How to Save on Luxury Skincare Cyber Week and Year-Round

Here are all of my best tips for saving money on gorgeous, sustainable beauty and sensitive skincare.

The biggest trick to saving money on luxury clean skincare? Buy less! And never ever ever add items to your cart just to get the discount! One of my favorite podcasts is Afford Anything by Paula Pant. You can afford anything but not everything.

When you buy anything that means you have less to spend on something else even if you get something on “Sale”. Or you save now but it’s still less money to have later. I also think of things the opposite way when I get that sense of urgency to take advantage of a sale. Let’s say I want the knew Marie Veronique C-Therapy Serum. For Cyber 5 this year it is 20% off. So I could save $18. But do I really need it right now if I just got a new Kypris Antioxidant dew? I could just wait until a non-sale period and easily cut $18 out of my budget for a week.

Ok I know, I know, lesson over. Let’s focus on strategies for saving money on clean and green beauty all year long.

We’ll dive into a few strategies, but one of my best suggestions is the Beauty Heroes monthly beauty boxes! In 3 months you will have enough full-size products to form basically a whole routine + you can save 15% off their site anytime as a member!*

AfterPay Review + AfterPay Stores and Merchants in Beauty

Have you heard of the new, growing payment feature called AfterPay? Afterpay allows potential customers to pay for items in installments. While I don’t recommend using a credit card too much to cover beauty expenses, utilizing AfterPay at certain merchants may be a good move for you. My family and I have definitely used AfterPay a lot – it helps us pay for items over time so we have more money in our checking accounts in case of emergencies or major necessities. Psychologically, it feels better to have smaller amounts taken out of our bank out even when we have all of the funds to cover purchases. I’ve had a great experience with AfterPay so far. And some cool features – it lets you know if you are reaching your limit on Afterpay (we got this alert when we had to replace 2 rugs for our house).

Skincare and Makeup Stores utilizing Afterpay:

• Ulta Beauty
• Moon Juice
• Goop
• Tula
• Kora Organics
• Tata Harper
• Credo Beauty
• Kopari
• Grown Alchemist
• Ilia
• Aether Beauty
• Honua Skincare

Where can I find promo codes and savings at Sephora?

I get this question a lot 🙂 If Sephora sells brands you like and you enjoy collectiing points to use in their rewards bazaar, I could understand you wanting to consolidate your purchases mostly at Sephora.

Sephora has savings of up to 20% off twice a year in the spring and closer to the holiday season. The sales last about a week or longer depending on your status. Insiders get 10% off, VIB get 15% off and VIB rouge can score 20% off. For each of these sales, there is a promo code that can usually be used more than once throughout the sale. Outside of these major promotions, Sephora does have occasional markdowns. There are also great opportunities to get mini gifts with purchase and trial sizes by using special codes each week. For the most up-to-date promo codes, check this page at Sephora (it is not as easy to find on the app).

While I love guiding beauty lovers on what to buy, I’ve also put together a guide of what not to buy at Sephora, especially if you are interested in finding melasma treatments.

Year-Round Promo and Affiliate Codes for Skincare and Makeup Savings

Hi Friends! I might make a small fraction if you like my recommendations and buy through my affiliate codes or links

• You can Save 15% on my favorite sunscreen AKT Therapy Elemental Sun Balm at AKTtherapy.com* or with code MAGGIE15
• Do you love gorgeous non-irritating eyeshadow and powder highlighters with staying power? Then you will love AetherBeauty as much as I do! You can save with my link to AetherBeautyCo.com on your next purchase*

How can you save on natural skincare during Black Friday and Cyber Monday ?

In truth, there are few major discounts to be had on luxury natural skincare and clean beauty during Black Friday and Cyber Week. However, you can still “save” in other ways

• The Detox Market normally offers a tiered discount approach for Cyber Week. For example, $15 off a $100 purchase or $40 off 200 plus a free gift. If you’re shopping luxury skincare and saving up your purchases for cyber week, it’s easy to get these “cash back” style benefits. **For 2019 the free gift is a Pai Rosehip Oil
• Credo Beauty usually offers a free gift with purchase. This year its been a multi-piece set on purchases of $125+ for Cyber Monday
• Beauty Heroes: 15% off for everyone, 20% off for members
• Follain: 20% off during Cyber 5
• Pharmaca: 30% off
• Safe & Chic : 15% off
• Organic Bunny: 10% off orders of $150 with Code; spend more and you also get a free gift
• Dermstore actually offers a very good % discount – last year it was *up to 30% off select brands with a code
• May Lindstrom: sales may very but this year looks like you get The Problem Solver when you buy $200 or more.
• Aether Beauty: BOGO 50% off on eyeshadow palettes.
• Marie Veronique: 20% off most items
• You should also check with local stores who may be participating in deals for Small Business Saturday!

Luxury Natural Skincare Sample Strategy

Now of course, we would allll love to buy less right? Easier said than done. But here’s a secret – you can usually find a sample for any product you want to try! These aren’t always free BUT this will help you refine your skincare palette and test products before you make large purchases. You may decide that “new” product doesn’t spark enough joy to buy.

• At Sephora any customer can get 3 samples
• Citrine Natural Beauty bar offers a sample program
• When you place an order with Organic Bunny you can select from samples or send them a message to see what else they have. I got a great sample of a natural self-tanner!

How would you like to try Vinter’s Daughter serum or maybe May Lindstrom the blue cocoon – both over $200 – for just $15?? Easy! Buy a sample box from The Detox Market. It’s the best deal around! You can get 4 custom luxury skincare samples per box. Great to trip before you buy or use it for travel!

Skip the Retailers and Focus on the Brands

It’s so important to support the brands you love, especially the smaller independent brands. Besides supporting them so they can spread the word of their mission and lovely products, you can be the first to know about new collections, specialty drops and sales!

Whenever you are going to buy a product, before you press “checkout” at your favorite retailers, you should also check the website and social media accounts (and your email! see below) of the brand you are about to purchase from.

Brand sales:

Update 5/4: Aether is offering 25% 2 of their eyeshadow palettes! And an amazing All you Need is Love Bundle worth $140 for just $100!

Emily Signup and First Order Savings

By signing up for email lists for your favorite brands and store you will get earlier communication on sales, special offers, gifts with purchases and likely a discount code for your first order! I loooove gift with purchase offers. That’s how I received my new favorite highlighter – RMS Beauty’s Amethyst Luminizer.

First Order Offer Codes for Email Signup

• Dermstore.com – 15% savings!
• RMS Beauty.com – You can save 15% off your first order using my link *
• CredoBeauty.com – Save $10 off your first order *
• JoshRosebrook.com – Save $5 on your first order* And check out my review of most of his amazing organic skincare line.

***Updates made daily during Cyber 5. Also occasionally I will have affiliate links and denote them by * . If you purchase through these links that may help me build a small amount of credit with my favorite brands to buy more products I love.

How do I afford my luxury skincare purchases?

• Skincare brings me so much joy. I blog as a hobby (and to expand my digital marketing skillset), and I’ve found incredible results from treating my major skin conditions, so it is also the focus of my “treat yo’self” funds. I’m not as into clothes as skincare. And we don’t travel as much as I would like (but we also live in a beautiful place). So it’s not like I’m buying tons of skincare AND handbags AND clothes when I have a little leftover discretionary income.
• If my family asks me what I want for a gift, 90% of the time I suggest something skincare or beauty-related. Sometimes my mom forces me to tell her something that’s not 🙂 haha.
• I get creative and use credit card points towards gift cards to buy clean beauty. Even better my company has this awesome program through Achievers where we can reward our peers’ great work with points. And then you can cash in your points for gift cards. Mine are almost always for Sephora to shop Clean at Sephora products 🙂