Battle of the Boxes

In corner #1 we have... Glossybox weighing in at $21 for a Monthly Subscription, $60 for 3-Month Subscription, $115 for 6-Month Subscription, or $220 for 12-Month Subscription.  With Glossybox, you receive 5-6 products of luxury brands, with at least one of them being a full size item.  For example, in my April Glossybox I received three full size items- a Bvlgari tea bag for the bath, a lip balm, and Tigi blush.  The blush alone retails for $22, and the total value of the full size items in the box was $35.15, plus I got three other samples with two of them being deluxe sizes.  My May Glossybox was an even better value with two full size products with a combined retail value of $43.99.  They usually include some kind of discount coupon or voucher as well.  March's Glossybox had a $40 gift certificate to a bath product website!

May 2013 Glossybox Subscription

This box is the last of my monthly subscriptions to arrive each month, usually in the last few days of the month or within the first week of the following month.  This box comes with a mini magazine with lots of information on products you can purchase through their website, but honestly I've never read it.  I do think it's a nice touch though.  Every month as well they have a nice deluxe size postcard with the product images, full size pricing, and descriptions.  It's nice to keep track of what I've received each month, so when I use a product and want to purchase more, I remember which subscription box it came from.  Also super handy for writing reviews!

The Glossybox is also beautifully packaged every month.  It comes in a gorgeous sturdy pink box that makes organizing my makeup collection so easy!  I can use the lid to keep small items from rolling around in the drawer, and the larger deeper box part to stand up bottles or hold my individual eyeshadows, concealers, etc.  I love the nice touch of the tissue paper and wrapped with a ribbon, too.

In corner #2 there is... BeautyBox5 weighing in at $12 for a Monthly Subscription, $30 for a 3-Month Subscription, or $99 for a 12-Month Subscription (Best Value, saves you $45!).  With BeautyBox5, you receive 4-5 products, with most of them being sample packets or deluxe size samples.  I have received full size items, but they have been increasingly less value each month.

BeautyBox5 May 2013 Subscription Box

This is always my first box to arrive each month.  It also comes with a nice card with the images of the products and their retail values.  I was really excited in April for my first month when I received a total value of $26.68.  That was more than double my subscription price (I do the quarterly, so I only pay $10 a month), and I got a full size lip pencil, brush hanger, and packet of blotting papers.  May the value shrunk to $18.00 with the only full size item being an eyeliner.  Still, it was almost double what I'd paid, so it was a very good box.  June's value dropped to even further with what I'm assuming is a full size loose mineral eyeshadow valued at $7.99.  The rest is deluxe size samples of shampoo, conditioner, and Aveeno sunscreen and then some coupons of I want the purchase the sample products at full size.  There were also two single use samples of a body bronzer.

This comes in a cute teal cardboard box with shredded raffia inside, but it gets thrown away when I'm done.  This is the least useful packaging, as it offers me no reusable box or bag to keep makeup in.

In corner #3 check out... Beauty Army weighing in at $12 for a Monthly Subscription.  With Beauty Army, you receive 6 products that you choose each month, with most of them being samples.  They do have full size items, but they don't have a lot of them.  You can "control" the value of your box by choosing as many of the full size as they have, but again out of the 8-9 products to choose from each month there aren't a lot of full size options.  I've gotten full sizes of the mark. Scanda-lash mascara by Avon in both a black and a brown, but the full size of these items are the equivalent of a deluxe sample size.  They are meant to hook together with other tiny sizes for convenient travel.  My most valuable box was April where I got another Scanda-lash mascara along with a $17 multi-use cream color and a $17.99 can of dry shampoo.  May was another mark. hook up product (at least it was a gloss this time) and a full size lipgloss which you can't buy on their website (so it has no retail value b/c I've never heard of this brand).  It does seem to recycle a lot of the sample options between months, which is a bit frustrating if they are things that do not interest me but could be awesome for people who love those items and want to stock up on travel sizes.

Beauty Army April 2013 Subscription Box

This is a tie with IPSY on the second box to arrive each month, usually the second or third week of the month.  I have to look up online the products and their information/retail values if I want to know more about the product.  However, their website is highly interactive with the ability to earn several rewards for participation such as a free box for referring three people to sign up, a free month for making three full size product purchases, $6 off full size orders for submitting 6 reviews of products on the site, or $15 off a full size order when you complete 5 surveys.  Also, when you receive three consecutive months of boxes, they will give you an online voucher for $10 off a $50 full size order, but they do expire quickly.  I'm not sure if the discounts can be stacked, or if they are only able to be used one at a time for an order.  They also do give you the option of skipping a month if your budget is thin.

The box is super handy for organizing my makeup though.  Some months it's pink, others it's black, which goes perfectly with my makeup studio theme/colors.  There's a card sitting right on top that says "Hello Gorgeous!", and it's a cute touch that brings a smile to my face every month when I open it.

And finally in corner #4 stands... IPSY weighing in at $10 for a Monthly Subscription.  With IPSY, you receive 4-5 products plus a cosmetic bag, with most of them being full size of drugstore price range items and the rest deluxe size samples.  Sometimes there are more expensive brands like a Zoya nailpolish or a gloss from Juice Beauty.  You cannot buy directly from IPSY's website, but they usually have a coupon code for each product they send with a big discount.  My June bag had a total retail value of $43.49 on the full size products! That's four times my subscription price!

May 2013 IPSY Subscription Box

Some months this is here the second week of the month, others it arrives the third week of the month.  I usually see posts by others much earlier than I receive it with what's inside, but those are typically people living on the west coast.  It's hard not to ruin the surprise, and I have to stay away from the website so that I don't see the list of items.  I like to be surprised!

IPSY has a very interactive website, the most interactive of all the boxes listed.  There is no charge for being a member of the website either.  You can earn free bonus products in your monthly bags by getting others to sign up as well.  There are tons of reviews, blogs, curated looks, and youtube videos on the bags themselves as well as how to use the products.

This comes in a hot pink bubble envelope rather than a box, but the samples come in a super cute cosmetic bag.  This makes is super convenient for taking my makeup with me, and I even use on in my purse to organize my business cards and keep my square reader and pen together so all my business supplies are in one place when meeting with clients.  I use another to keep my makeup products from rolling around in the bottom of my giant "mom bag".

And the winner is....  It's a dead tie between Glossybox and IPSY.  I really love the Glossybox packaging and the quality of the brands included in it's products.  However, the best overall value is IPSY every month.  You just can't beat four times the value.  They both have ways to earn free products or boxes, and they both have great packaging that's reusable.

I already do my monthly Glossybox reviews, but I'm going to start doing them monthly for each of these four brands, since there's something about each one to appeal to all the consumers out there.  Whether you want to spend only $8.25 a month with BeautyBox5, or you want luxury brands with Glossybox for $18.33 a month (both prices are for yearly subscriptions), or you love the full size products value and interactive features of an IPSY subscription, I want to share these amazing brands with you!  If you are looking to sign up for one (or more like me!) of these subscription boxes, I'd love if you'd use the links I've used in this blog article to help support my blog.  This way I can continue to receive the boxes either for free or at a significant discount and have more awesome products to review.  Plus, I plan on doing some gift subscription giveaways at  the end of the summer!

Do you subscribe to any of these brands?  If so, I'd love to hear your feedback and experiences with the brands and the products.  Who do you love?  Who do you dislike?  Let's share!