How to Score the Best Beauty Deals Online and on Your Phone
If you’ve been trying to get to get to the mall for about three weeks now (and still haven’t made it there), we’re going to make your life a little easier. Free makeup samples, on-demand hairstyling, bargains, discounts, and shoppable Instagram picturess are all available, without you ever having to leave your house.
Rewards Programs
Brands like Kiehl’s offer rewards programs that allow you to gain points for every purchase you make in exchange for gifts, access to VIP events, discounts, and more. Here’s how theirs works:
- Kiehl’s Since 1851 Rewards awards you 1 point for every $1 you spend at either a retail store or Kiehls.com.
- On Kiehls.com, when a customer is signed in and checks out with his or her purchases, the appropriate points will automatically be applied to his or her Rewards account. In-store, customers should identify themselves upon check-out as a Rewards member.
- Customers have a rolling 12 months to accumulate points and redeem them, before they expire and reset to zero after that.
Sephora also features several Beauty Insider programs, including VIB Rouge, which is targeted towards customers who spend over $1,000 a year. In return for being a member, you’ll receive access to to private events, free gifts, complimentary beauty studio access in any store, and unlimited free shipping.
MORE: 6 Times to Shop for Beauty Online (And 4 Times You Never Should)
Free Beauty Samples
Want to test before you buy? We feel you. If you’ve ever gotten the stink eye from a salesgirl when you ask for a tiny vile of X perfume, we’re here to tell you: You don’t need to take that! Skip the counter shame and click your way to free samples galore on sites like bionic-beauty.com, sampleaday.com, prettythrifty.com, and Target.com.
On-Demand Hairstyling
Blow dry bars are great, except for when you have an impromptu Tinder date and can’t get in anywhere. Enter Glamsquad, the first app that sends hairstylists to your door for a blowout ($50), braid ($75), or updo ($85) in less than an hour. Makeup and nails are next to roll out, as are more cities where this “Uber for hair” option is available.
MORE: 25 Best Places to Shop for Beauty Products
Shoppable Instagram
Celebrities, bloggers, and editors alike are always the first know about the best new beauty products–before they even hit stores. Most of the time we’re informed of their existence via Instagram, so when you’re Insta-stalking into the wee hours of the morning and spy a lipstick you just need to get on, you can, thanks to Keep. Think of it like Pinterest, without all the “Where did that glorious product come from?” guesswork. Check out Keep’s “as seen on Insta” page to shop the latest trends from style influencers like Lauren Conrad, Rihanna, Eva Chen, Rachel Zoe, Alexa Chung, and more.
Last Minute Spa Deals
Sometimes you need a hot stone massage, but paying crazy prices at a high-end spa is never motivation to get one. Lucky for us, SpaFinder Wellness 365 has a Last Minute deals program, which offers 80% off services and treatments at select locations within a 3-day notice period. Genius. Last Minute is available in over 20 cities throughout the country including New York, Houston, Denver, and Los Angeles, so now you can de-stress for less.
Image via Martin Barraud/OJO Images
