From micro-influencers to Kim K, Beyonce, and Ru Paul himself, anyone and everyone who’s anyone is raving about the latest trend in beauty – monthly subscription boxes for the boss babe on a budget!
What’s the best way to stay on-trend when it comes to all things makeup, skincare, and beauty? You’ve guessed it – beauty subscription boxes.
While this isn’t a new trend, 2020 and the countless lockdown restrictions that came with it put a screeching halt to all of our beauty routines, leaving us with plenty to wear, but nowhere to wear it.
So, if you’re eager to dip your toe back into the glitter-infused micellar waters, these recommendations are a fantastic place to start.
Plus, after the last year, we all need a little self-love delivered straight to our doors…
What are Beauty Subscription Boxes?
A beauty subscription box is a treasure trove of full-sized beauty gifts, self-care surprises, and deluxe sample products, all hand-picked and curated to leave you feeling pampered, refreshed, and ready to kick ass like a boss!
Stylishly packaged and competitively priced, beauty boxes are the perfect way to try new products, experiment with playful trends, and find your unique beauty routine in the process, without having to fork out the big bucks.
While brands like Glossybox and Birchbox still dominate the market, there are now plenty of specialist monthly subscriptions to satiate every make-up need, from hand-bottled perfumes to vegan skincare, and all-out drag makeup Sasha Velour would be proud of!
The Best Subscription Boxes for the Babe with Brains, Beauty, and Bossitude
If you want hand-picked skincare samples, hair care products, and full-sized makeup pieces sent to your door, keep reading to check out our top picks for the best beauty subscriptions you can buy today.
Quick Summary of the Best Beauty Boxes:
- Beiesa Box – Best Variety
- Scent Box – Best Perfume
- Pout Box – Best Lipstick
- BirchBox – Best Value for Money
- Dermy Beauty Box
- Loti Wellness Beauty Box
If you want hand-picked skincare samples, hair care products, and full-sized make-up pieces sent to your door, keep reading to check out our top picks for the best beauty subscription boxes you can buy today
The Beiesa Box is a delightful way to keep your beauty cupboard stocked and updated with the latest trends and styles, as soon as they come out.
When you subscribe to the Beiesa Box, you will get a gorgeous box packed with a mix of 3-5 deluxe, full-size beauty samples from a variety of beauty categories.
How it Works:
At the moment, Beiesa Beauty currently offers two subscription plans for their boxes:
- Beauty Box Monthly Subscription Plan – $33/month
- Beauty Box Yearly Subscription Plan – $363/year, with 1 free box thrown in, just for you!
Unlike most other beauty subscription boxes, Beiesa stands out for its commitment to authenticity, since they only use their own branded products in every box! Included within each of these boxes is 3-5 hand-picked options from their range of beauty products, including:
- Voluminous Mascara worth $30
- Eyelash Growth Serum Treatment worth $90
- Lip Plumper worth $49
- Vegan Brow Defining Pencil worth $25
- Glam Liquid Shimmer Eyeshadow worth $25
- Enriched Liquid Eyeliner worth $35
- Defining Brow Creme worth $30
Fans of Beiesa Beauty credit the Beiesa Box as giving them the kickstart they needed to get into makeup, while others have left rave reviews for their value, committed customer service, and gorgeous box designs.
So, if you’re looking to dip your toe in the water, but aren’t sure where to start, or how to master the basics, then the Beiesa Beauty Box is an excellent place to start – it’s got everything you need to look, feel, and live like your best self.
As opposed to most other beauty subscription boxes, ScentBox entices you in with a cool 35% discount on your first order, rather than simply offering a free month trial. While this offer may seem counterintuitive, you do also get free exchanges (so you can swap out your undesired scents for the ones you do want), and the option to cancel your membership whenever you want to.
ScentBox is an affordable perfume subscription service that offers a fun way for subscribers to experiment with bold new blends, sensual scents, and designer fragrances every single month. It enables members to try a diverse range of scents without the financial commitment of buying a full-sized bottle of a scent you’ll come to despise after a few weeks.
For one flat monthly fee, you can pick and choose a perfume from over 850 scents available in the ScentBox catalog, and get it shipped direct to your door, completely free of charge. If, when you open your package, you don’t like what you’ve picked, you can always exchange your choice for another, completely for free.
How it Works:
For just $14.95, you can choose the ScentBox Standard Subscription or, for just $19.95, you can opt for their Premium Subscription, which offers exclusive access to their most coveted, high-end designer labels.
- Answer a series of fun, interactive questionnaires to find out your fragrance preferences so ScentBox can accurately tailor your subscription to your specific scent profile.
- Choose your Scent
Browse the catalog, add your favorite scent from a range including Dolce and Gabbana, Moschino, Giorgio Armani, and Marc Jacobs,, then click ‘Order’. On your shipping date, ScentBox will send out your 30-day supply (0.27 oz) of your desired scent in a refillable spray and keepsake box.
- Open, spray, and sashay away, assured that you’re never spending more than $20 on your perfume each and every month.
Talk about getting your bang for your buck!
All you have to do is sit back, relax, and let the scents come to you…
Pout Box
Unlike the other beauty boxes in this list, the Pout Box is a subscription box that is specifically created for lipstick lovers and gloss addicts alike.
Every box contains a unique collection of full-size lip products from a variety of both well-known and up-and-coming makeup brands, including Noyah, Propa Beauty, Dr. Paw Paw, Au Naturale, and many more. So, no matter your beauty style, you can be sure to find your fit in every box.
Why Pout Boxes?
For one thing, there are no other beauty subscription boxes on the market specifically for lip care and beauty; they all include a variety of products for your lips, eyes, brows, and more. While that may be great if you’re looking to hand over control over your entire collection, if you know what you like elsewhere, and you don’t want to clog up your closet with a bunch of products you won’t use, then Pout Boxes are the boxes for you.
What can you expect to find in your Pout Boxes?
In every box, you can expect to unwrap at least 5 full-sized lip products expertly crafted to give you beautiful, hydrated, and healthy lips every day. Imagine lipsticks, lip glosses, balms, exfoliators, masks, and much more, from a range of high-end and drugstore brands, all with a guaranteed monthly value of over $100.
More importantly, each and every hand-picked product is 100% cruelty-free, so you can rest easy knowing that with every swipe of the brush, you’re actively helping to end cruelty to animals, at least within the sphere of beauty.
How it Works:
To get your hands on Pout Box’s next beauty box, all you have to do is:
- Choose your subscription from their two plans:
- PoutBox Standard
- 3 full-size lip products
- $19.99 per month
- PoutBox Plus
- 6 or more full-size lip products and accessories
- Product booklet highlighting each of the products and how to use them
- $34.99 per month
- Alternatively, if you’re looking to gift a loved one with a one-off box, you can also pick up a PoutBox Gift Box and give them the gift of over 10 lip products, all for just $49.99!
- PoutBox Standard
- Hit subscribe and enter your payment and shipping details
- Wait for your order to arrive, then experiment to your heart’s desire!
BirchBox
Unlike conventional beauty subscription boxes, BirchBox was created with your mental health, wellbeing, and self-love in mind. Rather than being centered around beauty, their boxes are filled with both department store brands and luxury designer labels all designed to give you the pampering and self-care that we all tend to forget to give ourselves.
With less of an emphasis on covering up, concealing flaws, or generally changing the way you look completely, BirchBox aims to give us the chance to reflect, self-soothe, and ease into a daily practice of self-care. They provide the tools so you can focus on the important stuff: improving your confidence, boosting your self-esteem, and generally making yourself feel like the Queen that you are!
How it works:
When you become a subscriber, you start by filling out a short beauty profile based on things like the type of skin you have (dry, oily, combination), the condition of your hair, or the style of makeup you prefer (classic, glamorous, adventurous, fashion-forward, etc…).
Next, based on the answers to your beauty profile, BirchBox will curate your package so that it’s filled with 3-5 full-size products perfectly matched to your beauty, hair, and skincare needs.
As a BirchBox subscriber, every month you will also be given the opportunity to choose an element of your box, such as the design itself, or a specific product sample.
Curated by none other than renowned board-certified dermatologist, Dr. Fatima Fahs, Dermy Box is an impressively put together quarterly subscription box that is chock full of high-value skincare items. For those seeking to improve the health, illustrious glow, and youth of their skin and hair, this might just be the perfect compilation of products.
What We Love About Dermy Beauty Box
- Curated by a board-certified dermatologist
- Nice product selection
- Free shipping within the USA
- Good value for the price
- Items packed in environmentally friendly degradable heart-shaped peanuts
- Boxes curated based on the season to aid with weather-related skincare issues
- Each box comes with a Product pamphlet, written by Dermy Doctor, with product details, tips for use and exclusive discount codes
- 5-star rating out of more than 100+ reviews online
What Can You Expect To Find In The Dermy Beauty Subscription Box?
Each box contains five or more skincare and haircare items valued at more than $230. The boxes include both sample and full-size products, as well as a combination of high-end/luxury items and drugstore products. Overall there is a lot of value here and we could tell that the selection of products was carefully put together to effectively complement each other and provide better results.
What We Don’t Like
The boxes are currently not customizable. This may be a concern for those with unique or specific skin conditions or challenges. Shipping outside of the USA comes with an extra fee.
Cost
The box packs a lot of value (retail price of $230 or more), but costs just $59.99 as a one-time purchase, or $49.99 at a discounted subscription price.
Bottom Line
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed in the skincare aisle, you’re not alone. Dermy Doc Box cuts through the noise, offering real-world guidance and advice from a board-certified dermatologist. Products are literally ‘doctor approved’, and with $230 in value for just $49.99 to $59.99 you can’t go wrong.
We especially enjoyed the seasonal tailored boxes, with specialized skincare and haircare products to help us deal with the challenges of the changing seasons and weather.
Lastly, one notable difference from other beauty subscription boxes was the added pamphlets put together by a dermatologist and providing expert guidance, tips, suggestions and care routines to get the most from the products included.
These days most of us are too busy with the goings-on of life to take care of ourselves like we should. The Loti Wellness Beauty Box is on a mission to help you take back control of your self-care, giving you time to pause, breathe, self-reflect and treat your body right. While other products in this list focus mainly on outward beauty, the Loti Wellness Box takes a look deeper inside, helping you nurture your physical, emotional, spiritual and mental health.
What We Love About The Loti Wellness Box Subscription
This box comes with all of the strategies and tools needed to cope with life’s many and ever-present challenges.
We love that the products blend positive psychology techniques with easy-to-understand psychotherapy, and that each box is specially curated by actual therapists.
Other Great Features:
- Each box is themed to tackle a specific challenge such as anxiety or positive mindset
- Each box is focused on helping us discover, embrace and foster self-love and care
- Includes interesting and engaging activities and worksheets
- Any included wellness products are natural and cruelty-free
- Retail value is $100+ providing great value for the price
- Boxes can be purchased as a one-time gift or recurring subscription
What We Dislike About The Loti Wellness Box Subscription
Shipping fees are higher than other providers, coming in at a flat rate of $10.99 per box when shipped domestically.
What’s In Each Loti Wellness Box Subscription Box
Each box includes a therapist-selected variety of premium body care, skin care, aromatherapy, lifestyle products and healthy snacks, along with other goodies. Boxes also include healthy activities to explore feelings, build confidence, overcome doubt, and address insecurities, among other common challenges life throws our way.
Aimed at nurturing the body, mind and spirit, each delivery comes with between 5-7 products valued at $100+ retail.
Along with the subscription comes access to the Loti Community where subscribers can engage and interact with others for support, inspiration and comradery.
Bottom Line
Our mental, spiritual and emotional well-being often takes a backseat to life’s stresses. These days we’re all busier than ever before, and this box helps us take a pause for our own well-being. Providing a lot of value, insight and products selected by licensed therapists, we feel like Loti has a lot to offer.
Final Thoughts…
Beauty subscription boxes are perfect for anyone with a keen interest in cosmetics, skincare, haircare, or experimental art. They’re an ideal purchase for those just getting into the beauty world, or for those seasoned MUAs looking to spice up their collection, as each of the packages will introduce you to a new range of beauty must-haves.
Whether you’re a firm believer in going big or going home, or you prefer to keep things subtle and natural – we’ve pulled together the very best of the best beauty subscription boxes for the boss babe on a budget. We hope you find a subscription to suit your every beauty need!
