People all over the world love fragrances, which is no wonder why the global fragrance market was valued at USD 70.7 billion dollars in 2018.
Scentbird vs Scentbox was a difficult one to call, but overall we decided on Scentbox. See why for yourself here or read on.
Not only do most luxury brands and designers have their own fragrances, even celebrities and athletes now have their own scents as well. You can choose between smelling like Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, or Michael Jordan – or at least smell like how they want you to smell.
With hundreds of new fragrances being launched every year, it was just a matter of time before a perfume subscription service came about. Not only can you have groceries delivered straight to your doorstep, you can have perfumes and colognes regularly delivered as well.
Perfume subscription services have been born out of people’s love for fragrances. These services allow you to try a number of best-selling perfumes and colognes before deciding on which scent you want as your signature scent and buying a full-size bottle.
On the other hand, it also satisfies customers who don’t want to stick to just one scent and want to have different choices on how they’ll smell, depending on the occasion – it could be a cool and light scent for everyday, something floral for a formal event, and maybe a heavier scent for a first date.
There are a number of subscription services for fragrances available and among the most popular ones are Scentbird and Scentbox. Let’s take a closer look at both of them and see the differences, and similarities, between the two.
Scentbird Review
Scentbird was founded by Russian immigrant Mariya Nurislamova, who made a name for herself after founding Scentbird. She and her team founded Scentbird in 2013, making it one of the first companies to offer this type of service to consumers.
When you sign up for Scentbird, you will answer an interactive quiz that helps the Scentbird algorithm determine what kind of fragrances suit you best. Then based on the options you are presented, you select the ones you like the most from their collection of over 450 designer and niche scents and put them in a queue.
After that, you’ll start to receive a 30-day supply of your choice of fragrances every month. Subscribers receive an 8 ml sample (equivalent to about 120 sprays or 4 sprays a day) of the scent of their choice monthly.
For example, in June you can choose receive a sample of Philosophy’s Amazing Grace, in July you can go the opposite direction and choose top designer fragrance Gucci Guilty.
If you want to be a little more adventurous or want to be surprised with the scent you receive monthly, you can opt to receive the site’s scent of the month instead.
According to the Scentbird website, they currently have over 400,000 subscribers to this service, making it one of the most successful perfume subscription services around.
Pricing
Subscribers can choose from hundreds of top designer fragrances available on the Scentbird site. Their service is priced at $14.95 per month, including free shipping. Scentbird currently offers a 25% discount on the first month of subscription, so subscribers will only pay $11.21 on their first order.
The Scentbird site offer a vast array of fragrances to choose from, including designer perfumes from crowd-favorites Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, to not as well-known scents from Tiziana Terenzi and Scents of Wood.
Users of the subscription service can also leave reviews of each fragrance on the website, giving other subscribers a better idea of what to expect from each scent. It seems most subscribers like leaving reviews, as some of them have over 2,000 ratings which is great for subscribers who are still debating which scent to choose to receive.
Do you want something woodsy? Cool? Fruity and floral? The reviews can help give you a better idea of how each scent will smell like.
Other Products
Although Scentbird is primarily a perfume subscription service, it also offers other products. This is what differentiates it from other similar services.
The site carries Skincare, Wellness, Candles, Makeup and Personal Care products as well. So if you decide to subscribe to Scentbird, you can also choose to get a travel-sized product from these categories instead of a fragrance.
For example, if you choose the Skincare category, you can opt to receive a 1.7 fl. oz bottle of Mother Dirt Moisturizer or a .27 oz bottle of Saturday Skin Brightening Eye Cream.
Gifts
Scentbird also offers a Gift section. Here, you can choose between different gift sets of fragrances available for one-time purchase. Each gift set contains sample sizes of various scents. For example, they offer a “Superhero Gift Set” which features 3 sample size containers of Kenneth Cole, John Varvatos, and Room 1015 – some of the most popular men’s fragrances.
You could also choose the “Floral Fragrance Gift Set” which contains sample sizes of Jason Wu, Saint by Kat Von D, and Rose Morning by Fresh – popular women’s choices that have signature floral scents.
All gift sets are attractively packaged in gift-ready boxes that you can send directly to the recipient. Definitely a great gift option for your boss that has everything, your perfume-loving best friend, or your picky mom.
One more good thing about Scentbird is that it allows subscribers to choose the frequency of their subscription – you aren’t required to choose and receive a scent monthly. For example, you can skip a month (maybe you’re on vacation or you’ve been too busy to even touch last month’s fragrance) or you can choose your frequency from the start – monthly, bimonthly, or trimonthly.
This is a great flexible option for those who might not want to receive new fragrances every month, but still want to try out new scents regularly throughout the year.
Scentbird also offers a Referral Program where active subscribers can earn one free subscription credit (worth $14.95 or one month’s subscription fee), every time a new subscriber signs up using a unique referral link assigned to a current subscriber. This is similar to a Friends and Family program and is definitely a win-win for both parties.
Overall, the Scentbird site is straightforward and easy to navigate. Its Help section is extensive as well, and will be able to answer most questions a subscriber might have – how to return, how to cancel, and how to upgrade plans.
Being one of the earliest players in this field, they’ve mastered the art of perfume subscription so you can’t go wrong signing up with Scentbird.
Scentbox Review
Another brand that is often mentioned when talking about perfume subscription boxes is Scentbox. This brand was founded by Craig and Les Dualba, two brothers from Southern California. It describes itself as “an affordable and fun way for members to seek out and sample wonderful new designer fragrances each and every month.”
In terms of branding, it’s easy to tell that Scentbox puts emphasis on branding and how they communicate with their customers. The site itself is more fun and detailed when compared to Scentbird.
Pricing
In terms of pricing, Scentbird and Scentbox cost exactly the same – $14.95 per month including free shipping. You also get exactly the same amount of the fragrance you choose – an 8 ml sample per month, equivalent to a 30 day supply.
This is for the Standard Scentbox subscription that offers access to 575+ designer fragrances. Scentbox currently offers a 35% discount on the first month of subscribing, so you would just have to pay $9.72 for the first month, which already includes shipping.
Scentbox also offers a Premium Scentbox subscription that costs $19.95 a month. You can also get a 35% discount on the first month on a Premium Scentbox subscription, bringing it down to $12.97.
The main difference from the Standard Scentbox subscription offers is that the Premium Scentbox offers access to more fragrances – 850+ designer fragrances, including 275 premium ones. Among the premium scents available on Scentbox are Jo Malone, Bulgari, and Creed.
Exchanges
Other added features that Scentbox has that Scentbird doesn’t offer is free exchanges – active members of Scentbox are entitled to one free exchange each month. If you decide you don’t like the scent you chose for that month, you can exchange it for free.
This is a great feature and definitely a plus point for Scentbox. After all, if you disliked something at first smell, then keeping even 8 ml of a designer fragrance of it would be a waste. You can send it back to Scentbox and they’ll replace it with another scent of your choice.
In terms of choices, Scentbox has more than double the number of fragrances to choose from compared to Scentbird. As mentioned above, they have a total of over 850 fragrances available.
Although not all fragrances are available to standard subscribers, premium subscribers have access to all these scents which cover a wide range from Annick Goutal to Cristiano Ronaldo to Elie Saab. Even the pickiest, or most fickle, subscriber will find something they’ll like from the choices Scentbox has available.
Gifting
Scentbox also offers a gifting service for its subscription boxes. If you have a fragrance-loving friend, you can sign up on behalf of your friend and choose to give a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month subscription box and you’ll definitely be on top of the best gift giver list.
This service starts at $44.95 for 3 months and your friend can be the one to choose what fragrances they would like to receive, which is another plus point for Scentbox.
One more good thing about Scentbox is that it offers the option to cancel your subscription anytime. If you decide after your first order that you don’t want to receive monthly fragrances anymore, you can cancel before your monthly charge date and you won’t be charged for the month.
This is a great option for subscribers who just want to try out the service first without having to subscribe for 3 or 6 months and be tied down without experiencing the service first for themselves.
Another big difference of Scentbird vs. Scentbox is that it offers fragrances exclusively and not any other beauty or body products, like skin care or personal care products. Though this is neither a positive or negative point, it might be a point of consideration for subscribers choosing between the 2 services.
If you are purely after perfume and cologne options, then Scentbox has an edge over Scentbird due to the number of fragrances available. However, if you’re after having more options in general, then Scentbird may be the right service for you.
Which is better?
So, which perfume subscription box is better when comparing Scentbird vs. Scentbox?
For us, Scentbox wins this match, if we are talking about perfume-specific subscription boxes.
Although they cost exactly the same as each other (at regular price for the standard subscription), Scentbox offers more than double the number of fragrances that Scentbird has available – so if you like having more options in terms of scents, then Scentbox definitely wins hands down.
However, it’s important to note that if you want to have more options in general, Scentbird also offers Skin Care, Makeup, and Personal Care products, which Scentbox doesn’t.
Are perfume subscription services worth it?
For us, the answer is “it depends”.
For example, a 3.4 oz bottle of Oscar dela Renta’s Bella Blanca perfume retails at $98 regular price in a department store. With Scentbird, you can get a .27 fl oz sample for $14.95. If you do the math, you’re actually paying more for fluid ounce with Scentbird than if you bought a bottle of Bella Blanca outright. So yes, $14.95 per month is a bit steep, and definitely not cheap, for a travel-sized, some might even say free-sample size, bottle of perfume.
On the other hand, if you did decide to cough up almost $100 to buy a full bottle of Bella Blanca at retail and after you used it for one whole night, you hated it, and it sat in your dresser untouched for the rest of your life? That would be a definite waste too.
The value of this type of subscription depends on the reason why you want to subscribe in the first place. If it’s to try out different perfumes all year long without having to commit to one scent, then this is a great service to subscribe to. You can’t go wrong with either Scentbird or Scentbox.
Conclusion
So to be clear, a perfume subscription service is not about getting a good deal on colognes, buying discounted perfume, or even about value for money.
What you’re paying for is access to trying and testing hundreds of different fragrances that you normally you won’t be able to do. How else would you be able to try out Bulgari, Anna Sui, Jason Wu, and more without having to buy full bottles?
For people who like (or love) perfume, subscribing to scent boxes would be like being a kid in a candy store. You can try different scents all year long until you find the right one for you. When you find “the one”, you can easily cancel your subscription and stop paying $14.95 (or more) per month for a tiny bottle of perfume.
You can also just keep on trying different scents for as long as you like. This gives you the option to wear the scents you receive during different occasions – for example, you can wear your Kate Spade sample for day and your Narciso Rodriguez sample for night.
Either way, a perfume subscription service is something that anyone can appreciate and enjoy (and with the option to cancel anytime) try without committing too much. Scentbird vs. Scentbox – both are definitely great options for a fragrance subscription box.
