I'm not going to lie. As much as I love to shop, I don't always enjoy the process, and locally there aren't a lot of options, especially for special sizing like tall or petite. When it comes to online shopping, I tend to stick to a handful of retailers that I'm familiar with and can get overwhelmed scrolling through page after page trying to discover new brands or styles. If this sounds familiar, a subscription service may be worth considering.

I have no active memberships at the moment, but I have used three services for extended periods of time within the past three years: StitchFix for clothes, Mint Mongoose for jewelry, and ipsy for beauty products. I've talked about all three separately and several of my StitchFix purchases make regular blog appearances. So although I'm not actively using any of them, I would recommend them.

I signed up for my first StitchFix box in 2017. At the time, I was looking to expand my professional wardrobe with more quality pieces that couldn't be found in my local stores. I took a style quiz, set my size and price preferences, and decided how often I wanted to receive boxes. Each box contains five items, as well as a styling guide. You get five days to decide if you want to buy anything, but you can request an extension. You do have to pay a $20 styling fee for each box, which is taken out of your final total, but is not refunded if you decide not to keep anything. You can request specific items, which is cool. For instance, I wanted a pair of boyfriend jeans that actually fit my body shape, and my stylist for the month delivered. They were, admittedly, the most expensive pair of jeans I've ever bought but I do not regret them.

So why did I suspend my subscription? I got several boxes in a row that I didn't keep anything from for various reasons, so I felt like I had wasted $20. In retrospect it was probably partly my fault because I didn't stick with one stylist every time. Overall, I felt like the stylists listened to me and matched my style pretty closely.

There are a ton of beauty subscriptions out there, and I honestly can't tell you how I decided on ipsy, but I stuck with it for more than a year. Here's how it works: for $12 a month you get five products and a cute little makeup bag. Some of the products are sample size while others are full size. You can customize to a certain extent, but you don't get to request specific things. I did discover a couple of new brands and still use a few of the makeup bags (I gave a bunch to my daughter to play with).

I ended up ending this subscription because I honestly didn't need another makeup bag. Plus, I have really sensitive skin so it was always a risk trying stuff from brands I'd never used before. That said, if you like to experiment with makeup and want to be introduced to new brands, this is an inexpensive way to go about it.