Citrus Lane Review: March2014

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month subscriptions your cost is $29.00 per month, or $24.00 per month for a three month subscription, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a twenty month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1. You Are My Baby from Chronicle Books
Price: $8.99
Status: Good
Comments: Always love to get books in the box, especially sturdy board books. This one is different in that it has the “two books in one” feature, which both fascinates and frustrates Baby Girl. I like it, but I wish I had gotten the safari, garden, or ocean variety, because I am thoroughly sick of making farm animal noises.
Use code MYCB-CITRUS for 30% off all personalized items at mychroniclebooks.com through 07/31/14.

2. City Planner Blocks from Hape
Price: $9.99
Status: Good
Comments: We love Hape toys around here, and the elephant she previously got is fantastic. That said, Baby Girl has yet to figure out how to play with blocks, and it seems like her block collection is growing. I really don’t mind having a ton of blocks, since they can pretty much be mixed and matched, but I’m just not sure how much use we’ll get out of them.
Use code HAPECITRUS for 10% off and free shipping on orders of $40+ at hapetoys.com through 05/15/14.

3. Citrus Hydrating Body Lotion from Weleda
Price: $16.50
Status: Good
Comments: Wow, Citrus Lane must think that Baby Girl has ridiculously dry skin. She actually does, but we still have several unopened tubes of lotion in the closet that we’ve received from subscription boxes. The only reason this rates a “good” instead of a “meh” is that I really love the Weleda brand.

4. Medi Buddy from Me4Kidz
Price: $5.25
Status: Awesome
Comments: Every time I’ve gotten one of the Me4Kidz Cool Buddies in my subscription box (which has been twice so far), I have been wishing it was one of these instead! So excited to finally get one! These are the perfect size to throw in a diaper bag when you head to the park or grandma’s house, or to keep in the glove compartment of your car. They most everything you might need to patch your kid up and send them back out to play. The only item that’s missing are insect bite relief pads, which would be an awesome addition…anybody listening? But there’s no reason you couldn’t buy some of those and stick them in yourself. This is awesome. Now I want the full MediBag!
Use code CL314 for 25% off at me4kidz.com through 12/31/14

Final Thoughts:
This time I really didn’t mind at all that we only got four items. The items we got were a good value, and awesome quality, so I’m beyond happy with this box.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $40.73
Total value of items I will use: $40.73
Is the value greater than the cost? YES
Best usable box value I have ever had, and thanks for leaving out the mommy items!

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE 50% OFF YOUR FIRST BOX!

Citrus Lane Review: February 2014

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month subscriptions your cost is $29.00 per month, or $24.00 per month for a three month subscription, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a nineteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1. Dive Bath Appliques from Boon
Price: $10.99
Status: Interesting
Comments: We are lovers of the Boon brand in this house, and have several of their other products. I wasn’t super excited to see these in the box, as we already have a giant container of letters like this, and Baby Girl really doesn’t play with them too much. That said, they are well made, and a pretty cool bath toy, and if we don’t get around to using them, I know they’ll make an awesome re-gift.

2. Silicone Bowl from Oogaa
Price: $8.99
Status: Awesome!
Comments: We received a silicone placemat by oogaa in one of our boxes last year, and while we haven’t had a chance to use it yet, it is a pretty awesome product. I’m pretty much always excited to get feeding supplies in our boxes, as I am entirely overwhelmed when trying to choose them to purchase, and this way I can try all the best brands and figure out what works for me. I really love this bowl. It is sturdy, microwave, oven, and dishwasher safe, and won’t break when Baby Girl inevitably throws it on the floor.
Want to get one of your own? Use code CITRUS 14 for 25% off your entire order at oogaa.com through 06/01/2014.

3. Starlight Sailor from Barefoot Books
Price: $14.99
Status: Awesome
Comments: Yay Books! Always love to get books in the box! Bonus when they’re board books (Baby Girl loves books, and I just feel better about letting her read them on her own when they’re sturdy), and double bonus for being beautifully illustrated an not an entirely boring read. When you read as many books a day as we do, we’re grateful when we can enjoy them!
Want one of your own? Use code CITRUSSTORY for 15% off at barefootbooks.com through 03/10/2014.

4.Green Apple Age Defy Hand Cream from Juice Beauty
Price: $12.00
Status: Meh
Comments: Yet another “mommy” item that I am at best lukewarm about. I’m not one for expensive cosmetics in general, but especially not hand cream. I have tried all different kinds of hand creams, expensive and inexpensive, and the absolute best stuff I’ve found is the stuff my grandpa used to use on cow udders after milking, and it is super cheap at farm supply and even some dollar stores. Hence I have no real need for a $12 tube of hand cream. Re-gift for sure.
Want some for yourself? Use Code CITRUS14 for $10 off any $40 purchase at juicebeauty.com through 04/30/2014.

Final Thoughts:
Once again we only get four items, but his time I’m much happier about it. While I may not use the bath toys, the book and the bowl are a good value that I’m pretty happy with. That said, would it kill them to put four totally awesome items in one box? I can seriously do without the organic mommy stuff.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $46.97
Total value of items I will use: $34.97
Is the value greater than the cost? YES
Best box value I’ve had in a long time, which always makes me happy. Just wish they would leave out the basically useless mommy stuff.

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE 50% OFF YOUR FIRST BOX!

Citrus Lane Review: January 2014

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a eighteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1. Shape Sorter from Plan Toys
Price: $10.00
Status: Interesting
Comments: When I first pulled this out of the box, I was unimpressed. It’s a small little thing, and I’m not really sure about the “grip handle”/spout feature. That said, after playing with it with Baby Girl for what seemed like a ridiculously long time, it seems to pull it’s weight. It’ll make a fantastic travel toy, since the shapes are attached by a sturdy cord. The cord does make it slightly more difficult for her to sort the shapes, since they have to go in at a particular angle and in the order that they are on the cord, but I know she’ll have it figured out in no time.

2. Lunchie from Skip Hop
Price: $14.00
Status: Awesome!
Comments: I love Skip Hop brand items. We have a ton of their products, some of which we got in Citrus Lane boxes. We have two of their diaper bags, a set of zootensils, and several of their toys. This is no exception. Baby Girl is still at an age where she can’t eat everything, and we often have to take food with us when we’re going to be away from home at meal times, even if we’re going somewhere that has food, just to make sure we have something she can eat. We had been lugging around a small cooler bag, which even in the small size was huge, but we just couldn’t justify buying something else. Now we have this! It’s cute, it will hold enough for at least one meal, and it will fit in the diaper bag with a couple of diapers. Stellar!
Want to get one of your own? Use code CLJAN14 for 20% off any purchase of $30 or more at http://www.skiphop.com through 01/31/14

3. Adhesive Bandages from Ouchies Jr.
Price: $5.00
Status: Okay
Comments: I was a little disappointed to get this in my box…again. I got this exact same item (not even a different design, Paddington Bear band-aids) a few boxes ago, and have yet to open it. Hubby had a point when I told him I was disappointed though, he said “Band-aids are band-aids.” That’s true. We just haven’t needed band-aids for Baby Girl yet. She isn’t super physical, and it’s cold outside. Maybe when it warms up we’ll blow through both tins of these things, but I just don’t see that happening.

4.Travel Wipes from Dapple
Price: $3.49
Status: Meh
Comments: I always want to like the products that I get in my boxes from Dapple, as they seem like a great company, but I never do. Laundry detergent? No thanks. Pacifier wipes at sixteen months old? A little late in the game. And now a travel pack of surface wipes. I feel like I would have been excited about these eight months ago, when Baby Girl was putting everything in her mouth and we were traveling a lot, but now I feel like I’ll never use them. I’m not much of a germaphobe anyway (Baby Girl is fully vaccinated, and I believe in the dangers of sterilizing everything), and now thanks to these boxes I have wipes for EVERYTHING. Seems like they are always giving me soap. Whatever, I”ll re-gift these to some germaphobe friends.

Final Thoughts:
Only four items again…hmmm…I’m starting to think the quality of this box might be going down a bit. That said, I did get a couple of awesome bigger ticket items (the toy and the lunchie), so I can’t really complain. If there had been one more absolutely awesome item in here, rather than a couple of cheapie throwaways, you would not hear me bellyaching about only four items.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $32.49
Total value of items I will use: $29.00
Is the value greater than the cost? YES
The value of this box was actually pretty great. Trade out one of my meh items for a stellar one, and I would be over the moon. As it is, this is still a fun box to get, and I still felt I got my money’s worth.

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE $10 ON YOUR CITRUS LANE SUBSCRIPTION!

Citrus Lane Review: December 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a seventeen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1. Handprint Art Kit from Pearhead
Price: $14.99
Status: Interesting
Comments: I don’t actually have a picture or a link to this, as I couldn’t find it for sale anywhere, but it’s a white canvas on a stretcher frame that comes with pink and blue paint, and you’re supposed to put your child’s handprints on it. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with it yet, since I already have Lilly’s baby handprint on the wall of her room, but it’s a pretty sizable canvas, so I’m thinking that when she’s 18 months old in February I’ll do a “family” of handprints, including mine and Hubby’s. A cool thing, especially if I hadn’t already been subscribing to the service for a year…since the first handprint kit came in my first Citrus Lane box. 🙂

2. Rainbow Stacker from Melissa & Doug
Price: $7.99
Status: Awesome!
Comments: I’m always surprised when I look up prices at how inexpensive Melissa & Doug items are. They’re well-designed, sturdy, made of solid wood…I always think they should be more expensive than they are. Baby Girl was already in love with her Green Toys Stacker, which I actually like better than this one, but she’s a fan of this one too, and we’re only a day into it!

3. I Took the Moon for a Walk from Barefoot Books
Price: $7.99
Status: Great
Comments: You can never have too many children’s books. I really believe that. This one is sweet, and quite well illustrated, so a great addition to our collection. It’s short, with few words on the page, making it very age appropriate. My only complaint is that it is a paperback, so it has to go out of reach for now.

4. Snuggly Lotion from Episencial
Price: $7.34
Status: Meh
Comments: Always with the lotion! I have so much organic, sensitive skin lotion…quit with the skincare products already! This is the travel size of the snuggly lotion, which comes in their travel pack, hence the strange price point.

Final Thoughts:
After usually getting 5-6 items, this box with only 4 was a bit of a letdown. On top of that, there was no big ticket WOW item, and after a stellar year-end holiday box last year, this one was a bit of a disappointment.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $38.31
Total value of items I will use: $38.31
Is the value greater than the cost? YES
While the value was pretty good, I’ve had better boxes, and there was nothing in here that I was over the moon about, unfortunately. Still, it was fun to get, and Baby Girl gets more excited about every box.

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE $10 ON YOUR CITRUS LANE SUBSCRIPTION!

Citrus Lane Review: November 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a sixteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1. Tugboat from Green Toys
Price: $14.99
Status: Awesome
Comments: Yay! I was so excited to see a Green Toys item in the box this month. Their products are always a huge hit with Baby Girl, and the company is awesome too. I would have preferred a toy that wasn’t primarily for the bathtub, but this was awesome.

2. Zootensils from Skip Hop
Price: $6.00
Status: Awesome!
Comments: Another product that basically hit the nail on the head! We’ve just started working with Baby Girl on using utensils, and were looking at what to purchase. What a timely arrival! Not only that, but we are big fans of the Skip Hop brand in our house, and own many of their products, so we know these will hold up to Baby Girl’s abuse.

3. Reusable Snack Bags from Bumkins
Price: $6.95
Status: Useful
Comments: To be honest, I’m a Bumkins fan, and I was super-duper hopeful when I saw the Bumkins logo that it would be a pack of their absolutely awesome toddler bibs. It wasn’t, it was reusable snack bags, but I’m sure we’ll get some use out of these. Although, we have received a lot of different snack containers in our Citrus Lane boxes, and I’m not really sure how many of these we really need.

4. Lip Comfort from Pur~lisse
Price: $16.00
Status: Meh
Comments: Uh, how much chap stick/lip balm type items do they think I need? And why are these things all so freaking expensive? Crazy! I’ll probably use it, or give it away, but not the best item in the box.

5. Second Blends Pouch from Plum Organics
Price: $1.99
Status: Disappointing
Comments: I love Plum Organics products, and I was so happy to see Citrus Lane finally include a food item that my daughter could actually eat. Then I found out about the voluntary recall issued on this product and that I have to throw it out! Such a bummer. CL says that they will be sending us all vouchers, but I have yet to see it.

6. TinyPrints Coupon
Price: N/A
Status: Not even worth including.
Comments: I hate this item. Especially because if it hadn’t been included in the box it probably would have been a super satisfying month. This coupon is for four sets of address labels and free shipping…on an order of $99+. This is not a gift, or an item. It is a glorified coupon. Not cool Citrus Lane, not cool.

Final Thoughts:
I’m very excited to be amped up about a box again! This box was pretty awesome, and made me glad to be a Citrus Lane subscriber!

Optional Add-to-Box:
Citrus Lane has just opened their new Holiday shop, where you can buy things like a normal store, or use your Citrus Lane credits, and they will ship the items in your next box. I did purchase an item I was pretty excited about and had it added to my December box.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $45.93
Total value of items I will use: $27.94
Is the value greater than the cost? YES
The value in this box would have been even greater if they hadn’t used the super expensive lip treatment to bump up the value! I was/am in love with this box, and while the recall (which CL had no control over) was a dampener, if the Bumkins product had been bibs instead of snack bags, I would be doing a completely embarrassing happy dance.

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE $10 ON YOUR CITRUS LANE SUBSCRIPTION!

Citrus Lane Review: October 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a fifteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1. Toddler Tambourine from Hoehner Kids
Price: $12.00
Status: Awesome
Comments: I’m actually a huge fan of musical instruments for kids. In a previous box we received Hoehner’s rainstick, and it continues to be a top toy in our house. This tambourine is a welcome addition, and I’m pleased to see it in the box!

2. Scrubble from Boon
Price: $11.99
Status: Useful
Comments: We actually own a few Boon products in our house, and while they aren’t one of my favorite companies, I do appreciate how innovative they are and how classic their designs tend to be. That said, these are essentially bath toys. I’m sick of bath toys. Nobody could possible have a use for the number of bath toys we have ended up with (why do they always come in packs of a ridiculous number?). Many of ours aren’t even used in the bath, as our bath toy basket would completely fill up. These don’t function well as squirters, which is fine, since we already have several of those, but I do like their scrubby ends and the fact that they come a part, making them easy to clean, unlike most bath toys. I feel like these would be super useful for an older child that tends to make a mess with the wash cloth. Put some bubble bath in the water and let them scrub themselves clean with a toy. Baby Girl hasn’t quite gotten the point of them yet though.

3. Cool It Buddy Instant Cold Pack from Me4Kidz
Price: $2.99
Status: Meh.
Comments: Seeing this item in my box this month made me slightly annoyed. I received this exact item in one of my previous boxes, and I wasn’t too jazzed about it then. I believe I said that while I could see it’s usefulness, I had no immediate plans for it. Well, I have yet to use it. My kid is not all that injury prone at only fourteen months old that she is in need of instant cold packs (especially when we’re usually at home, where there are reusable ice packs). This makes me a bit sad because I would have been excited to receive one of Me4Kidz other products, like their portable first aid kid (for only a couple of dollars more in value). Oh well, I guess it will go in the first aid stuff. Hopefully these things don’t go bad.

4. Little Yums from Plum Organics
Price: $0.75
Status: Meh
Comments: Once again Citrus Lane has given me the opportunity to gripe about sending food samples. These are great little snacks. Organic, semi-healthy, portable…and Baby Girl really likes them. Too bad she ate the only one they sent us and they don’t have them at our local store. I would feel a lot better about the value of this box if they had sent me a six pack…or even two.

5. Babybug Magazine Digital Subscription + Print Issue from Cricket Magazine Group
Price: $7.45
Status: Meh
Comments: Okay, so maybe I’m the last person on the planet to join the digital revolution, but I’m not a “digital magazine” person. I don’t own an e-reader or a tablet, and my baby is not yet addicted to screens. She does however love books. She also loves songs. I was thrilled to see the September issue of Babybug Magazine in the box, as it was stable (not easily torn up by baby hands), and the rhymes and songs were cute and seasonal. Definitely something to put on the bookshelf! The actual value of a single issue is rather small, however. When I saw free subscription on the insert card, I got excited. Then I saw that it was actually a free three month digital subscription, with nothing in print at all. How disappointing. I don’t plan to download my free digital issues, as it will just take up space on my non-existent device, and chances are good that Baby Girl will never see them.

Final Thoughts:
Compared to a year ago when I started subscribing to Citrus Lane, I feel as though the quality has come down a bit. That said, the value is still pretty decent for what you’re paying, and it is still fun to get that little surprise piece of mail each month. We’ll see how my bluum box looks when it arrives.

Optional Add-to-Box:
This month’s optional add to box were a variety of Halloween costumes. I did not purchase any as I find baby Halloween costumes to be horribly over priced.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $35.18
Total value of items I will use: $24.74
Is the value greater than the cost? MAYBE –
They really walked the line with this box! The total value is more than the cost, but my useful value is less than a month to month subscription. On top of that, last month was the first time I seriously questioned the value of my box, and this month is worth even less.

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE $10 ON YOUR CITRUS LANE SUBSCRIPTION!

Word of the Day: Habiliments

Well, it has happened again! I found myself a word I didn’t know, and decided to share with all of you! The word today is:

habiliments

The plural of habiliment. I came across it in the book “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey” by Edward Achorn (which is pretty great, by the way, and I definitely recommend it.

The context:

He liked hilarious habiliments.

The definition:

clothing.

Quite a complicated way to say clothing, eh? Quite impressive also, when you note that the quote in the book containing this word is from 1883 (or thereabouts), and use of the word appears to have peaked some 40 years earlier, with a steady decline after that. Ah literary trends. They are fickle, aren’t they?

Citrus Lane Review: September 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a fourteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1.Charley Harper 123s from AMMO Books
Price: $9.95
Status: Useful
Comments: Always happy to see a book in these boxes! This one is quite good for a counting book, and the illustrations are quite lovely. My only real issue with it is that we have about 10 billion counting books already (a clear exaggeration, but you get it). Seems well made, and I’m sure Baby Girl will love it.

2. Push & Pull Elephant from Hape Toys
Price: $9.99
Status: Useful
Comments: Our toy collection is getting quite large thanks to Citrus Lane (also Bluum), and this isn’t so awesome a toy that I didn’t roll my eyes a little, but it is sturdy, well made, and Baby Girl didn’t already have a pull toy (surprisingly enough), so I’m sure once she gets around to walking she will put it to good use. I think it is very classic looking, and not as gaudy as a lot of modern toys, so I rather like it. Bravo!

3. Playful Wash from Episencial
Price: $3.83
Status: Meh.
Comments: This item’s presence in my box annoys me a bit to be honest. Episencial is a regularly featured brand in the Citrus Lane box, and I actually love their products. But month after month we receive sample sizes that are worth very little, and month after month I complain about it both here and on the survey that Citrus Lane sends us every month. I find this interesting, since I recently started subscribing to Bluum, which says they send sample sizes, and I received full size everything from them (I did receive a single luna bar, which is technically a sample), while Citrus Lane advertises themselves as sending full size products, and I get sample sizes. Boo. Also, how much baby shampoo and body wash do they think I go through? Every few months I get another bottle of this stuff, plus the add to box option to buy even more of it. I’m not bathing my kid every few hours, I only need so much soap.

4. Super Toddler Bar from Happy Family
Price: $0.84
Status: Meh
Comments: I actually wanted to be excited about this item. Now that Baby Girl is learning to feed herself, we are always looking out for good, portable snacks that she likes and can eat, so I like to get to try things through these boxes. My problem with it is actually twofold. First of all, as I often complain about, there was only one in the box. If she likes it, that one bar is my only chance at it, especially since my local grocery store doesn’t carry this brand (although, they did include some coupons for this brand in the box, if your local store does carry it). Normally I would get that it is a price thing…but one bar costs less than a dollar! A whole box is only $4.20! I just feel gipped on this one. If that weren’t bad enough, of all the flavors to get, we got the one with chocolate in it. We prefer not to give Baby Girl much chocolate. They couldn’t have sent us an apple one? Bah.

5. Nail Color from Julep
Price: $14.00
Status: Meh
Comments: Holy crap! Fourteen dollars for nail polish? I’m always blown away by the crazy overpriced “for mom” items that show up in my Citrus Lane box. I can see why some moms would have been excited to get this in their box, but I prefer to keep my nails on the natural side, with just strengthening serum and topcoat to keep them looking nice (but I am really lucky and have pretty great looking natural nails). This might make a good gift for someone this Christmas, but I won’t be using it.

Final Thoughts:
I’m actually starting to feel a little let down by my Citrus Lane boxes. Now that I’ve received a Bluum box, I feel like I may prefer them to Citrus Lane. They allow me to subscribe for multiple kids under one account, I earn credits toward free boxes more easily, and the one box I’ve received so far had a pretty high value. This box was very unimpressive, and I’m a little sad about it.

Optional Add-to-Box:
The optional add-to-box this month was a large selection of Aden + Anais items at 10% off. Why didn’t I take advantage of this? Two reasons. The first is that you can get many of the same items for 10% off or more on amazon. Secondly, most of the products were for newborns or small infants, and now that I have a toddler, we wouldn’t get much use out of them. I hear it’s a fantastic brand though, and hope it was a good offer for someone!

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $38.61
Total value of items I will use: $24.61
Is the value greater than the cost? MAYBE –
They really walked the line with this box! The total value is more than the cost, but my useful value is less than a month to month subscription, and had I subtracted the playful wash (which I considered doing), it would have bene less than even a one year subscription would cost per box. This is the first time I have had questionable value ratings. Why is Citrus Lane going down hill?

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Citrus Lane Review: August 2013

It’s that time of the month again! Time to review another Citrus Lane box and see if it was worth it’s purchase price! See my reviews for previous months here.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how Citrus Lane works, it is a subscription service that sends you age appropriate items for your child aged 0-5 years every month. The cost of the subscription depends on how long you are willing to commit to. For month to month or three month subscriptions, your cost is $25.00 per month, while it goes down to $21.00 per month if you sign up for a six month or one year subscription. To personalize the box, you choose the child’s age and gender (or neutral) and receive items appropriate to those selections.

In my reviews, I can only review what my daughter receives in her box. I will always tell you what my age and gender selections were, give you a description of the items, what I think of them, pricing, etc.

This month my daughter received a thirteen month old box with a neutral gender selection.

1.Octopus Opposites from Barefoot Books
Price: $6.39
Status: Useful
Comments: Barefoot Books is one of those brands that shows up in my Citrus Lane boxes a lot. We’re always happy to see a book in the box, as we are a family of readers, and Baby Girl loves books. This book isn’t particularly awesome, but it’s nice and sturdy, and has some examples of opposites that don’t show up in any of her other opposite books, so that’s nice. Definitely a plus in this box.

2. 5″ Playground Ball from Crocodile Creek
Price: $7.99
Status: Awesome
Comments: This was one of those items that happens every once in awhile that was just timed perfectly. Baby Girl is obsessed with balls, and this is actually a very nice one. It’s colorful, fun, and very sturdy (I’m not afraid that my cats will pop it. This is a great addition to our play area! I should note that Citrus Lane also included some paper bowling pins to be colored and used with this ball. While I like the idea of including activities and suggestions for using the items in the box, she’s still a bit young for coloring or for understanding a game like bowling.

3. Mighty Bug Shield Repellant Lotion from Episencial
Price: $1.77
Status: Could be great…
Comments: Okay, so this is annoying. I’ve received Episencial products in my Citrus Lane boxes before and loved them. I’ve also bought some of my own accord. This is the second time I’ve been sent a tiny sample size of something from them. This could have been a stellar review, as we’ve been hating trying to use standard bug repellant on Baby Girl, and receiving this product would have been timely and well appreciated. Instead, they sent us a 0.5 ounce sample that will barely cover one use. Very annoying. I would have been ecstatic to receive this in full size (same with the other sample size products from Episencial I’ve received previously). I feel like I can barely even count this as an item. The price I’ve listed is based on a percentage of the price for the full size item.

4. Adhesive Bandages from Ouchies Jr.
Price: $5.00
Status: Meh
Comments: These are just vanity band-aids. I’ve never really understood decorative band-aids, not even when I was a kid, but these are fine, and I’m sure we’ll use them eventually, even if it’s just on ourselves rather than on Baby Girl. I certainly would never pay $5 for vanity band-aids.

5. Hand Sanitizing Wipes from CleanWell
Price: $5.50
Status: Useful
Comments: These are an interesting concept, but I’m not sure how useful they are to us. We use liquid hand sanitizer all the time, but this big canister isn’t exactly easy to take places, and we aren’t clean freak people that are constantly sanitizing our hands. I put them on the changing table for those times when I’m not fast enough to keep Baby Girl from grabbing a handful of poop while I’m changing her. That’s the best use I could think of.

6. Free Trial Offer from FabKids
Price: $39.95
Status: Absolutely Not
Comments: I’m pretty annoyed that after the hullabaloo a few months ago when Citrus Lane included a JustFab offer (the same company as FabKids) that this was included. The reasons I’m annoyed that this was included are many, but a here are a few. 1) The value is inflated. There is no way I would pay $40 for an outfit just to have a brand name on it, plus you can get the same or similar clothes at an actual store for less. 2) This service operates like a scam. When you claim your “free outfit”, you have to pay shipping, and they automatically sign you up to have your credit card charged every month whether you like it or not, and if you don’t pay close attention, you could actually be charged every month and receive nothing, as you have to log into your account and choose an outfit before they send you anything. Then, when you try to cancel, they will give you a hard time and often, while they will stop charging your credit card, will not actually delete your account so that you have the opportunity to restart the service. No thanks. 3) While many of the products and companies that Citrus Lane sends are organic, good-hearted companies started by real moms and dads, the brands carried by FabKids manufacture the majority of their products in Bangladesh, where they have all those awesome factory fires killing hundreds of the workers that make these very clothes. Not exactly a company with a conscience. 4) Sizing starts at 2T. Why in the WORLD, are you sending me a free outfit (whether it is free or not) that is 2-3 sizes too big for my baby? Not cool. Also, this free outfit thing is only for people who are not already members of FabKids, so if you already signed up, you get nothing and this offer is worthless.

Final Thoughts:
This month’s box was only okay, but I feel like it was probably an awesome one for somebody else. I can see the value in it, it just wasn’t a home run for me. Also, this is the first box I’ve had that cut so close to full price value. I feel like the FabKids offer was thrown in just to bump up value, and I’m a bit disappointed. I’m actually planning to try Bluum next month as well just to see how it compares.

Optional Add-to-Box:
I also received an offer this month to add a Bumkins Zippered Wet/Dry Bag to my box at the price of $14.95. I didn’t take advantage of the offer because I prefer PlanetWise wet bags and already own several, and because the price wasn’t a special offer at all, as this is the same price listed on the Bumkins website. If it had been a discount, I could understand a bit better. That said, Bumkins makes great products and I would have been thrilled to receive this in my Citrus Lane box without the extra charge rather than some of the things we received.

By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $26.65
Total value of items I will use: $26.65
Is the value greater than the cost? YES

Looking for my previous Citrus Lane reviews? CLICK HERE!

CLICK HERE TO SAVE $10 ON YOUR CITRUS LANE SUBSCRIPTION!