Birch Box vs Ipsy? (Also, you should sign up for the Dollar Shave Club no matter what.)

I am subscribed to both of these monthlies and sometimes I say to myself, "Girlfriend, you need to pick one to unsubscribe to and save yourself the 10 bucks; you are on a college girl budget and this is too much."  But then I get my monthly pink mail.... and they're both so good... and I can't get rid of either.  I've been subscribed to them since last March which would mean I've been an "Ipster" and the much classier sounding "Birch Box Customer" for 10 months, a little less than a year.  Here's why:

To decide on just one, you first need to know what you are looking for out of your monthly beauty subscription... so I will give you a list of what each one is best at.

But first, a disclaimer.  If you are a woman who travels a lot, you should invest the $20/monthly in BOTH of the boxes.  Sometimes the products are redundant, but for a travelling woman, you can never have too much of certain things.  Travel sized hair products, tiny bottles of nail polish, trial sized perfume vials, small packs of makeup remover wipes, trial sized bottles of things... both of these are very useful in keeping your Go-Bag packed with necessary items and having both subscriptions is a very welcome job!

IPSY:

• Ipsy is more make-up oriented; you are more likely to get lip products, blushes, and lots of nail polish.
• Ipsy is more interactive: their instagram and facebook pages are aimed at giveaways and giving hints about what is in that month's bag.
• Ipsy also gives you a makeup bag with your products.
• Ipsy is usually full of shocking bright products.
• Ipsy uses more widely recognized brands--- you have a higher chance of having tried the brand of what you are getting before.
• Ipsy gives out a lot of nail polish, but they are usually full sized bottles.
• Ipsy is young daughter, teenager, younger woman friendly. (Not that Birch Box isn't, but Ipsy tends to be more youthful and bright.)
• You will get more hair products with Ipsy.

BIRCH BOX:

• BB is more product oriented--- they send more facial products like lotions and potions and seem to focus in a more natural look.  You will likely get highlighters, BB creams, lotions, etc.
• BB is for those of you with a more natural look.
• BB sends out brands that are less mainstream than those of Ipsy.  You have a higher chance of having never heard about the brand in your box before and getting something completely new.
• BB is usually composed of soft products for the face, rather than shocking brights on the eyes and lips.  When they send out lip products, they are usually muted and subdued neutral hues.
• BB does not send out a ridiculous amount of nail polish and when they do they are trial sized bottles.
• BB is light and easy going for women of all ages and types, who do not wear a lot of makeup makeup.
• BB is a tad more sophisticated than Ipsy; it uses more "mature" brands that focus on older woman.  You don't usually get shocking pink Urban Decay lipstick in your BB, but you would be likely to see a Party Proof Matte Lipstick or a perfume vial in a nice clean scent.
• You will get more body products with BB.

NEITHER BOX USUALLY SENDS OUT PACKETS.  They are usually full sized or travel sized samples.

So here is MY experience.  I HATE nail polish.  I simply do not use a lot of it and have a lot of it already.  You will never see me in a hot pink, dark blue, yellow, etc nail polish.  I prefer muted gray/beige (griege) colors, Burgundy hues, and sometimes champagne colors... occasionally a classic red is acceptable, but not very often.  I don't like a lot of shimmer and when I do, I like it to be in a neutral color.  Ipsy sends out nail polish almost every month and, for me, it is often in an unusable hue and I end up giving it away.  But if a full sized Zoya nail polish in some strange dark indigo with glitter is your poison of choice?  Go for it.  However, the Naitini and Zoya samples are ALWAYS full sized bottles.  For me, that ends up with a lot of nail polish laying around, taking up space, in colors I cannot use on my fair skin... until I can ultimately give them away.

Although Ipsy does not go cheap on nail polish, sometimes, when you get a full sized nail polish that is worth 14$ regularly, the rest of the bag is kind of "meh."  I have also gotten SHOCKING pinks from Ipsy when it comes to lip colors and blush.  I can NOT wear bright pink lipstick, but they have started sending out a lot of RED too and I LOVE red enough to stay subscribed.  

The trick to loving your Ipsy bag is not just loving glitter, but it is going onto the website ( www.ipsy.com ) and giving feedback on the products in your bag so you can say that this was "not for me" or "loved it!"  You will find that the feedback actually makes a huge difference.  Sometimes Ipsy falls off the band wagon and gives you a J-cats creme eye shadow palette that is nothing but sticky obnoxious glitter, or a J-cats lipstick that is some odd honeysuckle color and looks like concealer on your lips, but they generally do a good job.  J-cats strikes me as a little ghetto and I have never liked one of their products--- I do not want gold lipstick, glitter creme, or fake eyelashes.... but to each their own.  Some girls can surely work it better than I can.  

But Ipsy also sends out a lot of Mica Beauty powder eyeshadows and NYX or Pixie products which I love.  You will also get a lot of makeup wipes, but you can never really have too many of those, especially in travel packs.  However, having a bag focused solely on makeup for the most part is great.  I like classic styles with muted colors like browns, grays, whiskey colors, and rich burgundy purples.  Ipsy delivers with lots of eye shadows and blush, often lip products.

The copious amounts of hair products can also be a turn off for Ipsy in my book because... well... I don't really use many hair products.  If I get hairspray, great.  I travel sooooo much that having trial sized bottles of hair spray is a god send.  But it's when you get into voluminous gels and hair powders that I can't get behind it... I have shorter hair so volume = round.  I have red hair that is very receptive to heat styling and sprays, but gets far too voluminous far too quickly when coaxed and gets greasy very easily of there is too much product in it.

Let me just say, in one of my Ipsy bags, I got a makeup brush that I use EVERY DAY!  It is PERFECT!  And the makeup bags themselves are great when it comes to organizing your purse or cosmetics bag in a suitcase.  They are just so good for travel and always cute as all hell.

Birch Box also has its ups and downs.  As a woman who focuses on her skin more than hair and nails, I am usually happy.  However, the hair products that I have gotten from BB have been the kind that I use often--- non-aerosol hairspray, leave in conditioner, and dry shampoo.  Dry shampoo is a GODSEND for us women with fine hair who travel a lot.  I can spend a day running around with my luggage in the humid air/rain and then have to sit for 5 hours on an amtrak train... my hair looks like I've slept in it by the time I step into my arrival platform and a quick shot of dry shampoo is a world of help.  The trial sized nail polishes that BB sends out are less offensive to me because the colors are usually muted or classic and the small bottles are purse sized for in case of emergency situations.  

But the products that I DO swoon over in Birch Box are the BB/CC cremes, lotions, and cleansers.  You see, that is what BB focuses most on--- your SKIN and body.  Yes, you will get mascaras and highlighter pencils, sometimes lip products or blushes, but you will usually get some kind of lotion or cleanser in each box and they are always of a very high quality.  And the little brown boxes are great to save and use as organizers or to wrap presents in.  

You will find a lot of organic products that you may have never heard of in your boxes and there is something fun about that.  A lot of the time, the Birch Box products are really gentle on skin.  And a lot of the time, they are very practical products.  I spoke about the dry shampoo that is always a life saver, but you will also see a lot of cleansers like a Kate Earle cleanser with a muslin cloth, a charcoal cleanser that rocked my world, etc.  Your skin will thank you!

So basically... both subscriptions are totally worth the money, but you really have to consider what you are looking for if you want to choose just one.  You need to be aware of what each subscription will give you!  Armed with that knowledge, you will be endlessly happy with your choice each month.  Obviously, some months will be better than others, but none of them will be downright awful.

And then, last but not least, I want to give a passing mention to the "Dollar Shave Club."  You can sign up for $1, $6, and $9 per month and you will be sent 4 razor heads every month--- you will get a nice handle for the heads in your first package.  I use the $6 one which gives me 4 four bladed razor heads each month.  It's really a godsend to not have to run out and buy those awful daisy razors just to razor burn the life out of my legs and lady bits.  Their $6 razors have given me no razor burn in the lady region.  But the premise is that you switch your razor each week.  The club is for guys and you see that in the little leaflet they put in each package and because they usually send a packet of "shave butter," but razors really are unisex and you can always just pass the shave butter along to your boyfriend, brother, dad, etc.  It's a six bucks well spent.

Thanks for the read, I know it was long, but I hope it was helpful.