If you’ve been reading for a while then you know that I have been talking about buying the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powders pretty much since I saw them. Problem was I’m a greedy little piggy and I wanted two colors, but I was not about to drop ninety bucks on some face powder. Momma’s gotta pay the bills. So when I saw they were available in a palette of three I ordered it immediately. Spoiler Alert: It’s amazing

As I do anytime I shop, I followed my little procedure of making sure I’m not missing out on any deals, and then waited for my package to arrive. When it got here on Friday and I opened it I was like “Daaaaaaaamn, I got more for free than what I bought. I need to blog about this!” Then I high fived myself and cooked dinner.

Not a bad deal right?? I also got a BUNCH of small samples along with this, but I used them up already, oops. But basically, I’m pretty good at getting the most for my money and who doesn’t want to know about getting good deals? So here’s what you need to know.

1. Join Loyalty Programs: Loyalty programs are like when they give you a card and you rack up points for your purchases and things like that. These programs are not all created equal, but the good ones are REALLY good. Ulta has a pretty good program that gives you rewards based on levels, and every quarter you can get a free gift depending on how much you spent. That one is decent but it doesn’t exactly blow my skirt up.

The mother of all loyalty programs is Sephora Beauty Insider, which is how I got that sweet deal in the photo up there. I am a VIB member, so I get more deals sent my way then just a regular Beauty Insider, but the deals for all levels of membership kick lots of ass. Basically I got an email with a promo code for a bag of skincare items with my next purchase of over twenty five dollars, so I used it and they sent a neat little bag filled with goodies. Then I also have some points racked up on my account, so I used them to get a free bottle of the new “Formula X” Nail polish.

There is now a third level of the beauty insider program, called “VIB rouge” but you have to send a lot of money to get there…sadly I’m not far off. If I get there, I’ll let you know how to freebies are, I have a feeling they must be fab.

2. Look Around Before You Buy: Before you buy cosmetics in a store, do your homework. Look around and make sure that another store isn’t having a sale. Some stores (and online retailers) will have friends and family sales, or 40% off storewide or something along those lines, and if they sell what you’re looking for it may save you some serious bucks.

If you’re buying online, I say ALWAYS look on amazon before you buy. I can’t even tell you how much money I have saved from finding things on there. Twice in a row I got my DDF “Amplifying Elixir” for Fourteen Bucks. Dead serious.

If you are concerned that you may get a counterfeit item, then just make sure you ONLY buy items that are sold by amazon itself, rather than an independent retailer working through the amazon site. Look under the area where the price is listed and it should say “Fulfilled By Amazon” If that’s the case, you’re golden. Not only does amazon not sell counterfeit products, but they also have great customer service if you receive your purchase and you think it’s a little suspect.

If you’re like me and you do this often, then it’s completely worth it to get an Amazon Prime membership. The price sounds steep at first but if you buy from the site often and pay for shipping it evens out, and you get everything in two days, score!

3. Pay Attention to Cost Per Ounce: I’ve always used the Anastasia Brow Wiz to fill in my brows. It runs out kinda fast, but I like it so I accepted this as a norm. That is until I noticed that the Anastasia Brow Perfect Pencil, although it is two dollars more expensive, has more than eleven times as much product. You read that correctly, eleven freakin times. In fairness you may lose more when you sharpen it (the brow wiz rolls up) but I sincerely doubt you will lose 90% of the product. I made the switch, it’s just as good and I’m never going back.

To put that in money terms for you The Brow Wiz Costs $7,000 per ounce as opposed to the Brow Perfect Pencil which costs $676.47 per ounce. Both of those numbers obviously sound insane, but when we’re talking about such small amounts of product the cost per ounce is always going to be very high. The point is that the price per pencil being nearly the same can be confusing, but you are getting much more for your money with one of them than the other, so if you’ve never paid attention to that before, check it out, you might be surprised.

4. Go Big: Now that we’re all aware of Cost Per Ounce, let’s use it to our advantage in another way. If you have a product that you use religiously then the next time it’s time to buy you may want to look into getting a larger container of it. Often a brand will offer a jumbo size version of one of their products, or just a large and small version, this applies mostly to scents and body products but sometimes this is the case even in even makeup and skincare. The cost of the larger version is always higher but the cost per ounce is often lower! So keep your eyes peeled for larger sizes of the product you love, and take a look at the label, getting a bigger one might be worth it! Make sure you calculate the cost per ounce though, just to be sure . . . and ya know, to feel good about the value you’re getting.

Those are my tips on getting the best beauty bargains, if you have your own please feel free to let me in on your secrets. Sharing is caring 😉