Subscription Box: May Birchbox Unboxing
Details: Beauty Subscription Box | Trial Size Products | Mix of Indie and Mainstream Products | Products Purchasable at Birchbox | Reusable Box
Subscription: Monthly
Price: $15/month | 6 Month Commitment $14/month | 12 Month Commitment $13/month
Subscribe: Here
*Looks at the calendar* I got the May Birchbox Unboxing in before the end of May?! *pumps fist* YASSSS!! I’m going to call that a win and move on for the week. Kkthanxbye. *sigh* Fine if you insist I’ll go ahead and actually unbox it for you.
About Birchbox
I noticed when I was putting together yesterday’s post that I had an about section for it but not for Birchbox. I mean there’s not much to say except the claims. Birchbox is a beauty, skin care, and lifestyle subscription box that sends out, for the most part, trial size products. You will occasionally get a full-size product *whispers* or a full-size product masquerading as a sample-size product (you’ll see what I mean). The products come in a reusable cardboard box that now has things printed on it (shout out to the OG Birchbox subscribers who had the plain brown box with the pink logo). If you review the products on Birchbox and/or purchase items from the Birchbox shop you get Birchbox Points which not only move you closer to Ace status but are also redeemable for $$ off your shop orders. Each month you get to either choose one of your samples (with the rest of the box being random), choose an Editor’s Choice Box (you know all the products in the box), choose the full-size item of the month, or get the price of the box in Birchbox Points. If you are an Ace you get to do this several days before regular subscribers. Lastly, Birchbox now charges ALL subscriptions on a month-to-month basis. If you choose to do a 6 or 12 month subscription you are agreeing to getting that many boxes but the money comes out of your account each month instead of as a lump sum. If you have any questions drop them in the comments below.
Oribe Treatment
The first product in my May Birchbox is the Oribe Split End Sealer. This claims to not only protect against split end breakage but also to mend current split ends.
Coola Sunscreen
The next product in my May Birchbox is the Coola Full Spectrum 360 Sun Silk Creme SPF 30. This is a mineral sunscreen that is supposed to protect against infrared radiation, high-energy visible light, and pollution.
Arrow Lip Oil
The next product in my May Birchbox is the Arrow Nourishing Lip Oil in Clear. This lip oil supposedly adds moisture to the lips and then locks that moisture in. Note that this line was created by one of the creators of Birchbox and from Arrow’s site it looks like this may be a Birchbox brand.
Manna Kadar Lip Tint
The next product in my May Birchbox is the Manna Kadar Lip Tint in Haze. This is supposed to hydrate the lips while giving a slight hint of color.
ModelCo Brow Pencil
The next product in my May Birchbox is the ModelCo Instant Brows Brow Pencil in the shade Medium/Dark. This brow pencil has a slanted tip on one end and a spoolie on the other.
Benefit Mascara
The last product in my May Birchbox is the Benefit They’re Real Mascara in Beyond Black. This is supposed to thicken the lashes while giving length and curl.
Value of April Birchbox
| Product | Full-Size | Price | My Size | Value |
| Oribe Treatment | 1.7 oz. | $48.00 | 0.5 oz. | $14.12 |
| Coola Sunscreen | 1.5 oz. | $42.00 | 0.24 oz. | $6.72 |
| Arrow Lip Oil | 0.24 oz. | $16.00 | 0.1 oz. | $6.67 |
| Manna Kadar Lip Tint | 12 mL | $19.00 | 6 mL | $9.50 |
| ModelCo Brow Pencil | 0.5 oz. | $18.00 | 0.01 oz. | $0.36 |
| Benefit Mascara | 0.3 oz. | $25.00 | 0.1 oz. | 8.33 |
| TOTAL | $45.70* |
Final Thoughts on the May Birchbox Unboxing
*sigh* This box has me shaking my head. Let’s start at the top with the Oribe Treatment that claims to repair Split Ends. If this is true then this is the first product on the market that can do that. I can tell you right now, as someone who went to school for Cosmetology, you CAN NOT FIX SPLIT ENDS. Let me repeat that again, you can NOT fix split ends. You can temporarily mend them but as far as I know the only way to actually fix them and keep them from spreading up the strand is to cut them off. From there we have the Arrow Lip Oil, this sounds like a good product but Birchbox is being a bit sketch with this one. They are not coming out and claiming the Arrow brand, however, everything points to the fact that while Arrow is a separate brand it’s also a Birchbox brand. I’m not cool with brands doing things like that. The ModelCo Brow Pencil really throws the value of this box off. The box for the brow pencil claims that the picture above is 0.01 oz. of product o.O I’m sorry but that is a full-size brow product. It’s not pictured here but I rolled that bad boy up and it was not 0.01 oz. of product. I’m changing the value of the box (hence the * in the table above) to $63.34 which reflects the full-size brow price. Lastly, the Benefit Mascara…when I picked this out of the box I literally threw it out the window next to my desk and had to go outside and get it for this post. It’s not that I hate this mascara, it’s a GREAT mascara. It’s just that I have 5 million of these and I’m not exaggerating. I purchased the full-size Benefit They’re Real Mascara ONE TIME and never needed to purchase it again. When I sent out giveaway packages in the past I would put multiple samples of this in the box. I gave my sister a HUGE bag of product when they were in SC for my graduation in 2019 and I threw several samples of it in there for her. I gave out samples in person to people in SC. I threw away a BAG of them when we moved from SC to CA because I didn’t know how old they were. I’m not talking a small makeup bag, I’m talking a grocery bag. I STILL wound up with like five in California when I started unpacking. FIVE. I do NOT need ANY MORE samples of Benefit They’re Real Mascara. I’m beginning to wonder if the universe is playing a cruel joke on me.
In related news… I now live like an hour from San Francisco which means I’m an hour from actual Benefit Cosmetics boutiques. I’m kind of scared to go and get bombarded with more They’re Real samples!
Birchbox Verdict
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I don’t know about this Oribe product, but I have used a lot of their products over the years and they make some of my favorite shampoos, conditioners and styling products!
Oh I LOVE me some Oribe products, it’s why I chose this one as my sample choice for May (I chose this and the rest were random). However, I didn’t read about it before just selecting it so when I was reading about it to prepare for this post I was all “It does WHAT now? o.O”
Pffft split ends! I cut them off, but luckily don’t get them too bad! The lip tint looks kinda cute gotta say 😀
How cool is that! You live close to SF – I always wanted to visit their one day espcially Haight-Ashbury area – that should tell you a lot about my music tastes haha. Well I live very near Glasgow and Edinburgh – are they famous over there?
Oh and I think you are correct, the China Glazes are a wee bit bigger than the OPI minis – certainly the CG brushes are a bit better! BUT CG have minis that are meduim sized and the one you posted on is a mini mini haha!
Glasgow and Edinburgh being famous depends on the crowd you’re with at the time. You have the groups that probably couldn’t point to Scotland on a map (and probably spell it with two ts). You have the groups that will go “oh the ones that wear skirts (kilts)”. You have the groups that knows that some of Harry Potter was shot in Scotland. You have the groups that are obsessed with the royals so of course they know things like Duke of Edinburgh and that the Queen goes to Scotland during the holiday. Then of course you have the group that knows that American Captain Jack Harkness and the 10th Doctor were both played by Scots who had to change the accent and who are probably really aggravated that Capaldi got to play the 12th/13th Doctor AND got to keep his Scottish accent (noting of course that Tennant is not from either Glasgow or Edinburgh). 😉 I’ll give you three guesses which group I belong to.
I’m laughing about the Benefit mascara. It is in so many boxes because they are willing to give the companies free samples of it. I wonder how many people really think that their split ends would be mended, only a haircut can remove them but if you aren’t careful then they are back again.
It’s not a bad box but it hasn’t changed my mind to resubscribe.
To be honest I’m in that 12 month commitment I mention in the pricing tiers so I have to stay subscribed for the moment. Otherwise, I’d have unsubscribed. I need to start noting that in the verdict section.