Julep Beauty unveils first fully customizable beauty subscription box

SEATTLE — Start-up beauty brand Julep Beauty has launched this month its first fully customizable monthly beauty box subscription, enabling beauty mavens to choose from among two million possible combinations of full-size beauty products and limited-batch nail polishes.



In the past, "subscription" has meant "set it and forget it" — sign up, give up your credit card and then each month receive a selection of products chosen per the brand's schedule. Julep is looking to change that paradigm by asking customers to actively engage in their subscription each month, choosing exactly which products they'd like to receive. Subscribers will be able to choose from new products or Julep bestsellers, discovering the latest in skin care, color cosmetics and nail colors.



"We want women to engage with us each month," said Jane Park, CEO and founder of Julep. "With this new service, we're bringing the beauty counter experience to our community of Maven subscribers; letting them actively engage in product selection so they receive exactly the combination of monthly products that works for them."



During a window of five days every month, Maven subscribers are invited to view the newest products, discuss on Julep's active social communities online, and then make their own personalized selection of products for inclusion in their boxes. This engagement subscription model lets shoppers come together at "a moment in time" to share their opinions and feedback.



"We're only able to do this because we're a full-stack beauty company," Park said. "Since we own the entire customer experience from product development through to fulfillment, we can let customers choose from more 300 new products we launch every year, including the best of what we've launched to date."



Taking a social approach to product development, Julep launches more than 300 Julep branded, toxin-free nail, color cosmetics and skin care products each year, and is positioned as the only beauty brand that creates new products based on crowd sourced customer feedback gathered via social channels, such as forums, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Founded in 2007, Julep has raised $56 million from leading venture capital firms.