Do you spend hundreds of pounds on buying the best gifts for friends and family each year only to wish that you’d receive some of these lovely things too? Why not treat yourself? You may think – oh, but I love the mystery, the surprise of a gift. Well, there’s no denying that subscription boxes are everywhere and they provide a much-needed weekly, monthly, or quarterly treat just for you and the best part is it’s (mostly) a total surprise. Treat yourself just because. Here’s a list of 16 subscription boxes we’ve compiled just for you.
Beauty boxes
#1 Glossybox (from £12)
Glossybox is a beauty subscription box that gives you five products worth over £50 each month, including makeup, skincare, and tools. Review products for Glossy credit that you can spend at Look Fantastic’s website and you get priority access and discounts for things like their advent calendar and other exclusives. Get your beauty glossified here.
#2 Look Fantastic (from £15)
Look Fantastic comes up with a new theme each month and you can subscribe to their monthly boxes to get six products per month, including makeup and skincare. Like with Glossybox, you get early access and savings on more exclusive products like their advent calendar. Discover more here.
#3 Birchbox (from £14)
Like Look Fantastic and Glossybox, Birchbox contains around six beauty products. With your first purchase, you can choose a Revolution product (from two options) and a tote bag. You fill out a beauty profile and the items are personalised to your preferences but you do get to choose one option per month in the box. Find out more here.
#4 The Vegan Kind (from £12.75)
This box comes with all-vegan products that are a mix of cosmetics, skincare, and beauty products every two months. The boxes arrive on the 10th of each month. They also have a lifestyle version of the box (from £8) that includes yummy vegan treats instead. You can get £5 off your first order here.
#5 FabFitFun (from £50 – with shipping costs)
This beauty, fashion, fitness, wellness, and lifestyle box is a quarterly treat. You get six to eight full-size products worth over £200. You can customise some of your products and the rest are a surprise. You can add extra items for around £10-15 each, the value of the item is listed, and you can subscribe to all four boxes for the year for £147. You’ll have to pay around £10 for shipping to the UK, so it’s a little more expensive. You’ll see brands like Kate Spade, Michael Kors, Isaac Mizrahi, Josie Maran, Prive Revaux, arte, dpHUE, Maji Sports, BB Dakota, alice + olivia, Draper James, Pottery Barn, Milk Makeup, dr. brandt, M·A·C COSMETICS, Murad, Caudalie, NuMe, and more as well as discovering some new luxury brands. Your products may range from high-end cookware, chopping boards, and kitchen utensils to beauty tools and products to tote bags to sunglasses to throw blankets and your new favourite bathrobe. Find out more here.
Side note: I have tried all of these beauty subscription boxes and they are absolutely great. It’s a treat, it’s lots of fun, and it’s exciting getting something arrive through the letterbox each month; however, after about two years of subscribing I had all the makeup products I could ever need (ever – like I’m still using some that were unopened) and then some of the same products kept cycling around.
The products are great for gifting if you don’t want the fifteenth face mask you’ve gotten that year or that tube of eyeliner/mascara/primer, etc that you won’t use because you have five unopened ones lined up. It’s a great way to try products that you wouldn’t otherwise buy or you might want to try but aren’t sure if you’d like them. It’s always exciting when you get a nice makeup brush, blusher, or eyeshadow palette, though (but I wasn’t so keen on the organic slug serum!).
Food boxes
#6 Gousto (from £35 per week)
Gousto is a weekly food box that is customisable. You select two to four options from a menu of over 60 recipes each week and choose to cater for two people or a family. The boxes range in price from £25 to £48, depending on the number of people and the number of meals per week. Delivery is free and each portion ranges from £3 to £7 per meal. You can get 60% off your first order and 30% off any other orders you try that month.
One complaint is that you can’t select three meals (even numbers only) and they do have vegetarian and vegan options but they are limited to about ten to fifteen selections each week. Try it here.
As someone who has tried this box, I really like the recipe folder and the recipe cards and the meals are simple to make. The downside is that when you subscribe to Gousto for a prolonged period, they seem to make the recipes from a key set of ingredients which is great if you’re recreating the recipes but not so great if you want some variety.
#7 Hello Fresh (from £43 per week)
Hello Fresh is another meal subscription box similar to Gousto but the recipes come on paper instead of cards. The meals seem slightly more gourmet and you can get meals for odd numbers of people (two, three, four, five, etc). With Gousto, you can choose up to four recipes per week but you can choose up to six with Hello Fresh. Gousto has free shipping but Hello Fresh charges £5 in shipping costs, making these boxes slightly more expensive – five meals for a family of four can set you back £70 a week. They have more customisable menu options such as veggie, low cal, pescatarian, family, etc with over thirty-seven recipes to choose from each week. The downside is they don’t cater specifically to vegans – some meals are all plant-based but some will contain dairy. Get cookin’ here.
#8 Graze (from £5)
Graze isn’t a full meal box but is instead a healthy snack subscription box where you can order four snacks per box for around £5 per box. The snacks are surprisingly tasty and generally lower on the calorie end (when compared to a bag of crisps or a bar of chocolate for example). They even have a vegan snack box option! Find out more here.
#9 Green Chef (from £45 per week)
Green Chef is a keto-friendly recipe box. They cater for Keto, low carb, flexitarian, vegan, and vegetarian. You can order for two or four people, three or four meals per week. The serving price ranges from around £4 to £6 per serving and shipping costs are around £4. They are carbon and plastic neutral. Go green here.
#10 All Plants (from £60 per week)
As the name suggests, All Plants, is a food box that is all plants so it’s totally vegan friendly. In this box, you build a box of six meals with thirty to choose from. These meals are already prepared so they are an easy and convenient mid-week tea solution. Each portion costs around £5 per portion for two people and £7 per potion for one. A box for one person is around £40 for six meals and six meals for two people with two portions per meal is around £60.
You can pop them in the freezer and heat and eat when you need to! They are nutritionally balanced and easy. It’s like posh vegan ready meals. Find out more here and watch a user review here.
Side note: all of these food subscriptions can be ordered weekly, skipped whenever you need, or ordered and adjusted whenever you like. They are entirely customisable and you get to choose the recipes. It may be fun to subscribe once a month to change up the recipes you eat. Most have apps that make ordering easy and you can read the recipes from the apps or the recipe cards. It’s a fun way to mix it up in the kitchen, especially if you’re getting bored of that same go-to lentil and Quorn spaghetti bolognese that you make each week.
Unique boxes
#11 Best Seller Box (from £13.99)
For those who love reading, choose one or two books per month to enjoy plus each box comes with your choice of ethically-sourced tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, a bookmark, a postcard, and some biscuits. You can get a new book or a pre-loved book (which is cheaper). They also have gluten-free options for the biscuits. Find it here.
#12 Gadget Discovery Club (from £69)
This quarterly subscription box ships every three months and is for the techy gadget lover out there. The subscription claims that every box “will help you upgrade your entertainment, home or lifestyle” so you may get smarthome devices, wearables, music tech, etc – items like blenders, speakers, smartwatches, wireless chargers, electric toothbrushes, teeth whiteners, smart bulbs, smart wallets, etc. The company says that each box is worth £100 or more. You can subscribe for the year for £252 and you will receive one box worth over £200. Find out more here.
#13 Feeling Foxy (from £40)
This adult luxury box comes with a minimum of four items per month and is delivered every two months. The box consists of fabulous “bedroom drawer” pieces for you to try by yourself or with a partner. The items are a mystery and the company guarantees that the cost of the box will be less than the value of the items inside. Spice things up here.
#14 Flaviar (from £109 per year)
This monthly tasting box was bourne from the idea that if you buy an expensive bottle of alcohol and hate it, you’re often disappointed plus the concept that some high-end alcohol is only available in exclusive cities. So, this subscription box allows you to try different spirits each month – with friends or solo – and it comes with a concrete coaster, descriptions of the alcohol and tasting notes, and the smugness of knowing you’re trying the one per cent of spirits without having to purchase a full-sized bottle. The subscription allows you access to tasting boxes, a full-size bottle, and unlimited free shipping on orders, plus educational information. Find out more here.
#15 Bloom and Wild (from £25)
If you want fresh flowers delivered through your letterbox every fortnight, this subscription is for you. You choose the delivery date. You can pause or cancel your subscription at any time. It works by having the company’s florists curate two special season designs every fortnight for you to choose from – seasonal or classic. You get a reminder to choose the style you like best. Then, your flowers arrive with styling and flower arranging tips as well as care tips. Each box is £25 with free delivery. When you sign up, you get 15% off your first three deliveries and a free vase.
Unlike most subscription companies, they have multiple options to choose from including two price points at 3, 6, and 12-month subscriptions (seasonal are a little more pricey). For example, six months of seasonal blooms are £160 and the year is £240. There’s also a three-month house plant option for £90. Get started here.
#16 Treatly (from £53 per month)
For those who want a lingerie subscription box to go with your Foxy one, this Treatly box is delivered each month and you receive a set of something – from a matching bra with briefs, a nightdress, a robe, a camisole with French knickers, etc. The items are valued at £60 or more per month and you can add your preferences (such as you prefer briefs to thongs). They boast an impressive 93 bra sizes and range from 30D up to 38F and from size 8 through to 18.
The brand has great reviews and notes that the lingerie is sexy but comfortable enough to be worn daily – so it’s not like buying something that you will use once or has so much beading that you can’t possibly wear a normal blouse. The brands include Heidi Klum Intimates, French heritage lingerie brand Rosy, Shell Belle Couture, Pleasure State Couture, Frederick’s of Hollywood lingerie, and others. View Treatly’s Instagram product reel here.
You have the option for subscriptions every 3 months (£53 per month) or 6 months (£48 per month). Every set comes in a gift box. Get dressed up here.
Side note: there are loads of subscription options out there and this list is not even the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, but there’s something for everyone and it’s lovely to get a treat that’s out of the ordinary.
The takeaways
From t-shirt subscriptions to hot sauce subscriptions to sock subscriptions (not written about here), there is absolutely a subscription out there for you. Subscriptions feel like giving a present to yourself. Yes, you’re paying for it but you feel like you’re getting good value – and it’s a lovely surprise whether you get treats every few months or every month. The best part is that you can try different ones, cancel the ones you don’t like, or even pause them when you decide that your collection of 532 face creams might not get used this year. Plus, if you do end up with mountains of lovely things, you can always gift them to friends and family and that way everyone gets a treat.
Let us know on Tria’s social media which subscription boxes you love. Are they on our list or did we miss it off?