Datemail box – March 2017

Disclaimer: This post features item(s) received at no cost for reviewing purposes, but the opinions are mine and, as always, honest.

If you are like me and sometimes need an idea for a fun date night, this is the box for you! I admit I sometimes don’t take time to figure out something new and fun for us to do, so we mostly just do dinner dates or spend time in nature. It was very tempting to have someone else figure out a date night (or two) for us.

Date Mail is Canada’s first date night subscription box. They offer a themed box designed to help you slow down and have a fun and meaningful date with your significant other.

The cost: CAD $48 + $7 shipping

Ships to: Canada only

Frequency: Monthly

You can use coupon code HONEST10 to receive 10% off any purchase.

They also offer a smaller subscription, envelope, which costs $25, a one-time purchase mystery box for $29.99 and various savings depending on the length of your subscription. You can see all the options here.

My March box was quite large, and instructed me to first open the envelope on the reverse side of the box.

The envelope contained a recipe card for Chocolate beer bbq sauce, which I may modify to a chocolate bbq sauce, since we don’t consume alcohol (it’s easy, just substitute beer with water, or some other liquid). My hubby is a big fan of bbq sauce, and I often make my own, so I’m sure this new twist to it will be a hit!

The other piece of literature in the envelope was this pairings card which shows how to pair chocolate with some alcoholic drinks. This got me a bit nervous, but I knew the box itself doesn’t contain alcohol, so I was  hopeful for a fully chocolatey experience.

Spoiler: I wasn’t disappointed!

You are supposed to open the box on your date night. However, for the review purposes, I opened it and checked everything out before the actual date night. Upon opening the box I found a number of paper items, so lets check them all out.

First of all, I have to say I really appreciate hand-written cards. They make me feel like the company appreciates me as a customer, and it’s a lovely touch. And this one is just so cute!

Next we have a really big information card. This shows that the box is filled with chocolate and activities. I am getting excited at this point 😀 The March box theme is Shades of Chocolate!

Datemail  doesn’t offer spoilers, which makes this service even more exciting, but they do announce the overall theme of the box. The April theme is The Big Screen. They also announced their new subscription, ‘Oh My!’, which debuts in April, costs $65 and will contain adult toys and accessories. This box will be delivered on a bi-monthly basis.

Chocolate trivia

I was intrigued when I pulled this sky-blue envelope out of the box.

The envelope contains two sets of chocolate trivia cards, and the instructions on how to play the game. As Datemail mention themselves, it’s useless knowledge, but utterly fun and completely fits the theme!

Here is one of the examples to show you what kind of questions these cards contain. They are all chocolate related.

Love maps

The second game in the box is this Gottman Institute inspired questionnaire. One side contains information and instructions, and on the reverse you will find 60 personal questions designed to increase intimacy between you and your partner by getting to know each other better.

After getting through all the paper items, I got to this nicely wrapped part of the box.

And inside – CHOCOLATE!!!

These are all the non-paper items in the box.

Milk Chocolate Fondue and Body Tic-Tac-Toe

For these two activities, you will find a bag of milk chocolate chips made by Newfoundland Chocolate Factory, a pack of Pringles honey-butter Stix, and a thin paint brush.

First you melt the chocolate, and enjoy your fondue. If you don’t have a fondue pot, a simple microwave friendly pot will do (that’s what I did). Melt the chocolate chips in 30 second intervals, stirring every time. It took me about 50 seconds to get a smooth and completely melted chocolate mixture. The chocolate itself is smooth and definitely good quality  milk chocolate.

Since they couldn’t include fresh fruit, you can use the Pringles Stix to enjoy the fondue. I was happy to see the honey-butter flavor, since it would complement the chocolate nicely, but they were salty. I don’t like sweet and salty food, but if you do, this is an awesome idea. We instead dipped some fruit (strawberries, bananas) and cookies into the chocolate.

I was completely confused when I saw the paintbrush, until I read the information sheet again. You are supposed to dip it into the chocolate and play tic-tac-toe right on your skin. The brush itself is thin enough to make nice lines, and the game is such a fun idea! Wherever that leads to next…

Chocolate Rhassoul Face Mask

Next we have two sample of Chocolate Rhassoul face mask, one for you and one for your partner. So fitting for a Chocolate themed box! These masks are produced by Tval skincare company.

One sample is just enough for my whole face, and the mask has the usual mud-mask consistency. And it smells like chocolate!

I didn’t even try making my hubby do this, since he isn’t into skincare (one day), so I used it a s a nice pre-date treat, and saved the other sample for some other time.

You leave it on for 10-15 minutes. It slightly dries on your face, and it felt tightening. I also felt some tingling, so I left it on for 10 minutes only, but there was no redness or irritation after I removed it. It was easy to wash off and it left my skin smooth and ready for next skincare steps.

Chocolates

What would a chocolate-themed box be without actual chocolate. Every box contains two  specially wrapped chocolates with cute messages, and some heart-shaped ones.

We ate the chocolates, of course, but I recommend you sneak these in with your special little note (later in the review). The square ones are regular white chocolate, while the heart ones are made of milk chocolate with a gooey caramel heart. Both are very tasty!

Love notes

When is the last time you left your partner a love note, just because. I love to sneak one into my hubby’s lunch box, so these will definitely get used. There are two in the box, and they are the size of a business card, perfect to hide somewhere.

Roll and Sip

Another chocolate item in the box is a small bag of white chocolate chips. They suggest you rim your glasses with them, and then sip your drink of choice. Basically, you melt the chocolate chips on a plate, then roll your glasses in it, and let cool down.

Since the chocolate is quite sweet, I decided to make some bitter-sweet hot chocolate. The chocolate took a bit longer to melt than the fondue chocolate chips, but it was a bit thick, so I rolled the cups in it, and then spooned some more chocolate onto rims.

The combination is awesome. With every sip the hot chocolate drink melts a bit of the white chocolate rim, so you get a perfect taste. You can use the alcohol and chocolate pairings card to decide what other drink to make this way.

This is one of those simple things that I wonder why I never thought of it.

Lubricant sample

Lastly, every box contains a lubricant sample. It’s not listed on the information card, but I confirmed that every box contains one, it just couldn’t fit onto the card (I am not surprised, this box contains a lot).

All in all, we had a lot of fun with this box. It’s hard to say what’s the box worth, since a lot of the value comes from the curation and the included activities. I have to say that an actual dinner date, in a normal restaurant that is not too fancy, but not too simple either, costs much more than $48 for two of us, and this box provided so many items and activities, that we stretched it over a number of nights. All the items fit the theme perfectly.

How do you like the idea of this box? Do you need someone else to figure out your date nights for you?