Taryn's Tip

A lot of stores offer CVS style rewards programs.  JOIN THEM!  Yes, it does provide the stores with a freaky, stalker-esque way of tracking your purchases.  However, these programs also have great rewards.  Two examples of great programs are located at Ulta Beauty and Sephora.

Ulta Beauty's program involves a regular delivery of coupons.  They total the amount of your purchases in a given time period (there are four periods in a year, but they are not evenly split quarters).  Based on the amount you have spent in the store you get a special coupon that entitles you to one free product.  The more you spend, the higher the "level" of gift coupon.  Some examples of free products involve a L'Oreal lipstick, hairbrush, nail polish etc.  If you progress into the higher Levels, the freebies get better.  You have access to more professional brand products such as Murad.  Why is this great?  Because the freebies you get are FULL SIZE products.  Crazy!

Sephora's Beauty Access program involves the accumulation of points.  When you join, you also get on the email list to receive coupons.  This is great because Sephora doesn't really have "sales" and their coupons are few and far between.  Once you achieve 100 points, you can select from a trio of mini products.  This trio is frequently rotated so there is usually a fresh choice.  Sephora does a good job of rotating the bigger name brands in with Sephora's own product line.  You can choose to not redeem at the 100 point level and continue to accumulate.  When you reach 500 points, you can take a full size product.  This prize is also rotated on a pretty regular basis.  Why awesome?  Cause you get to try a pretty cool product for spending money you would've already spent.  I recently redeemed 500 points at Sephora for the following items from Too Faced:  sample size Lash Injection mascara, a sample of their eye lid primer, and a palette containing eye shadows, 4 lip glosses, and a blush (all coordinating).  All of this was in a cute animal print clutch.

Moral of the story?  If you are going to spend money in these stores anyway, why not get rewarded?  And if you're going to shop online, use www.ebates.com (tell them I sent you) and earn cash back.  Both stores offer free shipping for purchases over $50.  Both also include 3 free samples with your order (sample selections are also rotated frequently).