July Birch Box Part I: LARABAR

I just joined Birchbox after reading this Refinery29 article about subscription beauty boxes. As a very reluctant product buyer I liked the idea of trying out a few new products a month without the commitment of a full sized bottle that I'll feel the need to finish even if it's not working for me. It's only $10 a month for a selection of curated samples. The best part in my opinion is that each month you also get tutorials and tips for using each of the products and you can order a full sized version of each product with free shipping all in one place.

Birch box teamed up with the beauty gurus at Glamour Magazine to make a box that "guarantees a multi-sensory experience." This box included a sample sized LARABAR uber, Jouer Lip Enhancer, Ada Cosmetics Bronzer, theBalm® cosmetics Stainiac, Harvey Prince Hello fragrance, and Birchbox Exclusive Earbuds(plus a link to a spotify playlist created by Glamour magazine). I'm a bit underwhelmed but I think I'll try it out for one more month.

So I forgot to take photos before I disemboweled it. Oops. So I'll just show you some of the individual components as I try them out. 

First was the LÄRABAR® über

I was mildly excited about this component of the birchbox because I'm struggling with the notion that I might be too old for juice boxes and Chewy granola bars so I'm trying to find a suitable purse sized replacement. I've found that although Nature Valley bars look more mature they are too crunchy, make a huge mess of crumbs, and can't hold up in the purse of a college student for three days like I need them to.

 I got the roasted nut roll flavor. The taste and texture were sort of weird together. It was like a handful of mixed nuts squished together with salty gelatin. I wasn't expecting it to be so salty. Overall I was underwhelmed. I am going to try the other flavors soon though because the ingredients were high quality and it definitely lived up to its promise of "a maximum of nine (recognizable) ingredients." I feel like a full sized bar would make a great snack and because I love the packaging and I'm a huge sucker for good brand identity (actually the packaging was another disappointment the uber bars are just not as good looking design wise).

Wow who knew I could write 2 paragraphs about an underwhelming snack.