Ever wished you could try out a new beauty product before dropping a lot of money buying it? Well, there’s good news for you – cosmetics manufacturers regularly give out free samples to consumers just like you.
Free cosmetics? Is this legit?
The cosmetics industry has a very short product life cycle. What this means is that new products appear every few months. This can be bad if you’ve settled on a particular lotion and don’t ever want to try anything else ever, but on the whole it is a great trend for consumers. There is constant innovation and improvement, leading to better and better products for you.
Of course, this also means that every few months, you find yourself on ground zero, trying to figure out which shampoo or foundation will suit you best (or, at least, not cause you to break out in hives!). Manufacturers understand this predicament of yours and hope to end your analysis-paralysis by offering to let you try small portions of their products for free.
The other reason brands offer free beauty/cosmetic samples is to try to learn more about your behavior and preferences as a consumer. They then feed whatever they’ve learnt back into their research & development areas. Which is why, sometimes, you’ll have to fill out surveys if you want your sample.
Ways to Get Free Beauty Samples
Now that we’ve established that there are legitimate reasons for companies to give out free beauty/cosmetic samples let’s take a look at where you can get some!
There are essentially two ways in which you can get free beauty/cosmetic samples:
• At stores
• Online
Many make-up counters offer free beauty/cosmetic samples. More often than not, it is a particular promotion for a new product. But then, this method is very hit-or-miss. You’ll have to drive to the mall and see if any samples are up on offer.
Much easier and more reliable is to find beauty samples online. There are three main kinds of sources that will lead you to your samples:
• Webpages of stores
• Websites that compile offers (like NewSamples.net)
• Facebook pages of your favorite brands
Cosmetic Retail Store Webpages
Many department stores as well as brands offer free samples. Here are a few links to sample pages of major stores.
Walmart.com: While this page is not dedicated to free beauty/cosmetics samples alone, they do pop up from time to time. Keep an eye on the page to maximize chances of getting what your eye is on!
Target.com: Again, this is not restricted to free beauty/cosmetics samples, but a few appear every so often.
Beauty.com: With a qualifying purchase, Beauty.com will send you a free sample. Check out the link for their current selection.
LOccitane.com: With every purchase, LOccitane.com adds a free sample set to your order. Unfortunately, they don’t describe what you’ll be getting, but the page seems to promise you new products to discover.
Allure.com: This website not only gives out free samples, they sometimes give out free full-sized makeup. Of course, this goes away extra fast, so make sure those fingers of yours are extra nimble!
Aveeno.com: If you register on their site, Aveeno will send you notification when free samples are available.
Free Sample Websites Online
There are many websites that compile offers for free beauty/cosmetic samples online. A simple Google search brings up page after page of links to these blogs. It’s not enough to just bookmark a couple of these, though. They all seem to have links to completely different offers. It took looking at a few of these websites to come up with a duplicated offer.
Facebook Pages
Many or all of your favorite brands are on Facebook. ‘Like’ their pages to get to know when they are giving out free samples, running contests and more! The best part about these pages is that deals are delivered to your news-feed, eliminating the need to keep track of multiple websites. These pages give out beauty and fashion tips, advertise new products and answer questions from fans. They are a great option if you like being immersed in the brand experience. If you’re simply after free cosmetics samples though, be warned that it will take wading through lots of posts before you hit gold.
Now Start Sampling!
Be aware, though, that all free beauty/cosmetics samples disappear fast. You need to be on top of these sources everyday if you want to snag that exact product you’re looking for. Some of these sites do RSS and it is a good idea to add them to your RSS reader. Having them on your Facebook new feed also helps a great deal.
However, the absolute easiest way to make sure you don’t miss out on valuable beauty samples is to sign up for our NewSamples.net newsletter. Sign up today and good luck with your free sample hunting!
