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We recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their best tricks for saving money on makeup. Here are their suggestions!
1. Sephora will give you free samples of any product you want to try! All you have to do is ask.
2. Buy the professional size foundation. A one-ounce bottle of Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation is $45 from the store. The 6.7-ounce professional size is $89 on eBay from beauty sellers.
3. With mascara being so expensive these days, try cleaning and reusing an old wand that you like, but buy dollar-store mascara and toss out the new wand.
4. "Cut open my empty makeup products (that come in plastic packaging) and take out all the product left inside."
5. Use $2 E.L.F. lip tint underneath $24 NARS matte lipstick as an alternative to a more expensive lip pencil.
6. Never buy mascara. Instead, get the minis. Sephora, Ulta, and all the department stores always have mascara minis as a gift with purchase or as a gift for point redemption.
7. Sometimes Sephora gives out five free samples with no spending minimum so you can buy some cheap $5 mask, and if you have two-day Flash shipping, you're all set!
8. Use Arrowroot Powder as a dupe for the BareEssentials Mineral Veil.
9. Instead of buying expensive primers, use Monistat Anti-Chafing Gel.
10. At Ulta, just ask for multiple samples of foundation and they'll give you as many as you want (within reason).
11. Use baby shampoo to wash off your makeup! It’s really cheap and safe on the eyes because most of them are tear-free.
12. Take the sifter out of powders to get everything out and the stopper that removes excess product out of your concealers and anything that comes in a tube.
13. Findation.com! It asks you the brands and shades of foundations you’ve used in the past and matches you to a variety of both high-end and budget brands!
14. Watch reviews or tutorials. The person reviewing usually tells you the nitty gritty about the product, plus they sometimes have discount codes.
15. As far as drugstore makeup, use coupons from the Sunday paper and match them with sales! So if you have two Revlon coupons, wait til CVS or Walgreens has Buy 1, Get 1 50% off.
16. There is a great blog called Nouveau Cheap. They post the weekly drugstore sales (including Ulta) and about a ton of other deals.
17. When you find something you like, but cannot find easily, try buying it from Amazon instead of the manufacturer.
18. Shop the beauty section on Hautelook! They sell name-brand makeup at a discount.
19. There’s an account on Instagram called @dupethat. They post tons of cheap dupes for high end beauty products!
20. Joining emailing lists for the higher end makeup brands to get periodic discounts.
21. TJMaxx has high-end brands like Stila, Too Faced and Living Proof for cheap.
22. Sign up for Ebates! 4% cashback from shopping online at Sephora, 7% at Amazon, with occassional double or triple rewards!
24. You can buy, sell, and trade that makeup with other people on Reddit r/makeupexchange and get some tremendous deals!
25. Mysubscriptionaddiction.com has a feature that allows you to list your unwanted products for either swapping or selling.
26. Follow your favourite beauty brands on social media. They'll often post about upcoming sales, and discount codes.
27. Wait until you have $50 worth of product to order from Sephora online so shipping is free. Take advantage of the three free samples you automatically get with purchase.
28. Get a MAC Pro card!
29. Sign up for Influenster and Bzzagent.
30. Try the Honey extension for Google Chrome. It has a lot of coupon codes for different stores.
31. Wait for Ulta to do their 21 Days of Beauty in March and September!
32. Use Shopkick! It's an app for iOS and Android where you can get free gift cards to stores like Sephora and Macy's!
