An Open Letter To Lip Monthly

Dear Lip Monthly Team,

First off, I would like to thank you for finally pushing me into the realm of Youtube. Secondly, I wish to inform you that this is not a letter intended to bash or put down Lip Monthly, merely to allow for insight into a customer's experience with said company. Thirdly, I think it's important to point out to you the way that some (not all, but a fair number) of your customers have been feeling, and how some of us feel we've been treated by your company. Now I'm not saying that all of your customers are disappointed, but it's become more and more frequent that I see angry and frustrated customers on your social media. I have to say that I personally am very upset by the treatment I have received, and I no longer choose to recommend people to your company. To explain why, I will give you my first hand account of what I have experienced with Lip Monthly.

In August of 2014 I heard about a new subscription service. It seemed to fit well into my "smackdown series" on my blog, which compares and contrasts two beauty subscription boxes. For $10 a month and free shipping, I would receive four lip products and one non-lip item. Since there wasn't a whole lot I could dig up on the company, I decided to take a leap of faith and give it a shot. It was through the Lip Monthly Facebook page that I started speaking to a fellow blogger who was a big supporter of the company. I got my first bag in September of 2014 along with a lot of promises of greater things on the horizon. I enjoyed that bag quite a bit and along with the rest of your subscribers made a few well-received suggestions.

The next month you declared you would be switching bag designs every month, something most subscribers found very exciting. When the bag arrived I was extremely happy with the progress that seemed to be happening. At some point soon before my November bag I recall asking on your social media if I could still redeem points for an extra bag. The answer I got was yes and that I simply needed to contact customer service. After my November bag, I had enough points so I sent an email as previous;y instructed. The wait for a reply was longer than it should have been, but not painful. However the reply was very annoying. After being told I could redeem points for a bag via Facebook, I was told by customer care that this was no longer an option and I needed to spend my points in the shop.

Reluctantly I browsed the shop for something interesting, and finally decided on the deVine Lip Shimmer in Merlot since in a previous bag I got the same product in Pinot Noir, and I thought I could do a review on them. On November 31st I made my purchase and was a little peeved that I had to pay shipping.

I then waited and mostly forgot about my purchase when I saw promises of new features on the site, and got caught up in the holiday season. It was around Christmas when I realized I still hadn't received a package. I decided to contact customer service after I got on my account and realized I never even had a tracking code. Customer care again took too long to respond and when they did I got a very uncaring person telling me they'd refund my money and points and that was the last I heard from them. I actually suspect that if I hadn't said anything that they wouldn't have refunded my money or points.

At this point, I had already cancelled due to lack of funding (it was actually a Christmas gift that got me a Birchbox subscription) and I intended to resubscribe at a later date. Even though I was upset I decided to give you another chance and spend my shop points on some lip balms. I purchased two items and I have not seen any evidence that they were ever sent out. On top of that I hear stories about how people were charged for bags after they cancelled, have never received bags from months back  or have had just as much if not more difficulty getting a hold of customer service. It was also around this time that I heard you were discontinuing the monthly mix up and putting more high end products in the bags. As far as I could tell the monthly mix up was brought back. I'm not sure how I feel about this anyway, but it definitely didn't motivate me to resubscribe.

On multiple occasions it took me around a week if not longer to get a response from customer support. I want to make it clear that I do not think Lip Monthly is a bad company, but I also have not had very many good experiences with them either. I will continue keeping tabs and hoping to see improvements. I'm writing this with the hope that it will make you take a closer look at your company and think about how your customers feel.

Sincerely,
Courtney

Birchbox December 2014

Ok, I know, it's February now. What the heck is this? I received two different subscriptions for the month of December already. Ipsy vs. Lip Monthly  What happened? Well, I signed up for Birchbox as part 3 of the smackdown series, but I did end up getting a December box. So I figured I'd post this as it's own individual review since December's smackdown already happened. But don't worry, January  and February's smackdown will still happen. To find out more about Birchbox check out their FAQs here!

So instead of doing this like a smackdown I'm going to do this more as a first impression style post. starting with...packaging:

The December box was decorative in spirit of the Holidays, I think the color combination of blue and gold is very pretty. I like this a lot, and I intend to keep it.  

Now onto what I got in the box:

Yu-Be Moisturizing Skin Cream $1.28- This little guy was quite a small sample. However the product itself was nice and absorbed into my skin quickly. I did end up giving this to John to use at work during the cold season, since it wasn't all that impressive to me compared to less expensive drug store brands that I have.

Sumita Color Contrast Eyeliner (Jaipur Gold) $4.81-This was a nice sample to receive, it's a decent size for a liner and the formula is nice. it's soft and creamy but sets well and lasts a long time. It also has great pigmentation. It reminds me a lot of the Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliners and the BH Cosmetics waterproof eyeliners. I'm considering purchasing this one.

Manna Kadar Lip Locked (Lucky) $0.20- Admittedly the packaging for this tiny sample is super cute. It has a rhinestone on top.  The color is pretty neutral so it's not that exciting but it's nice and wearable which I like. This product does claim to be a "priming gloss stain", though I'm not really sure how much it primes your lips and it doesn't really seem to stain them. For this reason I don't think I will be purchasing the full size of this.

Rusk Texture Spray $3.37- Okay, I really liked this one. No I didn't need another hairspray but this one actually worked really well. It's a texture spray so I think that helped. It claims to have medium hold, but it lasted me all night and didn't make my hair have too many crunchy pieces, so I am pretty darn impressed. I'm considering buying the full size of this. My only complaint is the product comes out super fast on the pump.  But other than that it smells nice and works well so I'd say this is a win.

Royal Apothic Cuppa Cuppa Firming Tea Treatment Mask $9.66- Ahhh...I was excited to try this but I put it on the back of my hand to test it first and boy am I glad I did. It irritated my skin pretty badly so I didn't end up keeping it. I passed it along to someone else and that was the end of that, so unfortunately I can't really give a review on it.

Box total: $19.32

So as a whole, my first Birchbox was pretty good. I'm not overly impressed with it, but I feel like it will be one of those things that gets better with time. I will have another couple Birchbox reviews up soon. I have already opened my January box and started reviewing products for the smackdown, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Interested in Birchbox? Feel free to use my link here.

xoxo
Courtney

A Note About Beauty Subscription Smackdowns:

I want to start off by saying that I know I have been doing smackdowns with Ipsy for a while now. This part 3 will make 10 months at the end of it. Ipsy has won fair and square these last two times. I started this series with the intention to help me decide on a box to stick with for a year, as well as to show you [the reader] what there is to know about the different boxes out there in a low-budget price range.  So after renewing Ipsy, I decided to continue with the smackdown series.

So then what happens when/if Ipsy doesn't win a smackdown? One of two things probably, I will do a round two, or I will keep that box in mind when my Ipsy gets close to renewing and reevaluate whether or not I want to keep Ipsy. If not, then I will start the smackdown series using the winning box instead.

Another thing I wanted to touch on was my "The Scoop On..." series, these are my thoughts and research that are to be informative and read in conjunction with my smackdown series. I didn't start off doing these, but I actually went back and wrote out one for the first part with Beauty Box 5. These are in no way meant to answer all of your questions, they are not updated regularly, so if you want to be sure you are getting the latest information on that subscription service make sure you check their FAQs out.

As I stated previously the point of these smackdowns is to inform you on what boxes are out there in this price range ($10-$15/month). For me it really isn't so much about the competition between boxes, but the fun of getting them and sharing my thoughts with you.  It can be really hard to pick what box is right for you, so even if something isn't for me I still try to be fair. That being said, this can be a difficult task when you get so invested in these boxes.

At the end of the day I'm spending my own money to do these reviews because I want to. That also means that I am a paying customer in much the same situation as the average person getting these boxes. The difference is that I put mine up on the internet to share it with you as I would share it with my friends. My blog doesn't get a ton of attention, so it's not like I'm getting any special treatment, which is important to me. I want to show you how the average person is being treated by these companies whether that's good or otherwise. I find those types of reviews to be helpful.

I try and provide honest reviews, and I pride myself on giving the best review I can, because I'm not here to sell you a product or a service, I'm not being paid. If I don't like a product I will tell you that I don't like it and I'll tell you why. I want more than anything to have trustworthy reviews and not only to be helpful but to entertain you as you read through these things. So whether you're following me or not, thank you for stopping by. Come back soon!

xoxo

Courtney

The Scoop On Birchbox

I have avoided Birchbox for so long. When I first explored the idea of Subscription services I dismissed this one almost immediately, at that point it was quantity over quality. Though at this point I don't feel like the subscription I chose does not provide quality, you still don't tend to see higher end brands, something Birchbox is known for.

Photo Credit: Birchbox.com

Price: Staying in the budget friendly price range at $10 a month or $110 for an annual subscription, this box makes it easy to try luxury items for a fraction of the cost!

What you get: 4-5 Deluxe Size Luxury brand samples. On occasion a 6th bonus sample may be included, this sample might be a foil sample but does not replace anything in your box.

Where They deliver: From what I could uncover, they deliver to the US, France, Spain, the UK and recently to Canada. That is pretty awesome.

Customer Support: What I think is cool about Birchbox Customer Support is that they have a phone number. Where most boxes (with the exception of a few) only have support emails, there is the option of calling Birchbox for assistance. However, there email support is very efficient and even after a Holiday weekend they got back to me very fast. Now another great thing is the confirmation email. I know it's common practice nowadays but some companies still don't do this. It's extremely nice to know that your email was received and when to expect a reply. Birchbox does this and when on a holiday weekend let you know when they would resume working.

Rewards system: Unlike Ipsy, there aren't a million ways to earn points on Birchbox, however they do start you off with 10 points when you start a monthly subscription and 110 when you start a annual Subscription. They also offer promotions, so with my monthly subscription I got 60 points instead of 10. You also earn 1 point for every dollar you spend in the shop. Another couple ways you can earn points is by referring friends (50 points) and reviewing samples (10 points). For every 100 points you earn in the shop you get $10 off of a shop order. This is redeemable only if  you have 100 points or more. I actually like that you can redeem the points for anything in the shop. I feel like it makes the points system superior to any I have experienced.

There have been a few new updates though! For one thing, starting in January you can now earn an additional 10 points when you share that months box on Facebook, after completing the reviews. The other thing being a policy update that affects the billing situation. Now if you sign up no matter what date you will be billed on the first of every month. So where I was billed on the 25th of the month in December when I signed up and my next billing date was to be the 15th of January, I was then billed January first because of the policy update.

Have more questions about Birchbox? Check out the FAQs here. Interested in Signing up?  Please use my referral link. :)

I hope you found this short overview helpful.

xoxo

Courtney