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Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review – July 2015

Ragan Buckley
ByRagan BuckleyJul 31, 2015 | 9 comments

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - box

Your Secret Admirer delivers a monthly surprise package of themed gift items for women in categories like home, beauty, and artisanal foods.

Your Secret Admirer sent us this box for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

The Subscription Box: Your Secret Admirer

The Cost: $50 (save with longer subscriptions)

The Products: Hand-selected items for women from local (Pacific Northwest) and independent artisans.

Ships to: Continental US. Shipping is free.

Check out lots of other great lifestyle boxes the Lifestyle Subscription Box Directory! And be sure to see our past reviews of the Your Secret Admirer subscription box.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - charity

The first thing I saw when I opened the box is that Your Secret Admirer is using a portion of their proceeds to fund care packages to orphans in the Philippines.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - card1

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - card2

This month’s card is a little different from last month’s. It’s still full color, two-sided, and foldout, but it doesn’t contain all the background information on the artisans. (It does contain web addresses, though, so you can seek out the ones you’re interested in.)

This month’s theme is “Summer Fun” and the box includes items hand-selected for making the most out of the season.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - inside

“You are my sunshine” greeting card – Value $5 (?)

Your Secret Admirer box always includes a greeting card you can use to brighten someone’s day. I think these are exclusive to the subscription.

There was a lot of packing material in this box. A lot. The gold paper covers up a bunch of turquoise paper squiggles.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - greeting

Here is a closer look at the greeting card.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - beauty

Keeki Pure and Simple Nail Polish in Blue Slushie (full size!) – Value $10

This is a beautiful color (swatch below), but then, I love blue nail polish. Keeki nail polish is water-based and free of the common toxins found in nail polish. The only thing is, I’ve used other Keeki polish and it is nearly impossible to remove. (Maybe they sell a special remover?) I tried soaking my fingernails in water, thinking I would redissolve the polish, and that didn’t work. Non-acetone polish remover didn’t work. In the end, I had to use acetone to get it off. So if someone knows how to remove it in a less harsh way, please post a comment and let us know!

Herbivore Sea Mist Coconut and Sea Salt Beach Wave Hair Mist (2 oz) – Value $5

This smells awesome. But I love the smell of coconut. And if you like it, you can get a full sized one from the Birchbox shop! (I haven’t used it yet because I just moved and I’m still unpacking and playing around with hairstyles is not high on my priority list at the moment. But I believe my hair would take to beachy waves pretty well so I hope to use it soon.)

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - drinks

Ravenglass Productions Bottle Opener – Value $5 (?)

“I Love Summer” Pineapple Coozie – Value $3 (?)

I don’t have links for either one of these so I’m guessing on the values based on comparable items available on Amazon. Here is the Ravenglass Productions website, though. One product they seem to specialize in is (liquor) bottle caddies with attached bottle openers like the one seen here.

I’ve seen a lot of pineapples on items this year so those are definitely trending.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - sunglasses1

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - sunglasses2

XOXO Sunglasses – Value $6 (?)

This is another item I can’t find online. (The link goes to a similar product.) They’re faux wood, which is kind of fun. And now I wear contact lenses a lot of the time, so I can actually use them.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - tatsties

Tattly Temporary Tattoos (2 sheets) – Value $6

What would a summer box be without the ubiquitous metallic temporary tattoos? Although I have to say, these are more tasteful than some of the others I’ve seen in subscription box reviews…Also, all Tattly tattoos are designed by professional artists who get a cut of each sale.

Poppy and Elle Hair Ties (3 ct) – Value $4.19

These are perfect summer colors. Unfortunately, hair ties don’t stay in my hair so these will be passed along to my sister and her daughters.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - tote

Pieces to Peaces Tote Bag – Value $10

This design is exclusive to the Your Secret Admirer Box so I’m linking to a similar item on the Pieces to Peaces site. You may remember this brand from last month (they provided a headband then). This is a fun design and I can always use more totes.

Your Secret Admirer Subscription Box Review - July 2015 - swatchcoupon

Here is a swatch of the nail polish. Also included was a coupon (the code is listed up above in the “coupon” section for those who are interested).

Verdict: I calculated a value of about $54 this month for the Your Secret Admirer box. While that is pretty close to the $50 cost of the box, they do offer a lot of promos and coupons, plus I had to estimate some of the values, so my calculation could be a little off. It appears they’ve altered their pricing structure since last month – while the price of the box has gone up, they’re also now offering free shipping (they use UPS).

I think this is a fairly new subscription box and that they’re still trying to sort a few things out. I’m OK with a few non-branded items (sunglasses, coozie), especially if they fit the theme. And there’s still a focus on independent artisans (Pieces to Peaces, Poppy and Elle, Ravenglass Productions, and Tattly). I kind of hope they return to a more detailed information card with artisan profiles in the future.

Overall, I think this was a fun box and a nice way to treat yourself (or a friend). Plus, Your Secret Admirer did a wonderful job sticking to the summer theme this month. Almost every single item had something to do with summer, the sun, the beach, etc. And the colors were bright and cheery.

What do you think of the July 2015 Your Secret Admirer box?

Ragan Buckley
Ragan Buckley
Ragan stumbled across My Subscription Addiction in late 2013 and immediately subscribed to way too many beauty boxes. She's now focused on boxes for her cats and dog, vegan/vegetarian food boxes, and craft subscriptions (and she didn't give up beauty boxes entirely).

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9 comments

Jen

Looks like Birchbox has the lavender Herbivore spray but not the coconut one. On the Herbivore website the travel size (same as in this box) is $12. http://www.herbivorebotanicals.com/collections/hair

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Ragan

I totally missed the scent thing, thanks for pointing it out.

(I got the price by calculating the per ounce price from Birchbox. Like I said in the review, though, I thought my value might be a little off.)

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Mimi

Although I haven’t tried it specifically with this nail polish, there are several peel-off base coats that are recommended especially for glitter polishes that may work with this polish. i find that they get most, but not all of the polish off; I still need to use a little acetone to get my nails really clean — but it beats having to use acetone on my whole nail. I use it instead of my regular base coat.

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Ragan

I have the OPI peel-off one. I hadn’t thought of trying it, but it would almost certainly work. (Sometimes, though, with that one, I have had an entire nail’s worth of polish float away when washing my hands, so you have to be careful.)

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Purpa

The past few months of this box have seemed really high-end and sophisticated to me. I liked it more than many of the similar boxes out there, like Popsugar or Prospurly. This box seems a more juvenile, and hokey, so I’m interested to see what happens next month before I decided if I want to subscribe!

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Danielle

I was going to warn you about the Keeki polish but looks like you’ve already discovered that that stuff does. not. budge! They do sell a polish remover on their site that’s specifically formulated for their polishes, just a pain that you have to buy it separately if you happen to get a polish from a box or something like that.

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Ragan

I just went to their site. The main ingredient in the polish remover is ethanol (“corn alcohol”). So if you had some strong liquor, you might be able to remove it! (I may try an alcohol-based drugstore toner that I have. My skin is OK with it so my nails should be, too.)

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Sue

So I am guessing the polish doesn’t chip? I’d love one that lasts since I don’t change my color often….

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Ragan

It did for me. But *all* polish chips for me. I must be hard on my hands.