Beauty bargains worth buying

By: Kerry Ingram, Arts & Life Editor
Featured image courtesy of ipsy.com

I have a love-hate relationship with this time of year.

On one hand, I absolutely adore the fall and winter seasons. The cooler temperatures bring along a lot of glamour: more opportunities to wear layered and cute outfits; trends that lean more towards special occasion makeup looks; tons of fun activities. There’s a lot to look forward to.

On on the other hand, all the new clothes, makeup launches, and festive events can add up to be a pretty penny. When you’re living a full adult life, with a salary job and responsibilities in check, this may be alright.

As college students, this time of year just means the struggle is most definitely real.

I can always count on spending tons of money on seasonal things during the latter half of the year, but this year, some beauty brands have decided to make our lives a bit easier (and our glamorous faces more obtainable). Here are three beauty brands that are determined to have you looking your full best this season for only a fraction of the price.

Kylie Cosmetics

 

Despite being a near-billionaire, Kylie Jenner is still a college-aged kid at heart. The beauty mogul recently announced that her makeup empire, Kylie Cosmetics, would be finding a new home in all Ulta stores come Holiday 2018. The announcement caused much excitement – the brand, which had previously only been accessible online, will now be readily available to more people in person. Although Jenner has yet to announce any holiday price drops for her products, the move to Ulta itself is a big win for college buyers. It will allow for shoppers to be able to try-before-they-buy (something that can actually lead to saving a ton of money if you are an avid makeup shopper), and with Ulta regularly producing mass coupons, it will allow customers the opportunity to save some type of money. Additionally, us college students can say bye-bye to the annoying habit of having to spend a minimum amount in order to avoid paying for shipping. Kylie Cosmetics is following the footsteps of other e-makeup brands, like Morphe and BH Cosmetics, by coming to Ulta, and I’m sure the move will be mutually beneficial for both Jenner and her consumers.

Sephora

 

Guess who decided to be more generous this year? Sephora, the mass prestige cosmetics retailer under the umbrella brand of LVMH (meaning the bougiest and most glam of retailers) recently decided to switch things up in terms of coupons and rewards. The retailer previously only gave out coupons to its “Beauty Insider” card holders, and those coupons were only available about twice a year, with a week-long time limit of when it could be used. This year, Sephora updated their coupon policy (which can be viewed through their “terms and conditions” page on their website), allowing for Beauty Insiders to have a secret extension on coupon usage if they hadn’t seized the opportunity to use it at all during the main week-long sale (I was shook when I got an email telling me I had an extra week to use my coupon; I was so proud of my former employer). Additionally, Sephora still holds its “Weekly Deals,” in which different prestige items go on sale for half-off each week. The major change, however, is with Sephora’s rewards program. Previously, any shopper at Sephora who was a part of the Beauty Insider program received a point for every dollar spent on items. These points would then be save up in order for shoppers to use them to redeem for free sample items (which earned many a joke and meme throughout social media). However, Sephora recently announced the the points can now be used as cash to get money off of purchases! Although the current points-to-cash tradeoff only works for Rouge members of the Beauty Insider program (the people who spend at least $1,000 a year at Sephora), only time will tell if Sephora makes the decision to expand that perk to all members.

Ipsy

 

A special shoutout goes to our art director, Tori Nicholson, for this piece of news. In late August, the subscription service Ipsy announced its plans for major expansion. The service currently provides its “glam bags,” makeup bags filled with an array of sample-sized products and a few full-sized items, as a monthly beauty subscription for only $10. Although the subscription service has been popular, the newly announced upgrade will allow subscribers to pay $25 a month in order to receive five full-sized products. To some, this may sound like a basic trip to the drugstore, but please believe me when I say this is major. The products will be a mixture of prestige brands – a typically prestige makeup item costs around $20-$30 on its own, so receiving five for $25 is a huge steal. The only catch? In order to sign up for the upgraded glam bag, shoppers must already be a member of Ipsy’s regular $10 subscription first. You still have time to join though – the first upgraded bags will be sent out in October.

These three launches alone are enough to satisfy all of my seasonal beauty needs. My hopes are that other brands will follow. Do you think these are good enough deals worth spending on? Sound off and let us know on Twitter, @TheTowerlight!

 

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