Subscription boxes mean that you can get a surprise selection of anything from make up to sex toys delivered to your house on a monthly basis. But can they work for wellbeing? Pause is a subscription box that works to improving mental health, with the proceeds go towards helping others too.

Subscription boxes have transformed the way many Americans stock up on everyday essentials, – from make-up to toilet paper to snack packs. Scentbird is adapting the model for the modern fragrance buyer, giving them access to hundreds of designer scents for a relatively low monthly cost.

Fragrance brand Skylar has launched a subscription retail service, Skylar Scent Club, to reach out to new buyers and increase engagement with existing customers. As people move away from having a signature scent, they’re looking to brands to help them widen the pool to wear multiple fragrances.

Whether it’s a mystery teabag or new make-up, an element of surprise comes packaged within many subscription boxes. Canvas8 spoke to Aditya Gupta, a PhD candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, to understand how surprise impacts the experience of self-gifting.