ScentBox Subscription Review

About ScentBox

If you’re not enthusiastic at the prospect of sampling scents in department stores or have collected unused bottles of perfume at home, ScentBox may be the solution. ScentBox delivers luxury perfume or cologne to your door every month and can help you discover the scents that suit you best—or satisfy your scent addiction without breaking the bank on pricey bottles.

CNN recommended ScentBox as a nice gift and AskMen deemed it one of the best cologne subscriptions out there. This 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 love of luxury cologne. Given that over 1000 new fragrances are launched 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 explore new scents, and ScentBox was born. 

All the fragrances included in a ScentBox subscription are genuine designer products. These perfumes and colognes come in an atomizer vial after being independently rebottled and repackaged by ScentBox in Beverly Hills, CA. Subscribers also have the option to purchase full-sized products, which come in sleek and classy ScentBox bottles. 

The subscription lets you sample luxury perfume or cologne every month, with the option to purchase them in larger sizes. ScentBox offers between 575-850+ fragrances to experiment with, depending on the plan. You can commit to scents after enjoying them in a ScentBox, or have a revolving set to keep things interesting.

A fragrance subscription is great if you don’t want to stick with one scent. Different perfumes and colognes can go well with different environments and times of the year. Florals in the summer, more sultry scents on a night out, something light and fresh for after you emerge from a shower at the gym. 

The DL on Fragrance

Fragrances have a personal element to them: each person’s body chemistry has a major influence on the scent. If you’ve ever liked a fragrance when you smelled it on one of those white sampling cards, then changed your mind after actually wearing it, there’s the explanation. We don’t exactly know why perfume molecules react uniquely on everyone’s skin, so it’s a certain je ne said quoi. 

What makes this mystery even more intriguing is the subconscious factor that influences fragrance preferences, and possibly, our choice in mates. It’s common knowledge that fragrances are often used to attract people, or at least that’s one of the goals, beyond just smelling nice. 

A 2001 study published in Behavior Ecology backs this up: whether you recognize it or not, your fragrance choice, does, in fact, send out genetic signals to potential mates. The research found that people tend to prefer fragrances that combine with their body chemistry in a way that complements their major histocompatibility complex (MHC), 

The MHC involves genes that make up your immunogenetic profile. Humans, and other animals, generally choose mates with dissimilar MHCs to give their potential offspring a more genetically diverse and thus strong immune system. I’m not saying that you should choose scents based on this factor, it’s just interesting. There’s the evolutionary science you didn’t know you’d get today. 

I’ll dive into a ScentBox subscription review up ahead, but first, a sum up of highlights:

Highlights

• Access to 575-850+ fragrances, depending on the subscription
• Freedom to experiment with scents each month
• Sizeable fragrance sample containing 150 sprays (average perfume/cologne sample contains 15 sprays)
• Free shipping and up to eight free exchanges per year
• No commitment/cancel any time 

How It Works

Every month, ScentBox subscribers browse through hundreds of designer fragrances. More options than what you can expect to find basically anywhere, with the exception of specialty fragrance shops. This variety may sound exciting to you, or overwhelming. A list of fragrances is provided on the website in alphabetical order, so it helps if you know the brands you’re interested in. 

You choose a scent to try and get a 30-day supply of the fragrance (0.27 oz/8 ml), equivalent to 125 sprays. For comparison’s sake, standard perfume samples are 1.5 oz, equivalent to 15 sprays. You can also gift the subscription to someone special and can choose the length of time upon sign up (more details on this in the next section).

A serious perk our ScentBox subscription review turned up: the subscription is month to month and you can cancel any time, unlike other luxury product subscriptions. Shipping is free, but unfortunately, ScentBird only ships within the US. Members are also entitled to one exchange shipment/month in case they aren’t happy with their scent. 

Exploring the ScentBox site provided some other useful info. If you have allergic reactions to some fragrances, you should look up the ingredients in the scents you’re interested in. If you’re prone to forgetfulness and don’t end up choosing your scent, you’re automatically sent the fragrance of the month (either perfume or cologne, depending on your preference at signup). 

ScentBox Pricing

ScentBox offers two subscription choices, which each come with a refillable travel spray and keepsake box. Our ScentBox subscription review provides a breakdown of the plans:

Standard ScentBox

• $14.95 per month
• Choose 1 designer fragrance monthly 
• Access to 575+ perfumes or colognes 

Premium ScentBox 

• $19.95 per month
• Choose 1 designer fragrance monthly 
• Access to 850+ fragrances

A Gift Subscription can be purchased for terms of 3, 6, or 12 months as well as an Annual Subscription, which involves paying upfront. There wasn’t much about these on the site, other than cancellation info—more on this in the FAQ section of this ScentBox subscription review.

ScentBox Reviews: What Do Customers Think?

There’s no option to leave a ScentBox subscription review on the website, so I did some exploring. On bizratesurveys.com, ScentBox has an impressive 8.7/10 rating from over 6700 reviewers. Thousands of customers praised the scents and their huge variety, describing the subscription as easy and affordable. The straightforward sign up process and transparency of cost were given high individual ratings. Approximately 10% of reviewers had a negative experience and 17% rated their response to the subscription as neutral. 

ScentBox is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau, but the BBB gave it a B grade, which is pretty good (grades go down to F). There were only two complaints lodged for ScentBox, and one has no details provided. The other complaint was from a customer who cancelled his/her subscription 8 days before the ship date and was told that only an exchange was possible, and to wait for the product to be shipped. ScentBox responded to the complaint, confirming the customer’s ship date and that he/she could return the item for a refund. 

I also checked out what people were saying about ScentBox on Influenster. The subscription has a rating of close to 4.5/5 stars from 45 reviews. Aside from the glowing reviews, one subscriber felt that the samples didn’t last for a full month, though she didn’t mention how much and how often she wears fragrances. A handful of people had difficulties cancelling the subscription and accessing customer service. 

For the most part, feedback is pretty positive for ScentBox. It was inevitable that I would find some negative ratings in this ScentBox subscription review—no brand or service is perfect.

Our Verdict on ScentBox

If full size designer scents are out of your price range, ScentBox could be your solution. If you wear fragrances on a daily basis, you’ll always have access, or if you’re a semi-regular or rare user you can assemble a collection. If you’re on a budget, it seems like the Standard Subscription is the way to go, since you still have access to over 500 scents. Unless you’re obsessed with fragrances and want even more choices. 

How frequently you wear perfume or cologne affects the value of this subscription. The Standard Subscription, for example, costs $179.40 if continued for one year. That’s the price of 1-2 large luxury fragrance bottles, depending on the brand. The average large-size bottle of perfume or cologne is 100 ml, which contains 1400 sprays. 

So if you use four sprays daily, that would last 250 days (a little over 8 months). Even if you only wear fragrances semi-regularly and end up paying the same price compared to a full size bottle over a one year period, the point is the added flexibility and variety the ScentBox subscription offers. 

ScentBox Promotions and Discounts

New ScentBox members get 35% their first month: the reduced price amounts to $9.72 for the Standard plan and $12.97 for Premium. You don’t need a ScentBox coupon code for this—the discount is automatically applied at checkout.

Referral Program

As an active ScentBox subscriber, you can redeem ScentBox rewards by having friends and family sign up for the subscription. Rewards do not have cash value, and can only be used to purchase products on the website.

ScentBox Signup 

To begin a ScentBox subscription, visit their website, ScentBox.com. Choose between Standard and Premium plans, enter your payment and address details, and create your ScentBox account. 

You’ll be initially charged for your first month when you place your order, then charged each month 7 days before your ship date. For information on shipping, check out the next section in this ScentBox subscription review.

FAQ

Shipping Policy

As mentioned earlier in this ScentBox subscription review, shipping is only available throughout the US, and is always free. Fragrance boxes ship four times per month, so delivery depends on when you subscribed. 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: will ship 14th of the month
• Subscribe between 8th and 14th of the month: will ship 21st of the month
• Subscribe between 15th and 21st of the month: will ship 28th of the month
• Subscribe between 22nd and last day of the month: will ship 7th of the following month

Once ScentBox ships, it takes approximately 7-10 business days for delivery. Subscribers receive a monthly email notification when their box ships. Full size bottle shipments arrive in 4-6 business days from when the order is placed. You can track both order types using your ScentBox login.

Subscribers can change their monthly ship date, but this will also change their monthly bill date. Note that orders are billed 7 days before the ship date. You can update your ship date by emailing customer service at [email protected]. 

Return Policy

ScentBox subscribers are entitled to 1 exchange shipment per month, up to a maximum of 5 exchange shipments within a 12-month period. Exchanges are processed for free at the discretion of ScentBox, and fragrance samples returned with less than 90% of fragrance will not be accepted. 

If you purchase a full size bottle, it can be returned within 30 days of delivery for store credit. Customers are responsible for shipping the item back, and ScentBox recommends using a trackable service, as they are not responsible for lost returns. Full size products can be returned to this address: 

Scent Box

9350 Wilshire Blvd Ste 203

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Cancel ScentBox

As mentioned earlier on, you can cancel your ScentBox subscription any time, with the exception of the Annual Subscription and Gift Subscription. The Annual Subscription can only be cancelled within the first month of purchase. You can’t cancel the Gift Subscription at all (the prepaid fee is non-refundable). 

For the Standard and Premium plans, cancellation must be requested before your monthly charge date. Requests made after the billing date will take effect the following month. 

Contact ScentBox

If you still have questions after this ScentBox subscription review or want to process a cancellation, fragrance exchange, or plan change, you can contact their team via: 

• Contact form on the website
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 1-844-782-9629

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You have other luxury scent box options. If you’re interested in sampling multiple fragrances every month, it’s worth comparing ScentBox vs Scentbird.