The 9 Highest Value Subscription Boxes for Women!

ByLiz CadmanMay 23, 2016 | 29 comments

collage-women

It's not surprising that the most popular subscription boxes for women also happen to be the ones that deliver the best value! I've put together a list of the 9 best monthly and quarterly subscription boxes that offer a tremendous value compared to the cost of the box.

I recommend all of these boxes to friends and family - even if you only like half the items in a subscription box, you're still coming out ahead, and you have some items to gift or swap!

If you are new to subscription boxes, this is a great way to get started and feel like you hit a mini jackpot each month!

fabfitfun-spring-2016-items

The Subscription Box: FabFitFun Box

The Cost: $49.99 a box sent every quarter

COUPON: $10 Off Your First Box with coupon code MSA10

The Products: The hottest seasonal items (worth at least $100) selected by the FabFitFun team. Think beauty, home, fashion and fitness items.

Ships to: US and Canada

Check out all of my FabFitFun VIP Box reviews to see what you can expect from this subscription box.

Average Box Value: $302 (past 6 boxes)

Return on Investment: 504%!!

allure-beauty-box-may-2016-items

The Subscription Box: Allure Beauty Box

The Cost: $15

COUPON: Save $5 off your first box with this link. (FYI - your subscription will start with first available box).

The Products: Deluxe and full-size beauty and makeup samples selected by Allure magazine editors.

Check out our Allure Beauty Box reviews to see what you can expect from this subscription box.

Ships to: US

Average Box Value: $67.83 (past 6 boxes)

Return on Investment: 352%

ipsy-march-2016-items

The Subscription Box: Ipsy

The Cost: $10

The Products: Full size and samples of makeup and beauty products. (Plus a makeup bag!)

Check out our Ipsy reviews to see what you can expect from this subscription box.

Ships to: US

Average Box Value: $61 (past 6 boxes)

Return on Investment: 510%!!

Two things to point out: 1. Ipsy sends out variations to subscribers, so this average box value is based on the variations I received over the past 6 months. 2. This does NOT include the value of the makeup bag you get each month!

boxycharm-april-2016-items

The Subscription Box: Boxycharm

The Cost: $21

The Products: 5-6 beauty items that will include nail care, skin care, makeup, haircare, fragrance and more. (At least 4 of those items will be full-sized).

Check out our Boxycharm reviews to see what you can expect from this subscription box.

Ships to: US

Average Box Value: $118.83 (past 6 boxes)

Return on Investment: 465%

target-beauty-box-may-2016-items

The Subscription Box: Target Beauty Box (SOLD OUT)

If you want to make sure you don’t miss out on the next Target Beauty Box, make sure to sign up for the My Subscription Addiction daily newsletter!

The Cost: Varies, Average cost is $7.16

The Products: Sample and full-size beauty products (skincare, haircare, makeup) plus a Target Beauty category coupon.

Check out our Target Beauty Box reviews to learn more about this box.

Ships to: US

Average Box Value: $27.67 Average Cost: $7.16 (past 6 boxes)

Return on Investment: 286%

popsugar-must-have-april-2016-items

The Subscription Box: POPSUGAR Must Have Box

The Cost: $40

COUPON: Use coupon code MUSTHAVE5 to save $5 off your first box.

The Products: “Must Have” items for women selected by POPSUGAR editors. (Fitness, Home, Beauty, Food, and more)

Check out our POPSUGAR Must Have Box reviews to see what you can expect from this subscription box!

Ships to: US

Average Box Value: $162.50 (past 6 boxes)

Return on Investment: 306%

sephora-play-april-2016-

The Subscription Box: Play! by Sephora

The Cost: $10

The Products: Five deluxe samples plus a fragrance sample, a PLAY! BOOK of tips and tricks, and a PLAY! PASS for in-store learning.

Check out all of our Play! by Sephora reviews to learn more about this subscription box!

Ships to: US

Average Box Value: $52.33 (Past 3 boxes)

Return on Investment: 423%!

IMPORTANT: This is still a relatively new subscription, so the average box value may change with a few more months.

beautyfix-april-2016-items

The Subscription Box: BeautyFix

The Cost: $24.95

The Products: Over $100 worth of beauty products, mainly skincare and haircare.

Check out our BeautyFix reviews to learn more about this subscription box!

Ships to: US

Average Box Value: $124.16 (past 6 boxes)

Return on Investment: 396%

box-of-style-winter-2015-items

The Subscription Box: Box of Style

The Cost: $100

COUPON: Use code MSABOS10 to save $10 off your first box!

The Products: Every season, Rachel Zoe and the TZR editors hand-curate more than $300 of their favorite fashion, beauty and lifestyle items.

Check out our Box of Style reviews to see what you can expect from this quarterly subscription box!

Average Box Value: $367 (past 5 boxes)

Return on Investment: 267%

So in conclusion... subscription boxes can be a great "investment!" Plus you get surprises!

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Posted in Best Subscription Boxes

Liz Cadman

Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She's been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

Read More By Liz Cadman >

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29 comments

tina m curnutt

I love reading liz’s post.shes actually the reason I started becoming a subscription addict myself..lol.I aleeady do birchbix and ipsy,and now thanks to liz,I know which one I’m going for next! Keep up the great work liz,we ladies need you!

Lucia

The value is different for each person. If I get products for $15 and they would cost $59 retail, and I cannot use any of the samples or products, that is $15 list for me. The value is 0. The value is not always in ROI

Cara

Sorry, but I don’t see the value only in the retail price. I had subs that I didn’t use a thing. That was value lost for me. I don’t care about the retail price as long as I don’t use them and end up in trash. I once had 3 pink lipsticks that no friend wanted them.

Kim

great idea. My first Allure box was a dud though as the cleaner’s batteries were dead. I’ve had no response from Allure 🙁

Chelsea

My allure/foreo was a bust -mine worked five times. I was singing it’s praises, and then nada…
Allure did not care and Foreo–well, I haven’t heard back form them…

I had the same results ?

lauren

Call/email Foreo directly.

Chelsea

I tried thru their website and yet to be successful. Did you have success your exchanging yours? Would love to know the percentage of non-working foreo’s and who had success at getting a new one.

Jenn

This is awesome! Is there a way to do the same for the vegan beauty boxes as well? Thanks for all you do! Also, I think it is incredible to read follow-up comments by you, Eric, Haley and everyone at MSA. It is nice to know a website is run by people who appreciate their readers!!!

jes

I Love my VEGAN CUTS beauty box!! I’m not vegan, but I feel really good about putting vegan/cruelty free things on my body. Great value. Many full sized products. 5-7 products/month. Peace of mind. Smaller, lesser known companies sometimes, but deserving they’re of my $$!! $23.95/month (monthly subscription price) worth an avg. of $70-75+. Return investment: 300ish% (more w/ annual subscription!)
<3 your reviews. Keep it up!!
-Jes

Lee

Maybe you can do some kind of list of highly customizable sub boxes? Like Julep, Beauty DNA, and SHtrands? There have to be more out there than those right?

Liz Cadman

Thanks, Jenn!! 🙂 And I like the vegan beauty box suggestion!

Blondie

Me too! 🙂

Ann

I’m subscribed to every one except BeautyFix. Hmmm. 😀

Lee

Yeah… Me too. Oh… wait. I do not have FFF either. At least not yet.

Nichelle

Great article, thanks for the roundup of the best value for your money. I love my FabFitFun Box, Birchbox, PopSugar and the Target Box when I’m able to purchase one. Such great gifts from products that were a miss for me and practical items that are a staple for my beauty routine and new add on items that have made there home in my vanity.

Mallory

I absolutely love my FabFitFun boxes! I get SOOOO much value for my money, which means I get high-value items to swap with (:D) AND some of the stuff makes amazing gifts!

Joni

Thanks Liz! I really enjoyed reading through the comparisons. Plus, it’s a nice reminder of what a great value these boxes are, especially if you are bummed about a certain box during an “off month” where you aren’t thrilled with the curation. (oh well, it happens.)

Great article 🙂

Nicole

I have sent this article to so many friends and family members that keep asking me , “What sub box is the best deal , which one should I start with ?” It is so hard to tell someone because everyone is different , but this article makes it so easy ! Thank you Liz!!!! I love your site and read all the reviews and am growing my box list every month! Now I am
able to help my friends get some great Value boxes also! Your the best !

Liz Cadman

Thank you so much! So happy to hear this post is helpful! 🙂

Krista

Great post Liz, thanks! 🙂

I guess it’s just preference but I LOVE Birchbox. I rarely see an Ipsy box that makes me wish I subscribed, and if I do see one, it almost certainly belongs to a blogger. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing Play for a while but honestly I have more than enough “stuff” as it is. It’s not like I even NEED Birchbox, but I really enjoy it, and as you mentioned, the points system is killer. I mean, I’m 60% to having paid for the box just for doing my reviews and doing a share via the app.

Max

I agree about Birchbox — points system is killer!!

How do you get points sharing via the App? I miss the extra 10 points from sharing on twitter.

Krista

I have a link at the bottom of my box page on the app.

Krans

i feel like ipsy and boxycharm both use a lot of “subscription box-only” brands with terribly inflated values.

Joy

I agree, and I also think that PSMH and FFF have some items with really inflated retails and they also sometimes count gift cards towards the value, even though most the time they are more like coupons since you have to spend money to use them. I still get and like most of these subs, but I don’t think that the value is as great as the numbers suggest when you look at real prices for comparable items.

Kim H.

This is a great post, Liz! Thanks for doing all that math lol. Interesting to see Ipsy and Sephora Play! on here, but not Birchbox. I have been so much happier with Play than I was with Birchbox.

Liz Cadman

Birchbox tends to have a lower value compared to Ipsy, but with their rewards system I think they are a great value. (Maybe I’ll add Birchbox as a bonus box on this list!)

Darcy

I think you should incorporate the $5 credit into the Birchbox value when conducting any of these reviews. At the end of the day, they are giving you an additional $5 for reviewing products, so that should come into play when evaluating the value of the box. They may have to have a lower overall value of the samples to account for this. IMO, that $5 each month to purchase full size products of my choosing makes the box way more valuable than Ipsy, etc.

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The 9 Highest Value Subscription Boxes for Women!

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