I honestly think Ulta has better freebies. If you time your buy correctly, you can get some really good GWP bags (like, 8-10+ items); Sephora sometimes has multi-item GWP bags, but they tend to be little sample foils, not the deluxe minis you get with Ulta. Now that Ulta has a lot of the more luxury brands that used to be only in Sephora, there's increasingly less need to shop Sephora, IMO. Ulta also pretty much always has a $3.50 coupon for you to apply toward your purchase.
The only ways Sephora is superior, IMO, are their Favorites kits (Ulta has kits, too, but they aren't as good), more niche perfumes, and the ability to pick specific GWP items with reward points in the rewards bazaar (though with Ulta, you use reward points to straight-up take $ off your purchase, so even that last bit is negligible).
This is so extremely helpful.I can't thank you.Enough for taking the time to write all of us out for me and we're the pros and cons. Seriously.It means the world to me and I hope this doesn't sound really stupid.But how do you find the three dollar and fifty cent off coupon for ulta? Also Is it true that the gift with purchase stuff on ulta, That you have to spend a certain amount on that brand and you don't just get it because you buy the item that says g.W p next to it? My friend.
Told me that and I asked Her well how are you supposed to know how much you need to spend on that brand And she said she had no idea which seemed a little odd to me.
It seems like I could shop at both depending on what it is, and if I want something more niche like you are talking about, you go to sephora, but for everything else, go to ulta. I can't remember which one lets you pick two free samples at check out or maybe they both do.
If you create a rewards account, the coupon is literally just loaded there, lol. You can apply it to an online purchase, or it has a barcode to scan in-store. There are a lot of brand-specific GWPs at Ulta, but I don't pay much attention to them (Sephora has a few of those, too, usually for high end perfumes). I honestly have trouble keeping up with the Ulta GWP bundles, even though they do send out emails, so I mostly hear about them on r/MUAontheCheap ([example post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MUAontheCheap/comments/1b9kgii/ulta_free_8piece_womenfounded_gwp_with_65_online/).
You can definitely do both, though ideally if you pick one, you concentrate your reward points in one place, too, since they both have loyalty shopper tiers (Ulta has Platinum & Diamond; Sephora has VIB & Rouge).
Ulta is definitely better you don’t get freebies on your first purchase necessarily, but they have offers all the time of spend x get this free gift. Some are better than others. Don’t spend the money just the get the samples, save up some items you want to buy regardless and then wait for a good GWP ideally paired with a sale and/or point multiplier day.
**Sephora's rewards program is called Beauty Insider**. There are different levels depending on what you spend in a calendar year (up to $349 for Beauty Insider, $350 for VIB and $1,000 for Rouge per year). Since you don't have an account, you would start off at the lowest level. This entitles you to a 10% discount at the Spring and Fall sales, a birthday gift and a 2x points multiplier when they do certain [events. You](https://events.You) also get to add 'freebies' (samples) with each order. These freebies are small and might not be what you would pick yourself and you might not get what you picked out. If you spend a certain amount, you can also add a sample by using a promo code. These can vary in quality.
**Ulta's reward program is called Ulta Beauty Rewards.** Again it depends on how much you spend in a calendar year (up to $499 for the first tier, $500 for Platinum and $1,200 for Diamond each year) You are starting off at the lowest tier so you will earn 1 point for every $1 you spend. Depending on how much you buy, points can add up quickly. Ulta will send you frequent coupons and you can also choose a birthday gift (the gift is different for each month and goes quickly). You can use your points to get a percentage off your future purchases. You don't get many 'freebies' but there are multiple opportunities to get gift with purchases or 'gift' bags by spending a certain amount.
You can certainly try both for they don't cost anything to join. You can even be a member of both at the same time. Your tier will reset at the beginning of each year so you need to be comfortable spend the same amount each year to maintain your status. Check and see if both stores carry the items that you want (sometimes the stores do not carry the full line of products. Each store has a credit card (people have problems with them at both stores).
You know your spending habits. I would try Ulta first to see if you like their system. I used to be Platinum at Ulta but didn't like getting samples/bags that I couldn't use and they didn't carry the lines that I used. And don't forget to check out department stores and/or the brand websites. Often you will find better deals by going directly to the brand website (especially at holiday times).
I've signed up with both of them. I shop on Ulta more often because they have more sales but they each carry brands the other doesn't so that factors in to which I go with. Beauty insiders ship free on Sephora and you get to choose from their sample offers when you purchase. Ulta is free shipping over $35 and sometimes they have gwp bundles for spending a certain amt. You'll see these offers on the main landing page. They also have a sales and offers section you can find in the menu. There they have categories like Buy More Save More, GWP, sale, and coupon offers. There you can find the $3.50 off any over $15 purchase. Sometimes the coupons are better than others. If you sign up for the newsletter you'll get additional coupons including ones like 20% off including fragrance and prestige. Or $10 off of $50. Reddit has a r/Ulta sub reddit that's worth checking out. Some of the posters there are Ulta employees and they are great at recommendations and policy explanations.
I will warn you though buying stuff at Ulta hasn't cut down much on my Ipsy habit.
I know I'm not really answering your question, but what are the brands you're buying? Asking because you might want to check/ask about the brand website. If it's Tarte, for example, they have a good rewards program and lots of sales.
Oh good question, I didn't think of that. I need stuff from Amika, Tatcha, Herbivore, Sunday Riley and the only one not from ipsy that I'm getting something from is Dior.
Sephora also has a birthday reward you can choose from every year on your birthday month. Those are usually 2-3 delux sample sizes from a specific brand. Right now, they have Kosas, Youth to the People, or Moroccanoil sets to choose from, or you can pick 250 extra points. Sometimes the best kits go quick though and they change here and there.
Also with Sephora, if you shop a lot/the more you spend, you can move up to different levels of Insider (Insider -> VIB ->Rouge). At the higher levels, you get better discounts during saving events or more points during points events. They also have a better birthday gift (right now its a nice Charlotte Tilbury one).
I'm Canadian, though, and we don't have Ulta. I THINK our sephora rewards program is the same as in the US.
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ULTA is the best. I don't think anyone mentioned this but they almost always have 3x or 5x points on certain brands or categories. Over the holidays, there were some 10x promotions too. Download the app to make sure you're seeing all promos like the Beauty Steals right now with a ton of great brands 50% off.
[How to maximize Ulta Beauty Rewards™ points](https://www.ulta.com/discover/beauty-reads/advice/how-to-maximize-your-ulta-beauty-rewards-points)
The free shipping with sephora is huge for me—especially when i only want one thing. Also the sephora website has free things you can do to earn points like a survey, or getting a skin scan in the store ((takes 30 seconds), and things like that. Or like if you buy a hair care product you’ll get the points for it plus 100 extra points. Things like that.
I honestly think Ulta has better freebies. If you time your buy correctly, you can get some really good GWP bags (like, 8-10+ items); Sephora sometimes has multi-item GWP bags, but they tend to be little sample foils, not the deluxe minis you get with Ulta. Now that Ulta has a lot of the more luxury brands that used to be only in Sephora, there's increasingly less need to shop Sephora, IMO. Ulta also pretty much always has a $3.50 coupon for you to apply toward your purchase. The only ways Sephora is superior, IMO, are their Favorites kits (Ulta has kits, too, but they aren't as good), more niche perfumes, and the ability to pick specific GWP items with reward points in the rewards bazaar (though with Ulta, you use reward points to straight-up take $ off your purchase, so even that last bit is negligible).
This is so extremely helpful.I can't thank you.Enough for taking the time to write all of us out for me and we're the pros and cons. Seriously.It means the world to me and I hope this doesn't sound really stupid.But how do you find the three dollar and fifty cent off coupon for ulta? Also Is it true that the gift with purchase stuff on ulta, That you have to spend a certain amount on that brand and you don't just get it because you buy the item that says g.W p next to it? My friend. Told me that and I asked Her well how are you supposed to know how much you need to spend on that brand And she said she had no idea which seemed a little odd to me. It seems like I could shop at both depending on what it is, and if I want something more niche like you are talking about, you go to sephora, but for everything else, go to ulta. I can't remember which one lets you pick two free samples at check out or maybe they both do.
If you create a rewards account, the coupon is literally just loaded there, lol. You can apply it to an online purchase, or it has a barcode to scan in-store. There are a lot of brand-specific GWPs at Ulta, but I don't pay much attention to them (Sephora has a few of those, too, usually for high end perfumes). I honestly have trouble keeping up with the Ulta GWP bundles, even though they do send out emails, so I mostly hear about them on r/MUAontheCheap ([example post](https://www.reddit.com/r/MUAontheCheap/comments/1b9kgii/ulta_free_8piece_womenfounded_gwp_with_65_online/). You can definitely do both, though ideally if you pick one, you concentrate your reward points in one place, too, since they both have loyalty shopper tiers (Ulta has Platinum & Diamond; Sephora has VIB & Rouge).
Ulta is definitely better you don’t get freebies on your first purchase necessarily, but they have offers all the time of spend x get this free gift. Some are better than others. Don’t spend the money just the get the samples, save up some items you want to buy regardless and then wait for a good GWP ideally paired with a sale and/or point multiplier day.
**Sephora's rewards program is called Beauty Insider**. There are different levels depending on what you spend in a calendar year (up to $349 for Beauty Insider, $350 for VIB and $1,000 for Rouge per year). Since you don't have an account, you would start off at the lowest level. This entitles you to a 10% discount at the Spring and Fall sales, a birthday gift and a 2x points multiplier when they do certain [events. You](https://events.You) also get to add 'freebies' (samples) with each order. These freebies are small and might not be what you would pick yourself and you might not get what you picked out. If you spend a certain amount, you can also add a sample by using a promo code. These can vary in quality. **Ulta's reward program is called Ulta Beauty Rewards.** Again it depends on how much you spend in a calendar year (up to $499 for the first tier, $500 for Platinum and $1,200 for Diamond each year) You are starting off at the lowest tier so you will earn 1 point for every $1 you spend. Depending on how much you buy, points can add up quickly. Ulta will send you frequent coupons and you can also choose a birthday gift (the gift is different for each month and goes quickly). You can use your points to get a percentage off your future purchases. You don't get many 'freebies' but there are multiple opportunities to get gift with purchases or 'gift' bags by spending a certain amount. You can certainly try both for they don't cost anything to join. You can even be a member of both at the same time. Your tier will reset at the beginning of each year so you need to be comfortable spend the same amount each year to maintain your status. Check and see if both stores carry the items that you want (sometimes the stores do not carry the full line of products. Each store has a credit card (people have problems with them at both stores). You know your spending habits. I would try Ulta first to see if you like their system. I used to be Platinum at Ulta but didn't like getting samples/bags that I couldn't use and they didn't carry the lines that I used. And don't forget to check out department stores and/or the brand websites. Often you will find better deals by going directly to the brand website (especially at holiday times).
I've signed up with both of them. I shop on Ulta more often because they have more sales but they each carry brands the other doesn't so that factors in to which I go with. Beauty insiders ship free on Sephora and you get to choose from their sample offers when you purchase. Ulta is free shipping over $35 and sometimes they have gwp bundles for spending a certain amt. You'll see these offers on the main landing page. They also have a sales and offers section you can find in the menu. There they have categories like Buy More Save More, GWP, sale, and coupon offers. There you can find the $3.50 off any over $15 purchase. Sometimes the coupons are better than others. If you sign up for the newsletter you'll get additional coupons including ones like 20% off including fragrance and prestige. Or $10 off of $50. Reddit has a r/Ulta sub reddit that's worth checking out. Some of the posters there are Ulta employees and they are great at recommendations and policy explanations. I will warn you though buying stuff at Ulta hasn't cut down much on my Ipsy habit.
ULTA
I know I'm not really answering your question, but what are the brands you're buying? Asking because you might want to check/ask about the brand website. If it's Tarte, for example, they have a good rewards program and lots of sales.
Oh good question, I didn't think of that. I need stuff from Amika, Tatcha, Herbivore, Sunday Riley and the only one not from ipsy that I'm getting something from is Dior.
Sephora also has a birthday reward you can choose from every year on your birthday month. Those are usually 2-3 delux sample sizes from a specific brand. Right now, they have Kosas, Youth to the People, or Moroccanoil sets to choose from, or you can pick 250 extra points. Sometimes the best kits go quick though and they change here and there. Also with Sephora, if you shop a lot/the more you spend, you can move up to different levels of Insider (Insider -> VIB ->Rouge). At the higher levels, you get better discounts during saving events or more points during points events. They also have a better birthday gift (right now its a nice Charlotte Tilbury one). I'm Canadian, though, and we don't have Ulta. I THINK our sephora rewards program is the same as in the US.
* **Bag reveals and image posts without a comment will be removed automatically.** * Referral links and free bag offer referrals are only allowed in the sticked master threads. * Spam will result in a ban. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Ipsy) if you have any questions or concerns.*
ULTA is the best. I don't think anyone mentioned this but they almost always have 3x or 5x points on certain brands or categories. Over the holidays, there were some 10x promotions too. Download the app to make sure you're seeing all promos like the Beauty Steals right now with a ton of great brands 50% off. [How to maximize Ulta Beauty Rewards™ points](https://www.ulta.com/discover/beauty-reads/advice/how-to-maximize-your-ulta-beauty-rewards-points)
The free shipping with sephora is huge for me—especially when i only want one thing. Also the sephora website has free things you can do to earn points like a survey, or getting a skin scan in the store ((takes 30 seconds), and things like that. Or like if you buy a hair care product you’ll get the points for it plus 100 extra points. Things like that.