Tell me about your beauty subscription boxes

[ClarkWGriswold]

Last Christmas I got an M&S beauty advent calendar for the first time and I loved it. I loved having a surprise to open every day and discovering new brands.

After Christmas I decided to treat myself to a monthly beauty subscription box and chose Birchbox, mainly because it is one of the most well know and had reasonably good reviews. I also like the Birchbox shop and earning points.

I've since discovered there are loads of beauty subscription boxes and wanted to ask which ones you prefer and what the range and quality of products is like?

I currently get the Look Fantastic one and I really like it - there's very few things in each box that I wouldn't use. Have previously had My Little Box, which is nice but has a lot of non-beauty gubbins in it, which can be a bit hit and miss. I restrict myself to one at a time as otherwise I fear my beauty box habit could get out of control!

Just got my April Birchbox this morning..I love it, look forward to it every month. I've had some lovely little treats in there as well as full size make up etc.

Kawaii panda beauty box for me but it's not a subscription one so you can buy a month as and when you want. You get 5 full size Korean beauty products

Another one here who gets the Lookfantastic box. I do enjoy it, but filling in the review email afterwards (you get £5 to spend on anything on their website so really worth it) I realised there were a few items in them that were total dog shit (Trifle highlighter, Pixi brow gel). There have been some good finds though (Pür concealer, The Ordinary moisturiser). Just be careful if you are doing Marie Kondo, you will likely end up with drawers of stuff it will take you ages to get around to using!

I have just started a birchbox subscription. Had 2 boxes so far and quite pleased with it. Had 2 full size makeups this month plus a lovely hair conditioner, a face scrub, a body moisurising lotion I have chucked in my bag as a hand cream.

Last month I got a full size benefit lippy I gave to dd as I don't wear it, a highlighter pallette, a primer, and I can't remember what else. It's exciting when your box comes. Certainly a bit more exciting than the carpet cleaning solution and decking oil that also arrived.

I had You beauty. You could select products you wanted. I stopped m BB subscription as I had so much stuff but very good value imo.

I had a subscription to Birchbox but cancelled it as I was finding it very hit & miss. Though Birchbox did introduce to me to a few brands that I'd never tried before such as Caudalie, Paula's Choice & Model Co & I ended up buying the full size of the sample product.
I also liked that every month you could get up to £5 in points to put towards the cost of a product. I got a 'free' The Balm Eyeshadow palette, Trilogy Balm & a Caudalie Tinted Moisturiser.
However now I prefer to save that £12.95 each month & put it towards the beauty products I really want.
I know it's not beauty but I am really interested in the Scrawlrbox which is an art based subscription box.

I had Birchbox and Glossybox last year. The novelty wore off after a while. I got my money's worth in terms of things I actually used, but there were so many things I didn't use that it seemed a waste.

I had Birchbox but cancelled it. I'm Asian and was sent fake tan and a pale concealer, despite the fact that they say that products are sent to you on the basis of your profile.

I now have Love Me Beauty and am coming to the end of a six month subscription, which I'll be cancelling. They claimed the products are worth £40, but they're not even worth £10, plus there's too much repetition of products each month. You get to choose your items, but for two of the last four months the items I wanted were sold out before my credits renewed.

I get the Lookfantastic box and really like it, much more than the Birchboxes- the products seem better quality and sizes IMO. The only minor moan is that it's going to take me years to get through the face creams- the drawers are full! Would prefer more makeup tbh but it's a small complaint.

This is a great website for looking st them all. Click the menu (three little lines) then beauty box and it shows you a massive list of all the boxes and if you click on one it links to all the reviews for every month of that box
http://whichbeautyboxuk.com

Glossybox. Always has atleast two bits i would use, the other bits i give DD.

I like the Feel Unique pick n mix. It's £3.95 and you choose 5 samples from a selection of 100's. Some are sachets but some are pretty substantial. Best bit is that after you order you get an email with £3.95 of credit for the website so effectively making the samples free! I buy mat of my hair stuff etc from Feel Unique so just use the credits for that. They have a massive range so just get stuff I'd be buying anyway.

I was pleased with my April Birchbox; four out of five items I will definitely use and two full size make up products. The March box was a complete disaster though and I seriously considered cancelling and switching to another after that. I'll give them more of a chance though as I've been subscribing since January and most of the boxes have been very good and tailored to my needs.

I do have some items I'm never going to use though so I think I'll take them in to work after Easter for my colleagues to have a pick through.

PS thanks for that link Ollivander what a brilliant website!

I have tried a beauty box in the past, I think it was Birch Box, but found it contained too many products I wouldn't use, so I cancelled. I now subscribe to Beauty Pie, £10 pm allows you to order £100 of products at cost price (there are also other subscription options) - really good products and packaged beautifully, my only slight gripe is the postage, but that is probably because I am so used to Amazon Prime - to be fair, they are just being transparent on pricing and it works out better VFM if you place a larger order (you can allow your credit to build up).

www.beautypie.com/uk

I use latest in beauty- £18 pet month for 8 products that you choose yourself from quite a substantial list. I did cancel it for a while because I had too much stuff but just started it up again because I missed it.

Laurajane - you would find it easier starting a new thread as most people will just answer the original poster’s question on this one.

I cancelled my Birchbox subscription because it became too samey. I’ve got about 6 hair volumising sprays!

@HelsinkiLights Scrawlrbox looks incredible!

If you're looking for beauty subscriptions, take a peek at our round up of the best beauty boxes - as chosen by Mumsnetters here.

This selection is based on recommendations from the Style & Beauty boards but, if we’ve left out your go-to pair (or you want to shout about a great new find), just let us know. Plus, check out Swears by for a weekly roundup of all the Mumsnetter must-haves.