As of late, sample boxes have become more and more popular, and products these days can include things such as food, clothes and fitness related items. One of the most popular type of sample box includes beauty products. Sites such as Sephora, Birchbox, Allure, Ipsy and Popsugar offer beauty boxes.

Founded in 2010, Birchbox is a service which sends a box of five samples of beauty products each month. The service costs $10 a month or $110 a year. The bulk payment option would mean that one of 12 boxes is free and $11 in points would be added to your account. Once an account is established, Birchbox is not only a site that offers beauty subscription boxes, but is also a shop where all of the sample products can be bought.

Having had experience with another beauty subscription service, one of the cooler things that Birchbox offers that other subscription services don’t is the ability to choose one of the sample products that are to go into that month’s box. While there are often only three sample products to choose from, it is still nice to be given some sort of option. Another feature that is nice about Birchbox is how personalized it is. When starting an account with Birchbox, each person is asked to take a quiz that about hair color, skin color, eye color and other personal beauty product preferences. While other sites have these quizzes as well, Birchbox really seems to use the information given to the best of their abilities. Birchbox also allows add-ons for each month’s box. For each box, up until a certain date, Birchbox allows users to add full size products to their box so that the products will be shipped along with the samples for that month. Though customers still have to pay for the product, adding it to the box will allow for it to technically ship for free.

While there are a lot of reasons to love Birchbox, like everything, there are some slight annoyances. When my own membership with Birchbox started, there had been a program in which for every reviewed sample, there would be 10 points added to the person’s account. On Birchbox, 10 points equates to $1. The points can then go towards any purchases made on Birchbox’s website. As of now, the only ways to earn points is either by buying products off the website, or getting someone else to subscribe to the website. It really was disappointing when Birchbox took away the option of reviewing for points. One thing that would be helpful is early viewing of products chosen for that month’s box which could allow customers to maybe swap out products that they don’t necessarily want or need.

Overall, subscription sample boxes are fun and enjoyable. There is something to look forward to each month. Being able to try out all kinds of different products is also something that is helpful when deciding on products to buy. Like most services, Birchbox isn’t perfect, but in this case, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Check out their website here!