The Best Beauty Subscription Boxes of 2026

While I was testing, this box, “curated by Allure editors,” included eight full-size and sample-size makeup and skincare products from high-end, drugstore, and indie brands. In the included pamphlet, each editor explains why they love the product they chose and tips they have on using it, which I think is a great and unique touch. In my experience, a single full-size product in this box costs more than the monthly subscription, making it a great value. You can subscribe to this box monthly for $23 a month or $250 a year ($20.83 per box).

If you value variety over full-size items, I’d go with this box, as it includes a wider range of brands than the Dermstore Beauty Fix and contains three more products than Boxycharm.

The only drawback of the Allure box is that it’s not the easiest to cancel. In the fine print of your confirmation email, you’ll see that it tells you to call or email customer service to cancel, but it does not generate an automatic reply when you click the email button, nor does it tell you what information to include in the email to customer service.

At the time of publication, Allure announced that upcoming boxes will cost $8 more per month (making it $23) and include six products or more (rather than eight) products with at least three full-sized ones—all of which should value at $100. We’re testing the “major upgrade” and will update this article once we receive two additional boxes.

In a small makeup bag no bigger than a pencil case, the Ipsy Glam Bag includes five full- and sample-size products in the makeup and skincare categories. Instead of the bag arriving in a box, it’s inside a pink bubble wrap envelope with any products that don’t fit inside the bag loose in the pouch (I received a makeup brush that didn’t fit, for example). I liked the no-frills packaging, which differed from the tissue paper or confetti-filled boxes I’d received from other brands on this list.

I recognized some of the brands as ones carried at Sephora or Ulta, but I also received ones I hadn’t heard of, like Estate Cosmetics or Jonteblu (both available on the companies’ respective sites, on Ipsy’s site, or on Amazon). About two of these products is equal to the cost of the monthly subscription, which is the cheapest on this list.

This bag is also a great option for beginners, as it gives tips on how to use the products and mostly everything, including the full-size items, are small enough to fit in the pouch, so you don’t need to dedicate much room to your new collection of beauty products.

You can subscribe to this box for $12 monthly or $132 yearly (averaging $11 per box). This box is easy to cancel—which I imagine some might do sooner than others, if you don’t need any more makeup bags. But like Boxycharm, you need to pay close attention, as the buttons about pausing the membership are more prominent than the ones to continue the cancelation. Then, once you’ve navigated the cancelation process on the site, you have to confirm it in your email.

Despite the Petit Vour Vegan Beauty Box’s name, I didn’t expect this box to be so petite. The 6.5-by-4.5-inch box comes with a helpful card that describes the four products inside and provides the dollar value of each one. The skincare, haircare, makeup items are nestled inside paper confetti, which makes for a cute display that’s easy to dispose of.

Each month, you’ll receive four full- or mini-sized products valued over $50 total from brands that claim to be “non-toxic,” “cruelty-free,” and vegan. In the two months I received the box, I saw brands like Earthwise Beauty, Rahua, Andalou Naturals, Elate Cosmetics, Derma-E, and Three Ships and products such as a face serum, hair mask, eyeliner, and cleanser. While I recognize some of the brands, I wasn’t thrilled by the products I received—I would prefer high-end brands you’d find at Sephora or Ulta. Still, the products matched my preferences. For example, I noted that I prefer black eyeliner over other colors, so that’s what I received. The survey process was also easy and as in-depth as it needed to be without going overboard—it took about five minutes or less. The cancellation process was also simple.

What I enjoyed most about this box was its commitment to minimal packaging, its variety of product types that target each part of my beauty routine, and the explainers of each item with notes of the price. You can get this box for $18 a month in the U.S. with the ability to cancel any time or $15 per month ($180 a year) for a year-long lock-in.

The Dermstore Beauty Fix box offers a mix of “6+” full- and sample-size products—all of which are from high-end or very well-known brands, such as Nuori, Vichy, Bioderma, and Skinceuticals. If the two boxes I received are any indication of a pattern, the full-size item retails for much more than the cost of the box, making the box feel like a steal.

The box claims to include skincare, hair care, and makeup, but I only received the two out of those three in both of my boxes—of the 12 items in my two boxes, I got only skincare items, with the exception of a very small hair product sample. You’re unable to customize this box either by general preferences or by selecting specific items: Every customer who orders this box receives the same items, “handpicked by a team of beauty pros.” Other boxes, like Boxycharm, vary slightly from person to person depending on preferences. The only subscription plan for this box is monthly and it costs $24.95 per box.

If you frequently shop at Dermstore, you’ll love this box because you’ll recognize all the brands and be able to buy them again on your favorite site. In the event that you don’t love the box, or decide you have too many products—if that’s even possible!—this is very easy to cancel, with only a few steps on the Dermstore site.

Though it’s toward the bottom of this list, Birchbox is not a bad option—just not the best. The customizable box includes six makeup, skincare, and hair care products in mostly sample sizes. The customization process includes a not-very-detailed survey. Given that I love beauty products, this box didn’t miss the mark, but it didn’t feel tailored specifically to me—maybe because the survey didn’t ask me a lot about my preferences, so I assume Birchbox can’t tailor it to me.

About two products are equal to the price of the subscription, so it’s on par with the Ipsy Glam Bag and Glossybox. However, Birchbox doesn’t have any instructions or tips for some products and very vague tips for some, like, “apply as the last step of your skincare routine,” that won’t help a beginner.

A monthly subscription box costs $15 per box, a six-month plan costs $14 per box, and 12 months costs $13 per box. It's really easy to find the cancel button on the site and once it’s clicked, it asks you why you're leaving, and then it says you're canceled.

Glossybox includes six skincare, makeup, and hair care items in full and sample sizes. I liked that this box evenly balanced skin, hair, and makeup products, but I wished there was a better variety of brands. I can find some of the products I received at the drugstore (e.g., a dry shampoo from Psssst! and a lip balm from Freeman). But I hadn’t previously heard of other brands in the box (Jecca Blac and Codex Beauty, to name a couple) and a Google search indicates that I can’t buy them at high-end stores like Sephora or drugstores.

I had to add the prices of two to three products to equal the subscription fee, but that’s still a deal, considering you get six products in total. One area this box stands out is that it gives specific instructions on how to use the products in the box. Boxycharm and Dermstore don’t give any information on how to use the products beyond what’s printed on the bottles, and Allure only tells you how that one specific editor uses it. For someone who wants to spruce up their vanity but could use some extra information and instructions for better results, this box is a great option.

The box also allows some customization, but if you opt not to complete your profile, you’ll receive whatever items Glossybox puts in there. A monthly subscription costs $21 per box, a three-month subscription requires one upfront payment of $58.50 ($19.50 per box), a six-month subscription requires one upfront payment of $111 ($18.50 per box), and a 12-month subscription costs one upfront payment of $210 or recurring payments of $17.50 per month.

If you want out of your subscription, you need to click a few buttons to navigate to the cancelation page from the Glossybox home page, but once you do, the click of a single button cancels your subscription with zero follow-up questions or unnecessary hoops to jump through.

Unlike all of the other boxes on this list, FabFitFun expands beyond beauty into fashion, fitness, decor, and more. When I took the extremely detailed, lengthy survey, I put an emphasis on my interest in beauty products, as I wanted to see the brand’s best offerings in that category and see how it stacks up amongst the beauty-only boxes on this list.

This box disappointed me the most, as all of the products in it, beauty included, looked like ones I could find at T.J. Maxx. I’m a Maxxinista, so this is not a bad thing, but I point this out not to say that it means the brands aren’t valuable, but that I could get them at already-low prices elsewhere. Still, the pamphlet that comes with the box lists some products as retailing for upwards of $100. Besides my perceived value (which doesn’t match the pamphlet), I would never buy some of the products, like a bracelet that wasn’t my taste or a gimmicky-sounding hair oil that claims to relieve stress.

If this included more well-known beauty brands and the other included products were fun extras that suited my style, I would have felt comfortable recommending it as a beauty box with bonuses worth the higher price tag, but instead, I’d say skip this.