Ipsy Launches $65 Wellness Box as 66% of Members Say Category Overwhelms Them

Ipsy launched its first wellness subscription box on Thursday, priced at $65 per quarter, after its own research found 66% of members want wellness products but feel overwhelmed by the category.

The 15-year-old company, which had 20 million subscribers as of 2025, surveyed its consumers last year about their interest in wellness. The results drove the product decision. Some 69% of members said they will not commit to a wellness routine without first sampling products, and 65% said they would be likely to explore a new wellness brand or product if Ipsy introduced it to them.

"[Our members] were saying that they were really interested in learning more about wellness, but that it was an overwhelming nut to crack and they weren't quite sure how to get started," Stacey Politi, chief marketing officer at Ipsy, told Glossy.

How does the box work?

Subscribers choose between three themes per quarter: hair, skin or overall well-being. The first boxes focus on beauty-adjacent categories like supplements and scalp health, with plans to expand into sleep and sexual wellness soon.

Launch brands include Cymbiotika, Goli, Sakara, Apothékary, Elemis and Fable & Mane. Lemme, Beam and Good Bacteria are set to appear in future boxes.

Politi said Ipsy is targeting a mix of established brands with name recognition and up-and-coming brands that offer exposure to burgeoning categories and trends. The company does not disclose the terms of its brand partnerships.

The new box slots into an existing lineup that runs from $15 per month for the smallest beauty box, containing four deluxe samples, to $65 per quarter for the largest, with eight full-size products. Ipsy also sells discounted full-size products to members.

Who is Ipsy?

YouTube creator Michelle Phan co-founded the company, which launched in 2011 with its first beauty subscription box — a category Birchbox had created the year before. Ipsy is privately held by BFA Industries, the parent company formed after Ipsy merged with competitor BoxyCharm in 2020.

Its customer base spans older Gen Z, millennial and Gen X women in the U.S., Mexico and Canada, according to Politi.

What competition does Ipsy face?

The wellness subscription box model remains relatively underdeveloped compared with the crowded beauty box market. Ipsy's largest direct competitor is TheraBox, a monthly self-care and wellness box curated by practicing therapists, priced at $45. Former Los Angeles-based therapist Ting Jiang launched it in 2017.

Beauty and lifestyle boxes also sprinkle in wellness offerings, including FabFitFun, launched in 2013, and Retention Brands-owned Birchbox.

The biggest threat may be single-purchase wellness discovery sets sold by retailers. Revolve sells a Wellness Rituals Bundle for $39, featuring brands such as Lemme gummy vitamins, Summer Fridays eye patches and Barriere wellness stickers. DermStore sells the Wellness Edit for $60, curated with Skin Gym mouth tape, Naturopathica bath salts and Agent Nateur supplement sachets.

"Wellness hasn't been as mass as it's becoming now," Politi said. "But now it's becoming so widespread that it's something you can't not pay attention to anymore. … People who might not have considered themselves as someone concerned with wellness or longevity 15 years ago are now thinking about those things."

How will Ipsy grow subscriptions?

Politi and her team plan to grow the wellness box through cross-selling to current beauty subscribers, paid media and the company's 2,000-person-strong creator network. The company is treating the launch as a beta test; categories, pricing and frequency could be amended next year to better serve the consumer.

Politi framed Ipsy's sampling engine as the core advantage. "[We learned that] if we can hold their hand along the way, they'll be more likely to take the leap [into the wellness category]," she said. "That's a little bit of our superpower, and so it seemed like a good place for us to start."

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Stat of the week

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For Ipsy, the wellness box is a measured bet: a beta test backed by its own survey data, with pricing and categories on the table for revision next year.