Luxury Barber Box Club Review, December 2015 Edition

I was in luck – my first subscription box experience was for the December 2015 edition of the Luxury Barber Box Club, a collection of hardware, creams, and lotions meant to be used before and after a proper shave. The LBBC is a monthly men’s shaving and grooming subscription box. Every month, for $29.99 per month, you’ll receive at least ten samples from a variety of categories, including shaving, skin products, and body products. Since I’ve received it, I’ve tried the items inside after one, two, three, and five days without shaving, just to see how they dealt with different beard lengths…

The neat delivery box was grey and black, with magnetic weights to hold the whole thing shut. Inside, I found twelve different products to sample, although three of them were full-size.

If you look at the photo below, you can see that two of those – the lavender shave cream ($16) and synthetic shaving brush ($30 sale price, $49.99 otherwise) – more than equal the cost of the subscription box itself. There’s an order sheet that comes with the package, and its prices for the other nine items reflect the cost of a full-size order of each product… but it’s clear, by any math, that this box is bargain.

The lavender cream and shaving whisk are my hands-down favorites. The brush is beautiful – the bristles have a light-purple tint that I love, and are firmly affixed to the base of the brush. I believe the package’s claim that the whisk can last a lifetime with proper care.

The brush created a rich lather from the shaving cream in no time, and made my facial hair stand up so I could remove it easily. Lavender is a *great* scent, and it’s exactly the sort of thing I’d buy in the future.

I recently received a razor that uses razor blades (as a holiday gift, it was NOT included in this set), so I’m glad that the last full-size sample was the Treet Platinum Razor Blades ($3). They fit into my razor nicely, and cut through my scruff quickly and evenly. They seem to have a roughly average endurance for a razor blade, although they do cut quite nicely until they’ve gone dull.

I was also impressed by the St. James Cedarwood and Clarysage Shave Cream ($0.83). It came in a small sample container – that’s why I used the lavender first – but it also provided a very-close shave, and I liked its fragrance.

The small samplers of John Allen’s Sport Conditioning Shampoo ($0.10) and Mint Conditioner ($0.11) left me with a nice sheen and a good scent. I’d like to try either one for a month to see the effect on my hair.

The Montez Renault Performance ($5.88) wash smells like a much better version of what’s used by most of the men that I know who visit a gym during the workday.

The Fine Platinum Aftershave ($2.21) had a nice scent, as did the Game Day Aftershave Soothing Balm ($5.03). I almost never get razor burn or bumps, so I didn’t know what to expect. Neither caused me any irritation and both of them felt good on my skin.

The Fresh Richie Towelettes ($2) were well-made – they did a good job of cleaning my hands, my bathroom mirror, and a drinking glass… But they seemed less connected to the theme of this gift box than I had expected, despite working well.

I didn’t get to use John Allen’s Smoothe Styling Cream ($0.53) or the Towel Dry Mid-Styler ($3.6), as my hair is too long for these products to provide any hold. One of the big benefits of long hair is not having to use styling products, so I passed them along to two of my friends.

I’ve used a decent enough variety of men’s care products to say that I got good quality in the subscription box. The hair care side was skimpy, but it was more than made up for by the variety of facial care products. For $25.99, I would’ve received $69.29 (with the brush at its sale price) worth of items. Go to the Luxury Barber website to try it out for yourself.

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