By Shelby
Beauty subscription boxes first popped up on my radar a few years ago with the rise of Birchbox, and from the get-go, I was completely intrigued. For a set monthly fee (which varies from $10 to $50, depending on the service), a random assortment of beauty products arrives on your doorstep every 30 days. In other words, it’s basically beauty Christmas. The contents of that box can include everything from product samples to trial-size products to—the holy grail—full-size products. While Birchbox is probably still the best-known player in the subscription box game, a number of different services have sprung up over the years, including Glossybox, Goodebox, Beauty Box 5, Ipsy and Beauty Bar Sample Society.
I’ve been itching to try one of these services for a while, but since transitioning to cruelty-free beauty products a few years back, I wanted to ensure that any monthly beauty booty I received would also be animal-friendly. Enter Vegan Presence, which came recommended on Vegan Beauty Review. Vegan Presence costs $20 per monthly box, and when you sign up, you’re also given a questionnaire to pick preferences so your box will be curated especially for you. Some of the preferences include favorite colors and scents, eye and hair color, food favorites and whether you have pets or children. As these preference choices indicate, Vegan Presence offered a chance to try things a little outside the realm of beauty while sticking to its animal-friendly and indie-business-oriented roots, and in fact, one of my favorite past Vegan Presence picks was a box of super-fragrant and delicious vanilla chai tea.
Here’s what popped up in my box in April. First, this lovely full-size nail polish from Authority Cosmetics in the shade Gumdrop (regularly $14):
A full-size eye shadow from Glamour Doll Eyes in the deep yellow-gold shade Hitch Hiker (regularly $6):
Because my preferences questionnaire revealed that I have a cat, this month’s box included something more her speed—a pack of three Kitty Pucks (regularly $3.95) from Catpods.com (and I totally want to order an Original Catpod now). These are small round toys made of recycled packaging material that are firm enough not to fall apart after repeated scratching, unlike traditional cardboard scratching objects.
My cat sunk her claws and teeth right into the Kitty Puck and proved how much she liked it by scratching the hell out of my hand when I tried to take it back from her so I could photograph it.
The last piece in the box, as a nice Easter tie-in, was a (vegan, non-dairy) chocolate egg filled with smaller eggs that were chocolate-coated and filled with peanut butter. Yum. So yummy, in fact, that I scarfed it all down before I remembered that I should probably keep the label so I could name the company who made it here, but sadly, that information is now gone. Here’s a pre-chocolate binge picture of the intact chocolate goodies.
Unfortunately, the day after I received my April box, I got an email saying that Vegan Presence is discontinuing their subscription box service after their May and June boxes. Cue major disappointment. Now I want to try another cruelty-free subscription service, Petit Vour.
Have you ever tried a beauty subscription service? If so, which have you tried, and what did you think?
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