Over the last few years, there has been a growing trend of different beauty subscription boxes. Are they worth the money? Are these tailored to each woman's needs, are the products worth the value of the fees? Are these fees monthly, bi-monthly? quarterly? annual? There is so much to consider.
Taken a wade through this phenomenon and my thoughts are very varied.
To commence, I went through the popular brands and selected 3. put in mind, I registered UK as my residential address for this purpose.
After extensive research, I went with the below:
BoxyCharm - Delivers to the US. Had to get this forwarded to me in the UK after delivery to a US address.
Fabfitfun - Delivers internationally to the UK
Glossbox - Delivers to the UK.
Boxycharm
Have to admit upfront, I had the longest test time with this subscription service. From March to July 2020.
On joining, I filled out detailed questionnaires on what my preferences, beauty brands, skincare, and my personal profile (hair colour, eye colour, skin tone e.t.c). This is supposed to assist them in curating my boxes on a monthly basis tailored to the completed profile.
The subscription fees are (also note, if you choose to pay upfront, you get a discount on the fees):
USD25 for the regular base box - 5 full-size items with a minimum value of USD125 (available monthly)
USD35 for the premium box - 6 - 7 full-size items with a minimum value of USD175 (available monthly). Note, never received 7 items in my premium boxes . Always 6.
USD50 for the boxyluxe - 8 - 9 full-size items with a minimum value of USD 250 (available on a quarterly basis)
In addition, the service also offers add-ons and boxypopups where you can purchase items from previous months you wanted but did not receive in your box. The dates when this occurs are advertised on their site based on your subscription.
Subscribers to either the premium or boxyluxe have early access which is 24 hours prior to all access.
I tested this service by taking out the base and premium boxes. Also shopped from the add-ons and boxy popups.
You can also review the items received in the boxes to earn credits known as charms or refer new subscribers to earn charms. The charms can be spent in the charm room to purchase available products which are very limited.
My opinion on boxycharm is the idea is a great one. It is a cost-saving method of receiving, testing beauty and skincare products even those brands you were not aware of from the obscure to the more mainstream. Admittedly, I received a lot of products I loved and were well worth the value I paid. At times, even one item in the box has a higher retail value than what was paid for the whole box.
Found some products I wanted at a discounted price via the boxypopup.
However, there are also downsides to this. 11 products a month discounting the add-ons and boxypopups are a lot. Not feasible to use them all up before you receive a fresh flush of others the next month.
youtube video from KrystalKBeauty sums up a lot of my concerns - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkBiDFddwSA
The safety concern. You receive some products without a safety seal. No way to ascertain if the product has been tampered with.
There also seems to be no correlation between what you receive to the questionnaire completed. I basically requested not to receive KVD products, yet received them for 2 straight months.
The shipping is atrocious. Example, July base box is still pending receipt in August. It has actually not shipped yet.
The customer service is terrible. No response and even when they do respond, its a copy and paste general email. Unless your query is posted publicly, don't expect a response.
Fabfitfun
This is a lifestyle subscription that occurs every quarter divided up into seasons. Spring, summer, fall and winter boxes.
This cost USD49.99 per season. However, if you pay an annual fee; you receive a discount, boxes are shipped earlier, early access to add-on and sales.
For the price, you receive 8 - 9 full size premium products valued at a minimum of USD200. All Sounded great! Signed up.
Completed the extensive personal profile, this includes type of product I wish to receive, fitness, beauty, and full profile on myself (Skin tone, hair colour e.t.c).
I took out the seasonal subscription for this service. Received the summer box.
As a seasonal subscriber, I got to pick 3 of the items from a selection. If I was an annual member, would have been able to pick out 5 items.
I also received email notifications of sales, got good discounts on items I purchased from the sale. Was entitled to the general access which was about 10 days after the annual subscribers were able to complete their purchases.
The items received are well worth the price paid. Received some items, I would not have thought I needed but has come in handy. The items received were tailored to my profile.
My subscription for this service lasted one season before cancelling. The items sent to me were from the previous fall and winter seasons. Nothing received was current. I felt completely cheated.
When I signed up, was informed it would take 4 weeks to curate my box and ship. This took 10 weeks. Contacted customer service. They were no help whatsoever. Rather encouraged me to sign on for more boxes.
My feelings on the fabfitfun service is; annual subscribers are prioritized and if you are seasonal, you are almost discounted. Like you don't matter.
GlossyBox
Glossy is a beauty subscription which I tested from June to August 2020.
The beauty products come in a very beautiful box which can be used for storage and any other use you deem fit. The box also provides 5 beauty products a month for the fee of £10 with an additional shipping fee of £3.25 per month. The minimum value of product received is £50.
The service also offers other packages which can be cost saving and they come inclusive of shipping cost:
3 months - £38.25
6 months - £69
12 months - £132
The products you get have no variation nor is it tailored to the customer.
However, it does offer you a chance to complete the beauty profile. In addition to the beauty profile, you can review box and earn credits which can be spent on purchasing limited edition boxes or shopping on the lookfantastic site.
My experience with Glossybox was not a good one. I was left with feeling the service is over subscribed with the company losing control or focusing on other thing rather than their customers.
When I joined was charged for my 1st box in June 2020 . I also bought a limited edition box at the same time. My profile reflected both my limited edition box and June box had been despatched.
Received my limited edition box, waited an additional 2 weeks, no monthly box despite having a despatched notification on my account, and having been charged for the box.
Contacted customer service, the phone lines were off, tried twitter, no response. Instagram, no response. Text/messaged the company then finally received a response that I would not be sent a June box, rather a July box as the June box was sold out.
July came and went, no July box, again customer service advised, July boxes were sold out early and would receive August box. Took a stand at that point and demanded a refund.
Was informed, I would receive the refund in 3 - 5 days which again never arrived. Contacted them again, only to be told the refund was issued to me via my payment method which he got wrong. Pointed this inaccuracy, customer service went silent for days despite several prompting.
Canceled my subscription. Never actually received a subscription box despite 3 months membership. The company seems over-subscribed and incapable to coping with the sheer number of subscribers. Terrible experience.
The issue was referred to their finance team, thereafter I received my refund back.
Final thoughts; are beauty subscription worth it? Maybe depends on the person or if you want to grow your skincare/makeup collection. Worth the value? Yes. Tailored to my needs? On the fence on that question. Would I continue with any? No.
Rather just go out and buy the actual products I need/want.
In the long run, have loads of products, I don't want and will never use. Sharing with family members and will take any left to a women's shelter.
Update:
I was convinced to give glossybox another try which I took up. Received September and October 2020 boxes (purchased not gifted) with no issues. They arrived on time. Not had any reason to contact customer service agin so cannot comment on if the service has improved.
My opinion still remains on the fence. Not been wowed by any products received in either boxes and mostly not what I would say meet my preferences.
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