Welcome to 2014! One thing I've decided to do for the new year is blog about Birchbox. This is a monthly subscription service where you receive samples of various products, mostly beauty related. I've been a subscriber for about 6 months, and I think it's a great way to try out things you might not normally seek out for yourself. And to be clear, I'm not receiving anything from the company to blog about the boxes, and I pay for them just like everyone else ($10+tax/month).
This is January's box:
It's a nice variety of products, with a leave-in conditioner, color changing nail polish, body cream, facial cleanser, and tea samples (the tea samples are the "lifestyle extra" - you tell them what kind of person you are and they send an extra each month geared toward that lifestyle).
I'm most looking forward to trying the facial cleanser. This is the kind of thing that I certainly wouldn't normally buy, but looks like a nice way to pamper myself. I also often will buy something interesting, use it a couple times, then let it sit on a shelf until it expires, so with the smaller sample sizes, I get to see if I'll actually use it more than once.
The sample nail polish sizes are also great, because I have never in my life used a whole full-sized bottle of nail polish. This one might go to my pink-loving sister, though.
I'll be sure to report back once I've tried some of these samples!