App Fest 2026

[danielledanielle]

We're getting another App Fest 

There should also be another beauty challenge during the fest

 

[CookieGirl1]

[haleyvvvv]

Thank you, @CookieGirl1 !! I'm excited for the Rouge spend $100 reward bag (I remember when these were in store and we could bring a friend), but mostly because I need to stock up on my partner's skincare and it's a way to get stuff for me for free lol. I am also excited for the Sephora Favorites. We'll see what the fragrances are but if they aren't limited edition, it'll just be fun to see the preview.

[WinglessOne]

@CookieGirl1  Oh good (for my wallet), lots of “early access” days I can skip. I never care about full price early access unless it’s for a limited edition product that won’t be restocked. Nothing else looks enticing enough to make me use the app. Eh, that’s just me though. I know someone who’ll be very interested in the Laneige point multiplier; she’s the only person I’ve ever known to finish 3+ full size lip masks within a year, so I’m sure she’ll wanna take advantage. 😂

[danielledanielle]

😱😨3? @WinglessOne . That person is the MVP of lip masks.

[WinglessOne]

@danielledanielle  Right? She doesn’t use that mask just on her lips though. She uses it some of the ways I use Aquaphor: lip balm, facial dry patch moisturizer, nail fold and sidewall moisturizer on fingers and toes, foot cream (though she did say she prefers CeraVe Healing Ointment for that; I think she uses Laneige’s lip mask during the day and CeraVe overnight, or vice versa), rough elbows softener, etc. She gets her money’s worth out of each jar. When I asked “why not just use the CeraVe balm for all that,” she said she prefers the lip mask‘s lighter texture and loves the scents.

Somewhere in my bathroom is a Laneige full size lip mask I’ve had 4+ years and I guarantee that jar’s at least half full. 🤣 I should just clean out and recycle the jar at this point. I can’t force myself to use that lip mask often enough to empty it, especially when Aquaphor works so much better for me. I do still like Laneige’s lip mask, but I’m not attached to it.

[danielledanielle]

@WinglessOneOoooh, maybe I should try some of those methods.  I've gotten through have a TJ's one, just having it on my laptop, but there's still half of it left

[greeneyedgirl107]

@CookieGirl1 yes, many thanks for posting!

[danielledanielle]

Thanks for posting @CookieGirl1 , funny enough, app wouldn't let me post pics, kept freezing 🤦🏽‍♀️

I'm lukewarm until the prada drop, plus a multiplier with a new release from Laneige 🙌🏽 and new Sephora faves, plus what I'm guessing is Dior summer releases.  I'm being Sephoria is going to have a few of these as sneak peeks 👀

[greeneyedgirl107]

@danielledanielle unfortunately nothing grabbed my attention 

[formulaandrea]

Does this mean the app will be updated? 

I constantly have issues with the app and I feel like it has a lot of bugs that could be fixed! 😭

[danielledanielle]

I wish it did 🤣 @formulaandrea 

[CorgiMommy]

Good to know i am not the only one @formulaandrea 

[greeneyedgirl107]

@danielledanielle I hope there are some goodies!  I remember not being too impressed last time.

[missjeanie]

@danielledanielle I'd be curious to know what % of online shoppers use the app vs the full website.  I tend to find the app harder to use, but maybe I'm just old? 

Curious to see what the Fest is about though!

[danielledanielle]

@missjeanie ...I would fathom a guess that it gets used often, even though it has its limitations.  If I have to update it or re-download, I usually like to look at the reviews in the app store and they are usually current. But, overall I have no idea .. It's downloaded a lot, but I've uninstalled and reinstalled it often, I wonder how many of those downloads are unique 🤔

[caitbird]

@missjeanie  I would love to know that as well! I used to use both the app and the website to shop, though I exclusively used the website for BIC (I found the app interface very annoying to use for the community side of things). Now though, my phone is so old (like 8 years? I think?) that it's not compatible with the app anymore, so I can only use the website. Once I'm able to replace my phone (hopefully soon), I'll download the app again.

[WinglessOne]

@missjeanie  I’ve also wondered about this. I’d love to know the usage % of Sephora’s website vs. app for each of these tasks: shopping, BI account admin (change password, maintain addresses, etc.), and BIC. Bonus points if those stats are country-specific, since user behavior/trends in the US might differ from Canada and other countries. (I think some folks forget Sephora began in France. 😅) I can’t help being nosy about this stuff; you can take the girl out of UX design/usability but you can’t take—well, you know.

I still don’t use the app unless it’s the only possible way I can get a certain promo/discount, or the site’s down, or something’s broken on the site but still works in the app. Sure, I’m in my 50s, but age has nothing to do with it for me. I’ll drop my usual rant in a spoiler to spare anyone who’s tired of hearing it:

Spoiler

Even if I was in my 20s or teens, I’d still hate being forced down a single linear navigation path while browsing products. I’ve been a serial tab opener since the 1990s. (Haha, I remember when browser tabs were invented and how happy I was about not needing 20+ browser windows open at once.) The way my brain has always worked, I need the option to open web pages/sites in multiple tabs or (shudder) windows while I read, study, and/or research various parts of an overall topic. Back when kids still learned by reading physical books, I was the kid at a table full of opened books, cross-referencing away. Hi, I like rabbit holes. 🤷‍♀️ 

On Sephora’s website, I can open product pages in different browser tabs to easily compare them. Can’t do that in the app. It’d be even more helpful if Sephora let me pick up to 3 products and show ‘em in a comparison table on a single page. I doubt they’d ever try that in the app because of space issues (they’d have to allow landscape mode; I don’t think they do currently).

Tangent: I’ve noticed lately that opening product pages in 2 tabs at the same time eventually gets me temp-banned (access denied) from sephora.com. I figure it’s Sephora’s attempt to catch bots or mass resellers, but it’s annoying enough to reduce my shopping at the site. And since I very rarely shop via the app, that means I spend less money at Sephora. But hey, good for my wallet—and for other retailers that still let me shop the way I want. 

Using BIC on the app is waaaay too frustrating for me. And now I’m seeing a similar issue in my tangent up there: opening 2 BIC pages in different tabs at the same time gets me temporarily kicked from BIC. 😑 If BIC’s bookmark feature actually worked the way it’s supposed to, I wouldn’t need to open threads in different tabs; I could just bookmark ‘em and then easily visit each thread that piqued my interest. Sure, I could also bookmark threads in my browser, but I’d rather manage BIC threads via BIC. But ANYWAY, the last time I tried using BIC in the app, I gave up after 3 minutes. It’s too glitchy there and I lack the patience.

Each time I rant about Sephora’s app, I feel obligated to say I don’t like retailer apps in general. It’s not just Sephora, though each retailer’s app does have its own issues. (Don’t get me started on the Macy’s app.) I often assume I’m an outlier there. It’d be fun to see site vs. app usage stats to verify or refute that.

App Fest looks like a mirror of Ulta’s 21 Days of Beauty—and by “mirror,” I just mean “similar marketing concept.” Since each beauty brand has a big say in the actual price discounts, they probably aren’t retailer-exclusive. EDIT: d’oh, I was thinking of Sephora’s multi-day 50% off rotating products sale, which is usually very similar to Ulta’s 21 Days. That’s not the same event as App Fest, though the dates overlap. 

[haleyvvvv]

@WinglessOne I've noticed I don't get booted from BIC in the browser if I open my tabs in private/incognito/etc mode. Which is the only way I can sign into the BIC these days. Agreed though about really dislike the app for BIC (let me see all of the replies! Why does it go to the top of the thread when I do a reply to another reply in the thread? This is not the purpose of this thread lol so I digress...)

I wonder if there's different $ for using the app versus website versus store? I am an app for shopping purposes person @missjeanie but I agree I dislike when something is only available for one method of procurement. 

[WinglessOne]

@haleyvvvv  Chrome’s incognito mode works most of the time for my BIC browsing, when I remember to use it—but only if my entire Sephora + BIC browsing session is done incognito. More browser-related rambling in the spoiler (I’ve posted some of this in theBeauty Insider Community Feedback thread a few times): 

Spoiler

If I’m logged into BIC on a normal Chrome tab and then open a BIC link—say, a thread—in an incognito tab, I won’t be able to reply/comment on that thread because I’m not logged into BIC on that tab. And I don’t wanna run two simultaneous auth sessions (one in the incognito tab, one in the normal tab) in the same browser. Though now I wonder if BIC would still kick me for opening multiple tabs if I started everything (including sign-in at .com) from an incognito tab. 🤔 Might test later. 

When I see product page links in BIC posts (using normal tabs), I do open those in incognito tabs because I don’t need to be logged in just to get product info. I mean, can always go to that product page in my normal tab later (where I’m still logged into .com) if I wanna save that product to a likes list or add it to cart. If I open a product page link from BIC into a normal tab, then I end up with login issues at BIC and sometimes .com. 

And since Chrome gets kinda glitchy on its own sometimes, depending on the site I visit (because I keep it set on my tablet to desktop content mode instead of mobile), I’ve been using Safari more often than usual. Safari handles private browsing a bit differently from Chrome: to stay logged into Sephora.com and BIC, I’d have to start my whole browsing session in private browsing mode. (I can’t start in a normal tab and then open a link in private mode.) That’s an few extra few clicks to remember to do when I first launch the browser.

All this rambling reminds me to try using Firefox or Opera (or another browser) for Sephora and BIC from now on, and see if any of those fare better than Chrome and Safari. I haven’t used Opera in a long time… something about it ticked me off one week, and I guess I haven’t forgiven it yet. 😂

[haleyvvvv]

Interesting @WinglessOne !! Even if I close all of my Sephora tabs on Chrome regular mode, I have to clear my cookies from the site to get it to login, there's just this glitch where it keeps spinning logging me in (like will ask for my username and password, login and then logout ad nasuem). But on incognito mode I can have dozens of tabs open (like I do right now, cue bwahahaha slightly evil laughter); but if my incognito session hasn't finished and I try to open a new Sephora tab after getting signed out for inactivity then it does the same spinning logging in thing. Then I have to close all of my incognito tabs or forgo BIC for a bit.