Daily Loaf

Really, how awesome does it feel to slide your hand down the sleeve of a top you’ve fallen in love with, grab the sales tag, and see a crimson strike – through of the suggested retail price? It’s half off (with an additional 20 percent off, today only!) and the top you love just turned into what you’re wearing tonight.

How great would it be to get the same deals on cosmetics? Department store makeup rarely goes on sale, but I know where to land my ship in cyberspace to get out-of-this-world deals.

Half-off Stila, anyone? Find out more below the jump.

Beautycrunch.com is the premier site to land deals on Stila, Pop Beauty, DuWop, Too Faced and other high-end beauty lines. The site features recently discontinued items, partial sets, and promotional kits at upwards of 70 percent off — so now you can afford to buy more!

Overstockperfume.com has an exhaustive inventory of women’s and men’s modern designer fragrances, lotions, and shower gels, and elusive classic fragrances at incredibly low prices. I recently bought a 1.7 ounce of Lolita Lempicka perfume for $22.99, compared to $65 retail.

Stores like the Cosmetics Company Store, and Designer Fragrance and Cosmetics Co. at the Ellenton Outlet Mall carry discounted beauty lines like Clinique, Lancome, Estee Lauder, and M.A.C., at heavily discounted prices that you can count on to slash 20 to 70 percent off retail.

Another great way to snag deals is to sign up for e-mails at cosmetics company websites. Makeup giants like M.A.C and Bare Escentuals letting members in on valuable info like free shipping dates, sales, insider-only products, and invitation-only in-store events.

Take advantage of customer loyalty incentive programs. Sephora directs a Beauty Insider program for members to receive exclusive e-mails about Insider-only products, deluxe samples, and value sets. Sephora offers a free deluxe sample of a popular product for every $100 an insider spends, and a full-size product for every $500 spent.

M.A.C. offers a green incentive — the Back to M.A.C. program offers a free, full-size lipstick of your choice when you return six empty M.A.C. containers. Returning six empties at freestanding M.A.C. stores instead of online or at a M.A.C counter nets you a free lipstick or your choice of Lipglass or eyeshadow instead.

I don’t have to tell any woman who’s ever walked through a department store during “free gift with purchase” time that it’s a bit hectic, but it’s also the best time to wiggle your way to a beauty consultant and stock up. A purchase of as little as $21.50 up to $100 can earn you a bag of goodies worth upwards of $50-$100, especially if skin care products are included. Purchase-with-purchase events let you buy exclusive value sets with a qualifying purchase at many major cosmetic lines.

Hot deals on cosmetics can be found online or in the store, so why pay full price? No one will know how much your new look set you back, and in this economy, it just makes sense (and cents) to save on scents!

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