If you’ve been seeing people online talk about “free products” from Rare Beauty, Glossier, or Ritual through some app called TYB, this post is for you. I’ve been using Try Your Best for a while now, and there’s a lot going on under the hood that nobody really explains. So here’s the real breakdown of how it works, what’s actually worth it, and the fine print people leave out.

Quick honesty up front: you are almost never getting anything for free. But if you go in knowing that, TYB can still be worth your time. Let me walk you through all of it.

What TYB Even Is

TYB (short for Try Your Best) is a brand community rewards app. You follow the brands you already love, do little activities for them, and earn that brand’s currency in return. It’s not “followers” here. Brands call their communities fans, and each brand shows how many fans it has (you’ll see numbers like 77K or 35.2K, and for smaller brands it’ll drop down to the hundreds).

The whole idea is that being obsessed with a brand should pay off a little. You engage, you earn, you cash it in for a discount.

The Currency System (Coins)

This is the part that confused me most at first, so pay attention here.

Every brand has its own coins

Each brand you follow has its own separate coin. They’re not interchangeable, and every brand assigns a different dollar value to its coins. So the coins you rack up for one brand mean nothing for another.

Here’s what mine actually look like as examples:

• AORA makeup: 1,847 coins is about $4.43
• Blunt cases: 2,500 coins is about $5.50

Notice those aren’t the same ratio. That’s the point. Every brand sets its own exchange rate, and some are way better than others.

Your wallet shows everything

In your wallet, you’ll see the total dollar amount you have across all brands combined, plus each individual brand coin broken out. It’s a nice way to see your whole stash in one place.

Coins never expire

This is genuinely one of the best things about TYB. Your coins never expire. You can keep stacking them up for as long as you want with no pressure to burn them.

How You Actually Earn

There are a few different ways to earn on TYB, and most people only know about the first one.

Challenges (the main way)

You earn coins by doing what TYB calls Challenges, though they show up as tasks, questionnaires, and quick activities on each brand’s page.

If you tap the house button, it takes you to every brand community you’re in, and you can see all the recent and older challenges you can complete. Some things to know:

• Some expire. Certain challenges have a time limit, so they won’t stick around forever.
• Some come with perks. Every so often a challenge will include a link giving you early access to a sale or a drop before it goes public. That alone can make staying active worth it.
• Some challenges are also applications to become a brand ambassador or throw your hat in to be sent PR.

Buying products (yes, purchases earn coins)

Here’s something the app confirms that a lot of people miss: when you actually buy products from a brand, you get coins back. So purchases aren’t just how you spend, they’re also a way to earn. It’s worth knowing before you assume challenges are the only path to a bigger coin balance.

Streaks

Streaks are a newer feature. When you complete a daily challenge, you build a streak, and keeping that streak going earns you rewards on top of your normal coins. So logging in and doing one quick thing a day actually adds up.

Social Boost

If you’ve ever wondered what linking your Instagram does, this is it. Social Boost is the feature that rewards you for connecting your Instagram and staying engaged. You link your account, keep interacting, and TYB rewards you for it.

Referrals (two different kinds)

Referrals are one of the more slept on ways to earn, and there are actually two separate types.

1. Refer people to the app in general. When someone downloads TYB and joins through your referral, you get rewarded for bringing them onto the platform.
2. Refer people to a specific brand community. You can send someone straight to a brand you love, like Rare Beauty or Outdoor Voices. When they join that community, you earn extra in that specific brand’s currency.

So one type builds up your TYB rewards overall, and the other pads your coin balance for a brand you already care about. If you’re going to tell friends about the app anyway, it’s worth doing it through your referral link.

Points and the leaderboard

You also collect points from completing tasks and questionnaires. Here’s the catch: if a brand doesn’t have anything to shop on TYB, those points are basically useless except to put you on the leaderboard. You can stack points and coins all day, but if there’s no shop, there’s nothing to spend them on.

More on the leaderboard below.

Levels (and Why They Matter)

Each brand has its own levels (three per brand), and the level you’re at changes how big a discount you can pull. Higher level, better rewards. You climb by both earning coins AND spending with the brand, so staying active and actually buying things both push you up.

Leveling up does more than unlock bigger discounts, it also makes redemption easier. The minimum cart you need to redeem gets lower the higher your level. So the same brand that feels impossible to use at level 1 can get a lot friendlier once you’ve climbed.

Using AORA makeup as my example, here’s roughly how the levels shake out:

• Level 1: redeem up to 20% off
• Level 2: redeem up to 30% off
• Level 3: redeem up to 50% off

But (and this matters) you still have to convert your coins to unlock those discounts, and the cost is different for every brand. Coins also stretch further as a percentage code than as flat dollars off.

For AORA specifically, the coin costs for percentage codes looked like:

• 20% off = 1,500 coins
• 10% off = 550 coins

So instead of taking a small dollar amount, you can turn your coins into a percentage code, which usually gets you more value.

Redeeming Coins Into Discounts

Here’s the flow, because it’s not obvious.

You don’t redeem inside some universal checkout. You go to the specific brand, and you turn your coins into either:

1. A discount code for a set dollar or percentage amount, or
2. A flat dollar amount off applied at checkout.

You pick a custom amount or use everything you have. Then you shop the brand and apply it. A few important rules live here.

The fine print nobody mentions

• Minimum spends. Lots of brands require a minimum cart before any discount applies. Outdoor Voices, for example, has a $47 minimum spend. So even with a code in hand, you have to hit that floor first. One important note: that minimum isn’t permanent. It drops as you level up with the brand, so the floor you see now gets lower the more you climb.
• Redemption caps. Many brands cap how much you’re allowed to pull. With AORA makeup, the max is around $18 off, and their products are $30 and up, so you’ll never zero it out, but $18 off a $30 lipstick is close to half price, which isn’t bad.
• Bad exchange rates exist. Some brands have genuinely rough redemption rates (Rare Beauty’s was one of the worst I saw). Always check the specific coin’s redemption terms before you get excited.
• Discounts never apply to shipping. You’re paying shipping no matter what. It doesn’t matter how big your discount is.
• Discount codes can expire. They expire a whole 12 months after you make the code.

Redeeming in store

You can also redeem coins in store for some brands now, not just at online checkout. Glossier is the big example people talk about. Full transparency: I’ve never actually tried the in store option myself, so I can’t tell you how smooth it is, but the option is there if your favorite brand has a physical location.

You can undo a discount code

This is a great trick. If you make a discount code but decide not to use it, go to “Use discount codes” in your wallet and return it. You have about a year to use a code, but if it’s about to expire and you haven’t spent it, just return it. Your coins go right back into your wallet (where they never expire), and you can make a new code later. No coins wasted.

The Reality Check: Are You Getting Free Stuff?

Short answer: no, not usually. Between minimum spends, redemption caps, and shipping, you’re getting a discount, not a freebie. The exceptions:

• Giveaways and code drops. Sometimes brands drop real value inside the community. One beauty brand I follow gave everyone a 33% off code for their entire website through the app. That kind of thing makes it worth staying in the communities and actually paying attention.
• Points for product brands. A few brands skip the discount model entirely and let you trade points straight for a product. Ritual multivitamins, for example, will let you get their vitamins once you hit 18,000 points. No payment involved, besides shipping cost.
• Brands with no shop. Some brands have nothing to buy on TYB at all. You can still stack their coins and points, but there’s nowhere to spend them, so it’s purely for the leaderboard.

So the “free products” hype is mostly hype. The real value is in discounts, early access, and the occasional generous drop. Brands actually sending you products for free is a real thing, it’s called gifting, and it mostly lives on the creator side through platforms like ShopMy. It’s a totally different lane than TYB, but if that sounds like something you’d want to get into, our ShopMy for beginners guide walks you through how to start.

Obsessions (Posting on TYB)

Obsessions are TYB’s version of posts. You put up photos, videos, or a mix, and they go to that brand’s main feed plus the general feed that everyone can see (it shows up under a heart icon). They don’t have to be polished. A lot of them are pretty random.

Here’s why you’d bother: brands can Spotlight your obsession. If they do, you get up to $25 extra in that brand’s currency, and your post gets pushed out to more people in the feed. So far, A brand called Outdoor Voices spotlighted my post, but I only received about $1 in their currency for the spotlight, so the $25 extra is not guaranteed.

Obsessions has to unlock first

One heads up that trips people up: the Obsessions feature doesn’t just work right away. From what I’ve seen, you have to redeem coins on an actual order first, and the email on your account has to match the email on that order, before Obsessions unlocks. So if your Obsessions tab looks locked or broken, that’s almost always why. It isn’t a glitch, you just haven’t met the requirement yet.

The rules on obsessions

• You can add up to 4 photos or videos per obsession.
• There’s a minimum of 50 characters on the “what you love about this product” caption.
• You can only link one product per obsession. You can’t post one photo of five products and tag all of them. One link, one obsession.
• After you’ve posted a bunch, you can manage your Top Obsessions and reorder them however you want under “edit order.”

How to actually post one

Hit the Post and Earn button (from either the homepage or your profile’s obsessions area). From there you can browse by brand or by what’s suggested for you. Type in a brand name, say Outdoor Voices, and it’ll pull up the brand plus their products.

Important: you can only link products that the brand has listed on TYB. It’s not like ShopMy where you can pull anything off the whole website. You work with what’s on TYB. Pick your product (and your shade or size if it applies), add up to 4 photos or videos, write your caption, and post.

Shopping and Early Access

If you go to the shop area, you can see what’s trending, new drops from different brands, and all the brands you’re in. Under your brands, everything gets broken up by category, but how it’s organized is totally different per brand. One brand might sort by “tops under $75,” another by “skincare, sunscreen, sets.” It’s inconsistent, but you’ll figure out each one.

The best part of the shop is early access. TYB fans regularly get first dibs on drops before the public. Right now there’s a dress on 12th Tribe that’s early access only for TYB members, for example.

When you check out, it runs through Stripe, and you can pay with Apple Pay, PayPal, or Shop. Just remember: shipping is never covered by your discount.

Affiliate Rewards (The ShopMy or LTK Style Feature)

Once you start posting, other people on TYB can technically buy through you, and you earn affiliate rewards. Your profile tracks lifetime earnings, sales driven, and recent sales.

Real talk though: I haven’t had this actually happen, and I’m skeptical it’ll be big for most people. TYB isn’t really a place where users follow each other for recommendations. Everyone’s there for the brands’ attention, not each other’s. That’s more of a ShopMy or LTK dynamic. But the feature exists.

If you do make a sale, you get paid out after 90 days (basically once the sale is final), and payouts require a linked Stripe account. They won’t let you link anything else for getting paid.

Discover and Community

The Discover section is where you search for other profiles and get recommended people you might like (I honestly don’t know what the criteria is for those suggestions). There’s also a TYB for Brands area that sorts brands into categories like beauty and skincare, and shows how many fans each one has.

Chatting with communities

Next to your wallet amount, there’s a chat bubble. Tap it and you’ll see all your brands, each with a little red dot if there’s something unread. Tap into a brand, say Rare Beauty, and you get different channels inside it: support channels, general talking channels, and so on, where you can chat with other people in that community.

One honest heads up on growth: it’s been hard to build a following on TYB because barely anyone follows each other. Everyone wants the brand’s attention, not other users. So don’t come in expecting it to work like Instagram or TikTok.

Profile, Collectibles, and Events

Setting up your profile

You can link your Instagram and TikTok, see your obsessions, and rearrange your top ones. To actually buy anything or receive products, you’ll need an email and a shipping address on file, and you have to add your birthday (you need to be 18 or over). You can also pick up to 5 interests, which I think just fine tunes your recommendations.

Collectibles

TYB gives you collectibles, and honestly I’m still not 100% sure what they’re for. The app says collectibles are your “membership keys” to brands. You tap one to learn about its perks, redeem it, or share it on social. Each one shows your member number (like, which member you were) and a rarity. Beyond flexing, I haven’t personally seen a concrete benefit, but that’s what they’re described as.

Events

You can sign up for events when brands offer them, both online and in person. Fair warning: they usually have limited space, so it can turn into a fight to get in.

A Word of Caution: DMs

One thing I want to flag because it caught me off guard. Other people can message you directly on TYB, and it isn’t moderated well. A random guy messaged me trying to move me off the platform (the whole “here’s my Snapchat, want a sugar daddy” thing). It was gross.

On top of that, from what I can tell you can’t delete chats. You can only mute them. So it just sits in your inbox. Just know that going in, and don’t hesitate to mute and ignore.

So, Is TYB Worth It?

If you’re expecting free stuff, you’ll be let down. Between minimum spends, redemption caps, and shipping, TYB is a discount and early access app, not a freebie machine.

But if you’re already obsessed with these brands, staying active in the communities can genuinely pay off. The real wins are the surprise code drops, the early access to sales and products, the occasional Spotlight cash, and the handful of brands that trade points straight for product. Go in with the right expectations and it’s a fun way to get rewarded for being a fan.

If you were interested in the ‘free gifting’ aspect of TYB, ShopMy is a platform that we have been using for a year and is a platform heavily based on free gifting. Check out our ShopMy guide for beginners guide here!