How to buy an IPSY beauty subscription from the US and ship it anywhere
You finished IPSY’s Beauty Quiz, picked your first Glam Bag, and hit the address field — then your country wasn’t on the list. IPSY ships to four places: the U.S., its territories, Canada, and Mexico. That’s the wall most hit.
Here’s the fix. You can buy an IPSY beauty subscription from the US using a free U.S. forwarding address, then have each box reshipped to your door — whether that door is in Lisbon, Lagos, or Lahore. Planet Express gives you that U.S. address. IPSY ships to it. We ship to you.
Where IPSY actually ships — and where it stops cold
IPSY runs its own warehouses and keeps delivery tight. Per IPSY’s help center, it delivers to the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Everywhere else? Nothing.
Boxes leave the warehouse mid-month. U.S. addresses see delivery within about 15 business days; non-continental spots can take up to 20. That timing matters once a forwarder sits in the middle, because your box lands at a U.S. warehouse first, then starts its second trip to you.
So the subscription itself works fine. The shipping map is the problem.
💡 Tip: IPSY ships mid-month. Note that date in your calendar so you can plan the forwarding leg and avoid your box sitting idle in the warehouse.
A 20-second primer for anyone new to IPSY
IPSY is a U.S. beauty membership that mails you a curated set of makeup and skincare each month, chosen around a quiz you fill out. You tell it your preferences, you get to pick some of the products yourself, and a collectible bag shows up at your door.
It’s one of the longest-running beauty boxes in the U.S. The catch for you is geographic, not quality — the products are real and brand-name; they just won’t cross most borders directly.
The three IPSY tiers, and which one survives forwarding best
IPSY renamed its plans in its 2025 refresh, so the old “Glam Bag / BoxyCharm / Icon Box” names read differently now. Here’s what each one holds today, plus how it behaves once a forwarder is in the loop.
IPSY Original (formerly Glam Bag) — $15/month plus a $1.99 shipping fee and tax. Five deluxe-size samples worth up to $70 in a collectible makeup bag, and you choose one of the five. First bag is $9.
- Ships internationally direct? No — U.S., Canada, Mexico only.
- Strength: lightest, cheapest box to forward — deluxe samples weigh almost nothing.
- Drawback: samples, not full sizes. You’re discovering, not stocking up.
IPSY Extra (formerly BoxyCharm) — $32/month plus fees. Five full-size products worth up to $200, and you pick three of the five. First box is $27.
- Ships internationally direct? No.
- Strength: full-size products mean real value per gram of shipping weight.
- Drawback: heavier box, so the forwarding leg costs more than Original.
IPSY Ultimate (formerly Icon Box) — a quarterly upgrade at $65 per quarter. Eight full-size products worth up to $400, curated around a celebrity pick, shipping in February, May, August, and November. It replaces your regular box that month.
- Ships internationally direct? No.
- Strength: best dollar-value per shipment — eight full sizes in one consolidated box.
- Drawback: only four drops a year, and it pauses your monthly bag.
Want one box to learn forwarding on? Start with Original. Want value that justifies the second shipping leg? Extra and Ultimate carry it better.
Either way, knowing the tier is only half the job. The other half is getting the box out of the country.
How a Glam Bag gets from California to your door
Meet Lena in Bratislava. She wanted IPSY Extra, but Slovakia isn’t on IPSY’s map. Here’s what she did, start to finish.
First, she signed up at Planet Express and got a free U.S. street address in minutes. Then she went to IPSY, built her profile, and chose Extra — entering her new U.S. address at checkout. About two weeks later, the box reached the warehouse, and Lena got an email letting her know.
From her dashboard, she filled in the customs form, picked a courier, and paid for the international leg. The box left the same day.
That’s the whole loop: U.S. address, IPSY checkout, warehouse, ship home. One box, four steps.
The forwarding address is the key that turns IPSY’s “we don’t ship there” into “delivered.”
Get your free U.S. address and you’ve cleared the first hurdle before IPSY even charges your card.
What to do if IPSY rejects your foreign card
Some U.S. checkouts choke on a foreign-issued card because the billing country doesn’t match a U.S. address. If you hit that “we only accept U.S. payment methods” message, the clean fix is a virtual U.S. card with a U.S. billing address.
That’s what US Unlocked does, and Planet Express recommends it for this exact problem. You create a free account, load funds by card, bank transfer, or crypto, and generate a prepaid card with its own U.S. billing address. Enter that card at IPSY checkout, ship to your Planet Express address, and the order clears like a local’s.
The steps are short:
- Sign up at US Unlocked and load your balance.
- Generate a virtual card — pick one-time-use, merchant-locked, or general-use.
- Pay IPSY with the card and its U.S. billing address.
- Forward the box from your Planet Express address.
New sign-ups can claim a $4.95 credit for a free first month, so testing it costs nothing.
The aerosol rule that strands beauty boxes — and the perfume workaround
Beauty boxes love to include aerosol dry shampoos, setting sprays in pressurized cans, and perfume samples. Those split into two camps, and the difference decides whether your box ships.
Aerosols are a hard stop. Planet Express can’t ship them. Pressurized cans are flammable dangerous goods, and they’re off the table for forwarding — no air method, no exceptions. If your IPSY box arrives with an aerosol, it needs to be removed; the rest of the box ships without it.
Perfume is different. We can forward perfume by FedEx, as long as it follows Fedex’s Perfume Shipping guidelines. Fragrance counts as a dangerous good because of its alcohol, so a few rules apply:
- Under 5 liters of perfume total per package.
- Packed in a sturdy box with protection against breakage.
- A $15 Dangerous Goods fee per shipment.
- Each perfume listed separately with its volume on the customs declaration.
- A Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for each scent, classified UN3082 — without it, we can’t ship.
Pick FedEx at mailout, answer “yes” to the perfume question, and upload the SDS. That’s the whole process.
The full country list and step-by-step sit in our guide to shipping perfume with FedEx.
Knowing what can fly is one thing. Knowing what it costs is the part everyone wants pinned down.
Check what your IPSY box would cost to forward before you commit to a tier.
FAQ
Only if your country is the US, a US territory, Canada, or Mexico. For anywhere else, IPSY won’t deliver direct. You buy with a US forwarding address from Planet Express, then reship the box home.
If your card is cleared for international transactions, it often goes through. If IPSY rejects it, let Planet Express place the order for you with assisted checkout, so a card mismatch never stops the box. Don’t fake a US billing address to force a card through.
IPSY ships mid-month and reaches a US warehouse in about 15 business days. Add the international leg of a few days to two weeks, depending on courier and country. Plan for roughly three to five weeks door to door.
Sometimes, with the right method. Perfumes and aerosols are flammable and face air-freight limits, so they may ship slower or by sea. Declare them properly and read our perfume shipping guide first.
Combining wins. Pooling two or three IPSY boxes into one shipment means paying a single international leg instead of one per box. Subscribe monthly, forward quarterly.
IPSY Original at $15. It’s the lightest box, so it carries the smallest shipping weight. That makes it the best starter for testing the forwarding process before you commit to a heavier tier.