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Best Perfume Subscription Box:
Scentbox or Scentbird?
[JULY 2019]
Scentbird is pretty synonymous with being one of the first perfume subscription boxes, but recently there has been some serious competition. The perfume subscription Scentbox, is looking like a pretty strong contender as an alternative.
I purchased both boxes to provide an accurate comparison to see which service I liked the best. They offer essentially the same service, but here at Subscription Box Showdown, we will be reviewing Scentbox VS Scentbird to see what major differences they do have.
Which one will YOU choose?
- Price: $14.95/Mo & FREE Shipping
- Coupon: 35% OFF 1st Month With Code SCENT35
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Ship Date: 7th / 14th / 21st / 28th
(depending on sign up date) - Countries Shipped To: USA only
- Referral Program: YES
- Rewards Program: YES
- How To End Options: Cancel / Pause
- Product Type: Perfume
- Price: $14.95/Mo & FREE Shipping
- Coupon: 25% OFF 1st Month ($11.21)
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Ship Date: 10-15 Days on 1st order
3rd Week of Month thereafter - Countries Shipped To: USA only
- Referral Program: YES
- Rewards Program: NO
- How To End Options: Cancel / Pause / Change Frequency
- Product Type: Perfume
The Low-Down On This Showdown
To determine pros and cons of each subscription box, we must first establish what they offer and what comes in each box.
Let’s take a look at the contenders:
Contender #1: Scentbox
- Coach “Poppy Freesia Blossom” – I wanted to be a little “adventurous” with my pick for Scentbox because I knew that if I completely hated it, I could exchange it. So I skipped my normal favorites like DKNY and Juicy Couture. I thought the fragrance I ended up picking was ok. It was light and fresh, but I usually go for strong, powerful scents, so this was new for me.
Scentbox offers over 850+ designer fragrances to choose from and 4 types of monthly plans depending on what suits your budget and lifestyle:
- Standard Plan – 1 Designer Fragrance per month for $14.95/mo
- Premium Plan – 1 Designer Fragrance per month with access to 275+ *Premium fragrances for $19.95/mo
- Deluxe Plan – 2 Designer Fragrances per month for $24.95/mo
- Ultra Premium Plan – 2 Designer Fragrances a Month with access to 275+ *Premium fragrances for $32.95/mo
*Premium fragrances consist of higher end brands like YSL, Thierry Mugler, Carolina Herrera, etc.
Contender #2: Scentbird
- Juicy Couture “Couture La La” – I opted for a perfume that I hadn’t tried yet, within a brand that I am already very familiar with. I pretty much love any Juicy Couture fragrance, but I didn’t particularly enjoy this one. It had too many floral notes and missing the signature Juicy Couture smell. Immediately after spraying it on, my boyfriend said that it smelled like a “church lady”. Most everyone knows that scent, and I’m not to keen on smelling like my grandma at 27. I actually ended up giving this bottle to her…and she loved it. Go figure!
*Helpful Tip: I researched fragrances I was interested in by going to Fragrantica. It’s my go-to source for any information on perfume or cologne!
Scentbird offers over 450+ fragrances to choose from, including many indie/boutique brands. They offer tiered month plans based on how many fragrances you want in each shipment:
- 1 Fragrance Plan
- 1 Month – $14.95/mo
- 3 Month – $43.50/Every 3 months
- 6 Month – $84.00/Every 6 months
- 12 Month – $162.00/Annually
- 2 Fragrance Plan
- 1 Month – $25.00/mo
- 3 Month – $70.00/Every 3 months
- 6 Month – $135.00/Every 6 months
- 3 Fragrance Plan
- 1 Month – $35.00/mo
- 3 Month – $100.00/Every 3 months
- 6 Month – $195.00/Every 6 months
Scentbox and Scentbird have many similarities, including that they both offer women’s perfume as well as men’s cologne and you can pick from either and are not stuck with only being able to sample one or the other. But that is where a lot of the similarities end.
ROUND 1
Sign-Up & Cancelling Process
Both Scentbox and Scentbird had a similar sign up process, but a couple small differences.
SCENTBOX
With Scentbox, you sign up with your typical info. What was a little confusing with Scentbox, is that you have to enter all your information and essentially, “Place an Order”, before ever being able to see anything else (like the fragrance list).
It made me a little nervous as I hadn’t even picked a fragrance yet, but I was “placing an order” with them. An issue with semantics I guess?
This is something Scentbird doesn’t make you do immediately, which was nice.
Scentbox has a “Scent Profile Quiz” for you to take in order to help you with recommendations.
The questions were a bit on the odd side though. Not sure how asking, “What music do I enjoy most”, helps them decide what fragrances I like. But what do I know?
One thing to note is that after completing the quiz, I accidentally clicked out of my recommendations and had to retake the quiz, as I couldn’t find a tab for my recommendations in my account. This kind of sucked, but not a deal breaker.
As far as cancelling goes, Scentbox has an easily find-able cancel button within your account. They also give you the ability to pause your subscription for up to 3 months, if you don’t want to fully cancel your account just yet.
SCENTBIRD
As stated above, with Scentbird, you’re not locked into subscribing first in order to see the fragrance list they offer.
Scentbird offers a quiz as well, but only asks about 3 questions. I don’t know if that is enough for them to gauge your preferences or not, but there are many other ways they provide for you to discover which fragrances you would like to try like:
- Organizing by scent type, personality, occasion, or season. I selected “fruity” and “sexy” and was recommended a lot of fragrances that I have either smelled and liked previously, or thinking about sampling.
- Recommendations based on your quiz results. There was a mix of scents I would like, and scents that I wouldn’t. It was pretty much a 50/50 chance that I would find a fragrance I would like to try using this method of fragrance finding.
- Fragrance Finder comparison. With this method, you can type in a fragrance that you love already and Scentbird provides 4 similar fragrances for you to try. I searched “Viva La Juicy” and agreed with 1 out of the 4 options they provided.
- Fragrance by horoscope or state. These 2 options were fun if you are into astrology or enjoy seeing what others that live in the same state as you are wearing. I hadn’t heard of the 3 perfumes recommended from the horoscope feature, so I can’t attest to its accuracy. With the state recommendations, 2 of the 3 fragrances were one’s that I was very familiar with.
If wanting to cancel with Scentbird, they also make it easy to cancel within your account with the press of a button. There are 2 other options as well, to either pause your account for up to 3 months or change frequency.
I was a bit confused on the difference between pausing and changing the frequency, so I contacted a rep at Scentbird. The major difference is that pausing is a one time thing and you would have to keep pausing it every 3 months manually.
By changing the frequency instead, you would get your shipment every 3 months without having to pause every time. You can also pause on top of changing the frequency for up to 9 months.
Bonus game: Take a shot every time I say “pause” or “change frequency” in this section.
Winner: Scentbird
I liked being able to see the fragrances before having to sign up. Something I couldn’t do with Scentbox. Overall, finding a fragrance was a much more fun process with Scentbird as well.
ROUND 2
Value & Quality
Both Scentbox and Scentbird come with a case and travel atomizer that contains a 30 day supply of perfume that equals about 0.27 fl oz / 8ml.
In comparison:
- Typical Sample Size – 0.05 or 0.17 fl oz = about 19 – 41 sprays
- Scentbox / Scentbird – 0.27 fl oz / 8ml = about 124 sprays
- Average size perfume– 1.7 fl oz / 50 ml = about 775 sprays
As far as quality, I can’t say that I detected a difference from the atomizers versus its bottled counterparts. Both boxes have stated that they work directly with the perfume companies, so the fragrances you receive are 100% authentic.
The perfume in the atomizers provide a dry, airy mist upon application. Whereas traditional perfume bottles provide more of a wet spray.
I probably enjoyed the atomizer a little more, as it dries almost immediately.
SCENTBOX
What added major value to Scentbox was the ability to exchange a fragrance that you get for that month.
If you absolutely hate the sample you received, just send it back by printing a prepaid label from your account and throwing it (not literally) in the mailbox and send it off.
I liked my sample enough that I didn’t care to exchange it for something else.
Also, if you are on a 2 fragrance plan, you can exchange both if you don’t like either of them!
Do keep in mind that if you want to exchange, do so before you pause or cancel your subscription, as only “active” subscribers are able to exchange.
One other feature that made Scentbox stand out was that they put a sticker of the fragrance you chose, on the bottom.
Scentbird doesn’t do this, so if you have multiple months worth of perfume bottles, you wouldn’t be able to tell which is which. So this is a very helpful feature that Scentbox added to their product.
SCENTBIRD
There was no noticeable difference in quality of the product I received from Scentbird compared to Scentbox. Though Scentbird was more expensive by 5 cents for a 2 fragrance plan versus Scentbox.
Also the coupon value offered for 1st time subscribers is less than what Scentbox offers.
Winner: Scentbox
Simply because of the exchange option. This makes Scentbox much more easier and less stressful in finding fragrances that you like every month.
It’s about $2.00 cheaper to try out Scentbox as well.
ROUND 3
Overall Experience
SCENTBOX
I didn’t run into any big hiccups with trying out Scentbox. Shipping was timely, product was as expected, and the company was very transparent by providing an extensive FAQ section so you know what you are getting into.
Also, regardless if I used the option to exchange or not, just having the ability to do so if I wanted, made me way less stressed about receiving a fragrance I liked or not.
SCENTBIRD
One major thing with Scentbird was the shipping when compared with Scentbox. I ordered both on the same day and received Scentbox in about a week and Scentbox 2 weeks after ordering.
They only have one ship date for every subscriber after your first shipment. With Scentbox, there are 4 different ship dates depending on when you order, which makes shipping less of an issue.
Scentbird does mention on their site that, “We have recently moved to a new shipping facility to expand our growth and improve your shipping experience. Due to the complexity of this transition, we are currently experiencing delays in processing first time orders. Please note that it may take up to 14 days for your order to ship.”
So shipping is something they are working on at the moment.
Winner: Scentbox
Scentbox clearly beat out Scentbird when it comes to shipping.
VERDICT
Worth It?
BOX I WOULD REPURCHASE / KEEP
I would probably keep Scentbox for the reasons stated previously. If Scentbird starts to offer the exchange ability, then I would possibly revisit their service.
Even though my overall winner is Scentbox, there are plenty of reasons to try either subscription service based on what’s a deal breaker or not for you.
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- Consider SCENTBOX if:
You aren’t sure what fragrances you like yet. The benefit of free exchanges takes Scentbox over the edge. Making it stand out dramatically against Scentbird. This way you know you aren’t stuck with a fragrance you hate for an entire month.
- Consider SCENTBIRD if:
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You already have a grasp on fragrance notes and brands that you like and what works for you. If you want to branch out and explore other fragrances within a brand you already like, this could be a good option for you. This cuts down on the chance that you’ll be extremely disappointed with the scent you picked, as Scentbird doesn’t offer exchanges.
Overall Winner: Scentbox
No matter the subscription service you decide to pick, if you have been wanting a very expensive bottle of a certain fragrance, doing this type of service could be great to be able to wear for a month (or more if you upgrade). That way you can wear your favorite fragrance before doling out a huge chunk of change for a designer fragrance.
Let me know which perfume subscription you would go with in the comments! And as always, please follow me on my social media channels. I’d love to connect with you!
