Thursday, January 23, 2014

Online Subscription Box BONANZA!!!!

Hey there denizens of the interwebs.
How you doin'?

So, I may have an addiction to subscription boxes. Sad, but true. I can't help myself. They're just so SHINY and SURPRISING. And they're mail that isn't bills. I like mail that isn't bills. I thought I'd share my thoughts on the things I signed up for and received and the things I'm anxiously awaiting.

SO much information!!!!

#1 Birchbox
I've been subscribing to Birchbox since March of last year. It's $10 a month. Initially I REALLY liked it. Recently, though, I feel their boxes are sliding downhill. For instance, in my last box the samples were:
1. A sample size organic mascara: Nice! Definitely like this and using it
2. Three bags of tea: Ok....I like tea, but this is supposed to be a beauty box. Also, pretty cheap.
3. A shampoo that is not intended for color treated hair (which I have)
4. and it's matching conditioner ALSO not intended for color treated hair: Hunh. I mean, my profile says I color treat and that my hair is red. ANY beauty professional knows that sulfates and alcohol will strip my insanely expensive dye job from my head in no time flat. Uh....hello?! WTF Birchbox? Stuff I can't use. Grrrreat.
5. The TINIEST little one use pod of body butter. .....o_O......wtf is going on here? I DEFINITELY did not get $10 worth of stuff in this box.
ALSO, SOME people got a Birchbox "find" in their box. I was under the impression that when they find something that's awesome they add it to every box. Or so they said. Apparently this is no longer true. I did not get the find this month. Don't they know that ladies on the internet talk?

I have my profile set to say that I want make-up, make-up and more make-up. I HAVE NOT been getting make up for the most part. I even slimmed down the stuff I want in my box in the hope that saying NO to things I might be okay trying would put more make-up in my box. No dice. Well, I made the decision to futz with my profile ONE MORE TIME and try ONE MORE BOX to see if it makes a difference. If not, Adios Birchbox. After I spend my points and get money off of a purchase in the shop, that is.

#2 I've decided to try Petit Vour. They are a vegan beauty subscription box for $15 a month. I've read quite a few reviews and they seem to have a tendency to send full size items and large samples. I'd rather be using vegan beauty anyway, so we'll see how this one goes. I'm familiar with some of the brands they stock, so I'm excited to see what they send me. 


#3 I Have Stitch Fix #4 shipped and judging by the receipt, I'm already disappointed. I asked for pants. No pants. 4 tops and a maxi skirt. The research I did shows that the maxi skirt is very similar to one I already own, so forget that. One of the tops is sleeveless. I can't even THINK about sleeveless tops right now.It was a whopping nine degrees out today. Hell to the no. One shirt looks to have a hideous blue and orange geometric pattern of ugliness. Yet another top is $78. Eff that. So, it looks like if I decide to keep anything at all, I have but one option. They will be hearing from me. What REALLY grinds my gears is that I see reviews from people all over the internet getting cute pieces I like that are 20 and 30 dollars cheaper than what I'm being sent. I TELL them this. I pin these things to my Pinterest board so they can see EXACTLY what things I mean. How is it that they don't have any dress pants in my size? I'm a really common size (6/8). Are beautiful wool pants out of fashion? Has the whole world converted to skinny jeans?!?!?!?! I LOATHE skinny jeans. On the subject of skinny jeans I signed up for another service called Cypress and 5th. You pay no money up front and they put a closet together for you. You pick 3 pieces for $75. A top, a bottom and an accessory. OR you can choose a dress and an accessory. When I got my first closet I was WAY bummed. ONE top I liked, I liked zero dresses, I liked zero skirts and there were ONLY SKINNY JEANS for bottoms. WTF?!?!?! When I contacted them about putting together a different selection they told me for pants that THEY ONLY HAD SKINNY JEANS IN STOCK. Dude. What is this world coming to?! I am now vehemently anti-skinny jeans. I won't wear them out of spite. Eff you skinny jeans!!!

4. I am super pleased with Julep. They are mostly nail polishes, but this month they are featuring some LOVELY cream eyeshadows. I chose the make-up box instead of the nail polish boxes and am getting a gel eyeliner and brush as well as an eyeshadow and a polish.  They are $19.99 a month for the basic box and you can add on. Their discounted add-on prices are super great deals. $4.99 for a nail polish instead of the $14 they normally charge. And they LAST.

5. I decided to try Plated. Plated is a fresh food/dinner prep delivery service. They send you everything you need to make an awesome dinner for 2 or more people. The ingredients are all fresh. No chemicals, no instant items. Fresh meat, vegetables, dairy, herbs, spices....you get the idea. They send you the food and instructions. You supply salt, pepper, water and the kitchenware. They have a great deal going on right now where you pay only shipping and get 4 meals for free. You even get the monthly subscription fee waived, which will get me discounts later on if I decided to continue. The menus are AWESOME. They create a menu of 6 dinners a week in the vegetarian, fish and land categories. Some are vegan. Some are gluten free. It tells you exactly what they're sending and what you will need, so you know ahead of time if you'd need to buy anything else or if you'd need to choose a different meal because of food allergies/sensitivities. They tell you the cooking difficulty, how long it will take and the calorie count as well. I'm STOKED that I caught such an awesome deal. I ordered 2 different meals for 2 people. Generally, it's $12 per plate as a member. $15 for non members. Becoming a member is a monthly charge of $10. Of course, if you commit to a year the membership charge is $8 a month. They do the math for you on the website to let you know how much you're saving if you keep up the subscription. You have to order at least 2 meals for 2 people in order for them to ship an order to you. It's not really worth it for them, otherwise. You never HAVE to get an order, but you DO have to specify NO ORDER each week if you decide you don't want one. $12 a plate sounds like kind of a lot and I don't know if I will keep up the subscription. I paid $20 for the 4 meals I ordered this time around, so at $5 a plate, this one order was SUPER worth it. They also have an ongoing %50 off your first order coupon floating around. To give you an idea of what they send you I will outline what I'm getting from one of the meals. It's skirt steak with cilantro chimichurri and carrot-citrus hash. They are sending: the steak, a yellow onion, garlic, honey, cayenne pepper, oranges, carrots, fresh cilantro, apple cider vinegar and a lemon. I'm super intrigued, so we'll see how it goes. If I like it and the roomie is willing to pay for his half of the foods, I may decided to keep it up.

6. And I hope you made it this far because I am OVER THE MOON about The Honest Company. They provide organic products for home, body and baby. I received a 40% off coupon when I signed up and didn't order anything, so I decided to use it to purchase one of their "Essentials" bundles. The great thing about this is that you can choose whatever 5 products you want in your bundle. You can add on 3 more products at %25 off each AND you can change the products in your bundle from month to month if you want. I ordered laundry detergent, dish soap, all purpose cleaning spray, Healing balm and body oil for my first bundle. I used the body oil after a shower last night and it is AMAZING. I wasn't at all greasy and my skin just soaked it all up. It had virtually no scent. All that's in it is sunflower seed oil, olive oil, coconut oil, jojoba, avocado oil, grapefruit peel oil, chamomile oil, tamanu oil, and two flower oils, calendula and matricaria. I understood every ingredient. They're all certified organic. It's made in the USA and they donate a portion of every purchase to needy families. Everything is free of petrochemicals, mineral oil, gluten, parabens, pthalates, fragrances and dyes. I am VERY allergic to dyes and fragrances. I can't use any laundry detergent or dryer sheet with fragrances or dyes. My skin turns into a giant itchy rash. I am SO PLEASED with all the products I bought from them and I would encourage anyone to check them out. I would up paying $27 and change for this bundle. Quite an excellent price. I also like the variety of home cleaning things and bath and body items that they sell. I have a box of different items set to be delivered next month. I may need more healing balm, though. I am addicted. My poor hands are chapped beyond recognition.

I will include my referral links in case anything I said has inspired you. I'm really taking a liking to the whole subscription box world. There are new deals popping up all the time, so it can be incredibly cheap to try something new and 98% of the boxes give you products that add up to much more value than you paid for them. And you don't have to deal with crowds or obnoxious people like you do when you venture out of your house. That is major bonus points to me.

Plated (yummy food stuffs)
Apparently you have to e-mail Petit Vour and tell them I'm great if you want to use a referral: contact@petitvour.com
Stitch Fix
The Honest Company
Julep
Birchbox

I should probably get to reading my O Chem....

1 comment:

  1. Is it bad that I had a dream last night that my Stitch Fix checkout information was incorrect and I got a bunch of different stuff? Cheaper things, a box full of different earrings and pants? I was SO happy in my dream and so bummed when I woke up. Boooo.

    ReplyDelete