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Listen up, gentlemen: Birchbox Man is finally here. If you’ve got a special lady in your life who happens to be on the fashion up and up then you’ve probably heard of Birchbox, the online subscription service that delivers beauty samples to her door each month. While I lack a special lady, and (let's just get this out of the way right here) ANY semblance of style, I do happen to have direct line of communication to none other than Your Go-to-Gal. When she mentioned the prospect of receiving a male-oriented version of Birchbox I gave in to my curiosity and registered for the waiting list.
“Well hello there. Oh you’re 49 CFR 173.4 compliant? Me too, I think.”
The Experience
Dat box. It's a nice box, guys. And it's fun to open. Brown and blue cardboard, minimalist design, and you even get to do a little unwrapping. You feel cool just opening this box.
There's an index card inside that lists and explains each of the products, as well as directs you to their website if you'd like to pick up a full sized version, which they ever so conveniently happen to sell. More on that later, though.
The Contents
Inside that box we have:
- .05oz sample of Costume National's "Scent Intense" fragrance. Described as "the mystery and sensuality of amber", whatever that means, the scent itself is a mellow, floral, yet masculine scent that would work well worn during the evening
-3.2oz bar of Kiehl’s Ultimate Man Body Scrub Soap. Made with bran AND oatmeal (this thing will solve a lot of continence issues if swallowed, apparently) it has a fresh citrus scent and does not fail to live up to its name. This bar of soap is not for the fair skinned. Those oats? They scrape your skin. Brusquely, let’s say. And yet it feels great. And smells excellent as well.
-2oz sample bottle of Billy Jealousy’s Liquidsand Exfoliating Facial Cleanser. Liquidsand is right. The fine grain in this face wash is much more pleasant than the typical Clean n Clear that your humble writer might purchase at Target. This cleanser doesn’t have much, if any, fragrance, which is a nice change from that “I feel like I just rubbed toothpaste in my eyes” feeling that most facewash gives you.
-Finally we come to the coup de grace of this inaugural Birchbox Man ensemble: A pair of Richer Poorer socks. “Uhh, socks?” you ask? This is where the Birchbox Boy is separated from the Birchbox Babe. The ladies just don’t get this type of item in their boxes, which explains why the dudebox is double the price. As for the socks themselves, while simple, they’re comfy enough, and will add some pop to a boring work outfit.
The Problem
Ahh, but it isn’t all roses with Birchbox. While they invite you to visit their website to purchase full sized versions of their samples, their prices are a bit... exorbitant. Consider, for example, the Kiehl’s Scrub Soap, which is available for $13 on birchbox.com. I found it for as low as $9.99 on Amazon.com. I know that $3 isn’t much, but the Costume National cologne was almost half of Birchbox’s price on Amazon.com, for a savings of $63! Though I may find something interesting in my box each month, I can’t consider Birchbox.com a one stop online destination for both inspiration and shopping. Not when I can so easily find these products for less with a simple Google search.
The Future
A question that begs to be answered is: “Did you like what was in the box?” Well, why bother answering that? While I may have liked what was in this box, you could easily hate these products for whatever reason. So a better question might be: “Are you going to continue your subscription?” Yes, I will. And it was those socks that made up my mind. Birchbox played it just right for guys by including these. Standard beauty products probably won’t keep many men coming back. But the promise of a surprise such as this; an element of style the entire world can see, rather than just something you know you scrubbed your butt with, is what will keep your average guy subscribed.
Thanks for reading this guest blog, and thanks to our favorite Go-to-Gal for letting me write it! And find me on Twitter while you’re at it! @hypergraffic
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