Beauty boxes have been around for a quite long time; among these subscriptions, Birchbox is a UK veteran with a very friendly and appealing price. It’s time to unbox some to see the quality.
Birchbox is a pocket-friendly subscription box that certainly calls the attention of the youngest beauty fanatics. Let’s unbox some to check on the quality.
About Birchbox
Subscription boxes make every month feel like Christmas and Birchbox aims to do it while making your wallet feel less light. It delivers every month 5 products (full, travel-size or samples) of which one is chosen by you and at least one full-size product. The content spans a wide variety from hair care to skincare, makeup and beauty tools.
The box is mainly made of decorated cardboard but special boxes are always under construction. So it happens to receive pouches with the Christmas season approaching, canvas totes or tin boxes – my all-time favourites. The beauty items are mainly cruelty-free and green-conscious, while the brands chosen can be female-founded, black-owned and/or UK-based with many established companies (think about Nuxe and Eyeko) and different price tags. The service is subscription-based with 4 options available: monthly (£13.95), 3 or 6 (£30 + £2.95 PP or £60 + PP, and yearly (£110 + £2.95 PP billed every 12 months).
Your monthly Birchbox
No Birchbox is the same and two persons are likely not to receive the same product combination. In fact, the content is based on your personalised profile (about skin/hair type and needs) and a monthly topic. The theme hasn’t been one of the strongest points in Birchbox in the past years but I noticed the company’s started to put extra effort into its research and brainstorming this 2022. It’s providing a story around their boxes you can read as fil rouge connecting many of the products, as well as the topic of the box and its design.
April and May 22 Birchbox – unboxing live on YouTube
Watch my YouTube videos and follow the unboxing session here to see how well April and May Birchbox have performed.
April Birchbox was called “Feed Your Skin”, a topic I read on the cute avocado-print box and the products:
Beauty Pro – Turmeric-infused Sheet Mask
Polaar – The Genuine Lapland Hand Cream
We Are Paradoxx – Repair Game Changer Hair Mask
dr. Eve Ryouth – Vitamin C Night Moisturiser (limited edition, full-size)
MCoBeauty – Cheek and Lip Tint in “Flamingo Pink”
Of the 5 brands, 2 were completely unknown to me which made the unboxing experience really intriguing. The Beauty Pro made me reevaluate itself and its sheet masks, at least for now. MCoBeauty Cheek and Lip Tint was an adorable full-size addition to this box, although it looks very small and hard to use; while dr. Eve Ryouth’s Vitamin C Night Moisturiser was the product that literally sold this box to me. “Night-time favourite”!
May Birchbox kept up with the expectation with another skin-related box and just about skin and head to toe; hence without makeup:
Dr. PawPaw – Shea Butter Balm (25ml)
Korres – Santorini Grape Renewing Body Cleanser (full-size 250ml)
Sunny Isle – Jamaican Black Castor Oil Root Repair Growth Oil (full-size 4oz)
madebySUNDAY – super serum (full size 50 ml)
GLOV – Pink Moon Pad Pro (2pcs)
Here again, there are 2 brand discoveries which both hit the target! The full-size pad was a total fail and the Dr. PawPaw balm, maybe another full-size (25ml), isn’t a complete match. Watch the video to see this balm compared to a famous multiuse star product if you haven’t seen it on my Instagram.
My 2 cents: flash review
What’s inside a Birchbox isn’t a surprise, still, it doesn’t mean everything will work (for you), meet your expectation or be over the top. Both Birchboxes were strong in terms of theme and product quality but the April box did a tad better than May thanks to its variety (including a piece of multiway makeup), usability and results.
Unboxing is becoming a fun hobby and I wish to have more boxes coming my way… The perfect box will have 1 to 2 full-size products that work well and a piece of multifunctional makeup (colour makeup or base) that, as I can’t stop saying in my video, I’ll keep “using and using again”. I hate that, thou.
Am I too fussy for £13.95 a month?
Valentina Chirico aka Valens
