I never really realised how much demand and hype there is around beauty till I joined Instagram. Yes you may be asking, is she crazy…? Don’t get me wrong I completely knew that us ladies love our make up, but I feel beauty and its marketing has reached new heights since I was first introduced to make up and potions and lotions as a child.

I as most women love the thought of treating myself every once in a while to a luxury beauty product and the choice is endless, which can make choosing and trying out items very expensive if they don’t suit you, and believe me everyone is different and one size does not fit all when it comes to beauty. I have seen more and more about monthly beauty box subscription services recently.  To a beauty freak like me this sounded like Heaven.  In the past I have bought the You Beauty Advent Calendar which they release every Christmas and was so impressed that the thought of getting treats each month was too good to turn down. So off I went to do some research and my gosh there is a selection of treats out there. I purchased one of each of the most popular beauty boxes around and reviewed them for you. In this post you will find all you need to know about the best in beauty boxes.

I will be doing a series of follow up posts which will review each of the products within the boxes.  But that is far too much to put in one post 🙂

So first up is a company called Latest in Beauty.  This is the only box that does not have a monthly subscription.  There are 2 choices with Latest in Beauty, a build your own box service or a buy a collection service. I decided to try both.  I had been seeing a number of beauty bloggers ordering the Glamour edit box, which is one of the Latest in beauty collections for July. It contains 9 products one of which is a lipstick from the new Illamasqua Glamore nude collection, and at £16.95 that is less than if you were to buy the lipstick from Illamasqua.  There are a number of other collections that they have which can be see one their website.

Packaging for Glamour edit box

As you can see its a pretty packed box and there are some seriously fantastic products included perfect for summer. I will be doing a detailed review of this box and the others over the coming days so keep a look out if your interested in detailed reviews of the products.

Inside the Glamour edit box

I was so impressed with the selection of items in this box, all of which are full sizes and can be bought individually for a lot more than the cost of the box.  It is a limited edition box so be sure to snap it up now before it’s too late. The second of the Latest in Beauty boxes I tried was the build your own box.  This option allows you to select from a number of different products of which have an individual price and are full sized.  I picked three items from their current selection which can be seen below.

Latest in Beauty – Build your own box

It comes in a nice sleek black box, and all items were packed safely, although I have a bit of OCD when it comes to the packaging of liquids and when I opened the box ad the thought ‘what if the oil had leaked’ lol.

Inside my Latest in beauty build your own box.

I chose items that I knew I would use, which is the great thing about the Latest in Beauty service, you always no what you will be getting, no element of surprise, which to some is great and to others is boring. Generally I think these boxes and items are really well priced and you do get to put information in about your hair, skin and eye colouring so that where there is a choice they will try to send items matching your skin tone and your preferences.

Next up is the Birch box which was formally known as Jolie Box.  The Birch box service is a true monthly subscription service which has 3 different subscription options. All details can be found on their website.  I chose the £10 rolling monthly contract which can be cancelled at any time previous to the next box being dispatched. They also have option to buy products individually from their online shop.

You are able to give details about your Beauty profile which in theory means where there are options they will try to tailor make your Birch box, which i will discuss in detail a little further.

The packaging is simplistic and all the items come in a small pull bag as can be seen below.

Birch Box packaging

So when I opened up my box there was a whole load of marketing material inside the box, which tells you about the products etc, as in the Glamour box.

The box contained 6 items, of which I was pretty happy with overall.

Inside July’s Birch Box

So after doing a bit of research into the items I found that again this was a pretty good deal for £10, the lip lube from Laqa & Co retails for about £14 I believe and so you get your moneys worth in one item. I was a little miffed when I started to see others posting their items and in some there was polish included instead of the Vita Coca drink. Maybe it was my age profile that selected this box for me, who knows. You get a mixture of full sized and small size items within this box.  Overall a pretty good box with some good brands signed up.

Next up is the Glossy Box which I believe started in the US, which is clear to see with the brands who are signed up.  So this box was a themed 4th of July box and came in some really nice packaging.

Glossy Box packaging

Now I am a sucker for nice packaging so was very pleased when I opened this box up.  It contains info about each of the products of which most are full size, and also gives prices for the items if you were to buy them individually from the retailers.  Again with this box the lipstick itself was worth more than the box as a whole.

There are a number of different options for subscription with each one saving you a little more dependent on how long you subscribe for. All the option can be found on their website.  I chose the £10 rolling monthly contract for this again, which you are able to cancel whenever you choose. They also have a number of limited edition boxes available at different times throughout the year that you do not require a monthly subscription for.

In total there were 5 products inside, 4 of which are full size, big plus point.

Inside the Glossy box

Yay I got polish.  The box was great and I was very impressed with the brands and the sizes and obviously the price.  Again I will be doing a full review of all the products in the coming days.

Lastly and sadly I would have to say least is the You Beauty discovery box. I was so disappointed with this box and there were a number of reasons why.  The subscription service only has one option which is a £6.95 per month.  They also have limited edition boxes available which I would say are better value, as you know what you are getting.

So you get to select 2 items each month. When I went to select my choices I found quite a few of the items were already out of stock, which was very disappointing and so I had to select items I didn’t really want 😦 I assume if I was earlier in selecting that there would have been more choice.

The box itself is small and compact as compared to some of the other, and that’s probably down to the fact that the items are very much sample size.

You beauty discovery packaging.

Again you get info as with all the other boxes on the actual items.  Now when I actually saw I products I was not impressed at all.  After having purchased the advent calendar I had high hopes for this box.  The other items are apparently selected at random, and random it was with one item.

Inside the You Beauty Box

There were 5 samples inside the box. And they very much are samples which was the first disappointing thing, the second was the fact they sent me Dove for men pro moisture shave cream….Urmmmmm I’m pretty sure in my profile it stated I was a Miss.  I actually contacted them about this to say I would not be continuing my membership and the reason they gave was that the Dove for men item was inside everyone’s box.  Oh dear major put off me thinks.  I will stick to the limited edition and advent calendar.  Sorry You Beauty you just don’t meet up to the expectations I have for a monthly beauty box.

Overall I was very impressed with the variety on offer and of course it was like being in a sweetie shop for me 🙂  From my experience I think I will be continuing with my Glossy box  subscription and also keeping an eye out for the products and limited edition boxes from Latest in Beauty.  Keep a look out for my detailed reviews of the products over the coming days.

Thanks for reading xxx