Get the Most from your Ulta Shopping Trip

I have a bit of a strategy when it comes to my Ulta shopping. I want to share this strategy with you and then show you my most recent Ulta purchase, so you will see how little I had to buy to get a ton of samples. I did a video of the tips too!

// Don’t impulse shop

So, the first thing I do is I don’t impulse shop. I don’t just stroll around Ulta and gather things in my shopping basket. I have a strategy and to stick to this, I need to not just buy things randomly. I have my list of items I need from Ulta and I keep building this list over the course of few months.

// Stalk Ulta.com

About once a week I check Ulta’s home page to see if they have their special gift with purchase deals going on. I would say they do this about every few months. When I see there is a gift with purchase, that is when I made my big purchase. The one they had this time was the free 12 piece gift with any $19.50 Ulta beauty collection purchase. It even had a $5 coupon included with the samples.  

After glancing at the home page, I will also check their gifts with purchase page to see if there are any other good gifts from the products I am planning on purchasing.

// Be flexible with your purchases

So, I needed mascara, and since I wanted to take advantage of this gift with purchase, I looked at the Ulta mascaras and picked those so that they went toward the $19.50 needed to get the free bag with samples. So, it can pay off to be a little bit flexible in what you’re needing on your shopping list. I happened to see a nice contour kit from the Ulta brand too and I needed bronzer so decided to go ahead and get the whole kit so it got me up to the $19.50 for the free gift. 

ulta gift

The $19.50 gift set is still available while supplies last until mid March, so you might be able to get your hands on one of those if you like what you see here.

ulta free gift

This other deal with the $115 value does not look to be available anymore, but if you keep looking out for it, they will probably do another similar one in a month or so.  I did have to make a minimum purchase and pay a small amount to get it added, but with the quality of the pink velour bag it came in and all the samples, it was a good value. There are so many samples and I saw that there were several things I was wanting to try anyway. Getting these samples free or at a low cost saves you the hassle of buying something and possibly having to return it or use it up even if you don’t like it. 

 

// sell the samples you don’t like

The samples you get might not all be perfect for your skin type or the color may be wrong, so to not have any waste, I have even done listings on ebay for my unused samples. I list them lot style on ebay and include an unused makeup pouch and I’ve actually made money on some of the samples I got for free. 

 

// free cash with the ulta rewards program

Another thing worth mentioning is that Ulta has a really good rewards program. They send coupons and when you make purchases you get a good amount of points adding up which you can use as cash towards your purchase. 

Now, for the big reveal. Here is everything I ordered. And then allll the samples I got in the 2 sample pouches that came with my order.

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So, having a strategy with your Ulta shopping can really pay off. Let me know in the comments below if you have any Ulta shopping tips. I hope you found these tips helpful and thank you for reading!