Sephora is getting into the monthly beauty subscription box service game, going up against heavyweight Birchbox and Ipsy (and the million of other monthly subscription boxes that exist-hell even Walmart & Target has a Beauty Box too!). Anyhow, Sephora’s Monthly boxes are going to be called Play! by Sephora, and it will include 5 deluxe samples and each monthly box will cost $10.
Its not live everywhere just yet though. Boston, Columbus and Cincinnati are the first cities to have Play! by Sephora and they will get the first 10,000 boxes, set to be ship this September. Sephora plans to add additional cities throughout the U.S. in 2016. I’ll probably will have a review up once its NYC’s turn. I think Play! by Sephora is successful, it will probably be nationwide, but there are no firm dates on a nationwide release/distribution, just a promise of additional cities being added in 2016 (these additional cities have yet to be named at time of writing).
Like the all the other monthly boxes that exist, each monthly box will be centered around a particular theme. Remember those 10,000 boxes I mentioned earlier to be ship in September? Well, the September’s theme is “Uncover the Essentials” and the deluxe samples will be:
from left to right like the image above:
- a Marc Jacobs Beauty Highlighter eyeliner in Blacquer (full size: $32)
- a Glamglow Supercleanse cleanser (full size: varies from $14 to $39)
- a Bumble and bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil (full size: $39
- a Sephora Collection Rouge Infusion lip gloss in Peony (full size: $14)
- an Ole Henriksen Sheer Transformation Face Crème (full size: varies from $14 to $62)
A Spotify playlist will also be included. The website will probably be sephora.com/play (to be launched after august 12th).
Each Play! box will include a “Play! Book” that includes beauty tricks and info on the products. You can also access additional content via the Sephora to Go app. The subscription will also include a “Play! Pass”, a pass for you to come into the Sephora stores and get a one-on-one tutorial of how to use the products (so that you can hopefully purchase the full size product). Store events where everyone who is a Play! member can come in for tutorials will be called Play! Dates. You will also receive free bonus fragrance samplers as well as possible in-store coupons as well.
You now got some good competition, Birchbox. I hope they will eventually include nail polish mini samples and that the samples are not too similar to the 100 and 500 points beauty insider rewards samples that VIBs get.
Full Breakdown:
- Official Name: Play! (or Play! by Sephora)
- Official Website: sephora.com/play (to be launched after august 12th).
- Cost: $10
- What you get: 5 deluxe products plus occasional random samplers like fragrance samplers
- Ships: USA (Boston, Columbus, and Cincinnati first, more to come in 2016)
- Extras included: Spotify playlists, one-on-one tutorials called Play! Pass, in-store events called Play! Dates
