5 Ways to Get Beauty Products on the Low

Listen, new beauty products to covet are a plenty but the funds with which to acquire said beauty products aren’t always flourishing for all of us. I get it (I live it…lol) and I’m going to break down five ways you can get some of your coveted beauty products for the low-low. Well, maybe low-ish…

1. Check Amazon

Yep! Sometimes you can find some of your favorite products sold by the brand (not like some random dude named Bubba who happened upon a box of lipsticks that “fell out of a truck” and is selling them on his Amazon store) at a pretty hefty discount. Try it—type in the name of a few of your favorites and see if you can get them cheaper on Amazon. I was able to get Maybelline Fit Me Matte & Poreless foundations to review on the blog for about $5 each when they were around $7 each at my local drugstore. Plus I was able to easily find shades I needed without having to go from store-to-store. I also bought the Aquaphor Ointment Body Spray and Eucerin Skin Calming Body Wash from Amazon at about $3-4 less (EACH) than what my local drugstore was charging.

And the best yet? You know that Peter Thomas Roth Acne Sulfur Masque I love? It’s $47 at Sephora and just $28 on Amazon. SAME SIZE. I kid you not—see below! A lot of the beauty items also ship free with Amazon Prime or at least as an add-on item if you spend $25 or more.

2. Friends and Family Sales

Make a calendar for Friends and Family sales of your favorite brands and restock on your faves during the sale. So for instance, Sephora typically does their VIB/BI sales about three times a year: around in April and twice near the holidays in Nov/Dec.The discount is typically 20% off for VIB Rouge/VIB and 15% off for BI (sign up for the Beauty Insider club at Sephora to automatically become a BI and then if you spend $300 or more you’re automatically VIB and if you spend $1000 or more, VIB Rouge). The last sale is a coupon for $25 off a $50 purchase for VIB Rouge/VIB and $15 off a $50 purchase for BI. These are all of course subject to change, but this is what it’s been for the last few years at least.

Many beauty brands have sales on their own websites (i.e. Bobbi Brown, Urban Decay, Cover FX, etc.)—a majority of them are around November/December, but they can also pop-up different times of the year as well. You can google your favorite brands and see when they’ve typically had sales to guestimate when they’ll be on this year.

3. Sign up for emails

Make sure you also sign up for emails from your favorite brands and you’ll be in the loop for when other discounts are available. Brands want to be able to reach you easily and email is one of the best ways. There are tons of stats surrounding sales and marketing emails that favor brands, so many of them are willing to offer as much as 20% off purchases for new subscribers. This is perfect if you’re going to try a new brand OR if you typically buy from your favorite brands through beauty retailers like Sephora or Ulta and haven’t shopped on the brand’s site before.

4. Use eBates

I’ve been a fan of eBates as I’ve already gotten back over $1800 since joining in 2013. It’s super easy: you sign up (for free) and make sure you shop through eBates to get cash back on all eligible purchases. I personally have the eBates Chrome extension installed so it automatically pops up on any site I visit so I know when I’m getting cash back and how much. Sometimes they have double cash back where you can get as much as 10-15% cash back! It’s like getting a small discount which in some cases is only your tax or half your tax, but shoot, it’s something! I have it linked to my PayPal so my payments get sent there, but you can also have them mail you a check—up to you!

Sign up for eBates here.

5. Shop your stash

From interacting with you guys here as well as on Twitter, Facebook, and my Youtube channel, I know how much we all love makeup. I also realize that there are only but so many makeup colors and finishes out there, and chances are, you might have something similar in your stash. And even if you don’t have something similar, you might be able to create something similar with what you have. See How to Get Your Foundation to Do the Most.

Will you be implementing any of these? Have one to add? Tell me in the comments!