Beauty box subscriptions are services that deliver a sampling of makeup, hair and skincare products to your door every month. This is a way to try out a wide range of products to see what works best for you without the huge investment and waste of buying full-size products. I think a subscription would make a wonderful birthday or holiday present for someone you tend to splurge a bit for.
They all work basically the same way. You sign up with a credit card for the subscription service that you like best, and you can cancel at any time. Each service sends between 4 – 6 samples a month. Most of the companies sell the full-sized products of the samples on their websites, often at a discount. Some services ask you to complete a profile so that they can tailor what they send to your preferences. Here are the top ten services that we discovered.
Birchbox, the very first beauty subscription service, costs $10.00 month to month, or $110 yearly for a woman’s subscription and $20.00 a month or $195 for a year for a man’s subscription. You create a beauty profile when you sign up and every month you can choose one of the five samples you’ll be receiving and the other four are a surprise. The samples come in generous sizes and are good for travel. The samples come from new and established brands like Benefit, Deborah Lippmann, Amika and Stila. You can buy full-sized versions of the samples on their website.
Glossybox is $21.00 month to month, $126 for six months and $220 for a year. Subscribers answer a nine-question quiz to help them create a profile of your preferences. Their samples of hair, skin and beauty products get rave reviews, and often full-sized products are included. The box is glossy and very pretty. OPI, Elle Models, Sebastian, Koh Gen Do, Prestiche and Bellapierre Cosmetics are a few of the brands they carry. Buzzfeed did a cost analysis of April, 2013’s box and found it had a value of $94.96! They gave it an A+ for getting the most bang for your buck.
Julep Maven, a nail and beauty product company, is $25.00 month to month or $20.00 a month for three months. You can choose their curated box or customize the box by swapping products. The company emails each subscriber on the 20th of every month with a preview of the coming month’s box. You can choose to ship or skip, try a different box or pass your box on to a friend. There is a short “Find your style” quiz to help them curate your box. Julep Maven products contain no harmful toxins and use no animal testing. They donate to organizations that support women.
Beauty Bar Sample Society is $15.00 a month. The company has brands like Murad, Phyto, Diptyque, Kate Somerville, Alterna, Stila and ByTerry and sends deluxe size samples. They have partnered with Allure magazine. Each month five deluxe sized samples are delivered along with a $10.00 monthly gift code to use on a $50.00 Beauty Bar purchase (as long as your purchases include a brand that you’ve sampled that month).
Ipsy is $10.00 a month or $110 for a yearly commitment and provides 4-5 deluxe samples as well as full-sized beauty and hair products every month. Subscribers answer a 10-question quiz at sign up. Each month has a theme – evening, holiday etc. This means that the products coordinate with each other and the look is demonstrated in a video on their website. They include beauty products and beauty tools and a cosmetic bag. Every month. The products are selected by teen beauty star Michelle Phan. Some of their brands are Mica, Healthy Sexy Hair and Sation Nail Laquer. Buzzfeed did a cost analysis to see if subscribers were getting their money’s worth and a randomly selected month, April of 2013, was worth $37.91. Not bad for $10!
Target’s beauty box is still in beta mode and sells out very quickly. It costs $7.00 a month, shipping and tax are included. The brands in last month’s box were L’Oreal Paris, Maybeline, Neutrogena, SheaMoisture, Target Beauty and Tresemme. There were 5 items; a lip gloss, eye cream, hair shampoo, hairspray, and a makeup setter. That $7.00 box had a retail value of $28.00. The drawback is that it doesn’t look to me like it’s a subscription. It seems that you need to go online every month and order one. The only good thing about that is that you can evaluate each box to make sure you like the products before you purchase.
Eco-Emi is $15.00 a month for seven to eight samples of natural, organic, green, eco-friendly, cruelty-free, vegan, vegetarian or Fair Trade products. The samples will be for skin, hair, nails but also include nutritious snacks, teas and seeds. They will be wrapped in eco-friendly packaging. Some of the brands they carry are Aura Cacia, Marie Natie, Dermae, Natures Natural, HerbalistaMD, Natural Flower Power, Rockin Green and La Fresh.
Goodebox is $19.00 a month, $54.00 for three months or $102 for six months and offers healthy, sustainable natural wellness products. Subscribers receive 6 – 7 trial sizes. Some of the brands they carry include Pacifica, Juice Beauty, Josie Maran Cosmetics and Tata Harper Skincare. This company tailors your selections to fit your age, skin profile and personality. If you send back the packaging they will recycle it.
BeautyArmy is $12.00 per month (plus $3.00 for shipping) or $132 per year (free shipping). You can cancel or skip a month at any time. Every month you choose six samples from a menu of nine hard to find brands like Skyn Iceland, Lucy B. organic makeup, and Lipsi cosmetics. After taking a six-question quiz, you can customize skin tone, makeup style, fragrance preference and more. Often the samples are full-sized products. If you sign up a friend you get a free month. This is a beauty subscription service that gives the subscriber a great deal of control.
