september birchbox

Can anyone else believe that it's the last day of September? Yeah, me neither! It just feels like this month flew by way too quickly! I mean, the hubby and I celebrated our five year wedding anniversary, our Lil Man turned four, I tried a no spend month, and I got my box from Birchbox this month!

For those of you who don't know what Birchbox is, it's a monthly subscription service that sends you a box with 4-5 deluxe samples and 1 full size product every month according to the beauty profile that you fill out. You basically receive beauty products (which includes hair and makeup) and one lifestyle item for $10 a month. You can cancel at any time, and it's a pretty nice "try before you buy" service, as no box is ever the same. They also offer free shipping deals all the time, and for every item you review from your box, on the Birchbox site, you receive 10 points. Oh, and every 100 points equal $10. If you would like to sign up, you can do that here.

September marks my 7th month of being a Birchbox subscriber, and when I first opened my box, I was seriously disappointed.

A few months ago, Birchbox started a program to let subscribers pick one of their samples. Yes, the other samples are still totally random, but you are now able to pick one of four. They usually do sneak peek videos in the week following up to the e-mail, so you can have a pretty good idea of what you want to get. *You don't have to choose- it's just an option.

For September, I choose to get the Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate. Being a relatively new product, I had seen a bunch of advertisements for it, and well, me being me, I had to try a product that sold for sixty-five bucks.

My box included: Juliette Has a Gun Lady Vengeance perfume, Noir Cosmetics Long-Wear Eyeliner, Shiseido Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate, TEMPTU S/B Highlighter, and TOCCA Crema da Mano Luxe - Hand Cream.

At first glance, I was severely disappointed. I mean, compared to other months, I really felt like I had been jiped. Until I started to figure out how much each sample was actually worth...

According to my calculations, the whole box came out to be worth over forty-five dollars. Yes, I just said forty-five. As in American printed, accepted everywhere, dollar bills. And I had only paid ten bucks for the box.

First up was my lil bottle of Shiseido's power house, the Ultimune Power Indusing Concentrate, which was worth twenty-one and some change. A full bottle is selling for sixty-five, and the sample was a third of the size. This stuff was amazing, and still is. I use it every morning, after washing my face of course, and I can tell a difference. My face is smoother, and I haven't noticed any breakouts. I am the type of gal who gets those dreaded hormonal breakouts about the time of Mother Nature's gift, and there was nothing on my face this month. Nothing!!!

The perfume smelt rather nice- it was a bit strong at first, but once I got used to it, I really like it. It was worth a little over two bucks. And the full size sells for one-twenty. As in one hundred and twenty. To me, it's not worth the price. Great name though.

I was on the fence about the highlighter. I am a powder highlighter & bronzer type of gal, so the liquid form sorta threw me off. It did however, give a nice luminizing effect to my face. The sample was worth just under three bucks.

I did not, and I state again, did not like the hand cream. It was a green tea and lemon scent, and I hate lemon scents. Especially strong lemon scents. I will definitely be handing it off to someone who would show it some love, partly due to the fact that it was worth five bucks.

I haven't tried the eyeliner, but I'm fairly sure that it's the full size. I have read a bunch of great reviews on it, and plan to try it in the future, but right now, I just haven't had the need to try out a black eyeliner- I usually wear nude or taupe.

Yeah, so this month's box gave me some mixed feelings. I am glad that I got my money's worth, and probably would have paid the ten bucks solely for the Shiseido product. Other than that, I wan't impressed with the other products.

I am in love with Birchbox still though. They have amazing customer service, shipping is super fast, they run giveaways all the time, and right now, if you sign up for a subscription, they are offering to give you ten bucks to spend in the shop. You can sign up here. Or if you leave your e-mail, or just a comment, I will send you the secret code :)

*I was in no way compensate for this review, as Birchbox really has no idea who I am.