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Your Unofficial Guide to the Sephora Annual Sale

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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at George Mason University chapter.

From your local Sephora girlie

It’s that time of year again. For some, it’s akin to the Hunger Games, for others it’s the cosmetic Super Bowl: the Sephora Savings Event. Twice a year, Sephora will hold a sale; once in the Fall before holidays, and once in the Spring. As is my civic duty, here’s everything you need to know, and my best tips as a Sephora employee. 

What is the sale?

The Sephora Savings Event is a 10-day sale for customers who have Beauty Insider status. Anyone can sign up for the free rewards program with your email and phone number to become a Beauty Insider. Your tier in the rewards program determines how much you get off during the sale. There are three tiers in the rewards program:

Beauty Insiders (BI): You start here when you join. These are typically new members or members that have spent less than $350 within a calendar year. 

VIB: These are members who spend at least $350 within a calendar year. 

ROUGE: This is the exclusive tier you reach when you spend $1,000 within a calendar year. This tier gets exclusive access to the sale four days before all other members.

Dates & percentages are different for different tiers:

All members: 30% off all of the Sephora Collection brand only from November 1st – November 11th.  

Sales on everything else: 

BI: 10% OFF starting on November 5th-November 11th

VIB: 15% OFF starting on November 5th-November 11th

ROUGE: 20% OFF starting on November 1st-November 11th. 

The sale is applicable to everything carried by Sephora, with the exception of The Ordinary and Chanel. Everything else is on sale. 

OK. Now that you know what the sale is, there are my most excellent tips that will make you get the most out of the sale, with an easy and enjoyable shopping spree that will also help out your Sephora employee besties. 

Sign up for an account in-store

Signing up online works, but when you sign up in store, you get a free welcome sample gift, and your Beauty Advisors will love you. 

Tips for Foundation Matches

As a Sephora girlie who’s worked four, going on five sales, I can guarantee the bane of every Sephora employee’s existence during sales is doing foundation matches. As employees, we want to help you and make sure you get matched perfectly. Giving you our full and undivided attention is difficult during sale, and clients will sometimes have to wait a while before an Advisor is available to match you. 

The best time to get your foundation matched is before the sale, or on a weekday at noon, when it’s slower and Advisors are more available to spend more time with you- especially if you want to try multiple products at once. Then, have the artist who’s matching you add your shade to your profile so you can come back during sale time and pick it up. It will save you, and your artist so much time. 

Book a service. Sephora offers 15 minute, 30 minute, 60 minute, and 90 minute services at a dollar per minute to do your makeup. A 30 minute service will get you an eye look or a complexion look. A 60 minute service will get you a natural, simple full face. A 90 minute service will get you a more detailed, glam full face. Services are great opportunities to get individual time with an artist to try out new products and get your colors matched. Plus, you’ll walk away with your makeup done. A 15 minute service is typically labeled as a lash application, where an artist will apply strip lashes for you (lashes sold separately). Some Sephoras will offer clients a quick contour tutorial, a foundation application, or eyebrow tutorial during this service- perfect if you want to try out a foundation match all over to get the full effect.

Get gift shopping done early

I’ve seen the new launches and all the holiday sets that are coming soon, and they are SO. GOOD. It might be early, but there are so many fun gift sets and stocking stuffers that are already great deals even before the sale. You’ll thank me later when it’s right before the Holidays and you’ve already got a lot of your shopping done. 

You can find holiday sets here

Stock up on your essentials

If your shampoo is just about to run out, or even if your favorite moisturizer has a few more weeks to go, you can’t go wrong with stocking up now. It’s a good investment for future you, and you’ll get your essentials at a discounted price now, rather than full price later. 

Browse online

It can be overwhelming to come in store, wanting to shop and browse, during the most crowded time of the year. Take some time before you come in to browse online and find what you want to try. Make a wish list or a game plan, and then come in to browse or try out colors and scents. The sale is also applicable online if you’re an online kind of shopper. 

Help us help you

I’m gonna tell you so many employee secrets right now. The girlies at your Sephora will be so tired and so busy. As much as you want to be helped, I promise we want to help you. Kindness and patience goes a very long way.  You’ll get the most out of your experience by being understanding. We are often helping about four people at a time, so if we tell you to try some swatches and we’ll come back to check on you, it’s not personal, and we will come back to check on you. When we’re 6 hours into a shift, there’s 5 people waiting on us, and we’ve already been yelled at three times, we’ll be more inclined to help the client that we can relax with than someone who is snapping and yelling from across the store. And that’s just the honest truth. 
And that is my guide to surviving the Sephora sale. To everyone planning to shop: I hope you get a good haul, we’ve got some really fun products coming. To my fellow Sephora employees: godspeed. I raise my Celsius energy drink to you in solidarity. Happy shopping! <3

Natalia Romero

George Mason University '26

Hi! I'm Natalia. I'm an English Major at GMU. Writing has always been my biggest dream. From poetry, to prose, to essays, my writing tends to reflect my life, and the people with whom I've crossed paths along the way.