Weekend Post #7: Beauty Discount/Loyalty Cards

Hi my lovelies,

It's unheard of me passing up on a discount. Not happening I can assure you. Many beauty brands offer lovely discounts every now and then especially towards festive times More importantly, some department stores also offer loyalty cards where you can earn points which can be converted to discounts. I thought to share my favourite discount cards ( I even threw in a few non-beauty ones). I am afraid these loyalty cards are only applicable to those who live in the UK. This year, I decided not to use any of my points until the end of the year. So help me Jah!

Boots Advantage Card

I love, love this card because the points are very generous; it's about 4 points to every £1 spent which I think is amazing. Each of those points are equivalent to 1p. So, let's say you spent £25 that would be equal to 100 points which means you have £1 to spend in store or online. Boots is one of the department stores I always go to for my beauty and health essentials so it's very easy for the points to add up. The only snag is that you cannot use it as part payment e.g. if you have 100 points which is equivalent to £1, you have to buy something that's £1 or less so you can't use it as part payment for something that's worth £2. I hope that makes sense but as I said, it's a very generous loyalty card and many times they have bonus point offers which you can get as a print out from a big pink attractive machine in some stores and sometimes, they send you some offers in the post. You also get the Boots Monthly Magazine free if you are an advantage card holder which is a real advantage (no pun intended) and this magazine also has some nice discounts/coupons inside as well.

Debenhams Beauty Club Card

This is also another favourite of mine because I usually get my high end beauty stuff from here especially my MAC goodies. In store, you get 3 points per £1 spent in store and 5 points per £1 online. When your points accumulate up to 500 points, you can have a £5 voucher off your next purchase. Also, as a Debenhams Beauty Club Card holder, you get free delivery always when you buy online. They even send you monthly statements every month to let you know your transactions and how many more points you need to get a voucher. I really like this card because they send some really nice exclusive offers and how to get samples via email so all you need to do is show your email or print it out and you get nice samples without having to purchase anything which is amazing.

Superdrug Beauty Card
I remember using this when I was a student because there was a nice large Superdrug store near me. There are just a little stingy with their points though. You get 1 point per £1 spent and if you have 100 points then you can have £1. It's just looks a bit annoying that you have to spend £100 pounds to get £1 off. The good thing is sometimes they do some bonus points offers where you get 10 points per pound which is a much better. On the bright side, the card has a small mirror on it so if you ever need to touch up and you forgot your mirror, you have a spare mirror in your card.

House of Fraser Recognition Card
Out of all the cards, this looks the prettiest but it is also the least used. I find that they don't offer a lot of bonus points like their other competitor Debenhams who seems to always have bonus points offers or one offer to entice you to go shopping. It's the same 1 point per £1 spent but it's easier to get hundred points here because most of the items sold here are high end brands. One good thing is they always send emails to get samples and some exclusive offers which I think makes up for their lack of generous points. You also get bonus points on your birthday.

Body Shop "Love Your Body" Card
I forgot to mention that all the other cards above are free of charge except this one. *rolls eyes* I know but they have very good benefits. It's a little different to most of the other cards. You pay a sum of £5 for the card and it is valid for 1 year (All the other cards are valid as long as you spend and accumulate points I think). With this card, you get 10% discount off your shopping. They also operate the stamp system where you get a stamp for every purchase you make of over £10 after any discounts have been applied. If you get 4 stamps, you receive a gift worth £5 and if you get 8 stamps, you also get a gift worth £10. Lastly, you are entitled to a free birthday gift which you can claim on your birthday month in store. I actually like this card despite having to pay for it simply because their system is very user-friendly and it's  very hard not to get any points because they always have amazing offers in Body Shop and most of their beauty items are quite affordable

Bentalls Beauty Loyalty Card
This is not a very common beauty card but I got it when Le BF lived quite close to a Bentalls. Accumulating points is straight forward but it's quite expensive. It's not like all the other plastic cards rather it's just a small paper card which has a stamp system. You get one stamp for every £25 spent in store which is very easily done because all the high end brands pitched their tents in Bentalls and let me tell you, their beauty hall is just so beautiful, I just go there for a browse every now and then. On your tenth stamp (by then you would have spent a whooping £250), you get £10 off your next purchase. I am still on my second stamp but that's because I only got the card but I am in no hurry to accumulate all those other stamps as it's quite a pretty expensive hobby/venture. The good thing is they send you a lovely email on your birthday which entitles you to 10% off all brands including Chanel which was how I was able to buy my Chanel Les Beiges featured here already.

Space NK Card
I don't have my Space NK card here but it's also another generous loyalty card. You get 1 point for every pound spent and when you get up to 100 points, it is converted to a £5 reward/voucher which you can spend on your next purchase. If you spend a whooping sum of £1000 or more in a year, you get upgraded to N.Indulge deluxe where you then get £10 off every 100 points which seems even more enticing. However, you need to spend your rewards regardless of what category you are within 3 months before they expire.

Wondering how I store all these cards; well my little purse from Primark sorts it all out. I hope you have learned a thing or two about these cards and how they work. I am sorry all these cards are just exclusive to the UK but I think the Body Shop one has similar cards in other countries where they have Body Shop stores. I am thinking of doing a non-beauty discount card; what do you think? leave me a comment below and see you in my next post...x