You're Almost Certainly Overpaying for Your Skincare PART THREE
The Shopping Guide - where to buy your skincare to you never overpay at any budget
So… now you know more about what you need from your routine. You have a bunch of lower-cost brands and products to try out before shelling out megabucks. Finally: how to ensure you’re always paying the least possible for your skincare.
I’m going to start with some general Dos and Don’ts of shopping for skincare, then suggest some discount sites that you should be aware of - that alarmingly few people are aware of - then suggest the best skincare retailers for the UK and US regions so you can shop around smartly.
The sheer scale of my obsessive insanity is laid fully bare in this post. Be kind.
Some Dos and Don’ts:
DO
Always buy online, unless it’s a skincare emergency1. It will always be cheaper online than in-store (because of cashback, which isn’t available in physical stores).
Shop around. Sites run offers continually. A product will rarely be cheapest in the same place twice.
Sign up for the loyalty programmes at any retailers that you buy your skincare from, also sign up for their newsletters
I have a standalone gmail address that I use for all online shopping so that my main mailbox doesn’t get choked. I would recommend this.
If you have hero brands/retailers, follow them on your social of choice to be notified of their discount events. Don’t do a lot of these, it gets overwhelming.
I have separate standalone socials for beauty and clothes shopping for this purpose2
Always check for discount codes. There will always be one for the brands that I’ve recommended.
Check for additional discount if purchasing via the app - there often is
Use cashback sites
Use a cashback credit card IF (and only IF) you have the means to pay off your next statement in full. The interest charges will wipe out any cashback gains otherwise3.
Stock up on products4 that you use frequently when they’re on offer
Check how much postage is. This can bump up the price substantially on some sites.
Keep a wishlist of products that you want to try so that you can buy them at a discount when a big sale comes up (e.g. Black Friday, the US Sephora member sales, Amazon Prime days).
This prevents you from throwing a bunch of random stuff in your cart because you’re giddy about the discounts.
Still exercise restraint though. LESS IS MORE in skincare, remember.
I see you. I have been you. I love you.
DON’T
Buy stuff because if you spend ‘x’, you can buy £400 worth of travel-size products for £150. You will not use the majority of those products, I GUARANTEE it.
Buy stuff that you don’t need, just to qualify for free shipping. If the shipping was £$5 and instead you spend an extra £$40 on stuff you don’t need to qualify for free shipping, you have overpaid for your skincare.
Buy a bunch of new products that you haven’t tried before all at once during a sale.
You’ll either:
overwhelm your skin by dumping too many new products on your skin in one go
overwhelm your skincare inventory and not get around to using everything you’ve bought
Forget to always check for discounts and checkout via a cashback site (this is in twice because both of these are REALLY KEY if you want to stop overpaying for your skincare).
Use Honey to find discounts, easily
Before you do anything else: add the Honey discount extension to your Chrome/Safari browser(s). There’s also an app so you can add on your phone.
I know it works in US and UK, I’ve never used it anywhere else.
It will check your basket for any available additional discounts before you checkout.
You can also save specific items to Honey ‘Droplist’ and receive email notifications if the price drops for any of them.
Earn ‘Honey Gold’ rewards
Separate from the discount codes finder, it also has a rewards scheme that gives you points for your purchases that you can exchange for retailer vouchers. I go into more detail in the Cashback section below, but you usually can’t collect Honey Gold in conjunction with Cashback (it’s either/or), but you can choose what works for you at checkout.
They’re owned by Paypal and are non-spammy.
This is not an ad 😂, I promise. Too few people know about this site and it has saved me ££££.
Cashback sites
WTF is a cashback site?
Ok, full disclosure: I still have no real idea how the organisations involved make money from this, but the majority of US and UK online cosmetics retailers pay cashback if you click through to their website from a 3rd party cashback affiliate.
This can be up to 10% of the value of your basket for skincare.
In the UK, I use Quidco, when I lived in the US I used Rakuten. I’m going to talk about Quidco because my experience with them is lengthier and more recent, but the principles and rewards are comparable for Rakuten or any other cashback site.
This is how much I’ve made from Quidco in about 8 years:
Aaaaannnd, Rakuten:
This is money back into my pocket for money that I would have spent anyway.
Mental.
Every UK/US retailer in this post (except Amazon) offers cashback via Quidco/Rakuten
Ok, how do I get this weird free money?
To use the sites, you sign up for free5, check discounts on the retailer(s), then click through to the retailer from the cashback site, which records your visit and then applies the cashback to your purchase in the background when you checkout from the retailer. It then gets paid into your bank or PayPal.
Confused? Martin Lewis6 breaks it down here and details some other UK cashback sites.
Anything else?
You don’t have to receive money. You get preferential rates if you exchange your balance for store vouchers instead. Nike give 10% extra, for example - i.e. you can exchange £100 balance at Quidco for £110 worth of Nike vouchers, rather than taking £100 as cash.
Some caveats:
Cashback can take up to 6 months to process and appear on your balance. I quite enjoy the randomness of this, but be aware.
If you use multiple discounts in a transaction, your cashback may drop to a lower amount, subject to the retailer’s Ts and Cs.
Honey and Quidco can conflict when it comes to awarding your rewards, so you may want to run Honey’s check for discounts, copy the discount code, then disable Honey Gold at checkout if the retailer is Quidco/other cashback site eligible.
Sometimes your purchase won’t register, check the cashback site after 48 hours to make sure your cashback was recorded. If not, raise a claim - the vast majority of my claims were eventually honoured.
You HAVE to make sure you’ve clicked through from Quidco to the retailer before you make the purchase. Your cashback won’t be logged if you used Quidco earlier, put things into your cart, got distracted and then logged back directly into the retailer to complete the transaction without going via Quidco again.
I usually get my basket ready at the retailer, then go back to Quidco and click back through to the retailer immediately before checkout, to be on the safe side.
Let’s go shopping!
Shopping at the brand’s site - all regions
It is always worth checking/signing up for updates from the brand sites that you use most frequently/most want to try.
The most expensive, luxe brands don’t tend to run periodic offers, but most other brands do.
UK skincare sites (all of these are on Quidco)
Escentual
Brands
Particularly good for French pharmacy brands, which they often have at 33% off. They also stock Sun Bum’s full range, which can be hard to find in the UK otherwise.
Regular 25% off site-wide offers.
Postage is always fast and they usually have stock of everything they sell.
Loyalty programme
Yes. Pretty Pennies are earned, based on the value of your transaction - valid for one year - that you can use as credit on a future order. Full details here
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
No
Incentive for writing reviews?
No
Cult Beauty
Brands
There’s a lot here and you can search by brand as well as ingredient. Cult Beauty has a broad spread across slightly higher-priced skincare ranges (Dennis Gross, Biossance, Charlotte Tilbury, Medik8, etc).
It’s usually only worth buying higher-priced ranges here, the cheaper ranges (eg French pharmacy/The Inkey) are often cheaper elsewhere.
In my experience, Cult Beauty run out of stock more often other online retailers.
Loyalty programme
Yes, ‘Status points’ are earned, based on the value of your transaction - valid for one year - that you can use as credit on a future order.
Membership is tiered, with more benefits accruing (free shipping, free gifts etc) the more you spend
Discount on your birthday, at all tiers.
Full details here
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
Yes. 15% discount for new customers
Incentive for writing reviews?
Yes. You earn Status Points for writing reviews.
NB Cult Beauty was bought by The Hut (who also own Look Fantastic) in 2021. At some point, the 2 brands are likely to merge.
Look Fantastic
Brands
They have the most comprehensive inventory of any UK cosmetics retailer and will likely be the first retailer returned if you Google a skincare product in the UK. You can search by brand and ingredient.
There is always, always an offer on at Look Fantastic and they make it easy to view all of their offers, but they’re not always the cheapest.
I probably buy about 30%7 of my cosmetics here.
They are massive proponents of the ‘Buy This Specially Selected Random Haul Of Random Stuff For Less If You Spend X’ (and they do usually make that random stuff sound BRILLIANT) which I continue to advise you against doing.
Loyalty programme
Yes, LF Beauty + points are earned, based on the value of your transaction - valid for one year - that you can use as credit on a future order.
Membership is tiered, with more benefits accruing (free gifts etc) the more you spend
Discount on your birthday, at all tiers.
It’s less generous than Cult Beauty’s if that becomes a differentiating factor.
Full details are strangely hard to find, but they’re in a category in the Help section.
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
10% discount for new app customers
Incentive for writing reviews?
Yes. You earn Beauty+ points for writing reviews.
Sephora/Feel Unique
Sephora bought Feel Unique in 2021 to gain a foothold in the UK ecomm beauty marketplace and whilst the 2 sites still exist as separate domains, the offering is now identical across both sites. If you’re used to shopping Sephora online in the US, be aware that the UK and US entities are not like-for-like.
Brands
The brand list is pretty comprehensive, with LRP and Avene being notable exceptions. You can’t search by ingredients, but they do have a handy K-beauty section.
Loyalty programme
Yes. £5 voucher off a future purchase earned for every £100 spent.
20% off on your birthday - which is better than any other retailer’s birthday offering.
You also get to choose 2 brands that you always get 10% off, even if those brands are usually excluded from offers by the site. This was always my favourite feature of Feel Unique, and Sephora have kept it 🙌. You can change the brands every 6 months if you find a new favourite.
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
No
Incentive for writing reviews?
No
Boots
So their website is appalling given their market share, but…
Brands
Their brand coverage is constantly improving and they often run 25-30% off offers on premium (i.e. more expensive) beauty, whereas some other retailers exclude these from offers.
French Pharmacy and K-beauty brands are easily available here and are often discounted, or in ‘3 for 2’ offers.
They are more likely to discount specific brands or categories than to do “20 percent site-wide” - which all the other retailers listed here will do several times a year. So they can be hit-and-miss, but if the item you’re looking for is in one of their promos, it will often be cheaper here than anywhere else.
They can also have surprisingly high Quidco rates - up to 10% at times.
Their minimum spend for free delivery is lower than most other skincare retailers and even lower if you click and collect from a store.
Loyalty programme
The Advantage card. Of course. If you’re UK-based and don’t already know what that is and how it works, then you might be on the wrong website for your interests. They are also offering Member-only pricing with the card, a lot of which is worthwhile.
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
No
Incentive for writing reviews?
No
Superdrug
Brands
The only place to buy their own-brand stuff, obvs, with a decent range of mid-range brands, including French pharmacy and K-Beauty. They are also the only retailer on this list to offer Hada Labo’s Tokyo range
Loyalty programme
Yes, the Beautycard. Member-only pricing, which tends to be extremely competitive when available. Reduced minimum spend for delivery.
They also incentivise app-use with double points if you shop via the app.
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
No
Incentive for writing reviews?
No
Beauty Bay
So these guys were always a bit of an outlier, but did have a decent K-beauty offering and were always worth a look.
Their website is chaotic right now, with a high number of broken links.
That plus this quite doomy outlook makes me think they may not be around much longer. So I’m not going to write about them in detail. I’ll update this if they’re still going strong in 2024.
They’re here if you want to check them out.
UK and US
Amazon
Amazon is a funny one. It is not eligible for cashback anywhere.
Sometimes their skincare prices are alarmingly, ludicrously higher than anyone else’s. Even for items fulfilled by Amazon. It is weird. But be aware and don’t assume that they’ll be your cheapest option.
There are a high number of fake/expired items sold by 3rd party resellers on Amazon.
Be extremely wary if buying something not sold by Amazon itself or by an official Amazon store of the brand that you’re purchasing from.
This includes being wary of products sold by a 3rd party that are ‘fulfilled by Amazon’. The Internet is awash with angry consumers who’ve bought something ‘from Amazon’ and then realised that it’s actually come from Bobby Jo’s Swamp Shack Of Sadness and it’s expired or - worse - triggered a reaction.
Amazon will often - but not always8 - offer a refund in the instance that you receive an expired or faulty product from a third party Marketplace seller, but I wouldn’t risk it with so many other retailers to choose from.Subscribe and Save can be worthwhile if there’s something that you buy on repeat that wouldn’t normally qualify for discount at another retailer.
Department stores
These will rarely offer the deep discounts listed above, but during Black Friday/Cyber Monday, some will offer 10-15% off all Beauty, including luxury brands. I’m still deeply sceptical of luxury beauty’s efficacy on a cost vs effect basis, but for perfume and make-up, this can be a good time to buy products that aren’t discounted elsewhere.
TK Maxx (UK)
Marshalls/Nordstrom Rack/TJ Maxx (US)
There are VERY occasional great deals to be had here.
The issue is that this is nearly always remaindered stock that’s been lying around indefinitely and skincare doesn’t last indefinitely. Check the expiry dates if they have them (they usually won’t).
I’d say it’s fine to pick up something that’s already in your routine if it’s much cheaper than you can find it in other stores, as you’ll know what the latest packaging looks like and what the smell/consistency is supposed to be.
I cannot recommend that you try products for the first time by buying from these stores. Particularly for anything you’d put on your face (as opposed to body).
The risk of “Ooh, look how discounted it is! I must have it! Even though I’m not sure what’s in it!” is also strong here. It’s wiser to avoid those situations if you want to stop overpaying for your skincare.
Duty Free
Very rarely worth it if you’re already shopping smarter at home.
Obviously, if you’re travelling abroad and use skincare/cosmetic products from other countries, you will pay less for them in their countries of origin and then it can be worth buying at the airport in those countries.
Incidentally, Asian airport skincare standalone9 stores tend to give AMAZING freebies - I left Innisfree in Malaysia airport with more value in free stuff than I had paid for 😂.
US skincare sites (all of these are on Rakuten)
Sephora US
NB Sephora US were much-loved for allowing the return-for-refund of opened, ‘gently used’ items for any reason. So if you bought something and didn’t like it, you could return it in-store or by mail for a full refund. It was always at Sephora’s discretion, but more and more customers are reporting that they’ve been refused refunds and had their right to return permanently revoked. Be cautious if this is part of your cosmetic research process.
Brands
It leans towards the more expensive end of skincare and is quite US-centric, which is why I find myself using it less and less.
No French pharmacy and very limited Asian beauty brands.
The product range is much, much better for make-up than for skincare.
Loyalty programme
Yes, Beauty Insider. Insider points are earned, based on the value of your transaction and your membership tier and can be used to buy items in the Rewards Bazaar that offers (usually) travel-size items.
The scheme is tiered and has 3 levels. At this highest level (Rouge - $1000 minimum spend per year to qualify. You are almost certainly overpaying for your skincare if you achieve this10) you get 20% off the entire site for 2 weeks, twice a year. Lower tiers get 10 and 15% respectively, for one week.
There are tiered shipping benefits and a Rewards Bazaar that offers (usually) travel-size items to be exchanged for points. In my experience (and many others’), it’s quite difficult to spend points on anything you’d actually want. I have 18,00011 unused points that look at me sadly whenever I log in.
Points never expire as long as you make one purchase per year to keep your account ‘active’.
If you get to Rouge status12, the Insider Event can be a great time to buy expensive at-home skincare devices that aren’t usually discounted elsewhere, if those are your thing.
They also heavily incentivise the use of their branded credit card. Don’t get this, the rates are dogshit13.
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
No
Incentive for writing reviews?
No. Well… there’s no transactional incentive, but being a power-reviewer on Sephora carries clout in certain circles. For your mental-wellbeing, I would not encourage you to run in those circles, but you are AN ADULT.
Ulta
These guys have a credit card too. Again - NO. There are dozens of more competitive rates out there.
Brands
Much broader range than Sephora, stocking drugstore (CeraVe, Cetaphil) all the way through to Chanel. They carry French pharmacy brands and a few Asian skincare brands. Ulta is the largest beauty retailer in the US at time of writing, having pulled ahead of Sephora and Amazon.
They offer a full refund on opened items within 60 days of purchase (proof of purchase required, in-store credit without proof of purchase). Fair use Ts and Cs apply, but this is an incredibly generous policy overall.
Loyalty programme
Yes, Ultamate Rewards14. It’s yet another points-based, tiered system. Points can be exchanged for store credit and used to pay for anything online or in-store. Points never expire at the higher membership tiers.
Birthday gift and additional shipping/shopping discounts which vary by tier.
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
No
Incentive for writing reviews?
No
Target
Tar-jé!
In my experience, the online offering is absolute dogshit with about 1% of their inventory available at any given time.
Brands
All the drugstore brands you’d expect to find, as well as some higher-end/more prestigious lines. They’ve partnered with Ulta, which has dramatically increased their product offering.
They are SO MUCH better in-store than online though, so I’m not going to go into more detail here - this post is all about how to shop smarter online.
Loyalty programme
Yes, Target Circle but it’s less competitive than the other skincare-specific sites because it covers their entire product offering, so discounts are in the 1-5% range.
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
No
Incentive for writing reviews?
No
Look Fantastic USA
Owned by THG, who also own LF in the UK.
Brands
The UK and US sites look very similar, but their brand coverage differs significantly. The US site has a much smaller inventory but still has a decent range of high and lower-end products. Some K-beauty and French pharmacy brands.
I’m including it as an alternative to Sephora/Ulta as it generally provides higher, more frequent discounts to those two sites.
Loyalty programme
No
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
Yes, 15%
Incentive for writing reviews?
No
Asian Beauty
K-beauty is now relatively widely available online in UK/US stores.
The lower-cost import-only J-beauty skincare brands are still more difficult to source.
Formulations can vary for products exported by the brand into non-Asian countries. If you buy from a reputable Asian skincare retailer, you’ll always know that you’re buying Asian-formulated products.
For both K/J Beauty, these are your other options:
Amazon
Subject to the caveats above about the prevalence of fake items, I have often bought Asian skincare at Amazon without incident and Japanese imported skincare is usually available there.
I only buy from Amazon directly, not through Marketplace and if an item is out of stock, I wait for it to come back into stock rather than buying from a Marketplace seller.
The prices can fluctuate quite significantly, so don’t buy when it’s at a higher price, it will regulate back down.
I only buy skincare from Amazon if a) the item is unavailable/significantly more expensive at another retailer b) the shipping time from an Asia-based retailer is too long for my Skincare Emergency15
Yes Style
Hong Kong-based: an absolute Asian shopping leviathan.
Brands
Extensive ranges of every Japanese and Korean brand you can imagine, they carry products that aren’t widely available outside Asia. All products are authentic, I’ve never had any issues with Yes Style in nearly a decade of using them
They also sell clothing, accessories and you-name-it, frankly. The cosplay costumes section has to be seen to be believed and they sell his and hers couple outfits that give me life.
There are always discounts of at least 10-25% available, with additional brand promos and member discounts applied where eligible. If your item isn’t discounted, check back in a couple of days and it probably will be.
Loyalty programme
Yes. Elite Club. Tiered, with points awarded for purchases. Your tier will expire after a year if you don’t make qualifying purchases.
Exponentially higher points are awarded as you progress through the tiers, generous tier-based checkout discounts - applied in addition to any other site discounts - and additional birthday discounts.
Full info here
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
Yes. Yes Style will invariably give you a discount for existing.
Incentive for writing reviews?
Yes, points.
This sounds fucking brilliant
It is. BUT shipping is from Asia, and can take a while. Additionally, not all items are always immediately available - the availability is indicated in your cart at checkout - not on the product page - which is sub-optimal.
Their stock inventory management has massively improved over the last decade, but it’s still deeply annoying if the one thing that you want16 most is on a 21-delay delay and THEN is going to take 3-14 business days to arrive.
The minimum spend to qualify for free express shopping is relatively low17 in all regions, but Yes Style probably isn’t the right option for you if you need a single £$10 item in a hurry. Other than that, it’s an absolute no-brainer for K/J beauty products.
Delivery costs and times are significantly lower to the UK than to the US18
What about taxes?
All relevant taxes are included in the checkout price, so there’s no sales tax to pay on receipt.
I have never had to pay customs duties on an order from Yes Style (I ordered whilst living in both the UK and the US), but if you incur they will refund on orders of up to $100019.
Stylevana
Also HK-based. The new kids in town - they’ve set up as rivals to Yes Style, with near-identical offerings. Unlike Yes Style, they only sell cosmetic products.
I used them once for something that was out of stock at Yes Style and was absurdly more expensive at Amazon, so don’t have deep experience.
Brands
Broadly comparable to Yes Style for Asian brands. Stylevana also offers non-Asian brands (so their Asian customers have access to US and European brands), but you’re unlikely to get a better price than you’d get more locally by buying from an Asian distributor, esp as you may incur taxes, per below.
Loyalty programme
Yes. Vana - Points-based and tiered with discounts and free gifts increasing as you move up the tiers. Comparable to Yes Style in total value per tier, but specifics are different.
Full details here
Discount for new customers/newsletter signup?
Yes, points-based. These guys give extra points for everything.
Incentive for writing reviews?
Yes. Points. Increased points for video reviews.
What about taxes?
No mention of them. Like Yes Style, they ship from Asia, so I’d say there is a much greater risk that you get dinged with unexpected charges if you order here.
Black Friday
At time of writing, this is right around the corner and many retailers have already published a raft of discounts. If you shop smartly online year-round, you won’t need Black Friday discounts, as there is always a discount to be had somewhere in the world of shopping.
However, if you prefer to stock up on products once a year, it can be a useful calendar reminder and you will definitely get a discount. But… it may not actually be the cheapest time to buy. (As with all products), some sites cynically jack their ‘before’ prices up so that the discount looks more generous than it actually is. Be savvy about this and go well.
In summary - How to not to overpay for your skincare
Pick out products you a) need b) are effective for your skincare concern
Check for discounts on retailer websites, brand newsletters/socials and with Honey
Check whether the retailer loyalty scheme will get you extra discount
Check the shipping costs don’t negatively impact your total spend
Checkout via a cashback site
Receive your skincare. Rejoice in the bliss of not overpaying for it. Smile at yourself in the mirror as you use it and think of me fondly 😉.
Final thought
If you disregarded my eminent wisdom and over-zealously stocked up on something - especially if you’ve now found another product that you prefer - sell your overstock on eBay asap (i.e. as soon as you realise you’re unlikely to use it). Even if you’ve thrown the packaging away. And sometimes even if you’ve broken the seal.
Cosmetics and skincare hold their value pretty well - much better than clothing. This can substantially reduce the regret-rate of your cosmetics purchases.
Happy Shopping!
There are some affiliate links in this post. There is no information anywhere in this post that was included/excluded/influenced because of a retailer’s referral programme.
These are a thing. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Your periodic reminder that I am extremely neuroatypical
In general, don’t buy stuff you can’t afford. Life is much less stressful that way.
Within reason. Buying 5 of something that then gathers dust is false economy.
There is an option to upgrade for higher discounts, which I do because of the sheer volume I put through cashback sites 😊. Do what’s right for you. If you’re an occasional user, it might not be worth the outlay.
I fucking love Martin Lewis.
This includes make-up and haircare.
They are very opaque about the decision process for this.
i.e. a brand with their own shop at the airport, rather than the big, consolidated ‘duty free’ shops
I was Rouge for nearly a decade before I saw the error of my ways. I now have 18,000 points that I can barely spend on anything now that my status has lapsed 🤦♀️. (I do not say this to garner sympathy, but rather as a CAUTIONARY TALE.)
“My name is Anne-Marie and I was addicted to overpaying for my skincare for decades…”
Don’t - it’s a clear sign that you are overpaying for your cosmetics. Really.
Not even I did this 😂
See what they did there?
Which, as we know, IS A THING.
*coughs* ‘need’
Relative to that £$50 pot of glycerin you’ve been buying before realising that you were Overpaying For Your Skincare
Remember the 35,000 words I almost wrote about US healthcare in Part 2? I could do 350,000 words on US postage.
If you’re making a single order of over $1000 value, (with love) you’re unhinged. Get your family to stage an intervention.
I've just put that product on my wishlist too. Oil is hair's preferred styling treatment these days.
I can, however, recommend Redken's Extreme Anti-Snap treatment spray which has stopped breakage around the front of my hair to a phenomenal degree. All the short bits are now long. I can't quite believe how well it's worked.
You're absolutely right about the Boots website - it is SO bad, like this was their first rollout which has never been updated 😂. Nice to see they're now offering some more premium brands though, like Redken.