are *YOU* signing up to the new monthly beauty box?

Today, the new YOU magazine beauty discovery box launches

It's a crowded marketplace, with many casualties along the way (do you remember the excellence that was Carmine? Or the eagerly awaited yet sadly disappointing She Said Beauty?) but it's undoubtably a popular concept.

This isn't YOU's first foray into the beauty box scene, they have partnered with Latest in Beauty several times in the past, most notably for the (overpriced) Advent Calendar in December 2012.

One of the delights of Glossybox and Birchbox is that you don't know what you are getting each month. However, this is also what worries people about subscribing every month, and with a plethora of 'good boxes' and 'bad boxes', you can see their point. The solution? Tell your buyers what they expect to get before they buy. Latest in Beauty, and the Selfridges boxes have got this down to a fine art now. I don't know though... something about the surprise element of Glossybox just keeps me coming back.

So how does YOU beauty work? Like this:

 
Interesting. You have two choices (out of 6 - 10) and then some extras. This time round I have chosen the Mama Mio tummy oil (I'm still carrying a few stretch marks and wrinkles around my belly from when I was pregnant with my one year old son), and the Decleor BB cream. The BB cream sample is a tiny one, but really it's something I want to try to decide on whether or not I want to buy the full size. After all, that is what these beauty boxes are all about!

It will be interesting to see how the YOU box is received by the fickle beauty buying community. I think the £6.95 price tag (including postage) is very good, and really it's about what these boxes are for - marketing. The more people you can get to talk about your product, the more people you are going to get buying it.

I'm not overly excited by the prospect that it is associated with the Daily Mail, I'll be honest. I don't like the bigotted, sensationalist, right wing, small minded attitudes I associate with the Daily Mail so I'm feeling a little bit torn giving the company money. However, the fact that they are associated with such a giant means that they already have all of the contacts they need to bring us the very best products.

Are you going to sign up? Be quick! The email I received this morning said that September will only see 5,000 boxes available.