For the fourth month in the SBS, I wanted to choose something I probably never would have chosen six months ago. I'd heard of Bulu Box, but up until this past January I never would have considered trying it out. I was not at all on any sort of fitness train. I'm not sure what change occurred in me this year, but I've been really focused on it for the past couple of months, so I figured it was a prime time to give this box a go.
Bulu Box is a fitness and wellness box that provides an array of health, fitness and wellness products. You can subscribe to the monthly box, the 3-month, 6-month or annual subscriptions, paying anywhere from $12-$110 depending on the one you choose. When you sign up you can fill out a brief profile summary basically detailing your health/fitness concerns and what you would like Bulu Box to address for you. I ordered and paid for my box on the 27th of March, it shipped on the 15th of this month and I received it on the 17th or 18th, I can't remember which. Here is my box. I didn't get to choose any of my samples or see what I'd be receiving beforehand.
Fruit.0 Organic Snack Alternative, $22.99 for 10 pouches
This is described as an "organic snack alternative," a liquid snack if you will, and since I have yet to find a smoothie I actually enjoy I was sorta excited to see how I'd take to the Fruit.0. The consistency seemed rather smoothie-like and mine was a mix of mangoes, pineapples and pears, so I was thinking it was going to taste great. Wrong! This stuff was not at all what I thought it would be. It did not look very appealing and had both the appearance and consistency of certain baby foods. Didn't smell all that great, either. lol I could taste the pineapples, but the mango seemed to be the more dominant flavor. You only have 24 hours after opening to finish the pouch, and I realized the intestinal repercussions of not listening to said expiration date when I went back two days after I'd opened it and the smell that met my nose was somewhat akin to sewage. It was terrible. I guess this type of 'snack' is what some honestly prefer, but I'm not one of them.
Dr. Price's Energy Vites Metabolism Booster Formula, $37 for 30 packs
I received one pack of this powder metabolism booster that you're supposed to pour into 10 to 12 oz. of cold water. The booster doesn't contain any stimulants or artificial sweeteners and helps your body create its own energy, which I think is pretty cool. I'll update once I've tried it.
Rainbow Light Advanced Enzyme System Digestive Support, $20.99 for a 90 capsule container
I received a small box of 10 capsules and 2 $3 off coupons for the 90+ container of supplements. I haven't tried these yet, but you can either take one of these immediately before/at a meal or sprinkle them over your food. They're horse pills so I'll probably be sprinkling my food with it instead. These supplements are supposed to aid with digestion by encouraging the body to break down proteins, fats and carbs, easing discomfort, gas and bloat, and encouraging the absorption of the meal's nutrients into the body. They're gluten-free to boot, so if that's one of your dietary concerns then these are still fine for you to consume. I don't see any notices that you should inform your doctor before taking these, so there must not be any side effects or medication interactions to worry about. I have a number of stomach problems and don't like the medication that is usually offered for my ailments so I want to see how a more natural alternative would work for me. I just have to remember to take it. LOL
WhiteShield Coffee Stain Prevention Packs, $22.99 for 50 packets (on sale now for $17!)
I received three of these little granule packs in my box. These are little stick packs that you can use per cup of coffee, hot or cold, to prevent your teeth from staining and yellowing and also begins to lift existing stains if used over a prolonged period of time. It's supposed to be tasteless, quickly dissolving without changing the taste, color or consistency of the coffee and has no side effects. I'm not a hot coffee drinker and fortunately (or unfortunately in terms of this review), the infrequent cups of cold coffee that I drink don't stain my teeth. So this was one of the many samples that I couldn't try out.
Rally Hangover Capsules, $24.99 for a 10-pack container
Another of the samples I couldn't try out. Rally Hangover Capsules are supposed to be taken after the last alcoholic drink of the night or right before bed with a full glass of water. It hasn't been evaluated by the FDA and it mentions that individual reactions may vary. Despite this supposedly being just a supplement, the package does mention that you should contact your doctor before taking it if you're on OTC's or dietary supplements. That might just be a cautionary direction to make sure it'll be okay for you to take, but even if I did drink I would probably be a little skeptical about taking these. I don't drink at all though so I have no idea whether or not these are truly effective.
Promax Low Sugar Bar in Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, $27.60 for 12 bars
I'm not a fan of energy bars really, excluding Clif bars, which you may have caught my review on a couple of months ago. When they mention that this has peanut butter, boy do they mean it. The minute you open the package, the peanut butter aroma bursts out. It's a soft but solid bar and extremely heavy on the peanut butter. I didn't even taste cookie dough or anything like it. It reminded me of those old school peanut butter candies, the Bit 'o Butter candies. And I wasn't too fond of those either. lol In short, if I want something with peanut butter I'd rather go with the peanut butter Clif bar. It wasn't nasty, it was just heavy on the peanut butter and not my personal preference.
Bonus: Booya Fitness 30-Day Trial
The little card with this trial offer on it was included with the little information cards at the bottom of the box and I nearly passed it up. Booya Fitness is an up-and-coming fitness company that aims to give you a more efficient, challenging but fun workout in 30 minutes or less. You can join the monthly program for $10 a month or $99 a year, so if you were to take on the Enthusiast (monthly) subscription it would be the workout equivalent of one of the cheaper subscription box services. You can choose from bootcamp, yoga, strength and toning or cardio as the type of workout you want to do and go from there. What I like about Booya is that 75% of their workouts don't include any equipment, which I think is wonderful because I don't have any. LOL
Overall:
Overall, I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed by Bulu Box. I expected a bit more fitness in the box; that's actually why I signed up. The majority of the items I received I either did not like personally or they weren't relevant for my life, so I probably won't get this box again. And it's a shame too, because I liked just about everything else about my experience with the company. The sign-up, ordering and purchase process are all fairly easy, and cancelling your subscription is the same. The website is cake to navigate, you get 70 reward points just for signing up, paying for your box and completing your profile, and the opportunity to earn 10 more points per item that you review is pretty good. Shopping from the site is just as easy and I've noticed that some of the products have free shipping as well. It's not hard at all to pull up any of your information, like past orders or deliveries, reviews you posted, or your current reward points. Those can be redeemed for products later, but you have to use them within 90 days. Still good, that gives you at least 2 months of boxes to accumulate more points, even more so if you buy anything else from the site.
There's a little card at the bottom of the box that you can scan to give a free box to a friend, which I thought was rather generous. So there's no shortage of ways to get a little more than what you paid for, whether it be through discounts (which they also had a little card for) or reward points. Bulu Box gives you a little card with a list of your samples on one side with a little bit of information and prices on each one, and on the other side is what they call a "sample journal," where you can jot down some quick notes on your thoughts before and after you try each sample. One of the companies from my box included a card going into more detail about their product, which I appreciated because the product was new to me and I didn't know too much about it. I know this is going to sound weird, but I liked the packaging. It's a bright orange box with different motivational quotes going across the top and repeated on the bottom, and I thought that was a cool touch. In general though, they did provide a wide-ranging box of products and that's usually what I look for. I don't want 7 products doing the exact same thing, and I can say that Bulu Box did an awesome job of hitting on different areas.
There's a little card at the bottom of the box that you can scan to give a free box to a friend, which I thought was rather generous. So there's no shortage of ways to get a little more than what you paid for, whether it be through discounts (which they also had a little card for) or reward points. Bulu Box gives you a little card with a list of your samples on one side with a little bit of information and prices on each one, and on the other side is what they call a "sample journal," where you can jot down some quick notes on your thoughts before and after you try each sample. One of the companies from my box included a card going into more detail about their product, which I appreciated because the product was new to me and I didn't know too much about it. I know this is going to sound weird, but I liked the packaging. It's a bright orange box with different motivational quotes going across the top and repeated on the bottom, and I thought that was a cool touch. In general though, they did provide a wide-ranging box of products and that's usually what I look for. I don't want 7 products doing the exact same thing, and I can say that Bulu Box did an awesome job of hitting on different areas.
My main problem with Bulu Box was that some of these products didn't apply to me, and I think if a bit more personalization of my box was allowed, I would have been able to at least narrow down the products that would have been applicable for my lifestyle. A lot of what was in the box just didn't speak to me. I was also disappointed in the prices for the full products; a couple of them are actually more expensive if bought from Bulu Box. For example, the Promax bars are being sold for $27 for a pack of 12. However, GNC has the same amount on sale for 10 bucks less. Their regular price of $24 is still slightly cheaper than Bulu Box's. Eh. If I'm going to buy a full-size product of some kind from one of these sites, I want to make sure I'm getting a good deal, not wasting my money. I didn't like that but maybe I'm just being nitpicky. I'm cheap. Sue me.
Fave:
Booya Fitness 30-Day Trial
Dud:
Rally Hangover Capsules/Fruit.0
Booya Fitness 30-Day Trial
Dud:
Rally Hangover Capsules/Fruit.0
So do I recommend this box?
Yes and no. Yes because if you're already well-informed about supplements, don't mind trying out new ones and already eat pretty healthy, then this might be up your alley. In my box, they addressed an array of concerns for the average Joe/Jane: hangover prevention, digestive health, metabolism boosting, healthier snacking options, energy providing snacks, and a month of free workouts. I like that the box didn't just focus on one area of wellness; it focused on several. I also liked that some of the options were gluten-free but all of them provided a healthier option to regular pills and doctor-prescribed medications. That takes the edge off for some who don't like conventional medicine but still want to address certain fitness/wellness concerns that they have.
I say no, however, because if you aren't the average Joe/Jane, then you risk getting a box that might not really be applicable to your life. You don't want to be stuck with a group of products that you can't use. Out of the 7 products I got, I can only use 3. So more or less that's about half. Is it worth a consistent subscription though? Not for me personally. It's still a good box, the offerings per box are very varied and I can see it doing a lot of good for lots of people, but it just wasn't a good fit for me. Keep in mind that this was just my personal experience; I tried to include both the good and bad so you'd have a more unbiased idea of what the box is like.
I say no, however, because if you aren't the average Joe/Jane, then you risk getting a box that might not really be applicable to your life. You don't want to be stuck with a group of products that you can't use. Out of the 7 products I got, I can only use 3. So more or less that's about half. Is it worth a consistent subscription though? Not for me personally. It's still a good box, the offerings per box are very varied and I can see it doing a lot of good for lots of people, but it just wasn't a good fit for me. Keep in mind that this was just my personal experience; I tried to include both the good and bad so you'd have a more unbiased idea of what the box is like.
My Rating:
Despite this not being a good fit personally, the box still covered different health/wellness concerns, did their best to keep you well-informed of each product, provide more natural/healthy alternatives to products and medications, and the box is super affordable. It doesn't quite get the Mandy stamp of approval but I do think it's a solid box.
