Saturday Spotlight: Nikki Tells Us How to Save Money On Beauty Products

Hello lovely readers!  Today I'm giving you Nikki from Confessions of a Makeup Addict, and she's going to take some time to teach us all how to save money on beauty products-which is a lesson I'm sure all of us could desperately use!  Enjoy, and please leave Nikki some love in the comments. 

I’ve been asked many times how to save money on beauty products. There are tons of different ways, and today I’m going to share some of them with you. Some are obvious, others may not be, so let’s get started!

• Always check for coupon codes when ordering online.  This one seems obvious, but it's one that I often forget as well.
• Use a cash-back site, such as ebates.  This is one that not everyone knows about.  When shopping online, you can shop through ebates to get cash back on purchases.  They deposit the money straight into your Paypal account.
• Shop sales. Another obvious one, but this one seems more difficult.  The best thing to do is wait until the store you're shopping in has it's semi-annual sale or a friends & family sale.  Almost every store does this.
• Leave items in your online shopping cart and close out the site.  Sometimes when you do this you'll receive an e-mail letting you know that you left items in the cart, and usually they'll send you a discount code in that e-mail as an incentive to purchase.
• Join rewards/loyalty programs.  Sign up for the rewards or loyalty programs at the places you'll shop.  You'll receive notifications of sales as well as special discounts.
• Sign up for their newsletter. These often give you early access to sales and special discount codes that you wouldn't get otherwise.
• Return products that you don’t like. If you buy something and hate it, return it! You don’t have to be stuck with a crappy product! If it doesn’t work for you, take it back and get something else.
• Check flash sales. Sites such as Hautelook have short “flash sales” where for a very limited time you can get products at a steep discount. Check often as these are typically short and have a limited supply.
• Buy travel size items. Some products you won’t use as much as others. Those you may not need a full size of, such as Benefit Benetint. The sample bottle lasts forever.
• Check out discount stores. Stores such as Marshalls and TJMaxx have amazing sales. Checking those stores often is a good idea. I tend to find a lot of perfectly good nail polish and hair products at Marshalls.
• Splurge on products that have multiple uses. Products such as the Nars Multiples, Stila Convertible Cheek/lip colors, Bronzers and highlight powders have multiple uses. I’ll be doing a separate post on my blog about this later this week.
• Search for dupes. You can typically find cheaper alternatives to some products. Lip products are typically the easiest to dupe; just do a google search!
• Shop at the drugstore. There are amazing products at the drugstore. Some are as good as or better than their high end counterparts. It’s trial and error, but if you’re on a budget, it’s a great idea.
• Fix broken products rather than repurchasing. Broken powders, eyeshadows, even lipsticks can be repaired when broken.
• DIY products. Hair masks, face masks, face scrubs, lip scrubs, even body butter can be a DIY project. I’ll be doing a separate post for my recipes soon!
• Shop blog sales. Beauty bloggers are always selling beauty products that they either do not need, do not want or do not like. If it’s something you’ve been after, why not buy it from a blogger at a (typically sizeable) discount. Just make sure it’s a blogger you trust! I do not recommend buying cosmetics on Ebay or Amazon unless it’s a verified seller.
• Back to MAC. This really isn’t the best deal, but it’s better than nothing and there are other companies that do similar things. Take 6 empty containers to MAC and you get a free lipstick. Take five empty containers to Lush and get a free mask. Take 10 contains to Kiehls to get a travel size collection.

Those are some of my money saving tips for saving money on beauty products.  Thank you so much for reading!

Leave a comment and let me know what your tips are!

The Saturday Spotlight is my new feature specifically for blogs and handmade shops running every Saturday here on the blog. You can purchase a Saturday Spotlight feature post, which can be a guest post, a spotlight post, an interview, a giveaway, etc. on my Sponsor page!  I'd love to have you!