May 2014 Merco Box Review

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway on The Stepford Guide for another Merco Box! If you recall, I tried this box back in March and loved it! Unfortunately, due to money constraints, I can't afford to subscribe, even though it's a great deal, but now I get to try another box anyway!

No first look this month because, as you'll see in a minute, I was so excited, I just dug in.

There were three of these macaroons from Fillings and Emulsions, but now there are none.

This bath truffle is both a blessing and a curse. I don't know what a bath truffle is, but it looks and smells great. The curse part is that the epsom salts from this product were all over everything else in the box.

I feel like the $5 price on this 2oz item might be steep, but then, I've never seen guava jam before, maybe it's rare and special.

As you can see, I'd already sampled this too before I took the pictures (like the macaroons). In all honesty, I've had better gourmet popcorns, but I still ate it.

I love these sunglasses though! I really need to get contacts so I can wear all the many sunglasses I have amassed.

Body mousse was new for me too. This product uses vegetable glycerin, which I was super happy about. It is impossibly soft and creamy, the scent is ridiculously gentle and wonderful, and so far it seems to be a great moisturizer. I may order from them again, particularly with the $10 off $35 coupon that came with the box.

Merco Box was wonderful yet again! I love all the different types of products that they send, as well as the value! I really need to work up the money to be able to subscribe to this box.

In the meantime, have you subscribed? What's holding you back?

-E.S.

Heavenly Hygienics Review

My Merco Box earlier this month came with a coupon for $5 off a purchase at Heavenly Hygienics, so I made said purchase! There was a mixup with shipping, so they ended up sending me an extra for free!

The Merco Box came with their Cherub Balm lotion bar, which was the "Sweet Spirit" scent. It smelled amazing, but I thought I'd try something different with my coupon.

I ordered a "Fallen Angels" vegetarian soap (one of the soaps not pretty enough for the big time), and it came in "King Soap" scent. It wasn't my favorite smell ever, but it wasn't bad. I gave it to my sister though, since she's been more responsible than me, and has switched to glycerin-free soaps. I also ordered a "Holy Kiss" sweet mint lip balm, which smells great, with a very mild scent.

My bonus item was the Salt of the Earth "Rapture" scented bath salts, which I used today for a very relaxing bath. Plus they sent along a handwritten note, telling me about the products I bought.

I love this place! I'm totally going to buy from them again.

-E.S.

March 2014 Merco Box Review

I finally got a Merco Box the other day, and I'm super excited to review it for you. Merco Box is a box from Utah, that curates local products from Mom-and-Pop businesses. I've looked over a lot of regional boxes and a lot of them seem really over-priced and uninteresting, but the Merco Box is $19.99 a month, and you really get your money's worth. That said, I used a coupon and got mine for $9.82, which is an even better value!

Outer box and detail photo. This box is shipped with an address label wristband over it.

I was expecting the February box for some reason, so this one was a total surprise to me, yet I still didn't end up disappointed.

First look with paper-ey stuff removed.

The box is very cute, with the "local" buildings stamped in silver on the outside. This box got a little bit smushed in the mail, but nothing was damaged, and the packaging was minimal enough to not be wasteful, so it all works out.

Alright, so legitimately, the first thing I pulled out was this Heavenly Hygienics "Cherub Balm" lotion bar in their signature scent "Sweet Spirit." This stuff is incredibly fragrant, but I LOVE the smell. My roomate swears up and down that it smells like Froot Loops, but I don't really care. If this is what rubbing Froot Loops on your skin smells like, count me in! The official description of the scent is "lavender, lemongrass and vanilla." The moisturizing qualities seem to be decent so far, and it at least feels pretty good. They also have a really cute gimmick with the angelic/religious naming system for their products and scents.

So this happened again. Are people really that worried about wrinkles? I don't know, but I'll probably give this to my mom and hope she doesn't get offended.

A cute, but ultimately useless, keyring. I suppose I could separate my radio station keys onto this one since I only need them once a week, but it will probably just go into my box of useless promotional materials for now.

I haven't tried this yet, but I'm kind of excited. I'd also like to offer Merco Box a little protip though: make sure your messy food products are fully sealed! The bottom of this bag was not, and I got brownie mix on my couch (sniff sniff). It looks very cool though.

For like a split second, I was like "aw man, they sent me a freakin' scarf!," but then I absolutely fell in love with the colours and pattern of this thing. It's cute as heck, trendy, hipster enough to blend in with the hipsters but non-hipster enough to blend out into normal people, but also unique! And it brings me back to my fresh-out-of-high school days when I had a striped infinity scarf I tried to incorporate into far too many outfits. It also came with a coupon for $15 off a $50 purchase at Q Clothing, but I'm not likely to spend that much on clothes off the internet anytime soon. They do have some cute stuff though...

This one calls for a tea ball, which I shamefully admit I do not have. It says to just steep it in water, but I'd feel more comfortable...not doing. It's only a matter of time, though. From what I can tell without opening it, it smells pretty nice too, so I will definitely have to invest in a tea ball.

There were also a bunch of coupons and gift cards to "local" Utah places, including those featured. The one for Heavenly Hygienics worked, so I'm looking forward to getting an extra package! I'm still considering using the one for Seagrape, although it was labeled wrong.

Even without the gift cards though, this box is just super cute and nice! It offered a variety of products, all pretty cool things, and for a really decent price. I've unsubscribed for now, just because of budget concerns, but I am definitely considering re-subscribing in the future!

How has the Merco Box treated you? Any questions about the stuff? I'd love to hear your comments!

-E.S.