If you've been following Birchbox for a while, you know how much a "man's box" has been requested. You've also probably been keeping an eye on announcements regarding the launch of the much-anticipated Birchbox Man subscription box! As soon as I saw that Birchbox man was finally going to launch I knew I had to get it for Hubs. And since the May box was scheduled to go out at the end of April, I figured it would make a nice little pre-birthday surprise--Hubs is a May baby.
Hubs' May Birchbox Man box arrived a couple days ago and he immediately opened it (after making sure I didn't mind him doing that before his birthday). I know that many of you have seen the price tag on the men's box--$20 per month--and wondered, "Is it really going to be worth double the women's box?!" So I thought it would be nice if you could take a peek inside the one I gave Hubs and judge for yourself.
When Hubs opened his May Birchbox Man box this is what he found inside. There was a little wrapped package, similar to what we get in our Birchboxes, a bar of Kiehl's "Ultimate Man" soap, a pair of socks, an insert on the discount you get if you purchase this month's products, and the product list. The box itself is a different size than Birchbox's women's subscription--it's close to double the width.
These are the 2 items that were in the wrapped package. The ZIRH shave gel is pretty small (just under 1/4 of an oz) and the Billy Jealousy facial cleanser is the same size as all of the other Billy Jealousy deluxe samples he's received from all of the other subscription services we've tried for him--2 oz.
Product list - Similar to Birchbox for women, the product list states the name of the products included, their full-size price, a brief description of what the item is, and what it's for.
Price
Birchbox Man subscriptions are priced at $20 per month or you can purchase 3 months at a time.
Where to Buy
Birchbox Man is offered on the same site you can purchase the women's subscription--www.birchbox.com
Final Thoughts
Was Hubs happy with what he received in this box? Pretty happy.
He has tried just about everything Billy Jealousy has to offer and Billy Jealousy is a brand we have seen in literally every men's subscription service he has tried, but he hadn't tried Liquidsand ironically. He liked it, so while seeing this brand again was a bit redundant, the product itself is great.
Hubs really liked Kiehl's "Ultimate Man" soap a lot and this is something he'll probably purchase. I'm pretty sure he mentioned how much he liked it again today haha.
The ZIRH shave gel was good as well, but Hubs has about 50 different kinds of shave gels (ranging price-wise from medium to very high-end in our bathroom (I just made HIM clean all of his products off the bathroom counter yesterday because he's taken over our bathroom haha) so this wasn't really a stand-out product for him.
The Richer Poorer socks were an interesting addition and also the only full-size item in the box. He liked the way they felt, though the colors probably wouldn't have been ones he'd pick on his own. He wasn't disappointed by this product, but he also wasn't dying over it. I think he liked the Kiel's soap more haha.
I guess in the end, while he liked what he got, we both agreed that for $20 it's a bit overpriced in our opinions. The products are nice, but for $20 I personally think you should get at least 5 products and you shouldn't be getting samples as small as the ZIRH shave gel. Is this worth double what we pay for the women's subscription? I don't think April's box was. I know Birchbox Man is in its early phases, but Birchbox isn't the new kid on the sample-subscription block, so I'd expect them to start with a bang and continue impressing. This was fun, but not impressive and not completely worth the value to us. I don't know if Hubs will purchase another Birchbox Man box again soon ... unless the products improve he'll probably pass another box up.
My suggestion for Birchbox would be to seek out products that aren't offered in all of the other subscription sample boxes and to offer either more products in this box or decrease the price to closer to what we (women) pay.
Note: For those of you that have asked what sample subscriptions Hubs has tried he's tried quite a few, though some are no longer in existence. The ones he has gotten that are still around or coming back soon are:
1. HisBlackBox (purchased by MenScience and not up and running again yet from what I understand). Before it was purchased by MenScience he had an awful experience with them, but perhaps with a new company at the helm it will improve.
2. Platinum Box for Men (the products are small and typical of what he's seen in other subs)
3. Birchbox Man
Note: I'll be posting on my April Birchbox soon, sorry I haven't gotten around to it yet. I was pretty disappointed so I think part of me didn't want to spend the time talking about it, but I've been asked about it and my correspondence with Birchbox about it so I will post for you guys :)