Muse Kits vs Smart Art: A Full Year of Art Subscription Boxes, Rated

Introduction

Art subscription boxes usually get judged one at a time, which makes it easy to forget that some months hit and some miss. The fairer test is a full year of boxes, because that shows what a subscription is actually like to live with. That is exactly what this deep dive covers: ten of the twelve monthly Muse Kits boxes from 2024, opened one by one and judged as if each had cost the full $49.95 subscription price.

Muse Kits will be familiar to some readers under a different name. The brand used to operate as Smart Art before a rebrand, and the change is more than skin deep. The new yellow packaging looks sharper, but the real difference is in how the boxes are put together: each month is themed around a single art technique, and the supplies actually coordinate instead of feeling like random stock thrown in a box.

How We Judged Each Box

The ground rules were simple. Every box was assessed as if it cost the standard $49.95 per month, not the heavily discounted end-of-year price that currently sits around $19.98 for the 2024 boxes. That matters because a discounted overstock box and a full-price subscription should be held to different standards.

Two things were weighed in every box: completeness and cohesion. The best boxes here include the small things most art boxes skip, like a palette, a rinse cup, or even a container to do the technique in, so you can start creating without digging through your own supplies. The weaker boxes assume you already own half of what you need. One quirk worth knowing: Muse Kits rewards subscribers with points and features subscriber artwork in the included booklet, which adds a little value beyond the supplies themselves.

The Standout Months

The January box set the tone with a full gouache setup: a set of eight gouache paints, a professional-style synthetic brush set, a palette, a ribbed brush-rinsing cup, a thick Strathmore watercolor pad, and a genuinely unusual extra, a cold-press 100% cotton watercolor board that will not warp like paper. Everything works together, which is rare. Rating: 9/10.

March went somewhere almost no art box goes: wood carving. The box included actual carving tools, a pile of wooden blocks, paint, gel stain, glazing medium, finger protectors, and a full brush set. It is heavy, generous, and completely self-contained. Rating: 8/10.

April brought a themed ink and watercolor box with a palette, brushes, a uniquely shaped thick Fabriano pad, textured paper sheets, and even watercolor ink. May’s water marbling box was the most thoughtful of the year, including the tray to marble in, gloves, sticks, a comb, and plenty of Marabu Easy Marble paint, plus bunny keyrings and wooden rings to decorate. Rating: 7/10 for May, simply because marbling will not be everyone’s taste.

September delivered the best fluid art kit seen in any art box: a genuinely generous amount of heavy acrylic paint, palette knives, pouring cups large and small, a divided pouring tray, silicone oil for creating cells, spreaders, and multiple canvases and boards. Nothing was held back on weight or quantity. Rating: 9/10.

The Middle of the Pack

The June block printing box is a good example of a kit that is well designed but harder to value. It includes a carving block set with interchangeable tips, an X-Acto knife, Speedball block printing ink in black and copper, a roller, and a watercolor postcard pad. Everything is there to make two to four stamps, but it feels lighter than the surrounding months. Rating: 6/10.

August introduced cyanotype, the original sun-printing process dating back to 1842, known for its rich Prussian blue monochromatic prints. The box contains the A and B sensitizing solutions, colored pigment bottles, acrylic sheets, binder clips, cups, brushes, and a Fabriano pad. It is well rounded and complete, even if the technique itself is an acquired taste. Rating: 7/10.

October’s line art box leans on drawing: Spectrum Noir Colorista pencils, a Muse Kits pencil roll, brush-tip permanent markers that work on stone, glass, wood, metal, fabric and canvas, fineliners, a lead holder, and a 31-day line art challenge booklet with structured activities. The odd part is pairing colored pencils with an acrylic-primed artist panel they cannot properly work on. Rating: 6/10.

November closed the year with oil painting: six 20ml tubes of Cobra water-mixable oils from Royal Talens, a brush washer, four painting panels, brushes, and palette knives. The paint set retails for roughly $20 to $25 on its own, so the box feels slightly thin at full price, but it is still complete and usable out of the box. Rating: 7/10.

The Weakest Months

July is the clear low point and worth calling out honestly. The watercolor-themed box includes a cheap-feeling plastic kids-style watercolor pan set, water brushes, aqua pens, washi tape, stamp-style stickers, a Fabriano watercolor pad, and a drawstring bag that does not actually fit the palette it came with. The biggest miss is the missing palette, the one item every other month included. It feels assembled from leftover stock rather than designed. Rating: 4/10.

Muse Kits vs Smart Art: What Changed

The rebrand is not just cosmetic. Old Smart Art boxes had a reputation for feeling like a grab bag of supplies that did not obviously belong together. The Muse Kits boxes reviewed here are themed around one technique per month, include the supporting tools that make the technique actually doable, and are packed generously, even when that means shipping heavy items like wood blocks and full-size paint bottles.

Not every box lands. A couple of months feel cheap or randomly assembled, and if you received three mediocre boxes in a row, cancelling would be a reasonable call. But the hit rate here is high: several boxes would justify the full subscription price on their own, and the overall year earns a solid 8/10.

Should You Subscribe?

For $49.95 a month, Muse Kits is a strong pick for anyone who wants to try a new art technique regularly without sourcing supplies themselves. The themed, complete-kit approach means each month you get a genuinely new craft to attempt, from gouache and ink to wood carving, marbling, cyanotype and fluid art.

For bargain hunters, there is a smarter route: the brand discounts leftover boxes once the month passes, and 2024 boxes have been available at around $19.98, roughly 60% off, during end-of-year sales. Buying past months lets you cherry-pick the themes you actually want. That is a legitimate way to test the brand before committing to a subscription.

Conclusion

Muse Kits is a clear step up from the Smart Art era, with cohesive single-technique boxes, generous inclusions, and only one or two real misfires across ten months. If you want variety and completeness in an art subscription, it earns its 8/10; if you want maximum value, watch for the discounted overstock boxes first.