About ScentBox
If you don’t fancy sampling fragrances in department stores or have collected unused perfume bottles at home, ScentBox could be the solution. ScentBox delivers a luxurious perfume or cologne to your home every month and can help you discover the scents that suit you best – or satisfy your fragrance addiction without breaking the bank on expensive bottles.
CNN recommended ScentBox as a nice gift and AskMen called it one of the best perfume subscriptions around. That piqued our interest, but is the subscription really worth it? Our ScentBox subscription review takes an in-depth look at the products, pricing, customer reviews, promotions and more to help you decide if the service is right for you.
Overview of ScentBox
ScentBox.com was founded by two brothers from Southern California who shared a penchant for luxury fragrances. With over 1000 new fragrances hitting the market each year, the brothers found it difficult and expensive to try the scents they were interested in. Craig and Les Dualba dreamed of an affordable way to discover new fragrances and ScentBox was born.
All the fragrances included in a ScentBox subscription are genuine designer products. The perfumes and fragrances are delivered in an atomizer bottle after being independently re-bottled and repackaged by ScentBox in Beverly Hills, California. Subscribers also have the option to purchase full-size products that come in sleek and stylish ScentBox bottles.
With the subscription, you can sample a luxurious perfume or cologne each month, with the option to purchase it in larger sizes. ScentBox offers between 575-850+ fragrances to try depending on your subscription. You can commit to scents after you’ve enjoyed them in a ScentBox, or have a rotating set to keep things interesting.
A perfume subscription is ideal if you don’t want to commit to a specific fragrance. Different perfumes and colognes suit different environments and seasons. Floral fragrances in summer, sultry scents when going out, something light and fresh after a shower at the gym.
The DL on Fragrance
Fragrances have a personal element: each person’s body chemistry has a big influence on the scent. If you’ve liked a scent before when you smelled it on one of those white sample cards and then changed your mind after actually wearing it, there’s an explanation. We don’t know exactly why perfume molecules react differently on everyone’s skin, so it’s a bit of a “je ne said quoi”.
What makes this mystery even more intriguing is the subconscious factor that influences our scent preferences and possibly our choice of partner. It is common knowledge that scents are often used to attract people, or at least that is one of the goals, apart from smelling good.
A 2001 study published in the journal Behavior Ecology confirms this: Whether you realize it or not, your choice of scent actually sends genetic signals to potential mates. The study found that people tend to prefer scents that combine with their body chemistry in a way that matches their major histocompatibility complex (MHC),
The MHC comprises genes that make up a person’s immunogenetic profile. Humans and other animals generally choose mates with different MHCs to give their potential offspring a genetically more diverse and therefore stronger immune system. I’m not suggesting that scents should be selected for this factor, it’s just interesting. This is the evolutionary science you didn’t know you’d be experiencing today.
I will write a review of the ScentBox subscription soon, but first a summary of the highlights:
Highlights
- Access to 575-850+ fragrances, depending on your subscription
- Freedom to experiment with fragrances every month
- Extensive fragrance sample with 150 sprays (an average perfume/cologne sample contains 15 sprays)
- Free shipping and up to eight free exchanges per year
- No commitment/cancel at any time
How It Works
Every month, ScentBox subscribers browse hundreds of designer fragrances. That’s more than you can find basically anywhere, with the exception of specialty perfume stores. This variety may sound exciting or overwhelming to you. On the website you will find a list of fragrances in alphabetical order, so it helps if you know the brands you are interested in.
You choose a fragrance you want to try and receive a 30-day supply of the scent (0.27 oz/8 ml), which is 125 sprays. For comparison, standard fragrance samples are 1.5 oz, which equals 15 sprays. You can also gift the subscription to a special someone and choose the duration of the subscription when you sign up (more details in the next section).
One serious advantage that our ScentBox subscription test revealed: the subscription runs from month to month and, unlike other luxury product subscriptions, can be canceled at any time. Shipping is free, but unfortunately ScentBird only ships within the USA. Members are also entitled to one exchange shipment per month if they are not satisfied with their fragrance.
You can find more useful information on the ScentBox website. If you are allergic to some fragrances, you should look up the ingredients of the fragrances you are interested in. If you are prone to forgetfulness and don’t choose a fragrance, you will automatically be sent the fragrance of the month (either perfume or cologne, depending on what you specified when you signed up).
ScentBox Pricing
ScentBox offers two subscription options, each of which includes a refillable travel spray and a reminder box. Our ScentBox subscription test provides a breakdown of the plans:
Standard ScentBox
- 14.95 $ per month
- Choose 1 designer fragrance each month
- Access to more than 575 perfumes or colognes
Premium ScentBox
- $19.95 per month
- Choose 1 designer fragrance monthly
- Access to more than 850 fragrances
A gift subscription can be purchased with a term of 3, 6 or 12 months, as well as an annual subscription where you have to pay upfront. There wasn’t much about this on the site, other than cancellation information-more on this in the FAQ section of this ScentBox subscription review.
ScentBox Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
There is no option on the website to submit a review for the ScentBox subscription, so I did some research. On bizratesurveys.com, ScentBox has an impressive rating of 8.7/10 from over 6700 reviewers. Thousands of customers praised the fragrances and their wide variety and described the subscription as easy and affordable. The straightforward sign-up process and transparency of costs were rated highly by customers. Approximately 10% of reviewers had a negative experience and 17% rated their reaction to the subscription as neutral.
ScentB
ox is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, but the BBB has given it a B grade, which is pretty good (grades go up to F). There were only two complaints filed about ScentBox, one of which did not provide any details. The other complaint was from a customer who canceled his subscription 8 days before the shipping date and was told that only an exchange was possible and that he would have to wait for the product to ship. ScentBox responded to the complaint and confirmed the shipping date to the customer and that he/she could return the item for a refund.
I also checked what people are saying about ScentBox on Influenster. The subscription has a rating of almost 4.5/5 stars out of 45 reviews. Aside from the glowing reviews, one subscriber felt that the samples didn’t last for a whole month.
Our Verdict on ScentBox
If full-size designer fragrances are prohibitively expensive for you, ScentBox could be your solution. If you wear fragrances daily, you’ll always have access to them, or if you only use them semi-regularly or rarely, you can build up a collection. If you’re on a budget, the standard subscription seems like the way to go, as you’ll still have access to over 500 fragrances. Unless you are obsessed with fragrances and want even more choice.
The frequency with which you wear perfume or cologne will affect the value of this subscription. For example, the standard subscription costs $179.40 if you take it out for a year. This is equivalent to the price of 1-2 large bottles of luxury perfume, depending on the brand. The average large bottle of perfume or cologne contains 100 ml, which is equivalent to 1400 sprays.
So if you use four sprays a day, that’s enough for 250 days (just over 8 months). Even if you only use perfumes semi-regularly and end up paying the same price as a large bottle over a year, the benefit is the added flexibility and variety that the ScentBox subscription offers.
ScentBox Promotions and Discounts
New ScentBox members get 35% off their first month: the discounted price is $9.72 for the Standard plan and $12.97 for the Premium plan. No need for a ScentBox coupon code – the discount is automatically applied at checkout.
Referral Program
As an active ScentBox subscriber, you can redeem ScentBox rewards by referring friends and family to subscribe. The rewards have no cash value and can only be used to purchase products on the website.
ScentBox Signup
To start a ScentBox subscription, visit the ScentBox.com website. Choose between Standard and Premium subscription, enter your payment and address details and create your ScentBox account.
You will be charged for the first month when you order and then debited each month 7 days before the shipping date. You will find information on shipping in the next section of this ScentBox subscription report.
FAQ
Shipping policy
As mentioned in this ScentBox subscription review, shipping is only available within the US and is always free. ScentBoxes are shipped four times a month, so delivery depends on when you subscribe. ScentBox ships on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of each month. Here are the guidelines they provide:
- Subscribe between the 1st and 7th of the month: delivery will be on the 14th of the month
- Subscribe between the 8th and 14th of the month: delivery on the 21st of the month
- Subscribe between the 15th and 21st of the month: delivery on the 28th of the month
- Subscribe between the 22nd and the last day of the month: delivery on the 7th of the following month
Once the ScentBox is dispatched, it takes approximately 7-10 working days for delivery. Subscribers will receive a monthly email notification when their box is shipped. Full size bottles will be shipped within 4-6 business days after the order is placed. You can track both types of orders through your ScentBox login.
Subscribers can change their monthly shipping date, but this will also change their monthly billing date. Note that orders are invoiced 7 days before the shipping date. You can update your shipping date by sending an email to customer service at info@scentbox.com.
Return policy
ScentBox subscribers are entitled to 1 exchange per month, up to a maximum of 5 exchanges within a 12 month period. Exchanges are free of charge and at the discretion of ScentBox. Perfume samples containing less than 90% of the fragrance will not be accepted.
If you purchase a full-size bottle, you may return it for store credit within 30 days of delivery. ScentBox recommends using a trackable service as ScentBox is not responsible for lost returns. Full-size products can be returned to this address:
Cancel ScentBox
As mentioned above, you can cancel your ScentBox subscription at any time, with the exception of the annual subscription and the gift subscription. The annual subscription can only be canceled within the first month of purchase. The gift subscription cannot be canceled (the fee paid in advance will not be refunded).
Standard and Premium subscriptions must be canceled before the monthly billing date. Requests made after the billing date will not take effect until the following month.
Contact ScentBox
If you have any questions after this ScentBox subscription review or would like to cancel, exchange fragrances or change plans, you can contact the ScentBox team:
- Contact form on the website
- E-mail: info@scentbox.com
- Phone: 1-844-782-9629
