Beauty chat - freebies/gifts with purchase/offers THREAD TWENTY THREE

[OvaHere]

Welcome back all.

We rattled through the last thread and with Black Friday round the corner this one will go fast too. I hope we haven't all spent up on advents... 😂

Thank you as always to our regulars for you contributions and if you've been reading and thinking of joining come and say hello. 😊

@SheilaFentiman I gave up on the Boots deal this morning, I was so fed up.
However, I decided to have a quick look again this evening and the free gift was showing in my basket, plus the extra £7 of points for £70 spend offer, so I have now ordered and hoping the free gift arrives.
I got an Anastasia Beverly Hills eyeshadow palette that I’ve had in other stores baskets waiting for a discount (Boots had 20% off as well as the free gift), some Urban Decay eyeshadow primer and another YSL blush in restless rose (I don’t need this yet but it’s by far my favourite in my collection so decided to get another one).

I need to remember to try my new Dior foundation this weekend so if it’s good for me I can make the most of any other upcoming deals.

Edited to say that I actually shouldn’t have proceeded with my Boots order as I’d just bought some concert tickets so decided it was a good thing I’d not checked out my basket this morning, especially after my spendy TK Maxx order this week. Ah well, good job it’s payday 😅

@Allthingsbeautyuk Thats such a shame about your Selfridges fragrance wardrobe, I hope you manage to get it resolved.

I have been thinking about it a lot today after putting it in my basket, but I’m glad I never got around to checking it out if this is how they are arriving

I hope you get it @Thelifeofawife i reckon a lot of people must have had issues today if there were still some left late afternoon!

The fragrance edit they did last year around this time was similarly packaged and I wasn't so lucky thst time. So only one of the edits has had individual boxes. Aside from the loss of product the smashed glass is dangerous. Stupidity!

I ended up getting my sparkle fix yesterday by ordering Half Magic Drip Glitter Lip Gloss in Y2K Cherub and the Crystal Butter Lip Balm in Shell-ebrity. Should be much more wearable (for me) than Spinel which was lovely but just didn’t suit me at all.

I submitted a water meter reading yesterday which generated a new bill - its left me £102 in credit which I've just asked to be refunded.

And this preamble is just to tell you I have re-ordered the Selfridges fragrance edit! I had cancelled it to be sensible but I have "free" water money now, so...

After experiences here I have ordered it for store collection so I can open and check it there. I will bring bubble wrap with me!

Wise move @TreesinthePark !

Nice work @TreesinthePark

Is there something to consider about H&S law or trading standards in the shoddy packaging?

It can’t be considered reasonable to pack so badly that they’re sending loose broken glass in the post and then be a pain about returns and refunds…it’s not a risk it’s an actual issue and they surely have a responsibility to design for reduced likelihood of it happening…

It’s really put me off anything from Selfridges

Im sulking! 🤣
Totally annoys me how they give offers out willy nilly. My m and s offers are naff as are my boots offers.
I contemplated the bobbi brown yesterday but after looking and having no money off or extra points coupons im not buying.

@SheilaFentiman you have my sympathies. Boots app was a night mare yesterday. No categories would work, brands, etc and thousands of things to choose from. 😕😳
These companies need to sort out there tech before black friday and xmas come.

I needed nothing so not devastating but spent an hour messing about 😕
I ended up buying gifts for me and others 🥰 at space nk. The double points and gwp swung it for me. 🤣 i still have liberty gwy from june I need to shift. I may take the plunge and put it on Ebay.

I want an oura 5 ring and am waiting for black friday offers. They always start early. Just hope I can actually buy it if a good offer comes along. Although im not expecting anything too good as a fairly new product.
🥰

@Doglover73 if you have an American Express card, they have an offer for £100 back on £300 Oura spend at the moment.

I was pondering the Boots GWP and my advantage card discounts this morning and decided to plump for it. I got the Shiseido eye cream (I already use and like this, they have a cute ‘gift’ set with it in - includes two mini freebies), plus a couple of Bobbi Brown eye shadow sticks and some more sensible things to get it to over £100 to qualify for my £20 off £100. Somehow my 15% discount for Shiseido also worked with the general 20% off beauty code which took the set from the RRP of £75 to £49.64!

So I’m very pleased with that. Making me feel a bit less guilty for spending… ish!

I went to the HBeauty Carnival today. They had sold hundreds of Luxe tickets - possibly more - so it took almost an hour to get to the Hook a Duck or 25 minutes if you went straight into the store instead. This was with a 9am ticket and they gave out timed tickets for the Duck game. There was then a fifty minute queue for the samples after shopping by the time I got out.

The good news: People who wanted an Elemis facial were able to have one on the day as most people hadn’t managed to book them in advance.

Staff were friendly and helpful.

The duck game didn’t have a queue by the time I left, but I don’t know if they would have minded if people with earlier slots had gone later. (Probably not, but my duck ticket said 9.15-9.45 so I didn’t want to mess with it.)

The not so good: I don’t know if the £15 ticket was ‘worth it’ for everyone - Luxe ticket holders got to choose one more sample for the goody bag with spends over £70, but it was just one of the existing samples, not a bigger size. The duck game was fun, but obviously, whether it was ‘worth’ paying £15 to do it depended on what you got. I got a Kerastase set, so pleased with that. The lady next to me got dry shampoo which she said she would never use, so that was disappointing for her.

The ‘up to 20% off’ was frustrating because some brands were only giving 10%, others nothing and, in some cases, it depended on the product. Unfortunately, not even the staff knew which reductions were which, so it sometimes meant taking things to the till to check.

Overall I am glad I went - the tote bag is good quality and the samples for the goodie bag were good.

I really like the sound of these beauty events in real life, especially when compared to our collective experiences with online shopping recently. Do they do them up north?

Separately, I was inspired by @Goldleafcat’s Shiseido purchases at Boots so I went to look at the advantage card offer versus prices elsewhere. Can someone help me make sense of this - the Shiseido Benefiance Wrinkle Smoothing Eye Cream 15ml is £73 at Boots, with 15% off for advantage card holders or 20% off as part of their premium beauty offer. But the same cream is £41.40 at Notino, with 15% off bringing it to £35.19. Both the same cream, same size. What am I not seeing here? Attaching screenshots of Boots and Notino if someone can spot what makes one of them so much cheaper.

@DidILeaveTheGasOn - it may be that Notino can sell the same cream cheaper due to it being older stock, but it’s hard to know without ordering and then checking the manufacturer’s code.

Having said that, Allbeauty.com are often much cheaper than elsewhere, and when I have checked product codes of items I have ordered there, everything has been well in date. Maybe it’s the same with Notino and they are just reasonable with their pricing 🤷‍♀️

@DidILeaveTheGasOn - I know that HBeauty did have Beauty Carnival events in their northern stores earlier in the month.

JL sometimes have good rl events. Unfortunately, their summer special at £35 was only in London.

Thank you @IlovePond!

In the latest in a series of 'I don't need this at all but how can I buy it' posts, can anyone add this to their basket successfully? I have been unable to on an iphone and desktop PC. The add to cart button is available and not greyed out, but it will not add the blinkin' thing to the cart:

https://sarahcrealbeauty.com/en-gb/products/the-stowaways

Same issue @DidILeaveTheGasOn - I bet it’s listed on site in error before it’s live, like the SNK GWP was

Thank you @SheilaFentiman. I’m also having trouble with Sephora - nothing in the sale shows at a reduced price. I’m silver so if something is included in the sale I’d expect 20% off but everything is full price. I’m logged in and using the app. What am I missing?

Sephora- money comes off at checkout.

Ooh it does! Oh dear 😅 thank you @Addictedtobeauty !

I went to the Lakeside H beauty today. Dragged my DH along and bought him a luxe ticket too. I made it worth it because I pre-planned purchases. I bought the hair and body advent with 10% off for my spend and got some Clarins double serum eye cream and foundation both with 20% off for DH spend. The Clarins lady chucked in a great GWP bag with loads of travel sizes and an extra couple of samples too - that was brilliant.

If anyone was after the HBAC they had those in stock too, also with 10% off. Made me wish I had the patience to wait but I always buy on release.

Our hook a duck prizes were both the lowest tier and probably not worth the ticket price (but will be used). I got given a beauty works 10 in 1 - I will use this but it’s less than a tenner. DH was given a Laneige lip balm probably £15 full price I’d say (but we never pay full price!). To be fair, DD will get that in her stocking and will love it. I found it a bit strange and disappointing that you couldn’t pick your own prize out of the bran tub- the very bored and disinterested looking assistant did it for you and just lifted out the ones on the top.

The samples were all mini sizes (eg SR tidal 8ml, perfumes 5ml) and because I have so many of these minis it was not particularly exciting. I picked up all the perfumes as I thought they’d give the best value and I’ll probably sell them for a few quid at some point as I don’t need them.

I’m glad I went but I’m not sure I’d bother with prebuying a ticket again. They were selling them to anyone on the day anyway. Probably better to wait and see if it’s worth it as the discount was available to everyone shopping anyway as a rewards customer.

I'm a bit hacked off with Sephora. After the annoyance of the 25% off not working on MBM for a few hours resulting in me having to place a 2nd order for those things when it did finally work, the parcel which should have arrived Friday appears to be AWOL.

Tracking shows as despatched on Thursday but Evri still haven't received it. This was the stuff I wanted most and had been waiting for the sale to buy. The lip liner set is now out of stock so I won't be able to get a replacement for that if it's gone missing.

Feeling grumpy about it this evening especially as CS haven't responded yet.

Not sure if it has already been shared but the code SAVVYNEW brings the boots new and trending edit down from £55 to £49.50

I don't 😪 it says online they aren't great at doing discounts but im going to get one as a treat to myself. 🤩
Thats a good offer though. So they can do offers. 🤔
Ive just reread my message and i sounded like a toddler having a tantrum 🤣

I placed 2 orders yesterday with space nk as double ponts and gwp tipped it. It said Mon next day fair enough. I thought great as oh is out all day. They came tonight at 7.40. 😳
2 big boxes and 2 small. I brought the 2 small in as ofcourse they were delivering something. Left 2 in vestibule and hoping he doesnt see them so I can sneak them upstairs at some point. 🤣
I hate being sneaky but he just wouldnt get that double points and gwp meant I just had to order. 🤣
Need to message my daughter so when she comes in she doesnt mention the 2 big boxes. 🤣