Saks Beauty Event

Being the practical girl that I am, I try and hold off on buying beauty products until the bi-annual Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue Beauty Event. My logic is that if you have to buy sensible things like shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer anyway, you may as well wait until you can get something free with them! Over the past 4 years I have it perfectly timed, so my Frederic Fekkai will last me until the next beauty event; it's a very precise science.

I was a negligent blogger and failed to post about the Neiman's Beauty Event a couple of weeks ago, but I'll do my best to make up (no pun intended) for it! If you're not familiar with the ins and outs of how to get the most free goodies for the fewest purchases, allow me to guide you...

First thing's first: when is it? The Saks event started on October 4 and runs through October 13 in stores, BUT it's good online 'til October 14. If you're buying online, just be sure to enter REELBEAUTY in the code box at checkout, so you get your gifts.

The basic concept of a Beauty Event is you spend a set amount of money ($100 for Saks) and in return you get a lovely tote filled with everything from wrinkle creams and perfume samples to eyeshadows and mini mascaras. What many people don't realize, is there are other free gifts if you know where to look. Here are a couple of tips before you set off on your beauty bonanza!

1. Don't buy, just to buy: this is how people end up with drawers full of unused lipsticks and eye shadows. As I mentioned earlier, I look at Beauty Events as a time to stock up on things I need and use on a daily basis; however, there's nothing wrong with buying a fun lip gloss from time to time. Plan out your shopping list in advance; this is extremely important if you're going to the store. It is very easy to get caught up in the excitement and the pretty colors, so stick to your list: don't be thwarted!

2. Don't think the gifts stop with the goodie bag! Most individual brands have specials as well, but you have to really look through these to get the good ones. A lot of the brands require you to spend a specified amount to get the free gifts, but for the Saks Event both Dior and Kiehl's are offering free gifts with ANY purchase. If you look on the Saks website, you will not see these offers. I discovered them the good old-fashioned way; the catalog! If there is a particular GWP (gift with purchase) you have your heart set on, I would either call the store first or order via telephone to make sure it's in stock and you actually get it!

Finally, if you don't know what to do with your new tote bag I highly recommend using it for grocery shopping! Wouldn't you much rather carry a stylish Saks tote than an ugly plastic bag?

Sunglasses

Whether you're avoiding the sun, the paparazzi, or trying to rob a bank (a la the Barbie Bandits) sunglasses serve many purposes in addition to being stylish. Sure, you can pick up some cheap ones at the local dollar store, but there is just something about an absurdly expensive pair of sunglasses that makes you feel like you could take on the world. However, they are also easily misplaced, forgotten, or sat on. What could possibly be worse than having someones fat butt crush your $300 treasure (other than your own fat butt crushing them)? Allow me to explain how you can ease the pain by picking up everything from Gucci to Oliver People's for well under $100!

This part can be short and sweet since the havens for cheap, designer sunglasses are the same places where you can find many of my other favorite deals. Talk about one-stop shopping at it's finest! To keep you on the edge of your desk chair, I'll start from the less exciting deals and build up to the grand finale.

C-Mart- This is the one place I haven't mentioned previously. I will give C-Mart a full review at a later date, but it's basically a clothes/furniture warehouse. There are definitley some good finds there, but be prepared to make a day of it. Apparently they just got a big shipment of sunglasses including, but not limited to: Gucci, Dior, Versace, YSL, Kate Spade, and Juicy Couture. I have not made the treck to examine these in person, but from what I gathered from the advertisment they are marked down around 50% which places most of them at about $150. While that is definitley much better than paying full price, you can do better.

Off 5th-Normally there's a pretty decent selection at most of the stores. The sunglasses are priced around $70. If you are on the Off 5th mailing list there are ALWAYS coupons being sent out, so that can help knock the price down by up to another 30%. I would say the biggest plus to buying them here, is that you can actually get the matching case (make sure you ask at checkout, since they keep them in the back).

TJ Maxx/Marshalls-My first pair of designer sunglasses came from Marshalls. They were dark grey Dolce & Gabbana and cost me a mere $20. I think back then the stores hadn't caught on to what they had in stock. More recently though, I picked up an amazing pair of black Armani glasses for my grandmother for $40, which still is not too shabby. A secret to finding the good stuff: most of the sunglass displays are tall and generally have a bunch of sunglasses piled on top that I am too short to reach. One day while shopping with one of my taller friends, we were quite sad not to find anything good and then she started looking through the ones on top. Come to find out that's where they were hiding...

Last Call-If you hadn't picked up on it yet, I LOVE Last Call. So this is it...the best sunglass deal I have EVER come across. As I mentioned earlier, I adore Oliver People's sunglasses. Sadly, they cost approximately one arm and one leg. In a weak, foolish moment I actually broke down and bought a pair at full price (in my defense it was a Spend Some, Get Some day at Saks so I did get a gift card); I figured I would never find a pair on sale and I just had to have some. Once I had the black ones, I decided I needed brown ones as well. Oh I found a pair I liked; they cost one arm, one leg, and an ear (about $400). I had come to terms with the fact I would have to live without brown Oliver Peoples until one day while at Last Call, they had some sunglasses on top of an island in the jewelry display. My roommate and I did a doubletake and were shocked to find that Oliver Peoples were at the outlet store! Even more surprising was that the frames weren't in terribly odd colors or shapes; they even had some brown ones very close to what I was pining for. Well, because nothing is ever as good as it looks, we figured that they still probably cost well over $100. The surprises kept coming though! I had a sales girl give me a pair to try on (that I was instantly obsessed with), I asked the price having braced myself for bad news... low and behold they were only $35!!! Can you even find sunglasses at Target that cheap?! Needless to say, that probably goes down as one of my best finds.

With all this talk of sunglasses, I think I'm going to don mine and go enjoy some sunshine!