Last month, I was staring at the Birchbox Limited Edition Homesweet Homespun box ($40) and wanted it so badly. However, I was trying to be in the spirit of giving, so I decided to cash in some of my Birchbox points and gave it to my friend Jessica in hopes she would want to write a guest blog on it. My plan worked because she was like, “Oh, can I write a blog?” “Well, I guess… if you want.” Jessica and I have been friends for several years since we met in Baltimore. But strangely, although we did meet in real life, we bonded more on Facebook and a million text messages since I moved away from Baltimore. She is an eye doctor, so sometimes when I’m texting with her, I will tell people that my doctor is just checking in on me. No one bats an eye, as I am a medical marvel. The last time I was at my actual doctor, I saw a unicycle chained to the bike rack and I started imagining Jess riding a unicycle to and from work and now that is all I can think of. She provided this artwork as a bio pic. So without further ado… here is Jess’s guest blog!
Yesterday when my husband stole a bag of half eaten jelly beans from work and brought them home to me I thought, “My week can’t possibly get any better than this!”
BUT IT DID.
I came from work today and right there in my driveway, the UPS man took my box virginity.
I got a the Limited Edition Homesweet Homespun Birchbox! Happy early Christmas to me!!!
Well, I basically tore into this thing with the ferocity of starved honey badger. This box was a gift and a surprise, so you can imagine how special I felt. I thought to myself, “This is how it feels to get random gifts delivered to your door” and then my thoughts instantly changed to “how can I buy ALL the subscriptions without my husband noticing our bank account balance plummeting with the force of a thousand gravities?” Moderation is for sissies.
I am a subscription box novice, but I am going to try my best at describing the products and giving the box a rating for y’all.
First off, I love the aesthetic choices. Beautiful box. If I were a cat, it would certainly be my favorite box of all the boxes of all time. Inside… confetti. This box is already feeling like UPS delivered a party.
The items.
COWSHED Lippy Cow natural lip balm. $8.00
So I really liked this item. I am not big on heavily perfumed lotions or flavors, especially when they are this close to my nostrils. Subtlety is my motto, and this is picture perfect. It has a slight scent of rose hips and it feels wonderful. I can tell right away when chapstick has alcohol in it, and this is actually more like petroleum and wax which I am sure is better for your chapped smackers. I put it on my lips. Then I instantly ran over and put it on my husband’s lips. Me: “What do you think?” Him: “Woah, woah…Did you put girl stuff on me? Oh, hey. That is kind of nice. I smell like a flower.”
HANDMAID hand lotion. Scent: Fig $10.00
You had me at Fig. I love the way this smells. Kind of like a mixture of ginseng and fig and green tea. I will be bathing in this lotion. My only regret is that it is not, in fact, edible.
ILLUME NOBLE CURRANT soy candle. $9.00
It smells delightful. A perfect little addition. At first whiff, this INTENSE feeling of nostalgia came over me. I can’t quite place it, but it makes me think of my childhood. Did my kindergarten teacher use this as perfume? Was this the candle my 8 year old friend’s hippie mom would burn to mask the smell of marijuana coming from her bedroom?
I imagine that many people would find this scent appealing, as it doesn’t seem to be to be offensive or fall into a category of narrow taste profile. Go find this candle and smell it. I think you will like it. Has the internet become scratch and sniff yet?
MAKERSKIT HANGING PHOTO CLIPS $24.00
So this was a very cute addition to the box. Items like this are never things that people need, but still get excited about receiving. Perhaps it is because you could never actually justify the purchase of it for yourself, but when it is a gift you can play around guilt free. Generally speaking, rustic chic is not really my style, so I probably won’t be using this craft the way it is intended. Rather, I started imagining gluing magnets on the back of all these ADORABLE little multicolored clips for my refrigerator, and using the card stock for other projects and the twine for packaging. Hanging Photo Clips, you get an E for effort. I appreciate you, and plan to deconstruct your items immediately.
RICHER POORER INC. : SOCKS! $12.00
How awesome are these socks? They fulfill all the criteria of a sock. Cute? Check. Cover all my toes? Check. Comfortable? Check. I was not expecting a piece of clothing in this box so I was super excited to throw them on and claim them in the name of winter home thermostat settings.
ASINKOSIE CHOCOLATE MORSELS SIPPING CHOCOLATE (prepared in my mug) $12.00
CORNFLAKE/CHOCOLATE CHIP/ MARSHMALLOW cookie mix (cookies prepared on my fancy plate).$16.00
SWEET TREATS KIT box with 18 cellophane tags and twine (in the background, unopened). $12.95
The shipping chocolate was just okay. I feel like I could have bought better quality chocolate from anywhere really. The instructions were to mix it with warm milk only. Hm, perhaps a better recipe? How about sugar or cream? Give me spice. Give me something delicious that will undoubtedly clog my arteries. Melted chocolate in warm milk is not a recipe. I curled up on the coach with my warm new socks and took a sip and instantly felt like I needed to add something else to this to make it more enjoyable. Like a new sipping chocolate package, perhaps.
The cornflake/chocolate chip and marshmallow cookies looked promising, especially for a pre-packaged cookie ingredient canister. I always get a little nervous when I start reading the recipe instructions and I see that you have to cream together butter and sugar before adding eggs. This usually means that I will be eating half the batter before it ever makes it to the cookie. But don’t worry. This time around, I showed a lot of restraint and only ate about a third. The cookies were fine for a mix. I appreciate that it was a novel recipe and a type of cookie I had never tried before. I also appreciated all that creamed sugar. My hips: “Thanks!”
The treats kit is very cute. Again, another crafty thing that I probably would never buy, but now that I have it I will be using it on all my Christmas cookie present give-aways. They are actually quite adorable and add some charm. I might even say that I made them. YES, I am THAT talented.
Final Grade: B+
So overall, I was very pleased with my first subscription box experience! I would give it a B+. I was generally happy with all the items in the box and given the price of the subscription box, they were a steal! [Editor’s note: This was a special edition box, not the usual $10/mo subscription box which is also very fun. ] I will certainly use the beauty products. I was happy with the food items, but felt quality could be better. The crafty stuff was adorable and the socks rocked my world.
Thank you Birchbox! (Editor’s note– I think she means, Thank you, Lauren. 😉 )
If you are interested in buying this Birchbox Limited Edition Homesweet Homespun click here! If you are interested in a Birchbox subscription, click here!
Lauren paid for this box; post contains referral links