Shop Online, Get Cashback!

Every now and then I come across some great tips for saving while shopping- here's one that I'm excited about, thought I'd share! :)

Like most of you, I love getting new makeup! But of course, it adds up, so any discount I can get, I usually take! So you bet that I'm really excited about Bing Cashback, a service from the relatively new bing.com, which refunds a small percentage of your online purchases. Unlike a discount code that automatically reduces your checkout price, this refunds a certain percentage of your purchase into your bing.com account AFTER you have checked out. When your account reaches at least $5, you can have your money transferred to your bank account, paypal, amazon, or opt for a physical check. However,  the site states that it may take a bit to get your first deposit (up to 60 days), so be patient at the get-go!

I signed up the other day after learning that bing.com offers 10% cashback on Sephora purchases. That means Sephora's upcoming 15% off sale is actually 25% when you shop through Bing! So, if you were planning to purchase online anyways, it may behoove you to sign up with Bing.com. Also, I bought a couple of MAC items from Nordstrom.com yesterday, and was surprised to find an e-mail in my inbox today from bing.com saying that I earned 4% cashback- and I didn't even start my purchase process at bing! I just went straight to Nordstrom's site! So it's pretty smart, this bing thing. :)

Anyways, I don't get any incentives or rewards for telling you about this, but I figure if you are already shopping at major online retailers, it is nice to get a bit back- if nothing else, at least it covers tax or shipping charges. :) Also, I should mention that maccosmetics.com does not participate in Bing cashback, but other retailers such as Macy's and Nordstrom DO participate.

The other Makeup

As much as I love makeup, I'm deciding it's probably not wise to spend all my money on makeup...otherwise I'd go naked! Clothing is also important, and if you can get a deal on the clothing, it's even better! One of my favorite sites not only tells you where to find the best online deals for my favorite clothing brands (think Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, True Religion), but they send the deals right to your e-mail! Shop It To Me sends e-mails out at a frequency of your choosing, and they only send items that are IN YOUR SIZE so you don't fall in love with an item only to discover that all they have is a 0 or something! They allow you to pick basically any clothing brand- even Gap- and it just comes right into your inbox. As an added bonus, if you recruit 10 of your friends, you get a $10 gift card to either Starbucks, Banana Republic or J.Crew- the sponsors change from time to time. Now, I don't get anything for recruiting you today, but I do get the satisfaction of knowing that ladies and gents out there are finding cute, inexpensive things to go with their cute makeup! Happy Shopping!

Sign up for shop it to me: http://shopittome.com

Review: Sephora.com

With the internet becoming more widespread and developed every single day, it's easy to see why beauty experts Sephora have offer almost all their products online at Sephora.com. The site offers some interesting incentives for shopping on their website, particularly the "3 Frees": Free Shipping ($50 orders+), Free Returns and Free Samples (3) with every purchase. Sounds great, right? Let's see how good these free things really are:

Free Shipping (on $50 or more): Free shipping is extremely common on many sites today; in fact, it's a rarity to find a site that doesn't offer this incentive to it's customers. At Sephora, $50 worth of product is not hard to accumulate, and sometimes it's nice to stock up on a few faves if it means free shipping. The only problem with free shipping, is it often takes a while to arrive. Sephora.com uses UPS, so depending where you live, it can take up to 1 1/2 weeks for your order to arrive. I live in Utah, and it did indeed take that long for me to get my package. If Sephora used the post office, I have no doubts that delivery would be significantly shorter, so I have to question Sephora's choice of delivery. I know it means cheaper for them, but I'd be willing to pay a few extra dollars if it meant my order arrived a few days earlier. 

Score: 3 out of 5

Free Samples: For every order you place, you receive 3 free samples. And, if you are a Beauty Insider, you have the opportunity to get deluxe samples with your order as well. Samples can be primers, foundations, fragrances, moisturizers, etc. It's a great way to try out new products and add a little bonus to your order. You likely won't find this at many other online beauty retailers, so this alone is worth shopping at sephora.com. 

Score: 5 out of 5

Free Returns: Returns should never have a price. I believe all stores should have free returns, which is why this isn't that exciting to me. I recently returned a product to sephora.com. Their return policy states that it may take up to 30 days to process a return. Well, when my return still hadn't been processed within that 30 day window, I called sephora, and they said it could take up to 6 weeks! I received my credit within 5 weeks, but to me, this is a little long for a "free" return. It's free yes, but I had to worry for 5 weeks that my $100 return could have possibly gotten lost in the mail. Now, this may not be typical, but neither is it super convenient. I'd recommend planning on a s-l-o-w return when shopping sephora.com

Score: 1 out of 5

Overall Score: 3 out of 5

Analysis: Sephora.com is a friendly place to shop, and provides almost every desired beauty line in one place, but when shopping, forget about the "3 frees".

EDIT: Get 20% off at Sephora from Nov 6-10, by using code FF2008!