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Beauty Box 5 Subscription Review + Coupon – October 2016

Liz Cadman
ByLiz CadmanOct 13, 2016 | 33 comments

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Beauty Box 5
3.3 overall rating
204 Ratings | 52 Reviews

Beauty Box 5 is a subscription box that sends 5 deluxe & full-sized products to your door each month. You receive a mix of products ranging from makeup, hair care, skincare, nail polish, beauty tools, and fragrances. Luxury, drugstore & Indie brands are included.

This box was sent to us for review purposes. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

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The Subscription Box: Beauty Box 5

Cost: $12.00 per month, $30 for 3 months & $99 for 12 months. Shipping is free if it's within the US and $3.00 shipping for Canada

COUPONReceive a free bonus Marsk Mineral Eyeshadow in your first box! ($24 value). No coupon needed, just subscribe here!

Products: 5 deluxe & full-size makeup, hair care, skincare, nail polish, beauty tools and fragrance products

Ships to: the lower 48 United States and Canada. Currently unable to ship to AK, HI, APO, and overseas.

Check out all of our Beauty Box 5 reviews and our  Beauty Subscription Box Directory for more beauty boxes!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

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Each Beauty Box 5 comes with a description card. This month's theme is Girl Boss!

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Now, onto the items!

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Emery + Ivory Custom Nail Appliques in Red Over Heels - FULL SIZE! Value $12.99

(Subscribers will receive one of several patterns)

Nail stickers can be pretty hit or miss for me, but these ones worked really well. They were easy to stretch over my nails and I could also file the excess off easily, too. And the transparent portions of these wraps looked great over my greige nail polish:

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I really like this look!

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Real Her Moisturizing Lipstick in I Am Powerful - FULL SIZE! Value $15

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First, props on the packaging - I love the matte black and white contrast on this lipstick tube! The formula itself is moisturizing, goes on smoothly, and provides a lot of pigment, too. (All the good things!) And it's paraben-free!

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Chella Ivory Lace Highlighter Pencil - FULL SIZE! Value $18

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I've used this pencil before thanks to other subscription boxes, and it is fantastic. You can use it to highlight under the browbone, accent the inner corners of your eyes, etc. And it can work as a concealer, too!

Here it is swatched below the lipstick:

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It's a creamy, matte formula, perfect for everyday use.

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Color Me Femme Gold Perfume - Sample

This perfume scent is sweet, and something I could see myself wearing (which is pretty rare for me - I don't usually wear perfume.) I'm not a fan of getting perfume vial samples in subscription boxes, but considering the previous 3 full-size beauty items, I'm OK with it this time!

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Amlactin Ultra Hydrating Body Cream - 1 oz Value $2.80

This cream is rich and hydrating and left my skin feeling super soft. The only downside for me is the ingredient list - I try to avoid parabens in lotions when I can, and this cream is unfortunately made with parabens.

Verdict: This month's Beauty Box 5 has a value of about $49! I think that's great for a $12 box, and I really love the lipstick, Chella stick, and nail stickers! (And it's always good when your favorite items in a box also are the highest value, full-size items!)

What do you think about the October Beauty Box 5? Did you like this month’s box?

FYI - If you sign up for a Beauty Box 5 subscription by the 21st of October, the October box will be your first box!

Starting at $12.00
Active Deal
Receive a free bonus Marsk Mineral Eyeshadow in your first box! ($24 value)
Subscribe Now
Beauty Box 5 is one of the most inexpensive beauty and makeup subscription boxes. It's $10 a month for a 3-month subscription, or $8.25 a month with an annual subscription.
Liz Cadman
Liz Cadman
Liz is the founder of My Subscription Addiction. She's been hooked on subscription boxes since 2011 thanks to Birchbox, and she now subscribes to over 100 boxes. Her favorites include POPSUGAR Must Have, FabFitFun, and any box that features natural beauty products!

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33 comments

robyn

fyi…they don’t ship to Hawaii 🙁

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Kay

Hi Liz, I got the same lipstick color as you did. Is your swatch one swipe or multiple? If it is sheer, I can use it, but if your swatch is one swipe, I should save for holiday gift as it is a full-size and nicely packaged. Thanks! I got different nail wrap in more like pastel color, actually the one showing on the info card and Red perfume sample.

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Liz Cadman

It’s one swipe – this lipstick has a lot of pigment! Hope that helps! 🙂

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Immatgirl

This was my first month receiving this box. I love the full size items! The major downside is not being able to customize your subscription based off of what you look like. For example, receiving a highlighter in the palest shade of ivory is a complete and utter joke when you are a coco colored person, lol. But I guess that’s the expectation with 99% of beauty subscription boxes. (Shoutout to Ipsy!)

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Becca

Another great box. 4 out of five items are full size which is amazing. I signed up for a three month sub so I only pay ten dollars a month. They send great products every month and many are completely different from other boxes like the towel hair wrap last month. I received the Real Her lipstick in I Define Beauty Myself which is a Mauve color and I got the Color Me Femme Red perfume. With the coupon they sent for ten off the perfume was free and I just paid shipping. The highlighter pencil is great and body cream works well. It says fragrance free but to me it smells like brown sugar.

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maevey

I loved this box so much! It’s always fun and provides a consistently great value. Plus if you sign up for the yearly, the cost goes down to $8.25

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Rebecca

Is this box consistently good? How is their customer service? I’m no loner doing Birchbox, and I just got my last Glossybox, in case that helps you understand my frame of reference.

Thank you!

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liina

I just cancelled after several years because I find I’m not excited about the items. I did get 2 items I love and they are the pink makeup remover cloth and the hair towel. I’ve gotten some fun glittery nail polish. In this box, I would have liked only the lipstick. So it depends what you’re wishing to get. I also didn’t like Birchbox, but I prefer it to this. I do like Ipsy because I get makeup I can use. Keep an eye on what people are getting and see if it is what you want. If you sign up for a year, the price is even lower. I’m keeping an eye out in case it improves, but no regrets about cancelling so far.

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Doodlebug

You should check out Beautyfix for the price and assortment of items!

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Becca

This is my favorite sub box. It is better than most of the others out there. You will always receive three or four full sized items and many are very unique. I would definitely recommend subbing to it.

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Luna

It’s kind of hard to say since it’s unclear why you cancelled those boxes. But, I would suggest checking out MSA’s past reviews, and I’m almost positive BB5 has past boxes listed for sale, so you can check out what’s been offered this year to determine if it’s a good fit for you. Also, I’m pretty sure there are no variations in this box (maybe with the exception of color or scent differences), so everybody receives the same value.

While, the products in this month’s box don’t seem too exciting to me, this has always been my most ‘fun’ box to receive. To this day I still can’t put my finger on why receiving this box is so fun for me (maybe it’s the variety of products, the fact they can all fit in such a tiny box… who knows), but I still anxiously wait to receive it every month. 🙂

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Rebecca

Oh, and thank you for your perspective!

Rebecca

I left Birchbox when the points debacle occurred, but I had one foot out the door because the samples were getting smaller and smaller. I did the one year sub of Glossybox through Gilt City, so I only paid around $9/month. However I only had two or three boxes out of 12 that I was excited about, plus I got the shaft with the Sinful polish two months in a row, and I don’t feel that the boxes are worth $21/month or that the variations have equal values. The customer service response to my getting two super low value boxes in a row was pathetic, so I vowed to be done once my prepaid year was up (just got my last box).

I know boxes are super personal, so I will look at past variations to decide, but I was more interested in customer service experiences, I guess, without having to read through past comments. I should’ve been clearer about that, sorry!

Pat Bogard

I love everything in my box. The lipstick I got was not red, but more rosy (I love the color). I loved the perfume sample so much (the femme gold), I went online and ordered a full-sized bottle, using the $10 off coupon included in the box. The site has many fragrances for $10.00, so with the coupon, I only paid $5.00 for shipping. Also loved the highlighter pencil (using as a concealer), and the body cream (very hydrating). The nail wraps are not my color, but I’ll probably use them this winter with a special outfit. This is one of the better boxes I’ve received.

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shayna schwolsky

I didn’t get a coupon for the perfume in my box 🙁

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Rebecca

Was the coupon just for the perfume or for any product in the box?

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Pat Bogard

There was a coupon just for the perfume, and another discount coupon for one of the other products. I’m not always so pleased with my box, but they are always valued much higher than $12.00.

tpop

I can say the AmLactin is dermatologist recommended, at least by mine! It has lactic acid, which helps with dead skin removal and is great for those upper arm bumps. But do NOT use right after shaving or you will be yelping.

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Rebecca

Good to know – I have keratosis pilaris, as does my 5yo son (on his face ☹️️). Thank you!

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Taren

Amlactin is WONDERFUL for healing that up!! Use it every day for one week and it will be GONE!

Janessa

I kind of felt blah on this box. Usually they fill fuller, this box wasn’t much of a hit for me unfortunately and I usally love my box. I get my nails done so I won’t be using them but my little cousins will be excited and my mom loves lipstick so it will be good. I am excited to try the highlighter stick never used one before, and the lotion is great for getting this cold weather now.

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Mel

Got my box yesterday!
Amlactin ultra hydrating body cream (meh going into the swap pile)
Be yourself be real her lipstick (meh pretty much the only color i didn’t want)
Emery + Ivory custom nail appliques (Never used them but I’ll give them a try)
Color me red fragrance-It is floral and spicy (normally I’m all about the fruity smells but i actually like this one)
Chella lace ivory lace highlighter pencil (I love highlighters so yay!)
I also got the brush since it was my first box.
Overall I have to say I’m pretty happy

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Mel

I absolutely love this box. My only complaint is the lipstick. Of all the colors I get red! Oh well, the rest is so great that it doesn’t really matter.

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Luna

Perfect timing on the review Liz! I just finished checking the shipping status on my BB5 box and was left feeling so curious as to what would be in the box! As always, my next stop after checking the shipping status on all of my boxes is MSA(!), and there was exactly what I was hoping to see! 🙂 (can you tell by all of the !!!’s how excited I am?)

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Liz Cadman

Yay! I think this is one of their best boxes yet! 🙂 Let me know what you think when you try the products!

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Kenya

This month was my first box and I’m loving it so far. It’s amazing that it’s only $12 and they send so many full size products!

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Rebecca

Liz, is it possible to still get this box?

Thanks!

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Liz Cadman

Yes, if you sign up by the 21st, this will be your first box! 🙂

Liz Cadman

What a great month to start Beauty Box 5! I think this was such a fab box – glad you love it too! 🙂

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