If you color your hair regularly, you’ve probably done the same math I did: Is it cheaper to buy boxes one at a time, or does a membership actually make sense?
I’ve been using the Madison Reed Limitless Plus At-Home Membership for over a year now, and I wanted to share my honest experience…not the marketing version, but what it’s actually like to live with the subscription long-term.
This isn’t a first-impressions post.
This is what happens after a year of real use, skipped boxes, gray roots that stayed a little too long, and figuring out whether the membership truly saves money or just feels convenient.
Madison Reed Limitless Plus Membership – Quick Summary
Annual cost: $49
Discount: 15% off all color kits
Free shipping
Skip, pause, or cancel anytime
Best for: people coloring every 6–10 weeks
Why I Signed Up for the Madison Reed Limitless Plus Membership
I didn’t sign up for the membership right away.
I had been using Madison Reed to cover my stubborn grays for years. A few months ago, I posted a whole article on how I feel about Madison Reed hair color.
At first, I purchased from Target.
Then I went to Ulta.
I purchased a box of Madison Reed on Amazon, but pricing was higher and I didn’t want to pay more than what I knew I could buy it for in Target or Ulta.
Sometimes, I would go longer than I wanted to go without coloring my hair because I just didn’t want to visit a store simply to buy hair color.
So one random Saturday at home, I decided to visit the Madison Reed website. I quickly discovered that I could purchase my hair color online for the same price in-store and have it delivered to my door.
Not only that, but the Madison Reed online store offered a ton of color options that I never knew existed. The selection inside my Ulta and Target was very slim at the time (and actually still is).
I spent some time on the Madison Reed website and eventually landed on an internal debate: Do I really want to continue to pay full price?
I color my hair about every 8 weeks, but life doesn’t always cooperate. There have been times I stretched it to 9 or even 10 weeks, which meant my gray roots were… noticeable.
And sometimes I had some special event coming and I colored my hair around the 6 week mark.
Eventually, I realized I wasn’t an occasional user. This was a regular expense, whether I liked it or not. That’s when the Limitless Plus membership started to make sense.
What the Madison Reed Limitless Plus Membership Actually Is
At its core, the Limitless Plus At-Home Membership is a subscription program for people who use Madison Reed hair color consistently.
Instead of buying individual boxes at full price, you pay a membership fee and receive 15% off every color kit.
Here’s what it’s not:
- It’s not required to buy Madison Reed hair color
- This is not a contract
- It’s not a “set it and forget it” auto-ship situation unless you want it to be (I do have auto-ship, which I’ll talk about more shortly)
And that flexibility matters more than you might expect.
Limitless Premiere vs. Limitless Plus
So the Limitless Premier is free to join.
Let’s analyze the difference between the Limitless Plus At-Home Membership and the free Premiere Membership
#1 – Plus costs money (currently $49) and Premiere does not.
#2 – Limitless Premiere only saves you 15% off when you have your boxes on auto delivery. With Plus, you don’t have to sign up for the auto-delivery.
#3 – SHIPPING. Shipping is free with the Plus membership. This is the main reason why I chose Plus. Shipping with the Premiere membership is around $8 per shipment.
The Cost
Basically, the Limitless Premiere is free and the Plus charges you annually. Currently, the annual cost for Plus is $49.
Don’t forget the free shipping you get with Plus – No free shipping with Premiere.
15% Off
With either membership, you have the ability to earn 15% off something.
However, with the free Premiere Membership, you only earn 15% off at-home kits that are on auto delivery.
With the Plus membership, you earn 15% with all color kits, regardless if they are on auto-delivery.
In my case, it’s nice to have all color kits at 15% off regardless of the fact that I do have auto-delivery turned on because sometimes my teenage daughters decide they want to randomly color their hair
So when I throw in an extra box here or there, I still receive the discount.
Rewards
With the Limitless Premiere, you earn $5 in rewards for every $200 spent.
Limitless Plus awards you $10 for every $150 spent.
To be honest, this doesn’t do much for me and I have no idea how many rewards I currently have because it takes so long for them to build up.
There’s supposedly an annual birthday gift for each membership type, but I didn’t receive anything for my birthday so I would pretend this isn’t there. I didn’t email and complain about the birthday gift because the “welcome gift” was just a few very small samples so I figured the birthday gift wasn’t much to brag about.
If you’ve received a birthday gift, please comment if it was amazing. If it’s something crazy like $100 in free items, I’ll totally email them and tell them I didn’t get anything, but I doubt it was something that fantastic.
Flexibility with Auto-Delivery
You can:
- Skip a month
- Pause
- Cancel
I’ve skipped when I needed to and I didn’t feel penalized for it.
Other Considerations
The Limitless Plus also offers the following two additional perks that the Premiere does not.
I’m not talking about these too much because I don’t use either one, but it may sway you so here we go:
- 10% off products and services
- One free roots service a year at a Hair Color Bar (I don’t have one anywhere close to me)
How Much the Madison Reed Membership Costs (Real Math)
This is where people either decide the membership is worth it… or absolutely not.
If you color your hair every 8 weeks like I do, that works out to roughly 6–7 boxes per year. Sometimes fewer if you stretch it, sometimes more if you’re touching up more often.
When I looked at:
- The membership fee
- Free Shipping
- The 15% savings
…it became clear that if I continued coloring at my normal pace, the membership would save me money over the year, even with the months I skipped.
If I only colored once or twice a year? No. This would not be worth it. But for regular users, the math works in your favor.
So if you aren’t sure if Madison Reed is your go-to hair color and you plan to continue using it, go for the free Premiere Membership until you’re sure.
How I Actually Use the Membership in Real Life
This is the part that matters most.
I don’t color on a strict schedule. I intend to color every 8 weeks, but sometimes that turns into 9 or 10 weeks. When that happens, I already have a box ready, and I don’t feel rushed to use it just because it arrived.
I also like knowing that when I do need to color, I’m not:
- Reordering last minute
- Paying full price again
- Wondering if shipping will arrive in time
The membership removes that friction.
Is the Madison Reed Membership Worth It If You Only Color Occasionally?
This is where I want to be honest, because not everyone should sign up.
You might want to skip the paid membership if:
- You color once or twice a year
- You’re still experimenting with shades
- You’re not sure Madison Reed is your long-term solution
In those cases, buying boxes as needed makes more sense.
The membership shines when Madison Reed is already part of your routine.
Membership vs. Buying Madison Reed Without It
Here’s the simplest way I can explain it:
- Buying one-off = flexibility, higher cost per use
- Membership = lower cost per use, better planning
For me, the membership reduced the mental load. I wasn’t constantly re-deciding whether to reorder or hunting for promos.
I get so mad when I see a promo code box and I can’t find a code to put in it.
I’ve noticed this same pattern with other products I use regularly — when something becomes part of your routine, subscriptions can either save money or quietly cost more if you’re not paying attention. I broke this down in my Walmart+ review when I was deciding whether that subscription made sense for our family.
How the Membership Compares to Other At-Home Hair Color Options
I’ve tried other at-home hair color options over the years, and what keeps me with Madison Reed is consistency. The membership doesn’t change the product itself — it just changes how you pay for it and plan around it.
If you already like Madison Reed hair color results, the membership enhances that experience rather than replacing it.
(If you’re curious about the hair color itself – I break that down in my full Madison Reed hair color review.)
Pros and Cons of the Madison Reed Limitless Plus Membership
Pros
- Lower per-box cost for regular users
- No pressure to color on a strict schedule
- Free shipping
- Discounts on everything you buy
- Easy to manage
Cons
- Not worth it for infrequent colors
- Easy to overestimate how often you’ll color
- Another subscription to keep track of
- I don’t like it that there are no “surprise offer” emails. I get these all the time from other companies I’ve subscribed to.
Who I Think the Membership Is Best For
Based on a year of real use, this is who I think gets the most value:
- People covering gray regularly
- Busy moms who don’t want last-minute reorders
- Anyone coloring every 6–10 weeks
- Budget-conscious users who like predictable costs
Who Should Probably Skip It
- First-time Madison Reed users
- People who color once or twice a year
- Anyone who frequently switches brands or shades
Final Verdict: Is the Madison Reed Limitless Plus Membership Worth It After a Year?
For me? Yes — with conditions.
Because I color about every 8 weeks (even when that turns into 10), the membership saves money and reduces hassle. The ability to skip and avoid reordering stress makes it worth it for my routine.
If you’re a regular Madison Reed user, the membership feels less like a subscription trap and more like a practical way to manage a recurring expense.
If you’re not there yet, try the hair color first — then decide.
What to do next
If you already use Madison Reed consistently, the Limitless Plus membership is worth a serious look. If you’re still deciding whether the hair color itself works for you, start there before committing to the subscription.
Either way, the key is matching the membership to how you actually live, not how often you wish you colored your hair.
Ready to try purchasing Madison Reed from the Madison Reed Website? Click here and you get $15 off!
Related Reviews I’ve Done After Long-Term Use
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