Delivery isn’t just for pizza any more. The other night I made a meal made entirely of fresh ingredients that came shipped in a box to my house. But as I’ve talked about before, it doesn’t stop at food here in the 21st century.

Now we can have beauty products delivered to us. And if you think it’s a waste of $10, I think you’re wrong. I haven’t purchased blush, dry shampoo and a number of other products in…well quite some time because they’re often getting delivered to my house. And I would have spent that $10 on just one of those products.

I’m bringing this subject up again because I recently made the switch from Birchbox to Ipsy. The funny thing is I had one more Birchbox left so my last Birchbox and first Ipsy bag both came at the same time.

This allowed me to do a direct comparison of both subscriptions…

 Birchbox:

You know how your hair always looks fantastic two days before your hair appointment? (How does it know to do that?) That’s the thing that popped into my head when I opened my last Birchbox.

I decided to stop after almost 2 years of getting boxes from them. They were sending me too many little packets of things – the kind of samples they hand out for free at the beauty counter. And sometimes they’d throw in food that would just create more clutter.

Well, Birchbox, I’ll have to give you this one – you really stepped up your game. I got a full size lipstick, a nice size eye shadow pallet and a travel size shampoo and conditioner. Where were these “deluxe size samples” for the past six months?!

Another thing they’ve started doing which is nice, is they’ve started giving you a little more power of choice as to what kind of box you’ll get. If you’re a constant email checker, then this would work out perfectly for you because you have to jump on it quickly before they sell out of an option.
One more pro about Birchbox (I might have myself talked back into using them), they include a card that lists each sample and how much the full size product is worth. So for this box the full-size contents would be worth over $250.

Again, my biggest complaint is that they sent me too many little packets of samples. I’ve got a drawer needing to be cleaned out because of it, so thanks for all the memories Birchbox but let’s just be friends.

Ipsy:

The first noticeable difference with this subscription is that everything comes in a bag. I think I’m going to welcome this change. For one, I’ve got plenty of little boxes to last me a lifetime (they really come in handy wrapping presents or organizing drawers), but it will be nice to make the switch to bags. Every month all of your beauty samples come in a bag you can keep.
That to me makes the $10 a little more worth it.

And speaking of things that make it worth it…check out that blush! That’s a full size product right there, friends! The blush is worth $15 if you were to buy it out right, so that makes up for your cost automatically.

From what I’m told, receiving a full-size product isn’t an uncommon occurrence with Ipsey, which is reason number 1-10 I decided to make the switch.

If you’re hesitant to shell out the $10 a month, think of it as a really well informed girlfriend sending you the latest and greatest beauty products that are worth way more than what you’re paying.
Ipsy does have a long waiting list so just know that even if you decide you want to do it you’re not going to be signed up right away. They won’t charge your card until you get off the list. For me it was about 3 months.

Think about it! It’s fun to get a box or a bag of calorie-free goodies delivered to you every month!