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What brand has the best promotions?
What brand has the best promotions? (Sales, GWPs, etc.) Share!
I’m a weird customer, since most of the things I buy are to review on the blog, so I don’t typically wait for sales or a particular promotion. I tend to be more on the look out for large retailer promotions like when Neiman Marcus does their gift cards (spend $X, get $Y gift card) or Sephora % off.
Thanks to Rosie for today’s question! Do you have a question idea? Submit yours here.
None. No more. Use to just have free samples at the end of purchases to try out without asking. No more. I used to like Clinique GWP. Estée was ok if you needed a product from it. I think the price to aim for is not worth buying. Ulta had the 20% off at times pretty much on everthing. Now I don’t get that either. I used to get stuff galore…..the stuff in their drawers were brimmed with goodies….YSL, Nars, Dolce and Gabanna, Sisley, etc.
Every time I walk through Macy’s, it seems Lancome always has a great deal on a PWP at a reasonable price. I also like the idea of ULTA points turning into actual dollars of future purchases. I don’t typically wait for sales, as I don’t like risking a product I really want being OOS, and not only will I have to wait, I’lleend up paying full-price, anyway.
There really aren’t many brands that have promos I care about, since I’m not usually interested in the samples or GWP because my tastes are so particular. I prefer % or $ off coupons or free shipping. I just got $10 off MAC and 15% off + free socks from outofprintclothing.com
For GWP– Clinique, Lancome, Estee Lauder. Best overall sale – Sephora VIB Rouge 20% off on everything.
Coastal Scents… 40% and 50% off everything around the holidays?? BH Cosmetics also just had a free surprise palette offer, which totally baited me. A lot of the products are surprisingly good and have become mainstays in my stash, and made me feel downright foolish for considering the high end options!
Aside from the cheapie brand steals… The Body Shop usually has great promos if you use their stuff… Their hemp hand cream is the only thing that can soothe my eczema aside from prescription medication! Iirc they have 50% off 5 promos, 40% off 4, etc.
Paula’s Choice also has good sales often enough that I rarely buy anything unless it 20% off or comes with a pricey sample of something I’d like to try.
Those are my usual sale haunts! Sephora does get me with their deluxe sample promos a lot of the time (the shame, I know!!! Lol)
Drugstore brands typically go on sale at least one week per month, whether it’s a BOGO 50% off or 20 to 40%. I basically don’t buy drugstore makeup unless on sale now.
I think Clarins and Benefit have the best GWP. The Clarins counter I go to always gives me really nicely sized deluxe samples, even if I only buy one thing. Benefit has awesome GWP promos with Ulta, I love that I can buy just one product and end up with 2-4 deluxe sample GWPs. When it comes to sales, I really like Ulta’s frequent $3.50 off $10 coupons, they’re helpful when I need to pick up basics like dry shampoo and skincare.
I would say KIKO Cosmetics. Sometimes they offer 30% discount in all the products in the shop, even the ones that have already a previous discount.
Here? Probably Estée Lauder, but even then most promotions here are really pathetic compared to what the US offers.
I like Clarins because the GWP’s – skin and body care almost exclusively – allow you to choose, typically among 4 different sets and the sample sizes are large enough that you can take them travelling for a week or even two (some product sample sizes are so small you can’t even get a sense of whether or not you would actually want to purchase the full size). I haven’t bought Estee Lauder in years and I’ve purchased very little Clinique in the past 10 or so years so I don’t really have a sense of what their GWPs are like now but I recall they used to be really good and it seems that the ads/emails and store promos I’ve seen for Clinique are actually pretty good.
I don’t know if it qualifies as a “brand” or even a “promotion” but in Canada, when Shoppers Drug Mart has its 20X the Points event and then when they have their bonus points redemption events (where your points actually have a greater dollar value) I’ve found those 2 linked events to be the best bang for my buck. I’ve got so much stuff “for free” this way – all of my Stila palettes – In the Light, In the Garden and Eyes are the Windows Spirit; Guerlain Cruel Gardenia highlighter and Les Fumes eyeshadow quad; lots of perfume and fragrance and tons more stuff.
i feel like brands hardly promote anything unless they’re new products
I’m currently being to be a bit careful with my finances (have a lot going on right now), but I’ve been known to AVOID Sephora sales because they’re always such terribly run, stressful misadventures. I can’t handle the fracas! I’d rather pay an extra few dollars and not want to strangle people, y’know?
I think pretty much all of the major brands do a Friends & Family twice a year where they offer anywhere from 20-30% off (I’ve even seen higher percentages or BOGOs too). I typically try to do larger/more expensive purchases out of F&F cycle when I can combine a retailer’s GWP with a higher cash back from Ebates (i.e. Neiman Marcus Camp Gorgeous, Saks Beauty Event, etc…when I can get a tote filled with samples plus the beauty line GWP.) I’ve also found that you can get samples from any brand simply by asking; after all, by providing the samples, they are increasing the chance you will buy their product. Another “tip” is the importance of establishing a “by name” relationship with a beauty adviser at a counter you like. If you’re like me, that’s probably multiple counters (LOL) but the payoff is extra samples and early notice of upcoming events, releases, and/or sales.
For mid-range nail polish, Zoya has the most (and most often!) sales and promos. The other brands like Essie, OPI, etc.? Never. But Zoya has frequent BOGO sales.
Ultra-budget nail polish — Sinful Colors is sometimes on sale for 99 cents at Walgreens. I’m sure a lot of people pooh-pooh it because it’s not a cachet brand, but it’s really good stuff. There was an independent study where it outperformed Chanel.
Drugstore makeup — Nyx Cosmetics. Constant BOGOHO sales at Ulta.
The higher end makeup brands like UD, Too Faced, and so on, never seem to have much for promotions, sales, etc. Guess they feel they don’t have to. I don’t buy those unless I have a 20% off anything coupon with my Ulta Platinum account.
I rarely see or use promotions from mid-range brands, but I often take advantage of drug-store promotions, especially the BOGO from Maybelline and NYX.
TheBalm! Their flash sales are great.
I have recently found the best way to get pesrsonilzed gwps is to call a counter and order directly from thrm vs online. For instance,I buy all my Tom Ford from Neimans in Dallas,tx. I live in Oh. Since there sre no Neimans in Oh, i pay no sales tax. Also,if I wsnt to sample a foundation or perfum,they mail it to me. They will text me swatches . I have placed orders and received free deluxe perfume samples, & just tons of other stuff to try. I also.pre sale with one SAat Mac. She sends me free cosmetic bags( cute ones!), full sized lipsticks,fun stuff! She texts me when they are getting new stuff in so I dont do the online crainess stuff. Sephora’s Vib sale adds up. So,I do get whst I csn at that too.
Wow!! Now that’s great service! I find it doesn’t hurt to ask for samples, etc. Sometimes I feel like a freeloader but it’s the only way to try before I buy.
MAC is the first that comes to mind
Oh I read the question differently – I thought you meant the brand that promotes their products the best…
I work at CVS so I get a lot of drugstore brands for fairly inexpensive–I don’t necessarily wait for the BOGO 50% off deals, not that I have to wait (they happen every week), but I try to get Extrabucks back. Physician’s Formula is ALWAYS on sale at the store with offers like $7 EB with a purchase of $10 or more (this week). NYX doesn’t have promos very often at CVS, but Milani does. I remember when their lipsticks were on sale for $3. I stocked up LOL. Wet N Wild is often on sale. I try to stick to cruelty-free brands when I shop at the drugstore, so I don’t really pay much attention to Revlon/Maybelline/L’Oreal/Covergirl/etc.
Sephora has decent GWP. I’ve been able to try a lot of new products that way. They also have good value sets, but I mean otherwise they’re not that accessible to someone with a retail worker’s budget XD (doesn’t stop me but still). I prefer Ulta’s discounts, and they have better GWP I think.
One thing I think people overlook is getting emails. Get those emails from brands–you’ll be the first to know when there are sales, when specials are being offered, etc. I know with Gmail they go directly into my promo box so I don’t need to see them unless I want to. They’re not really a hassle at all.
The Body Shop has some pretty good ones quite often, especially their buy three get three, buy two get two, buy two get one, etc types. I find most cosmetics brands don’t have that great promotions. It’s not a cosmetics brand per se but I still get a lot of stuff from there. I also got like 30% off Kiehl’s stuff the other day which was awesome.
If we’re talking high end, Estee Lauder has the best GWP.
Bhcosmetics, Coastal Scents and e.l.f. seem to always have some kind of sale, offer, GWP, or combination of those going on.
Drug store cosmetics are on sale at drug stores (of course), Ulta, Target, etc. constantly. It’s pretty easy to get deals.
I’m not interested in the promotions, but in the product. Sometimes the more glamorous the promotion, the less quality the product – eg some high end brands. The money spent on promoting the product should go towards ensuring that the product is really good. I am looking at you Dior!
Typically, I do love the sales whereby if you spend a reasonable amount, you get some free products to try. Clinique, Elizabeth Arden and Natio (an Australian cruelty free brand) are pretty good with this.
I like GWP from the high end brands but I never understood why they just don’t offer sales. For example at Macy’s there will be ads for “25% off everything (except fragrance and beauty)”. Does anyone have the inside scoop as to why this is so? Macy’s has something called Macy’s Money which can be used on fragrance and beauty but outside of that..nothing.
It’s probably cheaper to give out samples than to offer discounts. Also, once you get consumers used to sales, they are less likely to buy unless there is a sale on. Also, for high-end brands, offering sales often can ‘cheapen’ the brand’s image. Not to mention, gwp are also a form of promoting your other products to the people most likely to buy them…customers you already have!
Honestly? I’m just excited when I go overseas and I actually get to buy cosmetics at a reasonable price! I see people balking at paying $40 for a lipstick, but that’s how much most MAC lipsticks sell for here. It’s sort of my dream to get to go to a Sephora, with or without any sale (though I’d be SO stoked if there was a % off sale!), because you can actually return a faulty product (We’re not allowed to here!), receive samples (Again, not really an option here unless you pay over $75-$100 or something within a specific brand) and pay a reasonable price, even for very luxury brands… at least compared to what I’m used to seeing here in Australia!
I like when Ulta does BOGO half off on Nyx products, which are the only times I’ll buy Nyx unless I need something because I ran out. In general, though, Ulta’s deals are hit-or-miss and Nyx, Real Techniques, and Eco Tools are the only sales they do that would be interesting to me. Ulta and Sephora almost never do sales with high end products unless it’s the VIB sale at Sephora.
I also like Zoya’s 3 “free” sales where you just pay the $15 inflated shipping. It sucks that they bumped up that price, but it’s still a lot better than getting 3 full price polishes.
I especially look forward to Sephora’s 20% yearly coupon and VIB sale. Also, when Ulta has their once or twice a year 20% coupon that can be used on any and everything, as well as their constant BOGO sales on DS brands that when coupled with the $3.50 or 20% (limited) coupons, I clean up! Last, but not least, the $10 coupon by MAC being offered at this time. It would be wonderful if MAC would offer this deal more frequently!
Oops! Forgot Sally’s nail polish sales! Love the BOGO Free on Orly, which is one of my personal favorite np brands, or some of their other nail polishes!
Barney’s has a fantastic spring GWP – full-size and and deluxe-sized samples. The buy-in is high at $200, but if I’m going to go for a GWP over a percent discount, this is the one I save up for. Discount-wise, I haven’t seen Birchbox or DermStore mentioned – both frequently offer at least 20% off. DermStore just had a 30% off promotion, and their sales include LORAC!
As a former retail cosmetic advisor, I’m probably a little biased in this area. That being said,Clarins, Estee Lauder, & Lancome have great GWP promos at least 2x’s a yr. As a retailer Bloomingdales has had great store promos & Ulta has great delux sampling offers. but we had a saying among us in cosmetics…if your product is good, you dont have to give away the store!