Jul 9, 2013

Citrus Lane Review

There are so many product subscription services today for just about every interest for the beauty product junkie (Birchbox for guys and gals), to the foodie and coffee snobs (Love with FoodCraft Coffee) to even our furry friends (BarkBox). I signed up for Citrus Lane, a children's subscription service,  a few months ago when I found a 50%  coupon code which would send Caden a surprise box for only $12.
I read a few other reviews online and found that most moms were pleased with what they received in their first box so I was excited to see what would come in C's first delivery.
And so we waited. and waited. It was almost two months before we got it. When I went to Citrus Lane's FB page, it seemed that a lot of moms were frustrated with the length of time before they received their boxes. I'm assuming that 50% off code brought in a lot more business than they were anticipating and operations might not have been able to keep up with the demand. Understandable. After making a comment on their page that they should at least have the status of the order somewhere in our account, I noticed that I was able to see where our order stood when I logged in a few days later.
What we finally received:
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  1. iPlay Reversible Sun Hat; retails for $15; this was cute however the toddler size is for kids 2-4yrs old and ended up being huge for C. He also hates anything on his head, so we didn't have much use for this. But this item alone made up for the cost of the box for the month, so score!
  2. Sand Toy Set from Haba; an entire set retails for $11.39; however we did not receive the whole set, only the scoop and sand sieve.
  3. Happy Tot Plus in Blueberry, Apple, and Purple Carrot; $1.99 at most stores - C gobbled this up and loved it! It's a struggle sometimes to get him to eat veggies, so I need to buy some more of these for him.
  4. Sunny Sunscreen SPF35 from Episencial - the 4oz retails for $11.95, but this was only a 1.5 oz sample. I wish there was a little more because we used it for one day out at the park and pool and it was all gone!
Final Thought: while I think the concept is great, I felt this this box really didn't compel me to continue with the subscription. It may have been that because this was a "discounted" box, the items fell a little short for me. The sun hat pattern we received is discontinued on iPlay's site, the incomplete sand set, and new packaging on the sunscreen from Episencial in the store now leads me to believe this sample is old. In addition, the fact that I received these must have summer items in July, I had already purchased Caden all these things already. It just wasn't timely for us. However, I will continue one more month to see what a full priced box will bring us. I'm hoping that we receive our July box in the right month and the items are better.
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Caden Approved!
I'll update when we get it!