick one month that you know you'll never wear, you have the opportunity to complete a survey on the Ipsy website of all your glambag products that will help to inform what you do and don't like for future bags.
While Ipsy does not have their own online shop, they do have special promotional codes for all of the sampled brands each month so that you can buy full-sized versions of your favorite samples at a discount. They also just re-vamped their rewards program. You now get points both for referring new subscribers and for completing the surveys on each of your Glambag products. 1000 points can be redeemed for special prizes that rotate each month.
While Birchbox's sample base each month may contain 80 to 100 different products, Ipsy typically only samples 10 to 15 different items each month (although there are usually multiple shades of each product available). They also don't tend to sample from as many high-end brands. However, Ipsy's Glambags much more frequently contain full-sized items and have an overall worth that tends to at least triple or quadruple the $10 you are spending. If you are interested in becoming an Ipsy subscriber, I would appreciate if you used my referral link to sign up (but, as with Birchbox, all the love no matter what you choose to do).
Browse my previous Glambags
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| June 2013 | July 2013 | August 2013 |
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| September 2013 | October 2013 | November 2013 |
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| December 2013 | January 2014 | February 2014 |
