Have you jumped in on the subscription box craze? I admit that I have a fascination with all of the subscription box offerings out there in the past couple of years and have tried several of them. I tried both Ipsy and Birchbox for awhile and found some fun new make up products. I wrote about my last Ipsy box here.
Next up for me were snack subscription boxes. I found that Nature Box has some great products but my pantry became overrun with Nature Box treats. The Graze subscription is a smaller amount and I found that I preferred those to the larger snacks. Graze tidbits are the perfect size to stick in my purse for on the go snacking when I am out and about.
I even got a Try the World subscription for Aaron and somehow I have ended up with several of the items out of his boxes because they are not something he will use. Frankly I am not sure I will use some of them as the packaging is in foreign languages and I am not really sure what I am getting into if I open the product. Hey–it sounded like a fun gift for a guy who likes to cook and likes to experiment.
My latest subscription box came a week or so ago and I felt like it was going to be a good fit for me. A Beautiful Mess offers two monthly boxes – Happy Mail and Messy Box. Happy Mail subscriptions can cost from $15 to $20 a month depending on what subscription you choose. I received the October box and this is what I received in that box.
The Messy Box option comes in at anywhere from $19.99 to $24.99 per month and this is what I received in that box for the month of October.
So what did I think? If I did not already have a closet full of crafting items I might be more enthralled with this subscription box but as it is I was not really impressed. I spent quite a bit of money on just a few products that I really did not think lived up to the hype. I know that I buy a lot of my paper crafting products when they are on sale but still these seemed to be over priced for what I got. I ended up “embellishing” the cards provided with some of the items but I had a lot left over that I am still trying to figure out how I am going to use.
This is a quick shot of what I ended up making with some of the products provided. 
I basically used the Happy Mail box items and not too much of the Messy Box and the cards ended up okay but not terrific. I like having my own closet full of papers, ribbons, brads, flowers and other embellishments instead of having them picked out for me. That is just me. It might be a great fit for someone else who doesn’t have quite the mess collection of supplies on hand already.
Have you tried any of the subscription boxes that are out there? I know there are some pretty fun ones and I would love to hear about your experiences. Make sure you leave a comment because all comments go to support our Comments for a Cause for November – Lava Mae.
22 Comments
Leave a commentMy problem is subscription to blogs. Getting at least 500 emails a day(I can automatically delete at least 150 as several post 50 posts a day!). I do not subscribe to any more blogs. I can’t handle the stuffed inbox and do the return obligatory courtesy visits. I do visit the blogs of new followers and say thanks and visit a post or two and have decided I will have to limit my blog response time to those who visit my blog with a like or a comment and no new follow/ subscribe to new blogs. I want to keep my own network going but feel no need to expand it. I also find I am posting less to cut down on incoming traffic.
Oh wow! I totally understand that, Carl. I have found that using Bloglovin’ has helped me a lot to manage reading what blogs I want to read. I have managed to unsubscribe from most of the blog post emails and that has cleared up my inbox a bit. That way when I go to Bloglovin’ I can just scroll down through them very quickly and read the ones that I want to read without a lot of extra time wasted. The problem is making sure I have everyone added in there that I want to read. I started out using the WordPress Reader but then I felt like I was missing some blogs that were not WordPress blogs so I tried BlogLovin. I know I do not have yours in there so I must go add! Thanks for stopping by!
I’m with Carl — my blog subscriptions are completely out of control. I had to abandoned the email address I use to subscribe to blogs because I couldn’t find the non-blog email in there that was personally addressed to me.
I haven’t tried subscription boxes. This is the first I’ve heard of them actually.
That is exactly why I have started using BlogLovin to kind of manage those blogs a bit better. It is not perfect but it does help a bit. I totally get the many emails. Totally! Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for the review! I was wondering if the card ones were worth it, since I send quite a few each month. Graze was fun! The only thing I didn’t like was that we couldn’t request only savory snacks. We’re not big dried fruit fans.
I think if you didn’t have supplies on hand you would like these boxes but they do seem a little pricey to me. Of course the longer you extend your subscription the less they cost but I didn’t want to commit to a whole year and will be canceling it now. It is fun to see what there is out there. I love Graze and put it “on vacation” till recently and I have my profile pretty well developed by now so I get almost all savory and popcorn. Love their popcorn!
I’ve done Graze, Nature Box, and Stride Box. I liked the snacks of Nature Box better, but the size of Graze better. Stride Box had a lot of items in it that I would have used if I was a long-range runner (8 miles or more) and I’m not, so…down the road they all went. Add that in to the expense of raising kids and well….I’d like one because it’s fun to get something other than bills, but it’s just not practical for me right now!
Haven’t done any of these. I can see where this box wouldn’t appeal to you. You have your own style with cards and these items don’t look like they match you and your style.
I’ve used subscription boxes more so to get free online training in between the paid stuff. I did sign up for one you blogged about formerly. I couldn’t get it being in Canada. This post is the first notice I’ve gotten in a while that you posted. Weird eh?
Well shucks. I bet Canada has some great ones of their own. Sorry about the notifications. I still post 5 days a week but the notices don’t go out correctly nor does the publish feature. One of the glitches with self hosting I am afraid. Thanks for always looking me up!
Ha. We do. I just wasn’t sure if you were aware that the problem is still there. I won’t mention it again if you already know. 🙂
Oh no worries. It is kind of driving me nuts but there are bigger things to worry about, you know? So I will focus on the bigger things and not stress about my little old blog. If I was trying to make a lot of money from blogging it might motivate me to get to the root of the problem..
Aha! Got ya!
I’ve been tempted to try BarkBox — maybe I’ll give it to Freckles for Christmas!
Also, I hadn’t heard of BlogLovin until I saw it listed in my stats under Referrers. Sounds interesting. I learned to check to see how often bloggers post before I’ll subscribe to them. Some of them were several times a day (mostly reblogs)!
That is a very good thing to check the frequency of posts. I know I post a lot but it is almost always my own material. In the beginning I did reposts but now I think I have gotten my groove on or something. BarkBox has gotten some good reviews–I bet Freckles would love it. Thanks for stopping by!
I’ve never tried anything like this — but a make up subscription box sounds like a lot of fun. I like to try new products and colours, and I bet my girls would love the surprise of a monthly package too. But like you say, I’d worry I pay all that money – and then I have no say or control in what I get.
The beauty ones would really be fun if you had teenaged daughters, I think, because you could try stuff out together. It was all stuff I never would have tried. This one was costly for what I got I felt but fun to give it a go.
I loved the Graze box that you sent me a while back. 🙂 The portion sizes were reasonable and I enjoyed all of the treats. In fact, I sent a subscription to a friend for her birthday!
My sister gifted me a subscription to the KitNip box for the kitties. There were too many treats (we don’t give a lot of cat treats because they’re unhealthy) but the cats had so much fun with new toys every month! Still, I don’t like the expense, so I probably wouldn’t subscribe to a box myself.
I have never heard of that one!!! I give our cats treats– I am sure they don’t need them but they love them. 🙂 by our cats are probably much healthier than mine. ?
Maybe one of these boxes would be good to get for a pre-teen on your Christmas gift who likes to craft but doesn’t have a big collection of supplies yet? I have never done a subscription box but have been curious about the food ones and have heard good things about Stitch Fix. Maybe someday when I’m not pregnant I’ll try that one!
We’ve never done the subscription box thing, although between you and jenieats, we are a lot more informed on the subject than we would be otherwise! Thanks for the reviews, we always look forward to reading ’em.