The Bargain Bead Box is one that is slightly outside of my normal range of subscription boxes, but that was in large part the reason that I tried it. I used to love making jewelry, but as time went on, I found other crafts that caught my attention more, and jewelry making went to the wayside.
This particular box bills itself as "your value-packed monthly bead subscription" and based on the prices that I saw at the craft store last week, there's a pretty good value provided - certainly less than you would spend at the store.
The total cost of the box was $17.51 for me, including tax and shipping.
In order to provide a better value to their customers, their beads are sent in a bubble envelope. Less spent on packaging equates to more beads.
Included is a printed piece of paper that includes a coupon code, a way to enter into contests with the items that you make from their subscription, and information on the previous month's winner.
The back side of the piece of paper lists the contents of each of the three bags provided in the box.
The beads are divided into these pretty little envelopes by theme.
Bag 1 is referred to as Enchanting Accents.
It includes:
20 pieces of 9.5mm bead caps
20 pieces of 4x14mm fairy wing beads
2 pieces of 38 mm chandelier drop findings
20 pieces of 8mm steel filigree found beads
2 sets of 29x22mm dragonfly toggle clasps
2 sets of 21x12mm hook and eye clasps
The second bag was referred to as Dragon's Lair. I think the orange is meant to represent dragon treasure.
It includes:
8 pieces of 13.5mm flame colored, swirl-textured glass coin beads
Approximately 110 pieces of 4mm Chinese crystal bicone beads, magma AB
14 pieces 10mm dragon's vein agate beads (heat treated)
6 pieces of 12x8.5mm Chinese crystal fancy rondelle beads, magma AB
2 pieces 35mm dragon pendants
The third bag was called Magical Meadows
It included:
6 pieces 26mm fairy and crescent moon charms
1 strand of 4.5mm fancy glass part frosted beads in peach shimmer
1 strand of 6mm yellow jade beads (dyed)
Approximately 5 pieces of 12x16mm lampwork glass mushroom beads
24 piecces of 8mm frosted Malaysian jade beads, mint blue (dyed)
Approximately 10mm of pink lampwork round beads with glow specks
2 pieces 42mm rectangle pendants with a seated fairy
The subscription box does not come with any tools, wire, hooks, twine, etc. It's just strictly beads. As a result, I have nothing pretty to show off at this particular point with the beads, and it's going to take me finding time to run to a craft store again to get the components necessary to turn these into awesome things.
While I think that this subscription box is a high value subscription box, there are a lot of beads that I just wouldn't normally pick out or use. The company's sale page has an option to get past boxes, showing you the full contents. I think in the future that is the route I am going to go. The box is well curated, and the beads included are all themed well. The value is there.
This one didn't get to try out the three month rule though. I tried this one based on pictures of past boxes, and while there were many that I liked, this was a miss for me. I would rather know, in this case, what I'm getting in advance, as opposed to being surprised. This is an interesting reaction for me, as I typically really enjoy the surprise. I don't view this one as a subscription box though - I view it as a crafty supply box, and I like to know that the crafty supplies I'm getting are ones that I can easily use and work with. I think it's because all of the supplies/ tools are not included that I feel this way after the fact, even though I knew they wouldn't be going in.
So - this one I cancelled, but I will keep checking their store page to see previous boxes in order to get back into jewelry making. The cost is far lower than purchasing the beads in a store, and that's always something I'm interested in!
This is an early to mid-month box in terms of delivery - it shipped and got here the second week of February.
