I’ve planned to make a comparison box blog post for the past number of months. It got delayed as last month Glossy Box launched and I wanted to wait til the second month to review them all to get a fair review of them all. But wait. There is another box subscription. That makes 5 available for Canadians. When will it stop? Now we have Beauty Box 5 which recently launched. I’ve yet to try it out. 5 is just overwhelming and getting a little out of hand. Plus the brands they’re working with aren’t as appealing to me.
First things first. Most of the boxes (if not all) make you fill out a questionnaire at the beginning describing your hair color, skin color, preferences on receiving hair over skin products etc. So of course, not everyone gets the same products per month. Which is the fun part, seeing what everyone got different than you. Can’t wrap your head around why people pay for these deluxe samples? Why won’t we just walk into Sephora and grab a few samples to try out for free?
Almost every box that I’ve subscribed to has at least one full sized product that more than pays for the box itself. Samples at Sephora can be contaminated from everyone dipping their finger in and trying out the sample before you arrived there. How old is the sample? When was the last time they brought out a new bottle? Plus, it’s like Christmas to me, every month — not knowing what’s inside and opening it and being either pleasantly surprised, feeling “eh” about it, or not liking it at all. It’s all trial and error. Which is why I’m writing this (super long) post about it. I’m debating unsubscribing from more than one box. Because at the moment I’m subscribed to all four available which seems to be getting out of hand.
A lot of the boxes are inconsistent with mailing out their boxes. TopBox seems to have it altogether with delivery times, but the other three you can get anywhere within that month. They don’t have a set date as to when they mail out their boxes. It can be a little annoying to wait on it.
Top Box — $10 a month ($11.30 in total, with free shipping). The first month they launched they had everyone lured in with the Deborah Lippman nail polishes. I of course purchased my subscription box as soon as I saw an unveiling video on YouTube. As did everyone else and their dog, since Top Box is now sold out until June 2012. My first box was the December issue and I wasn’t all that impressed. The thing that makes Top Box a bit unique in its own way is that it doesn’t come packaged in a mini-shoe box like the other three Canadian subscription boxes. It comes in a cylindrical tube. Topbox ships on the 10th day of the month so it’s almost always the first one to arrive to my door step. In January, my second topbox was great. There were 4 very large samples and products that I was happy to see: Shu Umera (a very high end product) shampoo, a principessa dry shampoo that I still use and a few others.
Topbox featured me as a blogger on their Facebook and blog back in January. That was pretty neat!
This is what arrived in my March Top Box.
View my March Top Box unveiling on YouTube.
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Loose Button Luxe Box — $12 a month ($13.56 in total, with free shipping). Luxe Box was the first subscription box available to Canadians. It launched in February 2011, a few months after the American subscription box called Birch Box that everyone in Canada was lusting after. It started out being just $10 a month and in the spring/summer 2011 they ended up raising the prices to $12 a month. Luxe Box has gone through a few changes with their look, making it look sleek, and improving the overall quality of the box.
Luxe box claims that they customize their boxes but I honestly feel that when I watch other peoples videos I get jipped and get 3-4 samples where sometimes ppl get 5, 6 or even 7…which I don’t get. In December for instance people got a set of velour lashes which are amazing mink lashes (they’re cruelty free as they are brushed off the mink). I also saw something else that I was envious of in December, but I forget what. I don’t know why but nothing really ever “stood out” to me with Loose Button.
Loose Button has incorporated a “First In Line” campaign where at the beginning of the month before your box gets mailed out to you, you get to pick between a few different products and you’re guaranteed that product be in your upcoming box. It would’ve worked well if they had enough IT support because the site kept crashing and it took me a good hour to log in to actually see what I could’ve gotten. None of the products stuck out that much to me, either.
This is what arrived in my March Loose Button Luxe Box.
You can view my unveiling of my March Luxe Box on my YouTube channel. I love filming these as you can view my first reaction to opening these boxes right on film. I’m an honest one!
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GlossyBox — $15 a month (flat rate + free shipping). The most expensive out of the entire four. You do get 200 glossy dot points when you refer a friend, and when you reach 1000 you can redeem those for a free GlossyBox! You are also guaranteed 5 deluxe samples with sometimes a sixth thrown in. I’m not sure why they decided to amp their price up to $15.00 because aren’t all sample boxes generally the same? I don’t know why this one has to be $5 more than the rest.
This is what arrived in my March GlossyBox.
View my March Glossy Box unveiling on YouTube.
Sign up here for a GlossyBox.
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Glymm — $10 a month ($11.30 in total, with free shipping). I have to save the best for last. Glymm is always a safe bet to go for. I always get asked on YouTube, Twitter, or even over e-mail what my favorite subscription box is. It is most definitely the Glymm. I have only been disappointed with one box since they first launched and I’m pleased that they haven’t raised the prices of their boxes like their competitors have.
I always enjoy their Jelly Belly candies they include each month with their boxes. Always something I look forward to. I love candy. Anyone who knows me, knows I have a major sweet tooth, so it was great when Glymm was giving out candy. They had candy for a good 6 months or so until randomly one month they stopped including the goodies for us. Apparently it broke in the mail. I want candy.
Glymm has a shop where if you refer a friend, or even buy a box for yourself you accumulate points to put towards their shop, when you receive your box in the mail a week or two later you fill out a questionnaire giving your feedback on the box. You get 10 points for each item you review. I’ve collected all of these points since the beginning and now I’m wondering what to spend my points on. They now carry St. Tropez products, and I’m torn between that or T3 products which I wrote about here. Glymm also keeps us in the loop with new products being brought into the store with fancy product photos
(see?) and making us lust over the latest trends. Sometimes they offer free shipping too. Not often enough mind you!
This is what arrived in my March Glymm box.
View my March Glymm box unveiling on YouTube.
Sign up here for a Glymm Box.
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I have already unsubscribed from one box. Being Loose Button, because I found that I didn’t get anything all that awesome in any of my boxes for the past couple of months. I missed out on the velour lashes, and also a really nice perfume package with a handful of perfumes. I had to draw the line somewhere on subscribing to all of these boxes. Four is just way too many. I’m also thinking of ending my other subscriptions because the excitement has worn off and I’d like to save money, because adding up the cost of three boxes per month is a bit much for someone on a budget. I also have an abundance of samples I need to use up which are just sitting around in a bag!
Ideally, what I’d like to see in a brand new launch of a subscription box for Canadians? Let us pick out our samples, each and every month. Sure, I loved the surprises, but now I want to be able to pick out my samples, especially if I’m paying for it each month.
Looking for a subscription box for yourself?
UK based:
Middle East
USA
Canada
- Glossybox ($21 month)
- Top Box ($12 month)
- Luxe Box ($12 month)
- Glymm ($12 month)
- Beauty Box 5 ($12 month)
- Beauty Army ($12 month)
- ipsy ($10 month + shipping) (see my review on this in January 2013)
- SeasonsBox ($34.90 month)Â (have never purchased one of these)
This was not a sponsored review.