Sephora Daily Deals for September 2019
Well, it looks like Sephora has decided to go toe-to-toe with Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty event… to a T. It kicked off September 1st and will run through September 21st. Unlike Ulta, Sephora isn’t giving a preview or calendar of the daily deals; they just tell you to check back each day. The increased competition between the two retailers is good news for customers, since they’ll each have to offer more to earn our business, but I definitely wish Sephora used it as an opportunity to do better/more. I really hope there are some different deals/products discounted between now and the 21st!
FAQ
- When: Midnight PT
- What: 1 to 3 products will be discounted up to 50% off each day, available while supplies last
- Where: Online and in-store at Sephora and Sephora inside JCPenneys but not at Sephora Canada
Daily Deals — Best Guesses
Based on the deals from the first, it seems like Sephora will be offering the same products as Ulta when possible. The increased competition between the two retailers is better for the customer, it is interesting that Sephora doesn’t feel driven to do better or to offer more. Per some replies from Sephora employees on Twitter (to tweets of mine), Sephora has price-matched in-store for Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty in the past and that this is the retailer doing that more aggressively and online. So far, they have only duplicated the deals available at Ulta that are in-store and online (so excluding online-only or tier-restricted beauty steals).
I’ve pulled out the deals that would overlap based on what we have seen but keep in mind these are guesses at this point as Sephora has not revealed information ahead of time!
You can view Ulta’s calendar featuring all of their daily steals between now and the 21st, including online-only and deals for Platinum/Diamond members. There were a few days where it didn’t seem like any of Ulta’s offerings lined up with Sephora, so I’ll be keeping my eyes out for the 9th, 16th, and 19th especially.
9/1: 50% off Peter Thomas Roth FIRMx, Benefit The POREfessional Primer- 9/2: FOREO Luna Play Plus for $24.50 (regularly $49)
- 9/3: Becca Hydra-Mist Set & Refresh Powder for $19.50 (regularly $39)
- 9/4: bareMinerals Concealers for $10-12 (regularly $20-24)
- 9/5: Tarte Taretist Double Take Eyeliner for $12 (regularly $24), Murad Nutrient Charged Water Gel for $30 (regularly $60)
- 9/6: Lancome Monsieur Big Mascara for $12.50 (regularly $25), Perricone MD High Potency Collection for $19-49.50 (regularly $38-99)
- 9/7: Anastasia Brow Definer for $11.50 (regularly $23), Dermalogica Skin Smoothing Cream for $34.50 (regularly $69)
- 9/8: Too Faced Natural Face & Eye Palettes for $19-22 (regularly $38-44), Smashbox Photo Finish Primer (select) for $18-19.50 (regularly $36-39.00), Dermadoctor Kakudo C Serum for $47.50 (regularly $95)
- 9/9: —
- 9/10: Dr. Brandt No More Baggage for $11-21 (regularly $22-42)
- 9/11: Buxom Plumpline Lip Liner for $9 (regularly $18.00)
- 9/12: Tarte Lights, Camera, Lashes Mascara for $11.50 (regularly $23)
- 9/13: Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes & Highlighters for $14.50 (regularly $29), Clarisonic Cleansing Brush Heads for $13.50-16 (regularly $27-32)
- 9/14: philosophy Night Creams for $24.50-40.00 (regularly $49-80)
- 9/15: Tarte Tartelette In Bloom Palette for $19.50 (regularly $39), Too Faced Hangover (select) for $16-17 (regularly $32-34)
- 9/16: —
- 9/17: CoverFX Perfect Setting Powder for $17.50 (regularly $35.00)
- 9/18: First Aid Beauty Pure Skin Cleanser for $10.50 (regularly $21), Lancome Visionnaire Skin Solutions for $32.50-37.50 (regularly $65-75)
- 9/19: —
- 9/20: IT Bye Bye Under Eye Concealer for $13 (regularly $26), Clinique Moisture Surge Hydrator for $10.50 (regularly $21)
- 9/21: Urban Decay 24/7 Glide On Eye Pencils for $11 (regularly $22), Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencil for $12.00 (regularly $24)
Summer Sale — New Additions
While I’m here, I might as well mention that a slew of Too Faced palettes were recently marked down and added to Sephora’s sale section. I’m not sure if the pricing is limited or permanently discounted. Fenty’s Poutsicle Lipsticks are also now on sale for $14 (regularly $20).
- Too Faced The Chocolate Bar for $31.85
- Too Faced Chocolate Gold for $31.85
- Too Faced Just Peachy for $29.25
- Too Faced Natural Eyes for $24.70
- Too Faced Natural Face for $28.60
- Too Faced Natural Lust for $38.35
- Too Faced Natural Matte for $27.50
- Too Faced Pretty Rich for $31.85
- Too Faced Sweet Peach for $31.85
- Too Faced White Peach for $29.25
Thanks for giving us a Sephora calendar. I had said on Muse’s blog that it would be just like Sephora to give one day at a time reveals, just to keep us coming back daily. Makeup people need to PLAN.
Well, it is an outline of possibilities… we shall see. If we get to the end of the week, and they just keep copying Ulta deals, then I guess it’s a solid draft, LOL!
Just thought it was so weird of Sephora to play their cards close to their chest if it’s just matching Ulta’s deals!
That’s an interesting flex on Sephora’s part… I honestly would much rather purchase the deals from Ulta because of their far superior rewards program, but I guess if you have some sort of preference for Sephora or like to shop in store and don’t have any local Ulta stores, it could be useful.
Yeah, Ulta’s rewards program continues to make it hard to shop at Sephora if there aren’t any other points of differentiation otherwise.
From my experience, the bigger downside to shopping with Ulta is their shipping speed; the free shipping is quite slow (7-10 days), and even if you are Platinum or Diamond-level, that shipping speed never gets better. As a Costco-like buyer, Ulta’s rewards are so much better than Sephora that I can still spend $9.95 to upgrade to two-day shipping and come out ahead. I think if Ulta offered an annual shipping membership (like Amazon Prime or Sephora Flash), they could easily eliminate one aspect that may make Sephora more attractive.
The only reason I buy from Sephora over Ulta is if Sephora has it first or it is a brand that isn’t available at Ulta. Ulta’s packaging of products (during shipment) could be improved, but Sephora has changed some of their warehouses and some of my packages are as poorly packaged as Ulta’s so it’s a 50/50 chance with Sephora now. The customer service with Ulta used to be poorer (like they’d make me ship back $1.50 eyeshadows that were broken before shipping a replacement or issuing a refund, so 2-3 week turnaround for a $1.50 broken eyeshadow) but they’ve significantly improved (more empowered reps).
I agree with you regarding Ulta’s shipping speed. Also Ulta uses On Trac which isn’t set up to hold, delay or reroute packages elsewhere, and isn’t as predictable as USPS, UPS or Fed Ex in delivery times. (On Trac’s throwing the package into our shrub is only beat by its occasional 10 PM delivery time.)
That said, I notice that Ulta is slowly rolling out some ship to store features, but it seems that this is only for products already in store. (I’m trying it for the first time today for an OFRA highlight.) Ulta also says on their website that they’re working towards allowing for texting of shipping updates.
Ideally, I’d like a ship to store of the entire order feature, whether any item is in store or not. This is very appealing to accommodate those who travel or aren’t sure when they’ll be home and have to deal with porch pirates.
But they still need to get their shipments out quicker and pack them better. I hear you about Sephora going downhill regarding packing too–my last order had something shattered in it and I’ve not ordered online since.
Interesting! My Ulta packages usually go USPS or UPS!
Sephora used to have pretty good packaging–at least for makeup, when you don’t want to worry about powders breaking–but the newer warehouse is just awful. Crumpled up, thicker paper but nothing is secure at all. Ulta’s the same – large bubble packets on top of a large box with one thin sheet of bubblewrap on the bottom; okay so everything is bouncing around the whole time, cool.
I had a really bad time with Ulta recently. I purchased a Lancome lipstick in store and then discovered that it had been used. I went back to exchange it but they didn’t have another of the same shade in stock so they had to order it online. But because it was an exchange they had to first give me store credit for it. Then convert that store credit to a gift card. Then use the gift card to order on their phones (because they can’t use the computers to order online for some reason, only their phones). I had bought it with a 20% off discount but they can’t use them more than once so I was going to have to pay full price for the lipstick. Luckily, I had another coupon that I could use but it was still coming out more expensive. It took over an hour to exchange a lipstick and I still had to pay more for it than I originally did.
Maybe because I’m in Texas but Sephora’s shipping is sooo slow
They usually ship out of Utah for me (I’m in Arizona) – I think their “ground” is maybe 4-5 days for me… whereas Ulta might be as bad as 10 days!! Sometimes my Ulta packages come a bit early (if I didn’t expedite them) because UPS is delivering a regular UPS packaging so it won’t go to USPS.
I’d also add that, if you aren’t Diamond or Platinum, Ulta’s minimum for their very slow free shipping is $50, so I definitely find Sephora’s shipping subscription to be more desirable ($15 for a full year of 3-day shipping, no minimum). Since there aren’t any Ulta’s convenient to me I honestly end up buying from Sephora more frequently.
Just checked out Sephora’s Daily deals, and I’m impressed. It’s become so rare for me to shop at Sephora that I’m about to lose VIB status but I don’t care because I hate their rewards system. I do occasionally buy skincare from them but I’ve started to switch to Dermstore for that as well. This is the first time I’ve felt that they have ever tried to compete to get my dollars.
Sephora’s % off event in August was also them competing more than they have in the past, even if it was limited to higher tiers!
Trust Sephora to do it different in a worse way — check back every day? No thanks! Though maybe I’m being unfair; I suppose it’s possible that they did this so spur-of-the-moment that they can’t publish a calendar yet because they’re figuring it out as they go along? Especiallly if they don’t carry the same products and so can’t exactly duplicate the Ulta offerings? I dunno. I do see one advantage to them both doing it, in that Ulta is already sold out of the Foreo Luna Play, so if Sephora has the same thing for the same price, it gives someone a second chance at it.
The last point you make is very valid — Sephora sold through Benefit’s POREfessional pretty quickly yesterday but Ulta still had it in stock, so there’s definitely “more” to go around if an item is likely to sell out.
Good to know since I’d rather order from Sephora, I think? Then again, recent shipments from Ulta were packed nicely, so who knows. Last night I ordered a new Foreo Luna Play Plus and Ofra Bali Highlighter. Now comes the waiting game!
Seeing FAB Pure Skin Cleanser and UD 24/7 pencils going on sale at Sephora too? Yeah, mind made up!
Hope you get your order soon, Nancy!
I am glad to see Sephora at least trying to be more competitive. The extra 20% off was a nice surprise and if one could count on them to continue that in the future it would make buying my skin care so much easier. I usually buy enough skin care to last me about 3-4 months and with the fall/winter, then spring and now summer sale, I could pretty much get the Sephora items year round, on sale. I think we all pretty much hate Sephora’s reward system and I always check Ulta for a product first. I have mentioned my pet peeves about Ulta a few times here on the blog but probably the biggest is that they run out of gifts with purchase so quickly, or don’t get them in at all. They do not automatically give you the standard $3.50 off when you check out and if you do ask for it they make you bring it up on the phone to do it. I can go to Michael’s and tell them I want to use their 40% off coupon and they just use the one under the counter. When there are long lines at Ulta, holidays, trying to get the $3.50 coupon is crazy. I know, have it ready when you get there but I have had many times where I was having trouble getting it to come up on the phone and have given up just because I don’t want to keep people waiting. One time the manager was standing by and she told the girl to give me the discount. They know I am Diamond, they know the coupon is good that week, what is the problem. They remember to try to get me to sign up for their credit card every time I get to the counter!!
Surprisingly, knock on wood, I get both my Ulta and Sephora orders in good time and well packaged. I don’t know if that is because I live in the back of beyond and they don’t want to have to send it to me again or whether it is just the distribution center I get my packages from.
Happy to hear you received both your recent packages in good condition!
I live in NYC where there is a Sephora along the route to every place I need to go but it’s a 40 minute special trip to get to Ulta. For that reason, I wasn’t planning to buy anything during the 21 Days this year. because I don’t need enough of anything to qualify for free shipping Now I will have to apply some self-discipline.
You can stay strong!
Wish Sephora could include Canadian consumers in more promotions — we’re usually left out! (could be due to the lack of competition here)
Honestly, I think it is only because they are, effectively, price-matching Ulta and Ulta isn’t currently in Canada (though they are working on that). 🙁