Every month, Birchbox lets subscribers pick between a curated box (all samples revealed) or a single sample choice and be surprised by the rest of the items.
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
This review is of the Sample Choice, $10 a month, box.
The Subscription Box: Birchbox
The Cost: $10 a month (get one month free and $10 to spend in the shop with an annual subscription!)
LIMITED TIME DEAL: For a limited time, new subscribers use coupon code MESMERIZE to get a FREE full-size Pixi by Petra Mesmerizing Mineral Palette in Plum Quartz
COUPON: Get $5 (50 points) to spend in the Birchbox shop when you subscribe with coupon code SUBSCRIBENOW50 OR Try any of these free gift with purchase coupons on orders of $35 or more!) And don’t forget your free mystery sample pack on orders of $35 or more!
OR
Check out the 30% off sale for everyone, too!
The Products: Beauty and lifestyle samples selected by the Birchbox team.
Ships to: U.S., France, Spain and the U.K. and Canada
Check out all of our Birchbox reviews and the Beauty Subscription Box Directory!
Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!
Each box comes with an info card. This month’s talks all about their theme surrounding Women’s History Month, featuring powerful, high-performing (just like women!) products.
And the flip side of the card always lists the names and details of the items in your box!
R+Co Dallas Thickening Shampoo - 0.23 fl oz, Value $0.65
R+Co Thickening Conditioner - 0.23 fl oz, Value $0.68
I thought these two smelled great and worked well in my hair. I just feel like there was such a small amount that I really didn’t get the chance to see any thickening affects or anything. I also barely had enough shampoo for one go-through in my hair. I like the products alright but these foil packets underwhelmed me.
Real Chemistry Fresh-Start Foaming Cleanser - 0.5 fl oz, Value $2.86
This moisturizer is creamy and smells nice! It’s light and grapefruity. It did a good job removing my face makeup, but don’t get this stuff in your eyes. Also, I looking at the reviews for this it seems like it may be a little drying. I always used face oils and serums and heavy moisturizers, so maybe those helped, but I didn’t notice much drying after one use.
Beauty Protector Protect & Volume – 0.5 oz, Value $1.47
I love Beauty Protector’s products! They smell so good – very sweet. This is a volumizing thermal protection spray, which is something I use every single time I heat style. I thought this product worked well, and I’m happy with it!
Arrow Enhance Waterproof Eyeliner + Brightener – 0.028 oz, Value $8.50?
FYI – this sample has a weight of 0.028 oz, but the full-size listing on Birchbox’s site says .02 oz, meaning it would be smaller than this sample. The only thing I could think is that the full size has the brightener double-ended with an equally sized black liner and maybe both the brightening liner and the black liner are 0.02 oz each? And the sample has a little more of the brightening product by itself? That’s my theory, so I’m assuming this pencil should be valued at about half of the full size.
This was my sample choice this month. Arrow is Birchbox’s house brand, and this product is meant to brighten your waterline (the inside of your lower lash line) and the inner corner, plus you can also blend it on your brow bone for some highlighting there. I like it and think it works really effectively. The pigmentation is high so you really don’t need much at all to make it show.
Benefit They’re Real Double the Lip lipstick in Lusty Rose - 0.02 oz, Value $6.67
This is a brand new product from Benefit so I was excited to see it in my box. It’s a two-tone lipstick designed to help your lips look fuller and voluptuous by having a darker liner color on the outside of your lips and a lighter main color on the inside. It saves you a step and also saves you from matching the two.
You can see the darker liner color on the tip of the tear drop shape. I don’t usually wear multiple colors on my lips, so this is a new thing for me to try. Also, when I wear lip liner it’s usually underneath the whole lip to keep my lipstick in place or a clear reverse-liner to keep my lipstick from feathering.
I thought this was an interesting product and easy enough to use. You’re supposed to flip it upside down to get your bottom lip, which felt a little awkward but I feel like I could get the hang of it easily in a few more tries.
Paula’s Choice Resist Anti-Aging Eye Cream - 0.16 fl oz, Value $10.56
This eye cream provides a blend of anti-oxidants and hydrating ingredients. These include shea butter, which explains why the cream seemed to have a little bit of a crumbly texture when I first squeezed it out of the tube. Once it warmed up on my hand, though, it was really creamy and I actually totally love this stuff. It offers intensive hydration and feels great on my eyes. I haven’t noticed a difference in the anti-aging properties yet since I haven’t had enough time with it.
Here are the eye brightener and the lipstick swatched. You can see the two colors of the lipstick well here.
Here I am wearing the eye brightener and the Benefit lipstick. Like I said earlier, I don’t generally wear two different colors of lipsticks in one look, so this really looked a little 90’s to me at first. But looking at it and blending it just a little by patting my lips together gently helped make it look more wearable, I think.
And here, I just mixed the two colors of the lipstick together to show you what it looks like, in case you’re not interested in the two-tone look and just want to have a pretty new normal lipstick.
Verdict: I really like my March Birchbox! All of my products were new to me, but also all from brands I already know and love so that was fun. The value adds up to $31.39, which I’m happy with from a $10 box!
What do you think about Birchbox? Did you grab a curated box or pick your own sample?
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