Happy Birthday, Birchbox!

I got my September Birchbox in the mail today, finally!

The September box shipped out later than August's box so we got them about a week later than "normal." I say "normal" because I've only had the Aug. box to compare it to. lol.

I have been super excited for this Birchbox since it's the 1 year anniversary of the company starting.

Enough of me rambling, let's get started.

The little brown Birchbox

This is what it looked like when I opened it.

My first item was these Incoco nail strips in blue glitter. 

These retail anywhere from $7.99-$10.99 

Now, my opinion on these: I went ahead a watched youtube videos and knew what to expect with the different designs birchbox had to offer and these were the ones I did NOT want. Hmmmph. Blue glitter!? I can just paint my nails blue and add blue glitter, not a real big deal. I really really wanted a design. They had cheetah and rainbow glitter and zebra glitter and I get the plain blue ones? What the heck!? My profile says I'm adventurous...but, I have really wanted to try this since Sally Hansen's nail strips came out and haven't bought them and now I get to try them so I'm okay with the blue glitter....just okay. 

My second item was this Pangea Organics facial cream in Nigerian ginger with lavender & thyme.

This is a 1oz travel size sample and I am happy with the size, this is what I expect to get for a sample that I have to pay for. I was pretty excited for this since I am slightly obsessed with face products, but I know Birchbox sends out Pangea Organics products in their boxes all the time so if I had been a member for a while now, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have been too happy about this.

I don't have my card with me at the moment, but I think this retails in full for about $40? Correct me if I'm wrong.

Next is this Jouer lip treatment in an extremely small sample size that says "not for retail" on the back, which means it is a FREE sample size! Ugh, come on Birchbox, I thought this was a DELUXE sampling program? I like to consider myself resourceful enough to find a free sample of this on my own and wouldn't have had to pay the $10 a month member fee....I have wanted to try Jouer and I'm glad I get to now, but I could have found this on my own, and it would have been free....just saying..

This would be $14 in full size.

This was what I was least looking forward to, LIV GRN perfume sample. First of all, I am very particular in my perfume and getting a sample is kind of hit or miss so I don't like getting random perfume samples, second of all, perfume samples are FREE! I just got a Burberry sample for FREE in the mail and I can get them anytime I please at the mall and I can grab 10 if I like. You only get one in this box. So, two out of four products I was sent was absolutely FREE for Birchbox to send me....Ugh!

On a positive note: I actually do really like this perfume, so the only thing Birchbox got accomplished is I am now aware of this perfume, but it is $60 and that alone deters me from making a purchase.

The "Extra" for this months box is a friendship bracelet in the shape of the Birchbox logo. 

This is kinda cute and I am wearing it right now. I appreciate the thought behind this, Thank You, Birchbox.

Everything that was in my box.

My final thoughts: Overall, I am kinda disappointed in this month's box especially because this was the 1 year anniversary. Two out of the four items should have been free so I only got two that actually counteracted the $10 I pay a month and the nail strips were not the "coolest" design so I could have just took my $10 and bought Sally Hansen's in a design I liked and skipped this box. I really wanted to love this box, I don't hate it, if this were any other month I would have actually liked it, but it was very underwhelming for a birthday box. 

I am also very disappointed because I've watched videos of boxes in the past and it seems the quality of products have went way down. Birchbox has sent out free full sized items before, like a $30 blush and a full size $18 eyeshadow. I don't expect a full size product in every box or even at all, I just expect to get deluxe samples, not super tiny FREE samples. I really like the idea of Birchbox, but they have alot to work on. I am going to keep my membership and hope the quality gets better, I have faith this can be a good company.