Body Love Box Review

The Premise

I’ve wanted to get hold of a Body Love Box for a really, really long time.

The creator of the Body Love Box, body positivity legend Lindley Ashline, describes the Body Love Box as a fat-positive, LGBTQIAP+-affirming, intersectional monthly subscription box that’s designed to improve your body image while supporting marginalised artists. It costs $38 per month, or about £30 (plus shipping and customs charges), and for that you get about six full-size items plus resources, coupons, writing, and discounts. Essentially, once a month, you get a bunch of cool self-love stuff in the mail.

Obviously this is right up my street. I’ve been dying to get my fat queer hands on one of these. And then the lovely people at Body Love Box made my dream come true by sending me their December box to review just in time for Christmas.

When the box arrived from America, I was so excited to open it that I just ripped the sides off like some kind of wild animal. I would not recommend doing this as the box is full of biodegradable filling, which I proceeded to accidentally strew around my living room.

To be honest, I had high hopes and I wasn’t sure if they’d be met by the little box I’d just demolished.

The Contents

The top layer of the box featured a lovely quote, a short explanation of the theme of this month’s box (December’s is a holiday self-care kit) and a rundown of the contents plus who made each item.

So, what’s in the box?

There was SO MUCH in the box. Each item was nestled snuggly in the biodegradable filling, so the experience of unpacking the box was like digging for lovingly packaged secrets.

The first item I pulled from the box was this squishy little macaron toy, which came with two different types of attachment. The contents card describes it as a ‘stress relief squishy macaron DIY keychain kit’. It’s small enough that you can get a good stress-squish out of it, and I think I’ll be taking this to my therapy office for my clients to fiddle with if they get nervous.

Maybe my favourite thing in the box was second to emerge – this cute little badge reading ‘Self care is not selfish’. I love the message and it’s going straight on my pin jacket to be worn with pride.

Up next, I found this little jar of moisturising body scrub. The first thing I noticed is that it smells absolutely delicious. On further inspection it contains fair trade Shea butter, Haitian coffee, coconut, and rum – all good things. I can’t wait to treat myself to a hot bath and use some of this as a treat.

Buried a little further was this bookmark with the Body Love Box logo and some information explaining that the items in the box are from independent artists who are paid a living wage. As an independent creative myself, that’s nice to hear!

Next up: boobs! This postcard has a coupon for a body positive ‘intimates’ line that encourages you to customise your own lingerie to achieve the perfect fit on their website. The bras on offer seem expensive, but the discount is nothing to be sniffed at, and the artwork of different boobs is so cute it’s going to go up on my art wall.

This sticker sheet was next, which delighted me because I’ve been looking for some new ‘reward’ type stickers for my 2020 goals journal. I like that the stickers celebrate ‘basic’ self-care, the things that are supposed to be easy but are often very difficult when times are hard. Unfortunately, I’m struggling to find a shop owned by the makers of the stickers (they’re listed as ‘Love Not Hate Designs’), so it’s a shame that the contents card didn’t include a website in case I want some more.

This cutie was unearthed next – it’s a little art print that the contents card says is called ‘Breathe’. It’s by Jiji Knight, a body-positive artist who makes very cool art, usually of femmes of size, and someone whose art I’ve admired for a while. Another one for my art wall!

Lastly, I’m counting two items together – a bound self care journal with a cool pattern, and a little paper journal with some prompts regarding photos of people of size. The bound journal was made by Rachelle Abellar, the founder of PNW Fattitude and a very cool activist. The journal with the photo prompts comes with space to write your thoughts and feelings, but I think I’ll use those prompts to write in the bound journal.

The box also contains a few other resources, an interview with Jiji Knight, and some other really cool offers.

The Verdict

I was very excited to get this box and very ready to be disappointed. I am relieved to say that this box, and its contents, is a delight. There’s so much in there, every item made me feel great, and everything is something I can use or display proudly. The theme of holiday self-care seemed to have been really well considered, with items ranging from a celebration of the basics of self-care to luxurious little treats. The overall colour pallete of the box was a little pink for my usual tastes, and some of the offers such as the lingerie coupon felt like the box was primarily aimed at femme people. Even so, most of the contents, even the pink bits, didn’t feel excessively gendered, and the items and offers were explicitly fat- and queer-friendly. I loved receiving my Body Love Box and I think you will, too.

The Other News

In related news, a piece of my writing will be featuring in January 2020’s Body Love Box, as well as an interview with me! I got to answer such important questions as ‘What advice do you have for people who are working to accept their bodies?’ and ‘What do you like to eat for breakfast?’. Buying the January box would be a great way to show me a little love and yourself a whole bunch of love.

For Transparency

I got this box for free in exchange for an honest review. My writing for the box was accepted before I said I’d write this review, so I didn’t feel any pressure to write a positive review. While I’m being honest, I also might give in and taste some of the face scrub later because it smells so good, even though the packaging explicitly says not to. It is a good day to die.

Where To Buy

You can buy a Body Love Box subscription by clicking here.

You can also click below to buy me a coffee!