So the Fall Marengo Box for me is of course is extra exciting as I design the artwork for it again! I’m working to create some prints and notecards of various works of mine for my Etsy shop, so keep an eye out for that soon (and of course there’s already stickers in there hanging out). Spoiler alert! I’m working on the Winter design for Marengo now!
Marengo is a newer company started by Cavali Club founder Carly Prosser. The best thing about Cavali Club for me was the thoughtful curations put together by Carly and of course her excellent customer service. Both of those things unfortunately are lacking in the current version of Cavali Club…but don’t worry…you can just subscribe to Marengo instead! Another nice thing about Marengo, is that you get to choose several items each box…so it’s customized to you!
Now onto the most important stuff…what came in my box…what’s the value…and what do I think about the fall box!
What Came In My Fall 2023 Box:
Novella Equestrian Shirt (choice) – $85.00
Christian Lowe Leather Balm (choice) – $29.99
ACE Equestrian Belt (choice) – $40.00
ACE Equestrian Lead Rope (choice) – $40.00
The TackHack Burger Sponge – $10.95
Muirneen Necklace – $48.00
Kristen Solecki Notecards – $15.00
Boujee Equestrian Stirrup Slipper – $15.00
Retail Value: $283.94
Cost of Box: $79
As you can see…the value of the box this round is stupid good. Honestly…I have been wanting to buy a Novella Equestrian shirt for a while now but just couldn’t stomach the price for an unknown I hadn’t seen in person. Well…now that I’ve seen one I’ll be buying more. The price of this box is paid for by the purchase of one shirt. That’s a bunch of other “free” stuff. I chose the Novella shirt over the other options as I had already bought the shirt from last box as an addon…and I don’t really need a wrap (though the Kerrits one was cute).
So as mentioned…I was interested in the Novella shirts anyways…so this was a huge plus. It’s not 100% my favorite design of theirs…but you can’t go wrong with black. And it goes with all my colorful breeches this way. I wore it today (got the box yesterday) and I loved it. Super comfortable material. Cool. I’ll be sizing down next time to a medium as I think I’d like it a little tighter as it got a little blousey on me in the back when I was riding and was blowing around and tickling my back. Anyways. I love it. It was worth the box price to just have this one thing. Yay!
Onto my group two choices. I didn’t love group 2 choices this time…but oh well. Can’t smash it out of the park every time. Two are really useful for me and one is just okay. The Christian Lowe Leather Balm is a welcome addition to my life as I love trying different leather products. I’m not sure I’d pay the retail value for it…but I’m happy to try it in the box.
Second choice in group to was for the ACE Equestrian Belt. This is my…3rd or maybe 4th belt from them. I’ll keep taking more of those in different colors. I love them. Absolutely love them. Funny enough I don’t wear these to the barn…ever…I wear them with my everyday jeans. Did I say I love them?
The last of my choices was the ACE Equestrian lead rope. I saw that it could convert to being a cross tie in a pinch which I thought was handy to have around. It might be one of those things that stays in my tack trunk for years unused. Or maybe I’ll give it a go as a lead rope. I’ve never used a lead rope that wasn’t cotton or nylon…so it’ll be different. How would you tie with it? I guess you wouldn’t. I do need a new lead rope…so maybe I’ll just give it a solid go. I picked it because my other choices I had already gotten in another box or didn’t want.
Next comes the mystery items! The first wasn’t really mystery as it was spoiled in advance, but it is the Muirneen Necklace. It’s a pretty item of what seems like good quality in nice packaging…but I’ll personally be passing it along to someone that I think will enjoy it more than me. I really just don’t wear jewelry. It’s not my thing. It would just sit in my jewelry box like all my other jewelry to maybe get worn once a year. It’s a nice item though and it will be a nice gift.
The TackHack Burger sponge is the second best thing ever (the donut sponges from them being the #1). I was thrilled this showed up in our boxes this time. I love it. I just…it makes me giggle. It brings me joy. I don’t even eat hamburgers…but…hilarious. I love it. I’ll be using it next bath instead of my boring one.
The Kristen Solecki Notecards are nice. There’s three of them. Quality seems decent. I can always use cute notecards for sending to other horsey folks! I will use them.
The last item (and the only item I’m disappointed in) is the Boujee Equestrian Stirrup Slipper. I’m only disappointed because I got a color I’m not into (green plaid is just…too boring..for me). I’d have much rather had the floral version…as I love flowers…but what are you going to do. Hopefully I can find someone to trade!
But honestly…if you’re using 6 out of 8 items in a subscription box…that’s doing pretty good. The value of the items I’ll 100% use is $181…that’s more than double what I paid for the box. And the other $100 is stuff I’ll either maybe use…or gift. There’s always something in a box that isn’t perfect for you…but I think this box did a really good job making sure that there’s stuff in it you’ll use and want (especially with us being allowed choices).
Another customer service win as well…as I was concerned about the shipping date due to me being out of the country when it was supposed to arrive. A quick message to Carly before shipment and she held my box for an extra week so that it would arrive after I got home. Thanks again for great and easy customer service!
With some of the spoiled items being polled in the Marengo FB group for winter…I’m SO EXCITED! Really looking forward to that one!
If you’re interested in subscribing, head over to Marengo to learn more!