Ipsy Glam bag and Birchbox are monthly beauty subscription that send mini and full-size samples of products to your front door every month. I love receiving them and always look forward to finding them in the mailbox on the 15th and 20th of each month. I started opening them together each month to see which beauty box would be my favorite. Read below to see what I received in each one.

Battle of the Boxes: August 2015 Birchbox

• Silhouette by Christian, Siriano Eau de Parfum – Not being a huge perfume person, I was happy to receive this small sample. This is about as much as I will be able to use before getting tired of the scent which has a very feminine and delicate scent. AJ loves it so I will happily use it up.
• Crabtree & Evelyn, Gardeners Ultra-Moisturizing Hand Therapy – This small sample size is perfect for throwing in my bag. This is a great hand cream because it is a thick consistency but without feeling heavy or greasy. The smell is subtle but has a “clean” scent.
• Harvey Prince, Sea Salt Texturizing Mist – First off, this products smells amazing. I haven’t quite mastered styling my “natural wave” but I am excited to use this product more on my damp hair to add a hint of volume and wave to give it a bit of texture without drying it out.
• Beauty Protector, Protect and Oil – This is a great product for adding moisture to dry hair. I could immediately feel a difference after using it and it has a really great smell too. It isn’t too heavy and really helped tame my frizz. I definitely plan to use all of this up!
• LAQA & Co., Charm School Kit – I received ‘Humble Brag,’ which is listed as a blush pink color but found it to be more of a punchy fuchsia pink. Either way it is a fun color to wear and works great as a light lip tint under my favorite lip gloss too.

Battle of the Boxes: August 2015 Ipsy Glam Bag

• Starlooks, Luxe Longwear Eye Liner Pen – A felt tip pen that makes applying eyeliner a breeze. I love how dark and vivid the color is and it didn’t smudge while lasting all day long. A definitely yes.
• Briogeo, Blossom & Bloom Ginseng + Biotin Volumizer – This product claims to do a lot of things for the hair but I don’t really believe it all and didn’t notice that much of a difference. It smells great and helped add a bit of fullness and texture to my hair but I hardly ever blow-dry it so I don’t think I’ll be using this product very often.
• Marsk, Pro Line Eye Shadow Brush – I was so excited to see this brush in this months bag but it is actually very stiff and not very soft. It feels kind of cheap which was a major disappointment.
• Hikari Cosmetics, Lip Gloss – This is a high-shine matte lip gloss. I received the shade ‘Salsa’ which is a classic red and found it to be a great wearing lip gloss. It wasn’t sticky and wore well but it had a weird scent that immediately turned me off to it.
• Lord & Berry, Ultimate Lip Color and Liner in Nude – This liner is so brown that I immediately knew I would never wear it as a lip liner. It’s a perfect shade for eyeliner though so I threw it in with my other ones and know I will be using regularly on my lash line.

This month, Birchbox definitely win this battle of the boxes/beauty bag. I loved all five items in that kit versus only two from Ipsy. Which one did you like more? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next month!