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| Ipsy Bag - December |
Then, as the items started to arrive, I found myself extremely happy with my Ipsy bag while being somewhat embarassed about the less than stellar offerings from Birchbox and Sample Society.
Let me explain.
Birchbox - $10/month.
Birchbox offers a combination of high end and low end products, mainly samples of high end products and full size items of lower end products. And the samples are usually of the in a paper package that could be in a magazine fold variety.
Sample products include face masks, chapstick, glosses, skin toner, etc.
Unfortunately, the Birchbox often comes with more samples than full size products making the box seem more like a goodie bag you can get for free during a fruitful trip through the beauty aisle at the local department store. Not something I would like to give as a gift.
Subscribers can expect a value of about 1-3 times the cost of the box.
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| Ipsy Bag - November |
Sample Society offers a mix of high end to mid size sample products. The sample packaging is a step up from Birchbox's in that more of their products come in smaller versions of their full size bottles. The products, however, are not as well matched. They might send something pigmented that doesn't match the end user's skin tone.
The resulting gift is ok as a gift. It's a combination of products that seems a little higher end that Birchbox's offerings but aren't always as usable. Each month is curated with a theme. So one month might be skincare and another month Fall Favorites.
Subscribers can expect a value of 2-9 times the cost of each bag.
Ipsy - $11/month
Every month, I am more and more thrilled with the Ipsy bag offerings. Not only do the products come in an adorable cosmetics bag every month (which I usually pass on to my little sister or use to hold gift cards), most of the products are full sized! I rarely get an item that's in a paper sample pack.
The bag contains a mix of middle and lower end products but they're typically very usable. For instance, in my never ending quest for the best mascara, I've been able to try 3 different types. Currently, I really like em. by Michelle Phan (who is also a partner at Ipsy).
A particular plus of Ipsy is that it often comes with nail polish so I get to try brands I colors I might not usually even give a second thought.
Subscribers can expect to get a value of 2-5 times the cost of each bag most reliably on the 5 times end.
My favorite box is Ipsy followed by Sample Society and then Birchbox.
