Dottiebox July 2013 Review

I kept seeing reviews of Dottiebox and thinking, "man, that looks like a fun subscription!" When I found myself excited to see what each month had, I figured I had to just try it myself. For $26/month ($20 for the box and $6 for shipping. Or you can buy a single non-subscription box for the same price), you get a selection of handmade items from various artists/businesses picked out by Dottiebox. It seems like it's usually 5-6 items per month, plus a few coupon codes for the artists featured. In the past, I've seen reviews of boxes with jewelry, nail stuff, skin stuff, and paper crafts, and I was excited to see what was in my first box!

Opening the box

One thing I'll note right away is that I loved the packaging this month. Just before the picture was taken, that brown string was tied around the blue tissue paper and I just love brown and blue together. Inside the tissue paper, a few of the smaller items were packaged together in a really cute brown polkadot bag. So cute!

The first item I pulled out was a 2 oz tub of Aqua Blossom Body Polish in pink sugar. Valued at $7, this was packaged in a separate bag within its own little white box taped with really adorable pink deer and squirrel tape, thankfully, because I know products like this can tend to spill a bit in shipping, although mine didn't. I'm excited to try this. I love a good scrub, so the next time I get to take a longer shower (usually weekends when my hubby's home all day!), I'm trying this out! And if I like it, I see Aqua Blossom sells a butterbeer scent!! Harry Potter nerd here, yes please!

Aqua Blossom Body Polish in pink sugar

Next up is Live Beautifully Lip Balm Jelly in Strawberry Shortcake. The info card says Whipped Lip Butter, which they do sell, but I definitely got a lip balm jelly. I wonder if this was a variation this month. Anyway, the lip balm jelly is valued at $5 and they sell lots of scents. The Strawberry Shortcake scent definitely smelled like strawberries, but it isn't overpowering, which I like. It's also a softer balm, which made it easy to get out of the pot and apply. I think perhaps it might have temporarily melted a bit on its way to me in TX because it was quite slippery underneath the outer wrap, but it didn't get beyond the wrap and the texture seems fine now. I'm kind of interested to try the whipped lip butter too, especially in their almond and vanilla scent! And oh my goodness, their pumpkin pie spice lip balm!

Live Beautifully Lip Balm Jelly in strawberry shortcake

The next product is Little Flower All Natural Bath Salt in lavender. This is valued at $3.50. I don't really remember the last time I took a bath as opposed to just showering. I'd like to, but there's usually something else I'd rather do with free time. But I do like the scent of this. Oddly, I used to hate the smell of lavender, but I'm finding lately that I really like it. I don't know what changed. Hopefully, I'll just force myself to slow down and take a nice bath with this.

Little Flower All Natural Bath Salt in lavender

My last skin product is a sample of Herbolution Pomegranate facial mask. The info card gives a range of value, but I think maybe it depends on which facial mask you got - my sample sells for $3.00 in the Herbolution shop. It looks like an interesting product to try - you mix the powder with water until it's creamy and leave it on your face for 10-20 min. According to their shop, this one is supposed to be good for dry, sensitive skin. My skin is probably closer to combination, but it's definitely sensitive, so I look forward to trying this. They also sell a Spicy Pumpkin Cleansing Grains wash and scrub, and as you might have guessed from my earlier comment about the pumpkin lip balm, I'm a sucker for pumpkin. I might just have to use the included promo code on that!

Herbolution Pomegranate facial mask

My final product was a cute hand drawn card by Katie Vaz. , valued at $4.00. I'm not entirely sure when I'll use this given that it's not really event-specific - a neighbor is due soon with a baby, maybe then? It is cute though. Her other cards and prints are really cute, too.

Katie Vaz hand drawn card

We also got a coupon for $50 off all glasses at Rivet & Sway, which is nice and I do need a new pair of glasses (I use contacts, but my backup glasses are from high school. They're old.), but I really need to try a whole bunch on in person. This service does send you 3 to try and send back before you make your order, but that sounds like more of a hassle to me than just going to a local place and trying on a whole bunch at once. Since the $50 only covers part of the $199 glasses, I'm not counting this coupon as part of this box's value. I only count coupons if you don't have to spend extra money.

July 2013 Dottiebox

So, this box was kind of a spa-in-a-box! I liked it and I'll definitely try everything, but I'm kind of hoping for a bit more variety next month. In past months, I've seen nail decals and jewelry - I'd like to see a little bit of that. This box was valued at $22.50. I'm not really expecting huge values here - this box isn't about super deals, but about discovering new businesses and artists. And I'd say it did that for me. I can think of 3 things I'm almost certainly going to buy, possibly 4. And I wouldn't have heard of these businesses without Dottiebox. If you'd like to sign up, head over to the Dottiebox site! If you already subscribe, did you like your box this month?

(And just a disclaimer: I bought this box myself and was not compensated for this review in any way. All opinions are my own.)