Glossybox ends its 12 Nordic years — sales sliding, solvency 7%, influencers unpaid

Glossybox was a beauty-box subscription service: a monthly box of curated makeup and skincare samples. It had operated in the Nordics for 12 years when its parent, the British e-commerce group The Hut Group — owner since 2017 — decided to close the region down. At its peak the service had run collaborations with major Swedish influencers, including Bianca Ingrosso.

The decline was visible in the numbers well before the announcement. Glossybox's 2022 annual report showed sales falling from 137.8 to 101.4 million SEK and operating profit from 3.4 to 2.5 million, with the company citing global supply-chain problems and higher inflation. The balance sheet had thinned to 7% solvency — its best level since 2019 — meaning the business was running on almost no equity. In 2022 it had also drawn criticism for boxes filled with unknown brands at premium prices.

On 22 May 2024, Glossybox announced on social media that the June box would be the last: 'Allt roligt har dessvärre ett slut' — 'unfortunately, all fun comes to an end'. The wind-down covered Sweden, Norway and Finland, and customers who had paid for annual subscriptions were promised their money back.

The closure did not end quietly. Within days, influencer Amanda Blom said publicly on TikTok that Glossybox had still not paid her for a collaboration from about a year earlier, and subscribers aired complaints of expired products, boxes received three times over, and poor customer service. Glossybox's exit left the subscription-box category's Nordic chapter to a handful of rivals — the same shake-out that had already taken Birchbox, the category's pioneer, in 2021.

Closed the Nordic arm after 12 years, citing supply-chain problems and inflation, but the real cost was a thin balance sheet and a box that no longer felt like a deal.

The numbers had stopped working: sales fell from 137.8 to 101.4 million SEK in a year, profit from 3.4 to 2.5 million, and the thin balance sheet left no room to absorb the slide

The box lost its value story — by 2022 customers complained of unknown brands at premium prices, and a subscription whose contents disappoint is cancelled rather than complained about

As a small unit inside a global e-commerce group, the Nordic arm had no independent capital; when margins stayed thin, the parent's rational answer was to stop the bleeding entirely

The farewell itself advertised the failure: unpaid creators and paid-up subscribers aired their grievances within days, turning a quiet wind-down into a public one

A subscription is only as strong as the box inside it. When the contents stop feeling like a deal, recurring revenue stops — and a balance sheet at 7% solvency leaves nothing to fix it with.

The last Glossybox went out in June 2024 in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Annual subscribers were promised refunds, while influencer Amanda Blom said publicly that she had not been paid for a collaboration about a year earlier. The wind-down applied only to the Nordic arm; the closure followed the same shake-out that had taken Birchbox, the beauty-box pioneer, in 2021.