Bulu Box is a monthly fitness and weight loss subscription. The original Bulu Box is focused more on fitness and general health supplements, and they also offer a Weight Loss box that focuses more on diet products. This is a review of the original Bulu Box.
Bulu Box provided this box at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
About Bulu Box
The Subscription Box: Bulu Box (Weight Loss Version)
The Cost: $10 on a month-to-month plan; save with longer subscriptions
COUPON: Use our coupon code MYSUB799 to get your subscription at $7.99 per month, for the lifetime of the subscription!
The Products: 4-6 health and fitness items such as vitamin samples, fitness gear, and healthy snacks.
Ships to: U.S. (free)
Bulu Box Weight Loss January 2019 Review
There are box variations, and sometimes rather heavy product promotion, so you may not always get the same box as someone else or be able to make the connection to weight loss for each product:
The information cards are now generic rather than describing your items.
There was also some product literature. Sometimes this relates to items in the box and sometimes it does not. You will occasionally receive adult-oriented product literature so just a heads up. FYI, the reason the last card says “chemical free” is because it is homeopathic “medicine” and has no active ingredients whatsoever.
Defunkify Active Wash (0.7 oz) – Buy a 28 Load Package for $11.99
This allegedly gets rid of blood, grass, and sweat stains, and allegedly uses “the principles of green chemistry” but the manufacturer is pretty cagey about what the product actually contains. (I note that the product description on Amazon says this is engineered for synthetic fibers but a lot of my clothing is cotton.) If you dig a little bit, you can find an MSDS. This has hydrogen peroxide which may work on blood stains, although I find I have the best results with that if I just pour hydrogen peroxide 3% solution from the drugstore directly onto the stain. There are also some non-sulfate detergents in here and allegedly some enzymes, though I have not usually found enzyme-containing cleaning products to be effective. (I do not have any laundry with blood or grass stains with which to test it out. Used on a regular load, I didn’t notice much of a difference from All Free and Clear, but my laundry doesn’t get super dirty, not even my exercise clothes.)
This product was also in the regular version of Bulu Box this month.
Florastor Daily Probiotic Supplement (20 count) – Buy 50 Capsules for $27.99 (found on sale here for $26.59)
This is a probiotic with a yeast strain instead of a bacterial strain. The benefit of this is supposed to be that it will work during antibiotic use, whereas antibiotics might kill off probiotic bacteria. I haven’t been on antibiotics since sometime last year, so I can’t test that aspect out, but these are vegetarian so I am trying them. The thing about probiotics is, they can take weeks or months to show any effect, so there is not much I can say here other than repeat product information. (Note for those who are lactose intolerant: this product says it is safe for people with lactose intolerance, but it contains lactose, so I’d probably avoid it if I were you, especially if very small amounts set off your symptoms.)
This product was also in the regular version of Bulu Box this month.
Lavle Belgian Dark Chocolate (2 squares) – Buy 15 Squares for $14.90
This product shows up in Bulu Box regularly. It is a 65% cacao dark chocolate (normally guidelines for eating dark chocolate for health benefits recommend 70% cacao or greater) but it is supposed to have 200 mg of flavanols (active compounds in dark chocolate). Anyway, this is fine but I can buy 90% cacao (or higher) Lindt bars at the supermarket for about 1/3 the cost of this, per square.
This product was also in the regular version of Bulu Box this month.
Performance Tea (Energy, 1 serving) – Buy 10 Packets for $18.99 (found on sale here for $18.04)
This is one of those items that you drink because you think you need it, not because it is tasty, so I will not be trying it a second time. Although it does have a green tea base, and green tea, a caffeinated tea, will provide some energy. It also has reishi mushroom extract, several plant extracts I don’t recognize (please research these before consuming! WebMD is a good place to start), cinnamon (OK), and licorice extract (a flavor that is often used to sweeten without adding calories but I don’t care for it). For what it’s worth, I did not have too much particulate matter floating in the cup when I mixed this up (it is meant to be an instant tea product). I don’t know whether or not it gave me energy because I really didn’t care for the flavor enough to finish the whole serving.
Nasopure Nasal Wash (bottle + premixed salt packets) – Buy 1 bottle and 20 salt packets for $20.00 (found here for $12.95)
I already use a similar product almost every day so I was happy to see this. You are supposed to replace your nasal rinse bottles every 90 days or so and it was about time for a new one for me. This is a little different from what I am used to because you hold the bottle differently and the part that touches your nose is also changed compared to my current product. I can see how this bottle design allows you to get every last bit of water out, which is actually an improvement over what I use right now. I found the experience otherwise quite similar to other nasal rinses I’ve done. (I have bad allergies all year so I use something like this on most days.) Also, I have received this same item at least 2-3 times before from this subscription.
Alfa Vitamins Garcinia Cambogia Plus (2 powder packets) – Buy 30 Packets for $28.99
Apologies for the photo, I thought it was quite strange how the packets were stuck (and stuck hard) on the card, at that angle, but I realized later they were supposed to appear to be poured into the glass drawn on the card. I did mix this up to taste and it is not bad; there is a bit of an undertaste that may be the Garcinia, but since I have not taken Garcinia cambogia before, I can’t say that for sure. I didn’t know Garcinia cambogia was still a thing after Dr. Oz got grilled about weight loss supplements in front of a Senate panel (if you can find the video it is great to watch, especially if you don’t care for Dr. Oz, but it was four years ago and it’s a bit hard to find) but at least this is not a stimulant and people have been taking it for years, so it’s unlikely to cause harm even if it isn’t particularly effective. I do think this is an appropriate product for the weight loss version of this box and is the kind of thing I would expect to receive in a weight loss-oriented box.
Zen Breakfast Blend Chocolate Cherry Almond Nut and Seed Powered Breakfast Smoothie (2.5 oz) – Buy a 5 Pack for $15
This sounded promising! Chocolate cherry almond sounds delicious, actually, and this was pretty tasty. I have been adding it to smoothies because I don’t care for the texture of shakes like this (even well-blended with an immersion blender, plant-based shakes don’t dissolve as well as I would like). If I could find this in a canister instead of a packet, I would buy it again, since I don’t use all of it at one time.
Verdict: There were 7 samples this month. If you paid full price for this subscription, you paid about $1.43 for each item. My favorite discovery was the shake. I don’t mind getting the same probiotic in both boxes because that adds up to almost 6 weeks of product, which is enough time to maybe see some results. (Also it is vegetarian.) The Nasopure bottle is useful since you are supposed to replace those every now and then. I wasn’t so enthusiastic about the flavor of the tea, but it may work for some people, and I think it fits with the overall goal of the box. Anyway, I’d say this was a representative example of a Bulu Box and it actually had a weight loss product this month, which you were probably looking for if you signed up for the weight loss version of the box. I was a little bummed about receiving so many duplicate/repeat products, though.
I’d strongly recommend using a coupon code when you subscribe and choosing either the regular or the weight loss box, but not both since there is a lot of product repetition between the two.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, February would be your first shipment. Also, keep in mind that there are variations in the boxes, so your box might not be exactly like mine in any given month.
Coupon – Use our coupon code MYSUB799 to get your subscription at $7.99 per month, for the lifetime of the subscription!
Value Breakdown: The January box has seven samples, so subscribers at full price are paying about $1.43 per sample.
Check out our past reviews of Bulu Box and more health and fitness subscriptions in the fitness subscription box directory!
What did you think of the January Bulu Box Weight Loss?