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If you’re tempted by the influx of sales this Black Friday, make sure to get the most for your money with my handy savings tips!

 

1. Cashback

 

Cashback sites allow you to click through their links and earn a percentage of your shop back which is paid to you at a later date. I personally use Quidco which has a huge range of beauty retailers including high-street favourites Boots, Superdrug and Space Nk, online only stockists such as Look Fantastic, Escentual and Cult Beauty, and brand websites including Charlotte Tilbury, MAC and Bobbi Brown.

 

Quidco regularly run promotions which allow you to earn bonus cashback and boost your rewards. They’re currently offering extra cashback when you make a minimum number of transactions with a threshold spend. Obviously, this is only worth taking part in if you’re already planning to purchase something, but it’s a great offer to opt into if you’ll be shopping anyway.

Be sure to keep an eye on individual retailer cashback pages so you can see when your favourites have increased percentages and get a good idea of the best rates.

 

It’s worth noting that retailers have different timeframes to approve your cashback, but I’ve never had an issue getting paid. Quidco customer service has been great for any queries, and it’s quick and easy to cash out to PayPal or your bank account once you’ve hit the £1 minimum withdrawal. Quidco also offer conversion to a range of gift cards for an increased incentive, including beauty stockists John Lewis, M&S and Harvey Nichols.

 

The website is also intuitive and extremely user-friendly, making it an all-round fuss-free process.

 

2. Discount Code Browser Extensions

 

Long gone are the days of trawling the internet for discount codes and manually imputing them one by one. Thanks to coupon browser extensions like Honey and Pouch, you can speedily see if there are any active codes applicable to your basket. They automatically use the best deal so you can checkout with confidence and maximise your savings.

 

Using these two, I regularly save an extra 10-20% at beauty stockists such as ASOS, Look Fantastic and Space Nk.

Both Honey and Pouch also have their own loyalty schemes which allow you to collect points on purchases and redeem them on gift cards. I’ve yet to earn enough to redeem with either brand but it’s nice to have the extra incentive!

 

3. Beauty Recycling Schemes 

 

There’s nothing more satisfying than completely emptying a makeup product…actually, there is - recycling it and getting rewarded for it too. With the introduction of hard to recycle beauty item schemes, you can swap your empties for rewards on new products.

 

John Lewis have partnered with Terracycle, to create BeautyCycle which offers My John Lewis members £5.00 off their next beauty purchase when they bring back five empties. It includes everything from shampoo bottles to mascara, but check the T&Cs to make sure your items meet the requirements.

 

More of a loyal Advantage Card Customer? Boots and No7 have teamed up with Metrisk and MyGroup to introduce Scan2Recycle, which rewards you with £2.50 worth of Advantage Card Points when you recycle five empties and spend £10.00. This one’s more of a faff than John Lewis’ as you have to scan the items on your phone in advance, but it’s still worth doing if you’re going to be spending £10.00 with Boots. Check their website for your nearest participating store and all the T&Cs.

 

Don’t forget to stack these schemes with other Black Friday discounts to make the most of your beauty budget. For example, one of my staples, the Too Faced Hangover Treatment Balm retails at £18.00 full price. I’ve seen it at up to 20% at John Lewis during previous Black Friday events, so if you recycle your empties and purchase in store, you could pay as little as £9.40 – a great saving!

 

Are you going to be using any of these tips? Let me know over on Instagram!

 

Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash