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The Best Of Subscription Shopping

Gigi Gastevich |
February 14, 2014 | 7:02 p.m. PST

Staff Writer

Birchbox. Twitter, @SocialStylate.
Birchbox. Twitter, @SocialStylate.
Shopping is pretty good all by itself. But shopping at home in your pajamas? Now we’re really talking.

The biggest trend in e-commerce makes shopping the easiest it’s ever been. Product subscription services take virtually all the effort out of discovering and buying great new products. You pay for a regular delivery of items you love, like yummy snacks or nail polish, and then each month a box of goodies hand-selected for you shows up on your doorstep. 

The concept has been made famous in girly circles by Birchbox, a service that delivers a carefully curated package of sample and full-size cosmetics to their subscribers for $10 each month. Entrepreneur.com reports that Birchbox now has 400,000 subscribers, and the company recently added a men’s box to its lineup and expanded into France, Spain and the UK.

But Birchbox is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of subscription services out there, for everything from clothes to coffee. Here’s a roundup of the most useful and innovative boxes for the discerning pajama shopper.

 

Typical Rocksbox haul. Twitter, @TickledPink30.
Typical Rocksbox haul. Twitter, @TickledPink30.

1. Rocksbox, $15/month

Jewelry is trendy and expensive—a terrible combination. Rocksbox solves the problem. You choose your bauble preferences (including favorite styles, colors and metals) and then Rocksbox sends you three pieces of designer jewelry. Then, like the Netflix of accessories, you wear them as much as you want and send them back to receive a new set. You can get as many sets as you want per month, shipping is free, and they won’t penalize you if you break the jewelry. It’s enough reason to never actually buy jewelry again.

 

2. Julep, $19.95/month

Julep is a cosmetics service that focuses on nail polish. Each month, you get 2-3 Julep brand nail polishes and skincare products selected especially for you based on a style quiz. The best part? Julep is all about female empowerment and great design. For instance, it recently partnered with Ideo to design a new type of nail polish brush better for painting with one’s non-dominant hand.

3. Barkbox, $19/month

Barkbox delivers a box of dog “treats, toys, and hygiene products” as often as you and Fido need. Barkbox's Facebook page is a little odd (they caption dog pictures with phonetically-spelled baby talk) but it’s a nice concept, especially for people who often forget to buy new toys for their pets (cough, cough).

A graze nibblebox. Twitter, @HannahDitzel.
A graze nibblebox. Twitter, @HannahDitzel.

4. True & Co., priced by item

Intimates can be really difficult to shop for. True & Co. takes the guesswork (and the hassle) out of finding the perfect bra/panties/little something else. You take an absurdly specific quiz about your chest, then bra specialists will recommend bras just for you: order up to five bras and five…other things, then try them on at home completely free. Send back whatever you don’t like in the included postage-paid envelope, and your credit card will only be charged for what you keep. 

5. graze, $6

Graze is perfect for snackers who want something a little more interesting and healthy than their usual bag of chips. For $6, graze will send you a “nibblebox” of four super-healthy, organic, incredibly yummy snacks. It’s easy to customize your nibblebox by rating each snack online. Bonus points for smartly designed and eco-friendly packaging.

6. Dollar Shave Club, $1, $6, or $9/month

Cute website, cute promo videos, really useful concept: send men a pack of good, affordable razors every month (because no one ever remembers to buy razors.) And the mid-level razor works for ladies, too. You can also add other items like shaving cream to your box for a small additional fee.

Dollar Shave Club goodies. Twitter, @AndyRayCyrus.
Dollar Shave Club goodies. Twitter, @AndyRayCyrus.
7. Juniper, $28/month

“Surfing the crimson wave just got a hell of a lot more fun,” comments Refinery29. I can’t really summarize Juniper better than that. A box of period essentials, from tampons to tea to Midol to chocolate, delivered to your doorstep right before you need it each month in a discreet, unmarked box.

8. Project DIY, $30/month

Famous NYC fashion trimmings store M&J Trimming’s new service delivers a box of jewelry components each month—enough to make three easy runway-inspired jewelry pieces, instructions included. So much fun for the DIY maven, and at $30, a box costs less than three pieces of jewelry.

Gigi Gastevich really likes to shop (at home.) Reach her here.



 

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