Companies That Send Free Samples in 2026: 14 Brands and Retailers

Some of the most reliable free samples don’t come from sample websites at all. They come straight from the companies that make or sell the products. Usually it’s a thank-you for joining a mailing list or opening an account, and sometimes the samples ride along with an order you were placing anyway.

This guide rounds up 14 companies that send free samples directly to shoppers, from beauty brands to big retailers. They’re grouped by category: beauty and skincare, fragrance, baby, and home and household, plus a quick note on food tastings. Each entry says what you get and how you get it, so you’ll know up front whether a purchase or membership is involved.

Here’s one honest caveat before the list: offers change a lot. Treat what follows as a starting point, and check the company’s own site for current terms before you sign up or pay. That goes for every entry here, even where we don’t repeat it.

How Companies Send Free Samples (and What They Ask in Return)

Why do brands hand out samples at all? Letting you try something is the fastest way they’ve found to win you over. Usually there’s a catch, like a purchase or a sign-up, though some brands only want your email, so it pays to know which kind of deal you’re looking at before you get excited.

• Samples with an order. You pick them at checkout, or they turn up in the box with whatever you bought, and while they cost nothing, there’s no getting them without a paid order.
• Account or loyalty perks come from joining a free program (now and then there’s a gift on top of the samples or coupons).
• Sign-up programs often work around a life stage, like a new baby. You register, then offers arrive by mail or email.
• In-store tastings: you try food or drinks right at the store. Nothing gets mailed.

Each entry below is labeled so you can skip the ones that don’t fit how you shop.

Peek: Join the Community and Get Matched With Brands

Yotpo Sampling is Yotpo’s product-sampling program, and Peek is its shopper community, where brands find real people to try their products free. It’s a different route from the company programs below, because you don’t need to buy anything or track down a sign-up form for each brand.

You join the community once, and that’s it for setup. Later on, a brand running a campaign may match your profile. When that happens you get an email invitation to try that product free, and you just say yes or no.

Say yes and the brand ships it to you. After you’ve tried it, you write an honest review in your own words. Glowing, mixed, or critical, it’s your honest take that counts.

Since the invitations come to you, there’s no catalog to scroll. What you see depends on which brands happen to be running campaigns right then and how closely they match your profile.

Beauty and Skincare Brands That Send Free Samples

Beauty is where brand-direct sampling shows up most. Most of these companies tuck free samples into online orders, so they suit you best if you were already planning to buy something.

1. Sephora: Free with a paid online order. Shoppers can choose up to two free samples per online order from a rotating assortment shown at checkout, as a benefit of the free Beauty Insider program. Popular picks can run out, so keep a second choice in mind.
2. Ulta Beauty: Free with qualifying purchases. Ulta’s free samples and minis mostly come through gift-with-purchase promotions, where a gift turns free once your bag reaches the offer’s spend threshold. The threshold varies by offer. Joining the free Ulta Beauty Rewards program is a good way to hear about new ones as they launch.
3. Kiehl’s: Free with an order or a store visit. Kiehl’s has offered complimentary samples with online orders, and its offers page shows what’s running now. The in-store route is the more personal one. Ask for the complimentary skin analysis and you can try tailored samples picked for your skin.
4. Clinique: Free with an order. Clinique regularly runs online offers where you choose free samples at checkout once your order reaches a set amount. It also holds gift-with-purchase events, and the gift and the minimum change from event to event.
5. Estée Lauder: Free with a purchase. The brand advertises free deluxe samples with online purchases. Its promotions page lists the current terms, so give it a quick look before you pay.
6. Lancôme: Free with an order. Lancôme online orders often come with free samples you choose at checkout. Every so often there’s also a gift-with-purchase event on orders above a set amount.
7. Origins: Free with a qualifying order. Origins often lets online shoppers pick free deluxe samples when an order reaches the current offer’s minimum. Both the selection and the minimum rotate.
8. Aveda: Free with a qualifying order. Aveda’s offers page has featured a choice of free samples, picked at checkout, on orders above a set amount. The number of samples and the minimum change with each promotion, and samples may not be offered during sitewide sales.

Fragrance Brands With Complimentary Samples

A fragrance is hard to judge from a description. Some perfume houses get around that by including samples, so you can test a scent on your own skin before you commit. Expect them to ride along with an order rather than show up by themselves.

9. Creed: Free with an online order. Creed offers a complimentary sample service with online purchases, subject to availability. Use it to discover a new scent, or to try layering one with a fragrance you already wear. Watch the checkout, though, because Creed also sells paid sample sets and you’ll want the free option if that’s what you’re after.

Many other fragrance brands are easiest to sample in person. A beauty counter at a department store or a specialty beauty retailer can often make you a small sample of a scent you’re curious about, especially when the store is not busy.

Baby Brands That Mail Free Samples and Gifts

Baby brands are some of the most generous companies out there about sending things to your door. Most programs are free to join and work best if you sign up during pregnancy or right after your baby arrives.

10. MySimilac Rewards: Free to join. Similac’s program lists baby formula coupons and samples among its member benefits, and Similac says members can get up to $400 in benefits and support. Offers vary by stage and over time.
11. Enfamil Family Beginnings: Free to join. Enfamil says members can get up to $400 in gifts and savings, with free samples, offers, and coupons arriving over time, and benefits vary. Formula samples are not guaranteed by mail, because Enfamil says they are generally provided at the hospital or by your baby’s doctor.
12. Amazon Baby Registry Welcome Box: Free gift with conditions. Amazon’s Welcome Box includes full-size, travel, and sample-size surprises for parents and baby. To qualify, you need an active Prime membership, a Baby Registry with 10 unique items from the Registry Checklist, and more than $10 in registry purchases by you or others, and it ships only within the contiguous United States.

Home and Household Companies With Free Samples

Household and personal care brands tend to share samples through coupons and add-ons rather than mailed packages. These two are worth knowing if you buy household basics regularly.

13. Grove Collaborative: Free with an order. Grove offers free samples of new or seasonal products from time to time, and you add them to your cart like any other item so they ship with your next order. Only one of each sample fits in an order and stock is limited, so it works best when you’re already restocking.
14. P&G brandSAVER: Free to join. Procter & Gamble’s US program bundles digital coupons and rewards points across many of its household and personal care brands. It also posts free samples now and then, but they are limited and rotate, so check back rather than counting on one.

A Quick Note on Food Samples

Food companies rarely mail samples to your home. It mostly happens in stores instead. Warehouse clubs and grocery chains set up tasting stations, and sometimes staff will hand you a quick taste before you decide.

There’s no sign-up form for that, although some stores do require a membership just to walk in. If tasting first matters to you, ask at your usual grocery store what they do.

How to Get More Free Samples From Companies

A bit of planning goes a long way here. You’ll get more out of brand-direct offers without ending up with a flooded inbox or a bigger bill than you meant to run up.

• Sign up with the brands you already like, since newsletters and free loyalty programs usually announce sample offers and gift events first (birthday perks often live there too).
• Time your orders. If you’re about to buy from a beauty brand anyway, wait for a gift-with-purchase event or at least check which samples you can add at checkout.
• Choose samples on purpose. A moisturizer you’ve been eyeing or a foundation shade you want to test beats something you’d never buy in full size.
• Ask in store. Beauty counters and specialty shops can often give you a small sample of something you’re considering, especially for skincare and fragrance.
• For pet food and niche brands, look at their own websites, where some run occasional sample offers. Only request those through the company’s official site.
• Use a separate email address. Brand sign-ups bring regular marketing email, and a dedicated freebies inbox keeps it all in one spot, which makes unsubscribing later a lot less painful.

How to Spot Fake “Free Sample” Offers

Real companies send free samples all the time. Scammers know it. They borrow big brand names to look legitimate, but a few habits will keep you safe.

• Never pay a shipping fee to release a “free” sample. A real one won’t ask for payment of any kind, so if someone wants your card details “just to cover shipping,” treat that as a red flag.
• Go to the brand’s official website yourself. Type the address or search for the company instead of clicking a link in an unfamiliar email or text.
• Be skeptical of social media ads promising free gift boxes from big-name brands, because scammers often use them to impersonate real companies and send you to lookalike sites.
• Check the web address before you enter anything, since lookalike domains often add an extra word or use an odd ending to pass as the real brand.
• Share only what a sample needs. Your name, shipping address, and email are normal. A Social Security number or banking details never are.
• Watch for pressure tactics like countdown timers or “you’ve already been selected” messages. A demand that you share a post with dozens of friends is another common sign of a fake offer.

Frequently Asked Questions