Featured Beauty Sales + Discount Codes (October 2020)

There’s a sale here! There’s a sale there! How many sales can one person deliberate over?!  Between around the corner and retailers, in general, anticipating shipping delays as we get deeper into the holiday shipping season… it is sale-a-palooza! A lot of brands/retailers started their sales this week, so here is some advice on figuring out where and when to shop at the moment…

Right now, Beautylish, Bloomingdale’s, Credo Beauty, Neiman Marcus, and Saks all have sitewide promotions going on, and they’re multi-brand retailers.  There are also a few brands running their friends & family/sitewide sales, too.  I would expect to see many of your favorite brands to participate in some sale event in the next few weeks, too.

Here’s last year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday roundup of beauty sales and deals, which is a good reference for what might be coming down the pipeline if you haven’t seen your favorite brand run an event yet. We also have an automatically updated Makeup Deals & Sale post that features any and all offers from brands that we’re aware.

Last update: 10/29/2020, 7:58AM PT.

% Off Sales

These are often the better promotions because you don’t have to worry about the right number of products to qualify for the discount.  Some places will increase the discount depending  on the spend–like 15% for any purchase but 20% off for purchases over $50+.

I highly recommend shopping a brand’s website if you place orders under $200 and/or do not qualify for upper-end tiers (like you’re a Sephora Insider).  Most brands offer 20% off at least once a year, and there are some that push to 25% to 30%  off, too.  Their thresholds are often a lot lower (particularly for more mid-end and high-end brands).

Secondly, a lot of brands (and a few retailers) offer a one-time discount for new customers who sign up for their newsletter; this is often 10% to 20%.

Retailers

• Macy’s — 30% off  non-beauty/ 15% off beauty w/code FRIEND, ends 11/09
• Nordstrom: 15% off most beauty/fragrance; they’re price-matching Neiman Marcus + Macy’s 15% off offers), ends 11/9.
• : 20% off  for Rouges (10/30-11/9), 15% off  for VIBs (11/3-11/9), and 10% off for Insiders (11/5-11/9); discount is limited by Insider tier status, so VIBs and Insider discounts are often lower than most brands offer direct

Brands

• Kosas: 20% off sitewide, ends 10/29.

Spend $X, Get Gift Card of $Y Events

These promotions require you to purchase a minimum amount in order to qualify for a gift card back.  It usually ranges from an equivalent of 15 to 25% cash back in the form of a gift card.  This is good if your purchase will be close to minimum thresholds to qualify for a gift card, e.g. spend $100 and your total is $105 (but spending $155 doesn’t get you anything additional).  It is also imperative that you’re someone makes regular beauty purchases; you’ll want to pay attention to expiration dates (sometimes it can range from a few months to a year) on the gift card.

• No current deals.

Retailers like Neiman Marcus and Saks regularly run gift card events–almost once a month!–so if you tend to shop higher-end and luxury brands, you may find it more lucrative to shop at both regularly.  Beauty/fragrance is occasionally excluded from events, so check the fine print.