Birchbox Vs Ipsy – September 2014

Birchbox always wins for me because with the points system, it makes my subscription (and thus all of my box items) FREE every month. And that’s without referring a friend or doing any long “end of month” surveys. I personally love the foil packets because those can also be reviewed for 10 points each in addition to your box items. I average 50 – 70 points per box (70 when “free foil samples” are included) and then you get the 10 points just for receiving a box in the mail…and then I tweet my monthly box once on Twitter and once on FB each month (another 20 points). So without doing anything other than logging in and reviewing what I got for the month (10 minutes of my time)….I earn 100+ points every month which is $10.00 to be used on products in the Birchbox store. My subscription becomes free. As do the items I receive. I can’t see any better value than that (not to mention applying that money to a full size item and then earning 1 point per $1 on every dollar I spend!). People tend to NOT calculate the easy points that you can use for every beauty item they sell when they’re measuring the “value” of the boxes. Ipsy doesn’t offer this at all. I can’t make my Ipsy boxes “free” just by trying out what I received and doing a basic review each month on those items.

More importantly….look at Ipsy items like “Pacifico” and “NYX”! Pacifico is a brand sold at TARGET stores and NYX sells for about $1 – 4 dollars. They not only bog you down with just make up….but it’s cheap make up that’s sold at Target and Pharmacies Nationwide!

I prefer the Birchbox because of all the reasons I already provided and also that I’d rather get hair and face-care samples because those items tend to be extremely expensive to buy without trying first.

*And I’m someone who LOVES perfume samples considering ordering samples of $100 perfumes online is usually about $5 – $10 each if you’re buying purse-sized sprays like Birchbox sends you*

Those samples last me throughout the month more often than not. Especially the large nail polish bottles and face creams that are super-thick and I can mix with my regular cream to “boost it” without spending another $75.00!

I just can’t see the value in these other boxes unless the buyer is looking JUST for fun samples/products and isn’t trying to find good products for them, save money, AND save time shopping around and not finding what you want. I like efficiency and saving money on luxe products. That’s why I’m Birchbox all the way.

I just wrote straight to birch box about picking the samples and told them what I would prefer. We will see what happens.

Deciding which is my favorite this month is tough; really tough. I cannot decide. I heard and saw a post that Ipsy is doing something really special for October and cannot wait and with the choice picks for Birch box I am overly excited. I wonder if it is Halloween related. I am loving these two companies along with boxycharm and I am thrilled to be getting Sample Society next month. Super anxious! 🙂 Plus my free fabfitfun box.

I want to try Naobay; Laura Mercier and Macadamia. I normally do not care for as much haircare but heard good things about Macadamia. I have tried the other brands and like them. The quality is great with BB. My birchbox had a higher value too; slightly. I usually have extremely low value birchbox but the last two boxes have been good and the last box amazing and along with choosing the samples has made me decide to stick with birchbox. They have been doing so well and with there point system and value last month and resubbing and earning additional 100pts promo it was a fantastic value. This was the only box that topped or came close to $50 that I have received with birchbox. My value was $50-60 last month and usually it is not close to that.

Birchbox definitely takes the cake this month. I need to subscribe. I was definitely disappointed at my Ipsy bag this month. I received different products than you did. It was horrible.

Birchbox almost always wins it for me. I actually canceled my Ipsy after this month even though it was one of the better Ipsy bags I’ve received. I just feel like a lot of the brands they feature are a little crappy. 🙁

I usually love Birchbox every time, but I really liked my Ipsy bag this month, first time! I LOVED the lip gloss they sent and the nail polish, the lip gloss won it for me. If Birchbox had included a lip gloss I would’ve loved it more. I didn’t care for the Ipsy bag itself this month, but it’s not bad. I did like how Birchbox had much bigger samples this time, lately my Birchboxes have been getting better for me.

Ipsy was a bit of a disappointment this month. The only 2 things I liked and will keep were the Cailyn Lip Gloss, & Be a Bombshell setting powder.Birch box was actually the better one on value, for me this go round.

Though Birchbox had a better value, I really liked my Ipsy bag this month! The bag itself is awesome and I’m glad they seem to be moving to top-opening ones. It’s really awkward to get stuff in on the side, even though there have been adorable bags I wanted to make work!

With Birchbox, I felt I got some items I’ve already gotten before…even ones I’d gotten from Birchbox, like the Naobay. I think there are something like 72 Naobay samples up on the swap site! We’re drowning in them, as nice as they are!

The big thing for me was the Hikari lipstick in the ipsy bag. Never heard of it before, but the color seemed just perfect for fall. It actually feels luxurious and is fairly sheer! I think someone who is scared of such a deep blue-red, but who has skin with blue undertones, should give it a try! I used the From the Lab lip primer I got in a swap, and that bad boy stuck to my lips all night during a dinner event I hosted (and ate at!).