February Birch Box 2013 - Unwrapped!

I am horribly disappointed with this month’s Birch Box – I know, I always am. But this month, not only do I not like the samples, there are hardly any samples to dislike! To see this month’s box of disappointment, keep on readin’!

I’ll start with the largest sample. It’s from Ojon, which to the best of my knowledge, tests on animals. Right away, not too excited, but I’m not going to hold that much against BirchBox since they never claimed to be cruelty-free. It is actually a product I might use if it were another brand. It is the Volume Advanced Thickening Spray. You are supposed to add it to damp hair and then blow dry for extra volume. Sounds lovely, but I doubt I’ll be trying it. It also smells kind of strange. Not really bad, but kind of like pine needles. Not what I tend to think of when I think of hair products, but it’s not an awful scent either. So, it’s a great sized sample and it would be great for my hair type, but I just prefer not to use products tested on animals. L

The next item I would be thrilled with if it were a different color. And I’ve seen at least one other color that’s been sent out in the boxes which is one of my favorite colors! Grrr! How does Birch Box decide what colors to put in each box anyway? I should tell you what it is I suppose! It is a mini bottle of Color Club nail polish. The color is called “Mamba” and I’m sure it’s a lovely shade of red, but I have gotten at least 2 or 3 reds that look almost identical to this one in the past few months. That is in addition to the at least 2 or 3 similar reds already in my collection. C’mon Birch Box. Red is lovely, but is there anyone out there that does not own at least one basic red nail polish? Sending me the most basic of polish colors really is not my idea of sampling something new. Color Club makes some great polishes and I have no problem with this sample other than the color. It also seems kind of an odd time of the year to send out red polish. Spring is nearing and I feel like reds often disappear pretty quickly after Christmas. I certainly tend to stop thinking about wearing them at least. So again, nice size sample, just a rather generic color.

The next visible item is a “Treat.” It’s a Ghirardelli Chocolate and Caramel square. I love these. I think this is probably the closest thing to keeping this entire box from being violently thrown in the trash can. With that said, there’s a whopping one little square. I want a whole bag to make up for this box! J

Now onto the little cardboard package thingy. Get ready to be wowed, ‘cause this is priceless! There is a perfume sample. Always a favorite of mine (yup, that’s sarcasm). It is a sample of Juicy Couture’s Couture La La and it is a mini spray sample, so at least it’s a useful perfume sample. Since I hate perfume samples and they come free with virtually every beauty product purchase I have ever made, I am still not impressed. I feel like Juicy Couture may test on animals too, but I’m not certain on that one.

Finally, the crème de la crème. If this were a lifestyle extra, I would not have been too annoyed, but this is considered part of the box itself. I was actually curious about it at first, but then I realized it wasn’t exactly what I thought it was. It is a twistband Thick Headband. The color is ok and it is a nice soft material, but really? An elasticized headband? I initially thought it was one of the hair ties which I’ve seen hundreds of times before – mostly from earlier Birch Boxes. I don’t really wanna spend the money to try one, so I thought it would be nice to finally try them out. They seem to get mixed reviews. Then I realized it’s a headband. Maybe it’s wonderful, but I don’t ever use headbands like this one. Maybe to get my hair completely out of my face when I wash it, but even then I’m more likely to just throw it in a ponytail. Basically, I have no use for this. Yet another fail! L

So that’s it for February’s Birch Box. Complete crap in my opinion. I will say that the 2 main samples that were included (the polish and the hair product) were good sizes for a change, and nothing was in a foil packet, so they get a lot of credit for that much this month. If I were willing to use Ojon products, it would have been ok. Or if the polish were a different color, I might have thought this was a great month. Sadly, neither is true so my opinion of Birch Box is completely in the toilet right now! J I am seriously reconsidering my subscription at this point, but I keep hoping it will get better! Hope can only last for so long though…. Oh well. Until next month I guess! J