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!
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 an eleven month old box with a neutral gender selection.
1. Sun Protection Hat from iPlay
Price: $12.00
Status: Useful
Comments: This is one of those times when I’m really glad I designated gender neutral. I received a solid white hat, but there are many colors and patterns offered, and I’m sure had I chosen one gender or the other we would have ended up with one of those. We already had a sun hat, but this one is sized larger with a larger brim, so there’s a good chance we’ll be able to use it next summer when the one I purchased back in May has been retired. It’s also always a good idea to have spares of certain things. As far as the company as a whole, we own a few iPlay brand items, and we are pretty happy with them overall. I wish they were a little sturdier (one of the swim diapers I purchased started to lose it’s elastic casing after only one wash), but they’ve been useful and comfy for baby, so I can’t complain.
2. Water Toy Set from Haba
Price: $6.00 (approximate)
Status: Nothing Special
Comments: It’s times like this that the way Citrus Lane does things can sometimes be a bummer. While the water toys we got were great, both of them are part of a larger set that would have been more fun, and more valuable, to receive as a whole. We received a boat from the Joining Boats set, which is cool, but a little sad when it has no boats to join to, and a squirter octopus from the Water Fun Set, and with the popularity of squirters right now, we have seven of them already in the bathtub, and six of them in just her normal toys that we were talking about putting in her wading pool. The octopus is certainly a cute squirter, it could have been worse, but I don’t feel like it’s anything to be excited about. The reason the price I’ve listed is approximate is because the items I received aren’t available individually, so I guessed at the value based on the price of the full sets. Mild disappointment aside, the toys are of a high quality and will make good wading pool/bath toys.
3. Stage 2 Homestyle Meal from Happy Family
Price: $1.79
Status: Not Useful
Comments: I have to say that I wasn’t thrilled with the size of three out of four of the items in this month’s box. This is another one. I really hate it when they send us a single food pouch. They aren’t worth much value wise, and I make a lot of Baby Girl’s food, so I just keep them in case of emergencies. This one I will be giving away though, as it is made with chicken broth. I’m a vegetarian, and while I’m not going to force that choice on my daughter, I’m also not going to give her meat until she is old enough to ask for it. It’s a personal choice, which coincidentally makes this food pouch useless to me. Maybe my nephew will like it. But what if it wasn’t chicken and she loved it? She would eat that entire thing in one sitting and then it would be gone. I hate that.
4. Sunny Sunscreen SPF35 from Episencial
Price: $8.34 (approximate)
Status: Nothing Special
Comments: I am actually disappointed in this item for a couple of reasons. One is just a little silly, and that is that I was hoping to get some baby sunscreen in last month’s box before it got hot outside. As a consequence, I had already purchased some sunscreen. The other major reason is because I would have been over the moon that this was in the box if it had been a full 2.7 oz. tube. It is not. It is a 2.7 oz. tube filled with only 1.5 oz. and marked as a “Citrus Lane Exclusive”. Annoying. 1.5 oz. of sunscreen certainly doesn’t get you very far. It feels like they’re just trying to bait you into buying more, which annoys me since this box is supposed to be worth $25 or more, and I’ve already purchased Episencial products as a result of trying the ones sent to me by Citrus Lane. This item makes me feel a little gipped to tell the truth. I love Episencial products. I wish they had sent me a full tube.
Final Thoughts:
This may be the most disappointing box I’ve received so far. Usually I receive one item I’m crazy about (or more), one or two nothing specials, and one I’m not a fan of, but the quantity of product in this box left me a little sad. Half a tube of sunscreen? Lonely toys from sets that have been picked a part? A single food pouch? Not exactly impressive.
I should also mention that Citrus Lane did give me the option to purchase additional Episencial products at an additional cost to be added to my box this month at a discount. They do this occasionally. I didn’t take them up on it this month because I didn’t need any of the products they were offering, having already purchased them a couple of months ago from Episencial.
By the Numbers:
Total value of the box items: $28.13
Total value of items I will use: $26.34
Is the value greater than the cost? YES
Just a hint to Citrus Lane, as a loyal customer I think you should know that “value” is not just a game of numbers, but one of perception. While I looked up the dollar value of the items in my box, not everyone will do that, and the perceived value of this box was much lower than the ones we have received in the past. You may be better off splurging on a full tube of sunscreen (or at least putting the 1.5 oz. exclusive in a 1.5 oz. tube rather than a half full 2.7 oz tube with a sticker over the volume…) in terms of building brand loyalty. Just a suggestion.
Happiness is Now 