Subscription boxes: Give yourself a treat

If you love discovering new beauty products, then a subscription box may be the perfect little treat. There are boxes out there to suit every skin and every type of product you could desire. Boxes come with a carefully curated selection of products, often in a mix of sample and full sizes that are, generally, priced well below the value of the contents if bought separately. It’s a great way to discover new favourites when you can’t browse the counters in your favourite department store. The packaging tends to be luxurious, so it feels like you’re giving yourself a bit of a gift whenever your monthly or quarterly box arrives in the mail. It’s often possible to buy a stand-alone box if you don’t want to sign up to a monthly plan, so you could try a few different services out before deciding on which service suits you best. 

Several subscription boxes come with online bonuses. You might have access to a make-up tutorial or the box may include a discount voucher for a Zoom workshop. Online beauty retailer Look Fantastic (lookfantastic.com) offer a monthly box which comes with five or six new things to try, across skincare, hair and cosmetics, as well as a useful mini-magazine that provides more details about the products included and how to get the best results from them. A three month subscription costs £43.50 and most month’s the box will contain around £50 worth of products each month. You’ll also find special limited edition boxes that can save you a small fortune in there’s one with your favourite brand. 

Gloosybox’s subscription services offers five new products full-sized each month, with the first month’s box on offer for £12.  It’s a bit of a thrill when one arrives in the post and you get to lift the lid, untie the ribbon and tear open the tissue paper. Glossybox is particularly strong on high end niche skincare brands that you might not otherwise encounter. They also offer limited edition collaborations with brands like Fenty and have a men’s grooming box for £30 that includes £155 worth of products, though this tends to sell out quickly. 

If you prefer natural and organic products, then The Natural Beauty Box (thenaturalbeautybox.co.uk) may be just what you’re looking for. Each box contains 5-7 items, all vegan and cruelty-free at a monthly subscription rate of £23. Products tend to be a mix of sample sizes and full sizes, but will always be worth over £50. 

It’s not just cosmetics and skincare products that you can subscribe to. There are plenty of perfume subscription boxes to choose from too. Given that you can’t really sniff tester strips while masked up, it’s a good way of looking for your next signature scent without making an expensive mistake. The Perfume Shop offer their Parfumado service for £12.95 a month, which gets you a little pocket spray case with a new sample from your choice of 350 scents. Each 8ml sample is said to be enough for four sprays a day for 30 days and if you buy a full sized bottle, they’ll offer a discount. (theperfumeshop.com/subscribe). Bloom Perfume (bloomperfume.co.uk) offer 72 niche scent samples over the course of a year for £180 while Sniph.co.uk and Scentandco.uk all offer similar monthly delivery boxes.