Beauty heroes subscription box

Even the most dismal day can be brightened by popping up my mailbox and spotting a neatly packaged Beauty Heroes box waiting for me inside. Created by a spa industry veteran, the subscription is the clean beauty's answer to the slow food movement: Non-toxic holy grail products ( or "discoveries" as they call them), are lovingly culled into monthly boxes to be incorporated into your self care routine. 

And no duds so far. Lines like LilFox (the honey based mask + scrub pictured above, by the way, is a fantastic morning facial treatment), Osmia, Josh Rosebrook and Mahalo have all been featured in my boxes. All of these lines have long been darlings of other clean beauty bloggers, and my Instagram feed is often dotted with unabashed adoration for these lines. But their products are pricey, and my skin is fussy. So it's lovely getting their one-size-fits-all greatest hits sent my way and dodging have to pay the full retail value, at roughly $38 a box. 

Art of Organics

A really good subscription box makes the day of its arrival feel like your birthday. And Art of Organics accomplishes this by doing a beautiful job of curating clean beauty products into monthly boxes. Culled around a certain concept (fresh, detox, etc...) which is pulled into a bespoke print or illustration used on the packaging and enclosed note to elaborate on the products chosen.

I really didn't think I needed another subscription box, but after following them on Instagram for several months, I found myself observing wistfully all the boxes released that I didn't have. And since signing up, I've had no regrets. Not one box has darkened my doorstep that left me thinking "well, this month's a dud -- let's see how the next one turns out."

I've discovered new holy grail items (like the Birch Rose & Co. mask pictured above that both restores my dehydrated skin and quells breakouts). Claire, the founder, has an innate sense of what her clientele are after and has somehow managed the tall order of satisfying everyone while keeping things exciting. 

A box of staples that satisfy a hole you didn't realize you had at $39 a pop (complimentary shipping!) -- I cannot recommend it enough.