Birchbox: The December boxes

[xlinds15x]

I believe a lot of people are missing the point of Birchbox. At first, the box was all about the surprise, now people aren't just disappointed with their boxes, but rather very annoyed that they didn't get a product that someone else received. Which IMHO is just being greedy, if you want it that bad, give a bad review on the products you received, and use those points to buy said product you wanted.  At the end of the day, you pay for a mystery. 

There's no way you walk into Sephora and love EVERY single perfume. This month was the first month I did not enjoy the perfume I received (Harvey Prince 'Yogini'), which I swapped with my sister for an extra Kate Spade 'Twirl' sample). Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don't. People have different tastes!

Also, no where on Birchbox's site does it say that they hand out exclusively makeup products. Nor does it say you WILL get a full size product every month. Be grateful when we CAN get the full sized products. But that's not what you signed up for, you signed up for samples. 

I understand at Sephora you can get samples, but honestly the only samples I really ever walk out with are perfume samples. I've never received a makeup sample without buying something (maybe I'm not persistent enough?, I dont want to be obnoxious though). 

Like @singer said, in practically 2 months you are receiving half your money back to use on one product you may want to buy (maybe one of the 10 you tried in the 2 months, or something completely different). The point system works great if you ask me. Like I said, I ALMOST bought a Laura Geller set at Ulta with a 20% off coupon I had, thought about it, went on BB and bought it with 500 points +20% off + free shipping AND got a 'prestige' lip balm. I saved myself $50 from just saying I liked or didnt like a product.

 

[alice blue]

Originally Posted by lilyelement /img/forum/go_quote.gif

The way I look at it you have to spend $100 at Sephora to get a deluxe sample (ie not a foil packet) and in 10 months at Birchbox you spend $100 and have received 10 boxes of samples.

Maybe I'm missing something. *shrugs* I haven't gotten free samples at Ulta or Sephora for free.

Have you not seen Sephora's GWP page? With a $25 order, in addition to the 3 samples, you can get a code for larger samples. They've given away several sample bundles in the past month of so, some with up to a dozen minis. Much nicer to spend $25 there and get oodles of things to try, rather than spend $10 and get nothing I'd buy the full size of. I recently ordered some alpha hydroxy lotion at Ulta and they gave away a nice makeup bag full of samples (I only spent $25). I've gotten 25-30 minis in the last few months, that doesn't include packets or perfume. They are mostly .5-.7 ml. I managed to snag 3 jars of Dermadoctor Phytodynamic Therapy. I have less than 300 points in my Sephora Beauty Bank, so I haven't bought that much, but I've gotten a lot.

 

[zadidoll]

Originally Posted by xlinds15x /img/forum/go_quote.gif Nor does it say you WILL get a full size product every month.

No but they do promise deluxe size products which one-time use samples and mini samples can't be called "deluxe size".



http://www.birchbox.com/ Discover Beauty Betterâ„¢
Four to five hand-picked deluxe samples delivered to your door for $10 per month.

 

[ablueorange]

This probably sounds worse in written than it does spoken, but, I think some people just like to complain. Its kinda like college... everyone complains about it when they are there, the food, the price of books, profs, classes, campus life, the works. Complaints just to complain because its the thing to do. And, like another person said, and it applies to college too.... no one is forcing you to suffer. Haha Personally I liked this month's box /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[xlinds15x]

Oh I definitely understand that argument. Such as the Jouer Lip Conditioner (which happens to be a product that I LOVE), I'm talking about those who are complaining that there hasnt been a full sized item such as the Laura Geller blush back in May (or was it June?). On the other end of the spectrum, MyGlam states full sized AND deluxe so that may be the better option for those who are unhappy with the BB samples. 

Originally Posted by zadidoll /img/forum/go_quote.gif

No but they do promise deluxe size products which one-time use samples and mini samples can't be called "deluxe size".

 

[zadidoll]

Originally Posted by xlinds15x /img/forum/go_quote.gif

...there hasnt been a full sized item such as the Laura Geller blush back in May (or was it June?).

June.

 

[GirlyEnthusiast]

Ah, that was a good month. *sigh*

Quote:

Originally Posted by zadidoll /img/forum/go_quote.gif



June.

 

[Annelle]

or if your main concern is product size, switch to a company like beautyfix or testtube that has more full sized and travel sized items, granted they cost more than Birchbox's $10/mo.

 

[lilyelement]

I haven't seen a GWP page, and I have no clue what it stands for so please let me know! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

All I have seen is that Sephora offers 3 samples of mostly foil packets or perfume samples when you are going through checkout online. I tend to not buy Sephora online, I go into their store, so that might be why. In store I have never gotten a free sample, that's all I was talking about.

Originally Posted by alice blue /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Have you not seen Sephora's GWP page? With a $25 order, in addition to the 3 samples, you can get a code for larger samples. They've given away several sample bundles in the past month of so, some with up to a dozen minis. Much nicer to spend $25 there and get oodles of things to try, rather than spend $10 and get nothing I'd buy the full size of. I recently ordered some alpha hydroxy lotion at Ulta and they gave away a nice makeup bag full of samples (I only spent $25). I've gotten 25-30 minis in the last few months, that doesn't include packets or perfume. They are mostly .5-.7 ml. I managed to snag 3 jars of Dermadoctor Phytodynamic Therapy. I have less than 300 points in my Sephora Beauty Bank, so I haven't bought that much, but I've gotten a lot.

 

[Katie-Gaslight]

got my BB today and quite like it.. as every month. LOL!

i just get mad when i have to wait too long... at least it's not that long until the next box, now. haha.

the oil smells really good... the perfume though... i, again, hate it. i'm so picky with perfume, i wish BB would stop sending me perfume samples. seriously. the dry shampoo and oil are both a decent deluxe sample size, and the lipgloss is teensy... buy hey. whatever. it's not my go-to color for a gloss anyway. overall, not bad!

oh, and i got the dry shampoo and nothing leaked!

 

[alice blue]

Originally Posted by lilyelement /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I haven't seen a GWP page, and I have no clue what it stands for so please let me know! /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

All I have seen is that Sephora offers 3 samples of mostly foil packets or perfume samples when you are going through checkout online. I tend to not buy Sephora online, I go into their store, so that might be why. In store I have never gotten a free sample, that's all I was talking about.

GWP is a gift with purchase. Sometimes it is brand specific (buy a Clinique, get a Clinique), but Sephora has a lot of freebies that just require a minimum purchase.

The link is: http://www.sephora.com/promo/beautybonuses/

GWPAddict has a page of codes, some are for the Sephora samples: http://www.gwpaddict.com/couponpage

I hate buying things at full price, unless I get a freebie (or 10), so I keep these pages bookmarked! 

 

[lilyelement]

Really good to know! Thanks /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />
 

Originally Posted by alice blue /img/forum/go_quote.gif

GWP is a gift with purchase. Sometimes it is brand specific (buy a Clinique, get a Clinique), but Sephora has a lot of freebies that just require a minimum purchase.

The link is: http://www.sephora.com/promo/beautybonuses/

GWPAddict has a page of codes, some are for the Sephora samples: http://www.gwpaddict.com/couponpage

I hate buying things at full price, unless I get a freebie (or 10), so I keep these pages bookmarked! 

 

[AliciaMLay]

I received one of the apology e-mails a few days ago, looks like I'll be really lucky to even receive a box.  I think I am more annoyed that I paid $10 this month for possibly just some extra points.  I also can't understand why a company in business this long with so many clients can continue to mess up shipping, send duplicate products 3 months in a row, etc.  One month I received 2 boxes (not complaining, just stating.)  My mother-in-law lives down the street and gets her box in the mail a full week before I get mine, AND she continues to receive boxes even though her 3 month gift subscription ran out 4 months ago!  Not a bad thing, but it shows a pretty high level of disorganization I think.

I like the program, I like the surprise thing, I enjoy the points.  I was able to get my fave Atelier Cologne for a tiny fee.  I just think a year after I signed up, they should at least have a system in line that works consistently, and for ALL subscribers.  I don't even care if I get smallish samples, but I would like some brand variety.  And I would like to able to search products on the site!

Hopefully the box shows sometime soon.  I really liked last month's box!

 

[jayeldubya]

When you review the product write that you would prefer to not receive perfume samples.
 

Originally Posted by Katie-Gaslight /img/forum/go_quote.gif

got my BB today and quite like it.. as every month. LOL!

i just get mad when i have to wait too long... at least it's not that long until the next box, now. haha.

the oil smells really good... the perfume though... i, again, hate it. i'm so picky with perfume, i wish BB would stop sending me perfume samples. seriously. the dry shampoo and oil are both a decent deluxe sample size, and the lipgloss is teensy... buy hey. whatever. it's not my go-to color for a gloss anyway. overall, not bad!

oh, and i got the dry shampoo and nothing leaked!

 

[zadidoll]

Originally Posted by AliciaMLay /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I received one of the apology e-mails a few days ago, looks like I'll be really lucky to even receive a box.  I think I am more annoyed that I paid $10 this month for possibly just some extra points.  I also can't understand why a company in business this long with so many clients can continue to mess up shipping, send duplicate products 3 months in a row, etc.  One month I received 2 boxes (not complaining, just stating.)  My mother-in-law lives down the street and gets her box in the mail a full week before I get mine, AND she continues to receive boxes even though her 3 month gift subscription ran out 4 months ago!  Not a bad thing, but it shows a pretty high level of disorganization I think.

I like the program, I like the surprise thing, I enjoy the points.  I was able to get my fave Atelier Cologne for a tiny fee.  I just think a year after I signed up, they should at least have a system in line that works consistently, and for ALL subscribers.  I don't even care if I get smallish samples, but I would like some brand variety.  And I would like to able to search products on the site!

Hopefully the box shows sometime soon.  I really liked last month's box!

I think part of the problem is with Streamlite. Once the boxes have been shipped to them Streamlite seems to drop the ball most of the time. As for duplicate products, I think it depends on if you review the products as well as your profile. When I review I tend to say I'd like to try something else from that company and so if the following month they have something else from Pangea Organics (example) then they'll send it. If you don't like something then make sure to let them know in that review you don't want to try anything from that company again.

 

[Katie-Gaslight]

Originally Posted by jayeldubya /img/forum/go_quote.gif

When you review the product write that you would prefer to not receive perfume samples.

did that 500 times already. last time i stated it even more clear: that i am very sensitive to certain smells, and have no use for perfume samples. NOPE.

 

[americanclassic]

I dislike the false advertising with birchbox, you can't argue with that--their ads show makeup products and "4-5 deluxe samples", which is quite a different story from what I've been receiving (those were the ads I saw when I signed up). BB points aren't worth anything to me because I have no interest in buying products from their store, so I don't consider it "getting my money back"--I'd just have to spend more money, which is their whole point. also, I don't consider it greedy when some boxes are valued 5x more than others--that's just poor execution.

I'm not paying for a surprise, because that's actually not the whole point of their business. I wanted to use BB to get introduced to different kinds of makeup products and brands, but that hasn't happened at all, so I've moved on. Nice packaging, but I'm a college student budget and it's not worth it for me. They're a great company but they're not what I expected--you can't argue their boxes weren't much better a year ago. With the insane amount of funding they have, I'm surprised they haven't gotten better.

btw the sephora codes are online /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" /> ulta and other companies have great GWP's.
 

Originally Posted by xlinds15x /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I believe a lot of people are missing the point of Birchbox. At first, the box was all about the surprise, now people aren't just disappointed with their boxes, but rather very annoyed that they didn't get a product that someone else received. Which IMHO is just being greedy, if you want it that bad, give a bad review on the products you received, and use those points to buy said product you wanted.  At the end of the day, you pay for a mystery. 

Also, no where on Birchbox's site does it say that they hand out exclusively makeup products. Nor does it say you WILL get a full size product every month. Be grateful when we CAN get the full sized products. But that's not what you signed up for, you signed up for samples. 

I understand at Sephora you can get samples, but honestly the only samples I really ever walk out with are perfume samples. I've never received a makeup sample without buying something (maybe I'm not persistent enough?, I dont want to be obnoxious though). 

 

[CrabbyMrsJ]

Originally Posted by Katie-Gaslight /img/forum/go_quote.gif




did that 500 times already. last time i stated it even more clear: that i am very sensitive to certain smells, and have no use for perfume samples. NOPE.

Katie, I can understand that you're frustrated, especially if you tried to let them know you are sensitive. But here's what their policy states

Unfortunately, we are not able to guarantee that your box won't contain any specific products or ingredients. Because we take allergies seriously and we don't want to over-promise and under-deliver, we can no longer accommodate allergies. We understand if that makes it hard for you to begin or continue our service, but we hope you'll stick with it and we encourage you to give the occasional trouble products away to a friend!

If you do have known allergies to certain products/ingredients, we highly suggest that you first check the product's ingredients before you test out your sample. A list of ingredients can be found on every product's page in our Birchbox

https://www.birchbox.com/faq

 

[aftereight]

It seems as though Birchbox Man was a huge success. I wouldn't mind canceling my subscription and signing up my boyfriend for BB Man.

 

[brandyboop]

I was disappointed with my BB box, since I got box 9 and it didn't contain the Benefit Porefessional (which it originally looked like it would).  I also didn't receive my box until yesterday. I do have to say, though, I got a phone call from Ally and she understood my frustration.  To my knowledge they awarded those of us with really late boxes 100 points (so if you are a monthly subscriber, your box was free), for someone like me who is a yearly sub, I get $10 more to spend.  I mentioned to Ally that I would love it if they would offer samples to buy, so that when someone saw a box with a sample they would like to try, they would have the option of buying the sample size from the store.  I told her, I would really be interested in that, because in this month's boxes there are 2 samples, that I would love to try (the Porefessional and the By Terry Hyaluronic face glow).  I'm always looking for something to cover these huge crater pores and something that can take focus off of baggy raccoon eyes!  She said that she thought it was a great idea and would pass it along to the creative team.  I hope they do something like this, because I know of a bunch of samples from previous boxes that I would have used my points (or spent my money) on just to try out!