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Best Makeup Sample Subscription Box:
Ipsy or Birchbox?
[OCTOBER 2019]
By now, i’m sure you have heard of the OG makeup sample subscription box Ipsy. It’s changed the way people try makeup. But there is another makeup sample box that is incredibly similar, called Birchbox.
I tried both to find out how different they are and the negatives and positives of them, so you can make the most informed decision you can about which makeup sample box is best for you!
Let’s get to the Showdown!
$12
FREE SHIPPING
NONE
PROS
- -Cute makeup bags every month
- -Can choose one of your samples
- -Offers a program for full-size makeup products
- -Has an app
CONS
- -Waitlist to start subscription
- -Cancellation process isn’t straightforward
- -No gift option
- -No international shipping
$15FREE SHIPPING
$5 OFF 1st Box by Joining Email List
YES, 100 points ($10 for every friend)
PROS
- -Constant deals, sales, coupons on your first box
- -Can choose one of your samples
- -No waitlist
- -Gift option
- -Price of box becomes $10 after becoming an ACE V.I.P. member
- -Has an app
CONS
- -Doesn’t come with a makeup bag
- -No international shipping
The Lowdown On This Showdown
To determine pros and cons of each subscription box, we must first establish what they offer and what comes in each box.
Let’s take a look at the contenders:
Contender #1: Ipsy
Ipsy offers 3 different subscriptions:
- Glam Bag – *$12 / mo for 5 Deluxe samples
- Glam Bag PLUS – $25 / mo for 5 Full-Sized products
- Glam Bag ULTIMATE – $50 / mo for 8 Full-Sized products & 4 Deluxe samples
*$14.95 for citizens of Canada
The Glam Bag PLUS and Glam Bag ULTIMATE only ship to the U.S. and its territories.
There are no gift options.
Also from what I can tell, you can only do an annual plan for the regular Glam Bag and not the others. This price would be $132 / yr or $164.45 / yr for Canadians.
You also get these benefits as an Ipsy subscriber:
- IpsyOffers that are daily featured promotions and deals.
- IpsyShopper where you can shop hundreds of beauty brands and earn cash back on your purchases through Ipsy.
- Points that you can earn by referring friends, following Ipsy creators, and reviewing the products you receive in your Glam Bag every month. You can redeem these points for free products. Also the great thing is that even if you cancel your membership, your earned points stay in your account for up to 12 months!
- Add-ons are extra products that are available for purchase on the 2nd of the month, during the Glam Bag “Spoiler Alert” time period. You can get deluxe sample size items for $3 or full size items for $12. Shipping is free and will be added to your upcoming Glam Bag before it ships out.
- Choice gives every Ipsy subscriber the ability to choose 1 of the 5 products that you’ll be receiving in your Glam Bag/Glam Bag Plus, or 1 of the 8 full-size products in the Glam Bag Ultimate each month.
Contender #2: Birchbox
BONUS BOX
Birchbox offers 3 different subscriptions:
- Birchbox (regular)– *$15 / mo for 4 – 6 Deluxe samples. Comes in a 1, 3, 6, or 12 month plan.
*This price becomes $10 / mo after becoming an ACE V.I.P member.
- Grooming – $10 / mo. This box is tailored towards men. Comes in a 1, 6, or 12 month plan.
- Grooming PLUS – $20 / mo. Upgrade on the Men’s Grooming box. Only comes in a 1 or 6 month plan.
There is a gift option for a 3, 6, or 12 month plan.
You also get these benefits as a Birchbox subscriber:
- Sample Choice where you can choose one of your samples ahead of time (similar to that of Ipsy). This option isn’t available for the Grooming subscriptions, but you’re able to choose a lifestyle item for your Grooming PLUS box.
- Curated Box for those who want to choose all their samples. There are monthly themed curated boxes that you can choose from instead.
- Add-Ons are a curated selection of full-size products from the Birchbox Shop that can be pre-ordered and shipped with your monthly box.
- Loyalty Points are earned by purchasing full-size products in the Shop, buying gift memberships, referring friends, and filling out sample review surveys from your box. These points are only redeemable towards purchases of full-size products in the Birchbox shop. You can’t use these points to purchase any subscription plans, add-ons or cash back. These points expire in 6-months time. (how are ipsy points used?)
- Swap for Points allows you to skip a box and convert that month’s subscription into Loyalty points to be used in the Birchbox Shop. These points never expire.
- ACE V.I.P. Membership is earned after spending $300 with Birchbox. This allows you certain perks.
ROUND 1
Sign-Up & Cancelling Process
IPSY
Ipsy has the infamous “waitlist”. This means that you can sign up, but will be put on a waiting list to receive your first box. You can share Ipsy on your Facebook account though, to be removed from the waitlist immediately. In my opinion, the whole share to be moved up the queue is a bit shady to me.
If there isn’t enough product to send me when I signed up, how does sharing or essentially marketing the Ipsy brand suddenly make a subscription available to me? If you have a Facebook profile and are on the waitlist, I suggest just sharing to your profile if you’re wanting to really try Ipsy out.
Secret tip: You can always change your sharing preference to “Only Me” on Facebook if you don’t want everyone on your friends list to see what you’re sharing from Ipsy. It still registers as a share and you’ll most likely be removed from the waitlist.
Ipsy has a quiz called ipsyMatch. They use this and product reviews to choose which products they send you.
I liked Ipsy’s beauty profile quiz a lot because it asked you the frequency in which you want to receive certain items. Have too many highlighters, but still like to try them? You can select to only sometimes receive that kind of item. Don’t particularly like certain shades of lipstick? You can indicate to rarely receive anything in that shade.
The quiz also asks you the brands that you like or normally purchase.
Overall, Ipsy’s quiz was much more thorough and makes you feel as if your beauty profile will truly be personalized.
As far as cancelling with Ipsy, that was another story. Let’s just say it was annoying. There were way too many steps for my liking.
This is because there wasn’t an actual “cancel” button. It was disguised as a “Help Me Cancel” link after going into your account. When in the process of cancelling, they give you the option to pause your subscription for 2 or 3 months instead. This option isn’t normally available in your account. If you decide not to pause and still want to cancel, be aware that your subscription isn’t fully cancelled until you click a link that they send to your email.
BIRCHBOX
Birchbox was easy to sign up for and no waitlist.
They also offered a beauty profile quiz for you to complete during the sign up process.
Some of the same types of questions that were a part of Ipsy’s quiz were on Birchbox’s quiz. It did lack some of the important questions that Ipsy did have though. So you can’t indicate the frequency of certain things you get.
Cancelling wasn’t an issue. Much simpler than Ipsy’s process.
Winner: Birchbox
Although Ipsy’s beauty profile quiz was great, it was just way too much effort to get signed up, as well as cancelling after.
ROUND 2
Value & Quality
Ipsy
With Ipsy there are tons of things that they offer as a part of your subscription. This adds real, additional value to their subscription box, particularly the cash back for purchases.
With that being said, it also was a bit overwhelming learning about all these programs. I’m pretty sure most subscribers don’t know all the benefits or how to take advantage of them all.
Ipsy is also great because they have 3 types of subscription options for those who are either wanting to try out makeup, to the makeup lovers out there who want full-size products.
It’s also great that you get a makeup bag each month with every subscription.
Lastly, with Ipsy, I didn’t feel like all the products were samples. Getting a brush and a highlighter felt very much like receiving full-size products. I thought this was great and made me feel like I was getting some bang for my buck.
BIRCHBOX
With Birchbox, I was able to use a coupon code for an extra box with my new subscription. Birchbox always seems to have awesome deals like this, as well as free full-size products with new sign up. So NEVER try Birchbox without a coupon code for some free stuff or money off!
I ended up getting 6 samples in my 1st box and 5 in my 2nd FREE box, for a total of 11 samples my first month with Birchbox.
Also, Birchbox becomes cheaper than Ipsy after you become an ACE V.I.P member. So you’d only be paying $10 a month after you reach V.I.P status!
Along with this program, Birchbox also has some other programs (listed above) to take advantage of as well. Although, both Birchbox and Ipsy have similar programs, I think Ipsy has the better program options.
*UPDATE: I used the code DOUBLEFUN when I tried Birchbox. I believe it is expired now, but you can still give it a try.
Winner: Ipsy
So, this is where things get nit-picky. Even with the free box with Birchbox, it felt like a throw-away sample box. Like a box of random samples sent to everyone. Also, this particular free box sale is offered randomly, so you won’t necessarily be able to use this deal when you decide to sign up. I do think the ACE V.I.P. membership is awesome because it takes the price of your box down, BUT you have to spend $300 before you can get that. Ipsy’s multiple subscription options, its many programs offered, and types of samples, take it over the edge for me.
ROUND 3
Overall Experience
IPSY
With Ipsy, I wasn’t sent anything from brands I chose in the quiz, BUT they did a great job with sending me the types of items that I said I wanted often, like highlighters, moisturizers, brushes, and masks.
One thing that I didn’t like was that I can’t see or review past/current boxes after I unsubscribed. So if you want your points for your current box, review your samples before you decide to cancel. Your points will be saved until you decide to re-subscribe.
BIRCHBOX
I think it’s great that Birchbox offers the option to see what your samples are ahead of time. I love surprises so I didn’t really care to know, but this could be great for others.
Birchbox stores the samples that you received in each box so you can easily purchase the full size products if you liked them. You can use your points to get a discount on this.
The things that I didn’t like about Birchbox is that the quiz wasn’t quite comprehensive enough for them to know exactly what I want in my boxes. Because of this, my box felt more random and not really personalized to me.
Winner: Ipsy
I felt like Ipsy did a better job at sending me what I would want. It gives me the impression that they actually look at your individual profile and beauty preference quiz.
VERDICT
Worth It?
BOX I WOULD REPURCHASE / KEEP
Both of these boxes have their negatives and positives, but I do feel that I would purchase Ipsy again.
Overall Winner: Ipsy
I don’t think you can go wrong with either boxes. They both are great options to try out and discover new products. With that being said, if certain cons are big no-no’s for you or the pros of one box are a bigger positive for you, I’d suggest going with the one that would work most for you and your lifestyle.
So if you decide on one, here’s what you should consider when choosing:
Consider IPSY if:
You want more subscription options for your every makeup need. Whether it’s samples or full size products. If you love getting makeup bags as well, it’s definitely a treat every month getting a new themed makeup bag with your subscription. Ipsy also has many programs in addition to your subscription that add more value.
Consider BIRCHBOX if:
You’re looking to get a great deal or extra products when starting your subscription. If you buy makeup products a lot, consider buying through the Birchbox Shop. You can get upgraded to ACE V.I.P. and you’re monthly subscription will go down to $10. You’ll also receive some awesome perks.
Let me know which beauty sample subscription box you would go with in the comments! And as always, please follow me on my social media channels. I’d love to connect with you!
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Have you checked out the previous Showdown featuring Lip Monthly & Lipstick Junkie?
