I spy sea salt.

We're barreling toward the holidays, and the city's ecommerce companies are putting on the Ritz accordingly. Yesterday, Etsy announced a Soho store for the holidays; today, Birchbox announced the launch of digital popup Birchbox Home. Discovery commerce: Why should you face have all the fun?

Birchbox Home kicks off with a $58 special edition box, packed with kitchen paraphernalia and fancy food samples. Think cocktail napkins and truffle sea salt. Participating brands include Jonathan Adler, Dean and DeLuca and Paperless Post (another Silicon Alley notable). The home box heralds the arrival of a home store, stocked with stuff from C. Wonder and Stonewall Kitchen.

It's a new playing field for Birchbox, which has stuck with cosmetics thus far. What's not entirely clear is how long this new venture will stick around. It's tagged as a popup on the Birchbox site and we're told it's limited edition, but the announcement is framed so one can imagine it becoming a permanent addition:

“We’re dedicated to helping people discover new products and brands, and the debut of Birchbox Home lets us introduce customers to an entirely new group of designers, brand and products,” said Katia Beauchamp, Co-founder of Birchbox.

Not to mention that selling home decor doesn't require battling against the same level of brand loyalty. (Just try talking your grandmother out of her Elizabeth Arden. Not happening.) Maybe higher conversion rates are on Birchbox’s Christmas list!

(Photo: Birchbox)

After acquiring its French competitor JolieBox last month, Birchbox announced a new partnership today with Gwyneth Paltrow's lifestyle site, Goop. The limited edition box, which will be sent out to subscribers this October, will be curated by the team at Goop. Since the box comes with sample-size products, Birchbox will also be offering a special edition online store where users can buy the full size item.

In a press release, Birchbox cofounder Katia Beachamp said:

goop.com is one of our favorite destinations for the best insider tips and finds from around the world. At Birchbox, we are constantly sharing the latest and greatest beauty and lifestyle products, trends and tricks with our customers. Partnering with a brand known for its timeless elegance, savvy recommendations, and knockout style is sure to delight our customers.

Someone has a girl crush on Gwyneth Paltrow.

We get why Birchbox would want to partner with Goop; Ms. Paltrow's name alone is enough to lend legitimacy to the growing startup. But what's in it for Goop? Perhaps reaching out to a younger set of beauty-obsessed women? A spokesperson for Birchbox declined to discuss the details of the partnership.

Cliche? Yes. Do we care? No. (Photo: flickr.com/terrazzo

Birchbox now has a beachhead in the city of lights. The locally based subscription service--which, last time we checked, claims something like 100,000 members--has acquired a Paris-based lookalike by the name of JolieBox. Anchors away--the ladies of Birchbox are bound abroad.
Said cofounder Katia Beauchamp in the announcement:

"The delight of discovery extends across any border and to any culture.... JolieBox, with their like-minded team and brand ethos, is the absolute perfect partner to build relationships with new customers and brand partners internationally while simultaneously improving distribution as we scale."

What's the French term for "unboxing"? How about, "more eyeshadow samples, please"?

Ms. Barna, left; Ms. Beauchamp.

Hometown heroines Katia Beauchamp and Hayley Barna are two of the better-known female founders in New York's apparently estrogen-powered tech scene, and yeah, their company Birchbox is pretty girly. So it was fun to see the contrast in the dual announcement this week: the launch of Birchbox Man, which was basically like Instagram launching for Android, followed shortly by the announcement of a major partnership with the ladylicious Gossip Girl, the startup's first major media partnership.

Every month, Birchbox sends a box of cosmetic samples customized for each customer. Each month has a theme, and May's theme is Gossip Girl—meaning the box will contain chic beauty products inspired by the characters on the show, chosen with input from the show's department head for makeup, Amy Tagliamonti, and department head for hair, Jennifer Johnson. "We're all really big fans of Gossip Girl," Ms. Beauchamp said. "The idea was to help the audience basically engage deeper with the show by getting a look into some of the looks from the show."

Birchbox, which launched in 2010, is up to 60 employees in its office at Park and 19th (and the gender balance is more equal than we expected). The company is hiring rapidly—not surprising, considering its paying customer base has doubled in less than a year from 45,000 to 100,000 paying subscribers.

Birchbox has inspired a wave of copycat subscription services from the one for dogs to the one for underwear. Does that piss you off? we asked Ms. Beauchamp. "Copycats are the sincerest form of flattery," she said. "It's exciting to get to define a new model."

Would you like to unbox me?

Birchbox, the New York City-based startup that tipped off the subscription services craze launched an testosterone-approved new vertical today: Birchbox Man. Like the OG lady Birchbox, the men's version will combine a personalized subscription box with four to five samples a month (except shave gel and stylish socks instead of lip stain and bronzer), along with a "handpicked" online shop and magazine-y editorial content. "Winter is over and it's time to emerge from your man cave," reads the intro for a manly-sounding section called Great Outdoors.

Cofounder Katia Beauchamp said she had an inkling there was a market for Birchbox among the other half of the population after getting tweets and "real life" inquiries from men requesting grooming and lifestyles of their very own. Not to mention a curious observation from existing female subscribers. "When their box would arrive, the men in their lives would hover around and were so curious about what's inside the box," Ms. Beauchamp told Betabeat over the phone.

Last November, the company did a trial run. Thousands of limited edition boxes at $48 a pop sold out in three days with just a few tweets.

The women's vertical, however, has been growing largely via press and word-of-mouth. (A quick YouTube search for "Birchbox unboxing" turns up 342 enthusiastic results.) "Women were really comfortable sharing," said Ms. Beauchamp. "We couldn't imagine that all men would be comfortable talking about this amazing pomade."

To mitigate any potential unease, she said, Birchbox decided to include items within a potential buyer's comfort zone like headphones, pocket squares, and shave creams. "It might be a little easier than saying, 'Doesn't my skin look well exfoliated.'" We think any human should be able to get behind the idea of smooth skin and minimized pores, but point taken.

So does she see the Birchbox Man customer as someone embarrassed to walk into a Sephora or an enlightened male unencumbered by issues of heteronormativity? "I know it's kind of a cop out, but I guess we see it as both," said Ms. Beauchamp, pointing out that female customers range from avid shoppers those who find the task daunting and have stuck to the same products for years.

Unfortunately, self-quantifying devices like FitBits and Nike FuelBands are a little hard to sample, otherwise we'd say Birchbox could have the tech bros on lock.

The company, which launched in 2010, has already picked up $11.9 million in financing from investors like First Round Capital, Lerer Ventures, and Facebook's Sam Lessin. Its subscriber base is more than 100,000, with a monthly growth rate of more than 20 percent over the past year. The company's data shows that 40 percent of subscribers have gone on to purchase full-sized products within their first year, which helps explain why they've been able to partner with more than 200 brands.

Birchbox has 60 employees in its Park Avenue and 19th Street headquarters and is looking for new offices. Better hurry, guys, the niche copycats are nipping at your heels--armed with venture financing . . . and dollar razors.