Best beauty subscription boxes, ranked by a beauty expert

Much like Liberty’s famed Tudor-style building is a Regent Street focal point, the retailer’s monthly subscription was the highlight of all the boxes I delved into. As anyone who’s ever purchased a Liberty beauty advent calendar knows, the brand has its finger firmly on the cosmetics pulse. With that in mind, subscribers can expect a luxurious selection of trending brands and product categories.

In my box I was treated to a Liberty-print make-up bag and own-brand fragrance sample, a Sisley velvet sleeping mask (£115 for a full size, Libertylondon.com), a Wild Source cleansing balm, a Fugazzi perfume and – my personal favourite – an Augustinus Bader retinol serum. Take the Sisley, Wild Source and AB, and you’ve got yourself a premium travel skincare routine, not to mention the make-up bag was exclusive to subscribers.

The best part of Liberty’s offering? When you boil it down, it only costs around £5 per month. This is because beauty drop subscribers will receive £20 of Liberty credit on their account each month. With the subscription costing £25 (or £20 for the first three months – use code BEAUTYDROP20), that essentially means you can reclaim 80 per cent of your spending in cosmetics value.

If it weren’t for the high price, I’d say the Mintd box would have been my pick of the lot, with formulas any skincare buff can only dream of getting their hands on. From Sunday Riley to Allies of Skin on the potential product roster, the excitement of what you’ll receive each month is almost too much to bear. I received a heavenly box stocked to the brim with full-size products from MZ Skin, Then I Met You and Tatcha.

I enjoyed the variety of Japanese, British and Korean skincare technology, with the surprisingly gentle nature of Tatcha’s essence (£63, Sephora.co.uk) serving as an excellent evening unwind after a day on the sweaty Tube amid wafts of city pollution.

When it comes to the price, it’s true this Mintd box will set you back a fair amount each month (nearly £100, in fact) but the contents tend to be worth around double (if not more) and I’ve yet to see a filler-type offering in my monthly haul.

This monthly beauty subscription box was an all-round hit, featuring everything from make-up to skincare, including a travel-size version of my current favourite brow pencil: Anastasia Beverly Hills’ brow wiz (£10.40, Lookfantastic.com).

A Wet Brush (£9.59, Lookfantastic.com) was also included and, for those who aren’t familiar, these brushes are a godsend if you suffer tangles and mats. I also received a This Works perfect body smoothing wash (mini included, £16 for full-size, Lookfantastic.com), which is a top pick for rough skin and effortless exfoliation.

I’ve delved into multiple boxes from Lookfantastic’s offering, through both the summer and winter months, and have found there’s always at least one big brand and product to write home about. Admittedly, there are usually some products where popularity has waned (see: Grow Gorgeous and Foreo, above); however, of the retailers and boxes featured, Lookfantastic’s is your best bet for well-known brands at a wallet-friendly monthly price. Especially if you subscribe for 12 months, which guarantees you a lower price of £13.

Much like Roccabox (see below), Glossybox’s beauty selection frequently surprises subscribers with the likes of make-up sponges, shower mitts and scalp massagers for a bit of extra variety.

In the box I received, I was treated to a pair of eco eyelash curlers worth £15. I also unboxed everything from a grüum hydrating facial mist (£5, Grüum.com) to a Neutrogena hydro boost cleanser (£5.99, Amazon.co.uk) – my haul arrived during the height of summer, so this cooling, quenching duo was much appreciated. For everything from timely picks to product diversity, head to Glossybox.

While my Roccabox subscription box contained the likes of Anua and Dr Paw Paw, a quick browse of past offerings from the brand showed a slightly more interesting selection of bath salts, self tan and even Vitabiotics skin supplements (£6.49, Superdrug.com). Realistically, you won’t need a month-after-month supply of products such as moisturiser, so, it’s refreshing to see slightly different formulas on the cards here.

What’s more, Roccabox offers a more premium selection of beauty, with limited edition boxes available to buy as a one-off. If anything, these luxury options are a good indication of which high-end brands subscribers might hope to see sprinkled throughout their £18 boxes – so, here’s hoping for Zelens and Disciple minis going forward.

Korean skincare – or K-skincare for true beauty buffs – has cemented itself in the beauty world. So, if you’re already all over Korean beauty brands or simply fancy testing the waters, this subscription box may be for you. Housing between four and six products and, in my experience, a glut of full-sizes, Skin Cupid focuses on introducing the best Asian beauty brands to its customers, with monthly or bi-monthly boxes of goodies – there’s everything from skincare to haircare up for grabs.

The box I received contained entirely full-sizes, including two sheet masks, a sunscreen from Purito, a Nacific serum, an Arencia cleanser and a Medicube serum mist. With a mix of buzzy brands and products I’d never seen before, Skin Cupid’s offering is an incredibly exciting concept for any cosmetics fan.

If your focus is fine lines, be it products to help minimise and blur or make-up that simply doesn’t accentuate them, you couldn’t find a better subscription than Toyl. Founded by Karen Davis – an ex-beauty PR – Toyl stands for time of your life and was designed to address a gap in the cosmetics market for women over 30.

Comprising products that complement everything from menopause side effects to midlife weight gain (according to Davis), Toyl’s monthly subscription sits at a mid-range price and features a mix of low, mid-range and high-end brands to reflect that.

While Gatineau, Revlon and The Organic Pharmacy were the stars of my box, past editions have featured brands such as Shiseido, Emma Hardie and Redken. Skincare is arguably the focal point, but you can expect a spattering of make-up, haircare and bodycare, too.

If you’re an avid TikTok scroller, then you’ll be well aware of P. Louise, but if you’re seldom on social media, you might not have come into contact with the viral, maximalist brand. Bringing the flair of 2016 make-up artistry together with playful body care scents and skincare textures, P. Louise has been a huge hit since its launch in 2018.

Specifically, the cutesy products have proved popular with teens, and my subscription box was a perfect pick for those making their first foray with cosmetics.

Inside, I found a trio of blush ‘stix’, three eyeliner pencils, a hand cream keyring and an enormous palette of eyeshadows and bronzers. If you’re a fan of make-up experimenting, you couldn’t do better than P. Louise’s selection. The monthly hauls are tailored to the season both from a colour perspective (my eyeshadows spanned a range of autumnal browns, oranges and forest greens) and in terms of product suitability. In the January 2026 box, for instance, the formulas address the cold, drying weather with a lip serum, nourishing cleanser and skin sleeping mask.

If you’re not familiar with Beauty Pie, now’s the time to get familiar. It started in 2016 as a way to obtain your favourite premium formulas without the designer mark-ups – promising its members the same suppliers as leading cosmetics companies. For instance, the super healthy skin cleansing balm (from £18, Beautypie.com) could be obtained as an alternative to the Elemis pro-collagen cleanser. Eight years on, Beauty Pie has gained gravitas, and the super healthy skin formula (to name just one example) is now seen as a top-notch product in its own right, Elemis comparisons aside.

Being a Beauty Pie member costs from £29 per year and means, in some instances, saving yourself more than £50 an item, and you can do so on everything from body wash to anti-ageing serums. I tested the brand’s super healthy skin body creme (from £19, Beautypie.com) and Japanfusion cleanser (from £10, Beautypie.com) – to name a couple – with both leaving my skin feeling comforted and looking glowy.

Estrid came onto the shaving scene in 2019, initially beginning its body care life as Hey Estrid. Now, it’s quite the established brand, offering customers everything from five-blade razors (£7.95, Estrid.com) to wax kits (£7.45, Estrid.com) and shave gel (£4.95, Estrid.com). The appeal? You can personalise the frequency of your replacement blade delivery (every one, two or three months) and never suffer the consequences of an old, hair-clogged blade again.

I tested the body blade – Estrid offers blades for the face, too – alongside the everyday body lotion (£6.95, Estrid.com). While the five-blade head is certainly sharp, it also caused a handful more cuts than my usual Wilkinson Sword. The aesthetics are second to none and I can certainly see the appeal but, for the same price (£10.95/month) as my current pack of high-street blades, I’ll need a little convincing.

A great pick for those with acne-prone skin, Skin + Me provides personalised prescription skincare with ingredients such as clindamycin (an antibiotic) to help with painful blemishes, skin bumpiness and the like. The brand’s offering can be tailored to every skin type and comes delivered in a nifty twist-up vial that perfectly doses your daily application, taking the guesswork/risk out of stronger ingredients such as tretinoin (the highest strength of topical vitamin A).

I tested my personalised formula for six weeks – the minimum period the brand recommends you stick with it – and, while I saw no major improvements, I’ve encountered plenty of beauty writers completely enamoured by the service. My advice? For those really suffering from adult acne, Skin + Me could be your solution and is essentially a treatment bridge between you and that long dermatologist’s waitlist. As for minor blemishes and blackheads, I’d give over-the-counter skincare a whirl first.