How often do you update your beauty routine? Subscription boxes like Kinder Beauty and Birchbox send monthly shipments of beauty items straight to your door. These services can introduce you to new brands, product types and even ingredients. After keeping your subscription for a while, you can build out a decent beauty collection and learn a lot about your own preferences. You can get started finding your ideal beauty routine with some of these services.
Birchbox sends 5 monthly selections based on your beauty profile. They’re almost always sample sizes, with the occasional full-size product. In your beauty profile, you can mention the kind of products you want, your skin and hair type, and more. Kinder Beauty gives you access to a curated selection of ethical products, but doesn’t offer personalization. If you’re just starting out with beauty products, Birchbox will help you get an idea of what is best for your needs.
How Do They Work
Both of these are monthly subscription boxes, but Birchbox asks subscribers to fill out a beauty survey. That survey helps the company match products to your beauty profile. Kinder Beauty doesn’t offer customization options, so it has a faster signup process.
Birchbox
When you first sign up for Birchbox, there’s a short quiz about your preferred beauty style, whether it’s totally glam or completely minimal. During the quiz, you can choose which item types to receive in your boxes. The options are bath and body items, makeup, skincare, beauty accessories, and hair care.
Birchbox will choose items for you each month, and your first box will arrive about 10 days after you place your order. After you sign up, you’ll continue to get monthly shipments until you cancel or pause your subscription. It’s easy to cancel your membership online, which is a bonus.
Kinder Beauty
Kinder Beauty offers monthly subscriptions, but you can sign up for 3 months or 6 months at a time for a small discount and a free extra beauty box.
After you sign up, you’ll get boxes on a monthly basis. Kinder Beauty was founded by actresses Daniella Monet and Evanna Lynch. They test products themselves, making the final selections of what goes in Kinder boxes. Each product is assessed for its ability to meet their standards, and it gets bonus points for sustainable packaging and other environment-conscious features.
If you want to cancel, you can do so by accessing the Manage My Subscription tab on their website. It’s a fairly straightforward process.
Pros/Cons
Birchbox is designed to introduce users to products they can incorporate into a daily routine. Kinder Beauty is ideal for people passionate about animal rights and environmental issues, in addition to beauty.
Birchbox
Pros:
- Customized samples
- Variety of product types
- Convenient to buy full-size version of your samples
All sample selections are based on your beauty profile, which lets the company know what item types you want, your skin type, and hair type. The customization feature keeps products relevant to your actual needs and interests, so you can find new favorite items. For example, you won’t receive tons of hair products if you let them know all you want is low-key makeup.
There are plenty of product types available through Birchbox, and you might even discover new ones. When I tried it, they sent me a cleansing oil, which I’d never used before, but now I might be a convert.
Birchbox’s samples are meant to offer you just a taste of products you might like, aside from the occasional full-size item they include. The company makes it easy to find full-size versions of anything from your boxes. Just visit the “My Boxes” section on their website and you can look through items you’ve received in previous boxes. You can see a full description of your items and a link to add the full-size version to your cart.
Cons:
- Small sample sizes
- Some items come in all boxes, whether you want them or not
The sample sizes tend to be very small, especially when it’s a high-end beauty company. Some are as small as 3 grams
Sometimes Birchbox includes special items in all boxes, and there’s no way to opt out if you’re not interested. November’s jade roller, for example, might not be useful for all subscribers, but it’ll take up a slot in your box anyway.
Kinder Beauty
Pros:
- High standards for their products
- Eco-friendly packaging
- Great value
Each item from Kinder Beauty is tested thoroughly by the founders, and they only include items that can fully live up to their main three standards. They look closely at the ingredients, cosmetics testing process, and even the packaging before deciding to include a product in the Kinder box.
Boxes and plastic packaging from subscription services can be a huge source of waste, and Kinder Beauty shows awareness of the problem by using environmentally friendly alternatives. The shipping box is also the box that holds all the items, and it’s made from biodegradable, recyclable cardboard printed with soy ink. Some of the products inside come in recycled or compostable packaging, and there’s much less plastic than in the average subscription box.
Every box comes with at least $75 worth of products, and you can get a value of up to $165 in just one box. Kinder includes at least 2 full-size items in each box, and even the samples tend to be deluxe-sized.
Cons:
- No personalization options
- Two potential boxes each month, but no way to see which one you’ll get
Kinder Beauty doesn’t offer personalization for their boxes, though one of the founders has mentioned it as a future possibility in an interview. Instead, they focus on general products like makeup remover, moisturizers, and face masks.
There are two box variations each month, but subscribers won’t know which one they’re getting until they get them in the mail. I think it would be great if they let users have a choice between boxes, and it would be relatively simple to make this change. It wouldn’t require a more intense matching service or customization algorithm.
How Much Do They Cost?
Birchbox
Birchbox costs $15 per box for 5 to 6 products, and they’re generally all samples. The service will include the occasional extra or full-size product. You can save some money by getting a six month subscription at $14 per box, or an annual subscription for $13 per box.
Birchbox has an online store, and you can view full-size versions of your products and buy them easily. You can also buy add-ons, which will be shipped for free alongside your monthly subscription box.
Kinder Beauty
A monthly subscription to Kinder Beauty costs $25. If you prepay for 3 months, you’ll pay $24 per month, plus a free bonus box. A 6-month subscription is $23 per box and also comes with a free extra box.
Each box comes with 5 items, for a value of at least $75, but often they’re worth over $100. Kinder Beauty offers the occasional themed box that you can buy as a supplement to your subscription boxes.
What Kind Of Products Do You Get?
Birchbox asks users to fill out a detailed beauty profile, and the service uses those answers to decide what to send you each month. They send sample sizes of a variety of products each month. Kinder Beauty products are “kinder” to the earth, your skin, and animals.
Birchbox
Birchbox carries hair care, fragrance, skincare, bath, and makeup products. Every now and then, they’ll have an item that appears across all boxes, like the jade roller in each box for November. All the items you receive should fit into the categories you’ve selected. They will also be targeted at your main skin issues, or help you create your ideal beauty look. If you select an adventurous style, they’ll send bright colors and eye-catching new formulas.
Birchbox also offers a grooming box targeted at men, and it comes with soaps, shaving creams, and similar products.
Kinder Beauty
The main criteria for Kinder Beauty items is that they must be clean, vegan, and not tested on animals. Kinder Beauty doesn’t currently offer any personalization options. However, most of their products are fairly neutral items like face masks or makeup brushes that any beauty fan can put to use.
Every month, there are two box variations. Subscribers can’t currently select which one they receive. Boxes include makeup, skincare, beauty tools, hair care, and sometimes even grooming items. The company seems to play close attention to user feedback on brands or product types.
As far as brands go, Dirty Lamb seems to be a Kinder favorite, and you can also find brands like Andalou Natural, Inika Organics, and many others.
Final Thoughts
Kinder Beauty helps you learn more about ethical beauty brands, and may introduce you to some new favorites. Each box comes with at least two full-size products, and that adds up to a great value. Eco-conscious people, vegans, and those seeking out natural products will love this subscription.
Personally, I liked Kinder Beauty more. The service is $10 more expensive, but each box comes with 2 or more full-size items. I also liked the eco-friendly packaging, and being able to compost it instead of throwing it in the recycling bin.
If you’re not interested in ethical beauty products, Birchbox’s lower price and personalized selection of samples might be for you. Birchbox is a useful beauty box to get started with beauty or get familiar with the current trends in makeup and skincare. The sample sizes tend to be small, but they’re from high-end skincare brands you might want to invest in. People who want a better idea of what to use on their particular skin and hair will enjoy this option.
