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Be Your Own Sugar Daddy & Subscribe to These Boxes
Way more exciting than a magazine, subscription boxes are taking over the world.
I hate mail. It’s full of bad news. Bills, coupons I don’t want, catalogs I’m not interested in. But all that negativity is turned upside down when I hear a box being dropped on my front stoop. Giddy like a school girl on Christmas morning, it’s hard not to scream, “Get out of my way, my package is here!”
And nowadays, you can access that level of excitement as often as you want—for a fee of course. Like a care package for yourself that you are paying for, subscription box services are the hottest shopping trend happening in America right now. Birchbox paved the way in 2010 when it launched its monthly delivery of sample-sized beauty surprises and achieved a rabid-level of success (they have more than 1 million subscribers today). Many, many brands have jumped on the bandwagon since, curating boxes for pretty much every imaginable product genre that exists (Pets? Check. Sex toys? Check.). Here we take a look at seven of our favorite subscriptions, that will have you rolling in beauty and fashion swag surprises as fast as you can type in your billing information.
1. Birchbox
Box Type: Beauty
Frequency: Monthly
How It Works: Subscribe and you shall receive! If you love the sample, you can buy the full-size version in the Birchbox shop.
What You Get: Five sample-sized beauty products ranging from hair and skincare to makeup and fragrances. Expect brands like Clinique, Benefit, Milk, Kiehl’s, Stila and Oribe.
Nice Touch: Designed for women who aren’t obsessed with beauty, the idea behind Birchbox is to introduce users to the best beauty products right now so that they don’t have to wade through a sea of department store beauty counters (and get overwhelmed) by themselves.
Cost: $10 a month or $110 a year
2. FabFitFun
Box Type: Lifestyle
Frequency: Delivered four times a year, in March, June, September, and December
How It Works: Subscribe and you shall receive!
What You Get: Full-sized beauty, fashion, tech, fitness, and home decor products worth roughly $200+ in retail value. Past products have included a Modcloth blanket scarf that consumers (and bloggers) went bananas over, and items like a Trina Turk tote, Dermalogica moisturizer, a Daniel Stone candle, Tarte lip gloss, a Pure eyeshadow palette, the Juice Beauty Peel and Butter London Nail Polishes.
Nice Touch: A FabFitFun magazine detailing the backstory behind each product you’ve received is included in each box.
Cost: $49.99 a quarterly or $179.99 a year
3. Popsugar Must Have
Box Type: Lifestyle
Frequency: Monthly
How It Works: Subscribe and you shall receive!
What You Get: A collection of full-sized fashion, beauty, home, fitness, and food products tested and curated by Popsugar founder Lisa Sugar and her vast team of editors. Expect brands like Loeffler Randall, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Deborah Lippman and Jonathan Adler.
Nice Touch: Don’t want the product deluge to end? A second mini box of additional full-sized products can be added on to any order for $15.95. A special edition Neiman Marcus box is ready for the holidays for $250, and four year-round gift boxes are available for bridesmaids and babies for $50.
Cost: $39.95 a month, $109.85 for three months or $214.70 for six months
4. Allure Beauty Box
Box Type: Beauty
Frequency: Monthly
How It Works: Subscribe and you shall receive!
What You Get: The trusted Allure editors pick the best of the best each month, including six or more deluxe-sized beauty product samples from newcomer and stalwart brands alike. Past boxes have included a Malin + Goetz body wash, a Calvin Klein fragrance and Frederic Fekkai pomade.
Nice Touch: The editors include a cutie mini-mag in each box with product reviews and tips on how to achieve the best possible results with the products.
Cost: $15 a month or $165 a year
5. Stitch Fix
Box Type: Clothing
Frequency: Automatic deliveries can range from every two weeks to once a quarter.
How It Works: Customers fill out a 10-minute style profile, which covers everything from your size and weight to style, color and budget preferences. Once you’ve completed your profile, a stylist selects five items for you based on your preferences. When the box arrives, you try it all on, keep (and pay) for what you want, and return anything you don’t like for free.
What You Get: Five items like sweaters, jeans, booties, scarves and bags can be expected in each shipment (unless you’ve specified that you don’t want those products). Stitch Fix works with more than 250 brands, including well-known labels like Citizens of Humanity and Joie.
Nice Touch: You can link your social profiles and Pinterest boards to your account, allowing your stylist to get a birds-eye-view of your lifestyle. A helpful how-to guide is also included in each box, showing multiple ways to style each item you’ve received.
Cost: A $20 stylist fee is applied as a credit toward anything you purchase. If you opt to buy all five items, you receive a 25-percent discount on the total.
6. The Zoe Report's Box of Style
Box Type: Fashion, beauty and lifestyle
Frequency: Delivered four times a year, in February, May, August, and November
How It Works: Subscribe and you shall receive!
What You Get: A glamorous hodgepodge of product worth more than $450 is hand-pick by stylist-to-the-stars (and designer) Rachel Zoe and her The Zoe Report editors. The fall box included a color blocked cape (retailing for $197), a leather tasseled belt ($105), a Rachel Zoe tassel bracelet ($95), an IT Cosmetics eyebrow pencil ($24) and three lip stains ($24) and lint removing sheets ($6).
Nice Touch: Each box contains a “hero piece,” something that is over-the-top and designed or curated by Zoe specifically for that season.
Cost: $100 a season or $350 a year
7. Golden Tote
Box Type: Clothing
Frequency: Monthly
How It Works: On the first Monday of every month at 9 a.m., the new totes are available. Users scroll through the month’s clothing boutique and choose two items, while a stylist chooses three “surprise” items (based on a style profile each customer fills out online) to round out the shipment.
What You Get: Five pieces of clothing picked by you and your stylist at a 50-percent discount, coming in at roughly $29 per item. Expect jeans, sweaters, jackets, scarves and more.
Nice Touch: If you really want another item (or five) in your tote, you add them on to your purchase.
