Now, I am addicted!
I found Ulta.com to be a little confusing until I played around for a while and did some reading of FAQ pages. All you have to do is tell me about rewards and I am all ears. So...
Before I even get to the rewards system, I want to tell you that I am an extremely frugal online shopper. I will fill five online shopping carts to compare pricing, tax, and shipping for the same products to see where I will get the best deal. After doing this probably over a hundred times, I have decided that bouncing around from online store to online store will not get me the true pricing I am looking for.
I will get to the reason in a bit.
Price Matching
Also, if you are physically shopping in brick and mortar stores, you are probably missing out on the best pricing, unless you are price comparing on your smartphone. In that case, you might be fortunate enough to be shopping in a store that offers price matching. If not, well...let's just say you most likely could have found better pricing online. I say that because I have been watching prices on all types of products in the stores and doing my own comparisons to online prices. In many cases, I could have found a better price online.
Shipping
However, ordering online brings in another aspect - shipping - that you have to take into consideration. Lots of online stores offer free standard shipping if you order over a certain price point. If you are only buying one or two things, though, you might not hit that price point, which means you have to factor shipping into the price comparisons.
Hint, hint: I never pay shipping.
Back to Ulta.com
Sure, at Ulta.com, you have to spend $50 to get free shipping, but I find that if I plan ahead, I can hit that price point pretty darn quick, which means I can compare exact price for price online. But, if I plan ahead even better with products that I love and know I am going to need in the future, I can get unbelievable deals.
For instance, Ulta always has buy 2 or 3, get 1 free and buy 1 get one 50% off deals. When I see a product I am infatuated with and getting low on, it makes sense to get it when these deals pop up. That's where the savings really starts.
Here's an example with my current order
I just recently tried a sample of John Frieda Beach Blond Sea Waves Salt Spray and fell in love. The aroma is dreamy, leaving your hair smell almost shea buttery and when scrunched in my short hair, gives it awesome volume and incredible beachy waves with no frizz. I had to get some more!
Buy 2 Get 1 Free
Fortunately, that product just happened to be a buy 2, get 1 free deal, so I went ahead and ordered two of them! That left one thing...what was I going to get for free? Although I do love my new Kenra hair spray, I had heard great stuff and wanted to try John Frieda Sheer Blonde Crystal Clear Hairspray. After all, who doesn't need two hair sprays they can count on? And what better way than to try it for free?
Buy 1, Get 1 50%
I also needed a light "touch of summer" type of moisturizer, because...well, we are heading into summer fast at this point and it helps to have a glimmer of a tan and a good moisturizer. When I realized that the Hempz products were buy 1, get 1 50% off, I was ecstatic. It has been about ten years since I've used Hempz products, mostly because I stopped buying all of that cool stuff for a while. I ended up ordering the Hempz Touch of Summer Daily Moisturizer and the Original Herbal Moisturizer. (Side note: the aroma of Hempz original lotion is easy to fall in love with and the consistency is perfect, I can't wait to try all the different yummy smells!)
5 Products for Under $50! (And Free Shipping!) AND a Coupon Code!
Now, I have 5 products in my shopping cart. My subtotal is $52.23 before tax (which I am going to pay pretty much anywhere I shop online) and I qualify for their free shipping. But, that's not all the savings yet. A quick search for "Ulta coupon codes" and I found a coupon for $3.50 off an order over $10. And the crazy thing is, I STILL get the free shipping even when the total is reduced to under $50 with the coupon code!
You Won't Find Them This Cheap
Bringing my grand total to $48.73. Now, this may not sound impressive until you price compare to the lowest prices on the internet for all 5 of these products. I spent less than $10 per product! You won't get Hempz products for that cheap!
Reward Points
THEN, my order will be translated into points. Right now, Ulta is running a promotion where I will get two time the points my order would have originally received. Before this order, I had placed two $60 on average orders and have enough points for $6 off of an order. This order will add more points, and rather than spend them, I would rather let them add up.
Platinum Status
AAAAAND...when you rack up the spending to $450, which I can see easily happening within a year, you become Platinum status and get double points for every purchase as long as you maintain your Platinum status. From what I have gathered in forums, once you reach Platinum status, you remain at that status for a year. However, you have to reach the $450 threshold of spending again that next year to maintain it the year after. Can you imagine the amount of products you can get, though, with the deals, the freebies, the coupon codes, and the rewards? It's a beauty lover's dream!
You also get double points in your birthday month and I'm sure you get more rewards than I even know about. Feel free to speak up in the comments if you happen to have any more information!
Oh, I forgot to mention! MORE Free Stuff!
In my last order, I took advantage of some awesome FREEBIES that Ulta had up for grabs. I haven't received it in the mail yet, but am impatiently waiting for it!
I already make sure I spend the $50 to get free shipping, so it was nothing to add another $10 to get the FREE 22-pc Beauty Bag with any $60 purchase, a $100 value! (Or so they say...and, sorry, but I grabbed that promo before it was gone!) I can't wait to get it, though, and check out all of the freebie samples! THEN, I am also getting a FREE Hello Beautiful Deluxe Palette w/ any $16.50 ULTA Beauty Cosmetics, Brushes, and Beauty Tools purchase (this one is still up for grabs!).
But, wait! There's more FREE stuff! At the end of every order, you get to pick a free sample of a product Ulta is offering. I elected for the Skincare sampler.
In that order, I got 10 products for $60.88! And, I am nearly peeing my pants waiting for the box, which, for some reason, UPS shipped from Indianapolis, IN to Buffalo, then to East Syracuse, then back to Buffalo. Weird. Explain that one! Either way, I should see it by Tuesday!!!
Savings for Beauty Lovers
So, you can see how the savings can add up if you are a beauty products lover. Sure you have to be a frugal sale-hawking online shopper at Ulta to get the best deals. Not everything is on sale all of the time. You may not even find the best pricing or any free products to take advantage of, but my point is that if you are smart and you shop the deals and reap the rewards, Ulta.com might become your best friend for all you need beauty. I know it's mine.
I'll be Platinum sooner than later!
**This is not a sponsored post. I am not an affiliate, you won't find any affiliate links in this post. Just me sharing my opinion and experiences, as usual.
Share share share if you liked this post and check out my books in the right hand column!
Thanks for stopping by!
