Le Chic Geek
Birchbox for Men Reviews
Keri and I have often mentioned our Birchboxes–-a monthly mailing of sample sized products and treats. I use my Birchbox items while I travel and have found it really useful for keeping myself stocked with random items. While talking about our Birchboxes, a lot of questions have come up about the Birchbox for Men. It costs twice as much as the women’s Birchbox, so what’s the deal? (If you would like to sign up for Birchbox and use my link, I will get a very slight credit on the site, but feel free to without it.)
I decided to use a very scientific method in answering this question–I subscribed to Birchbox Man for a few months to see what arrived. I was a little amused by their delivery alerts, and found their products to be hit or miss.
My first month, I received some after shave, a wallet, an exfoliant, an “awakening” scent, and hair creme. If I were a dude looking for travel products, the after shave, exfoliant and the hair creme were all great items to take with me. The problem with the cost of the Birchbox was it seems as if the wallet was thrown in to make the box worth the cost.Â
And the wallet was expensive. It retails around $30. It was real merino wool. I just couldn’t find any male family member or friend who even wanted it. It was too impractical to carry around, and everyone was afraid it would fall out of their pockets.
My next month was a mix of products and items. Up first was a pea-green mini duffle bag. Again, an item I couldn’t give away for free, but was sure was worth something.
The next item was, again, expensive. It was a knitted wool tie. It had a very hipset-wear ironic vibe to it. But it didn’t seem to jive with the image I was mentally getting of the people who would use these products. Perhaps they are trying to start a trend of kntted wool ties? But I just couldn’t bring myself to even give this one away.
The other items were great (I think). A toning shaving cream, a thickening shampoo, lip balm and a non-greasy extra moisturizing face cream.
I think the latest month had the coolest items, and worked best from a traveling perspective.
First of all. Love this. I am famous for snapping the cords off my earbuds. I got an item to protect them, but it was so bulky, I stopped using it anyway.
And this cordies item is great too. Really useful to know about and I’m happy to find it. But I can’t help but think that I’m paying $ 20 a month to be sent random crap that might be useful. I find it very different from the female birchbox because those are products I’m trying out. There’s not as much binary useful vs. not usefulness as there are in these men’s boxes. Plus, the pricing is pretty spread out evenly in the women’s boxes such that I am not missing out on much if I don’t like something’s scent.
The rest included hangover help (for when you literally plan on having a hangover, since you need to take the first dose prior to drinking), clarifying shampoo, after-shave creme, and teeth whitening cream.
These items seemed really nice. I just wish that Birchbox only did those types of items for the men’s and charged the same amount as the women’s box.
But then again, I am a woman reviewing a product not intended for me. So I included these photos so you can make the judgement for yourself. Birchbox for Men is $20 a month. If you end up subscribing, feel free to send me your comments on yours and I’ll post them.
I’ve always been curious about knitted ties – so they are a thing now? At one time I thought I might knit one, because my knitting skills are limited and it is kind of like a tiny scarf – but my friends thought I was crazy. People don’t wear knitted ties, they said. Are they wrong?
I’ve seen two people wearing knitted ties, and they were both the one from the Birchbox. I don’t know what that means. Maybe it is on the verge of being in.
Even when my husband traveled a lot, I can’t see him using face cream except under duress and the only hair/skin care item I could see him using is the lip balm. I think they would have more mass-appeal for men if they geared more towards the tech gadgets and less hair/skin care items. But that’s just my not-so-humble opinion.
I agree with you on the mass-appeal, but since Birchbox mainly does those types of beauty care products, they might have to stick to their core audience. But if the gadgets were tech gadgets each month instead of merino wool wallets and knit ties, I’d definitely be a permanent subscriber (but I’m also not a target audience).
I think I sort of envision Barney Stinson subscribing to these.
Definitely see these as a Barney Stinson kind of thing. =)
thanks so much for this post! i’ve been toying with the idea of subscribing but alas, have determined i’m probably not one to use any of the product samples and the gadgets (a la what Tiff said) are too few and far between. thanks for being a guinea pig 😀
no prob! The Birchbox Man is the newer of their items (it has only been around for a few months), so it IS possible that it will get better.
My other thought is since they marketed Birchbox Men to me as a gift to “the man in my life,” they might be marketing this towards woman who _wish_ “their man” would use these products.
Yeah… I was excited about the wallet until I got a look at it. The rest – not so much. Thank you for saving me $20. I guess I’m just not their target market, although I can’t imagine who is.
Now, if they threw in a month of Netflix or World of Warcraft….
If you WANT a wallet… I still have mine.
Also, I think paying $20 a month for a month of World of Warcraft is called subscribing to World of Warcraft 😛
I’d love the wallet! Am happy to pay for shipping.
Send me an email at Jeanne(at)HeelsFirstTravel.com It may take me a little while to relocate, but I know I hung onto it.
I’m glad I read this post, I thought about subscribing, but I want a box full of really great grooming products. I had no idea that they might send you something else, and I don’t understand why they would need to. If you open up GQ and Esquire any given month you’ll see that there is a huge universe of expensive grooming products for men that would be nice in samples. I don’t need a wallet or a tie… I pick those things out for myself.
This is clearly targeted at the more sartorial men out there… a box of tech gadgets is an interesting discrete idea. Given how expensive nice tech gadgets are, however, I don’t think I would want a $30 box of them.
Anyway, this is disappointing, I’m still in the market for a subscription to a box of travel sized, high end grooming products.
Re: the wallet and tie, that’s what I was thinking. Plus, you either need a wallet, or you don’t. There’s no “trying out”, whereas in the women’s boxes, you get to try out mascara, face cream, eyeliner, etc.