How Much Did You Spend at Sephora in 2020?

[Tamara76]

Hey, y'all!!!  I couldn't find any similar threads on BIC and I am genuinely curious if anyone here pays attention to/tracks their annual Sephora spend?  I usually don't and I have tried and failed to track overall beauty purchases a few times, but I was pretty shocked when I added up my 2020 Sephora spend.  I definitely plan to spend less this year!

***You might also want to watch if you are curious about everything I bought at Sephora in 2020 - all online!!! 😉 

Let me know if you are successful at tracking your beauty purchases throughout the year!

[Tamara76]

@Nickelliebear1 that isn't too bad - I am terrible at budgeting 😞   Good luck with your plan!!!!💗💗💗

[suzyo]

My total spend ended up being $1,003, which is about half of what I usually spend. I bought a lot less makeup this year because I've been working from home and only leaving to go to the grocery store. I don't think I'll spend a ton this year either, because new releases just haven't been exciting me.

[Tamara76]

@suzyo That's not too bad!  I work from home now, too, and didn't wear makeup for most of 2020, but I still bought too much makeup🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

[WinglessOne]

@Tamara76  I just went to the points/spend tracker in my Sephora account via web (Beauty Insider Summary > Points Activity > View All, then switch to the "Spend" tab) which currently has a running tally of both points earned and dollars spend for all of 2020, plus January 2021. This tally excludes tax, but that's easy to calculate. I have no idea if the Sephora app has this tracker or where it is, since I never use the app. 

My total 2020 Sephora pre-tax spend was $4749. Also, I re-rouged in March, and my last 2020 Sephora purchase happened mid-December. I think that's less than I spent at Sephora in 2019. I don't know for sure because the points/spend tracker doesn't reach beyond 2020—which is either a good or bad thing, depending on how much you fear seeing how much you spent in past years. 🤣 

To me, my 2020 spend is still higher than I'd like, though some of that was spent on gifts for other folks. And some of the money I spent was gift money, so it wasn't all out-of-pocket. I'm sure I'm not in the "big Sephora spenders" club, but I need to get better at tracking all my beauty spending—not just at Sephora, but everywhere. I mean, don't ask how much money I've given Pat McGrath directly. 🤦‍♀️

[sprocketta]

@WinglessOne I spent about the same at Sephora and PMG. I just fall into a trance when she has lip sales...😆

[WinglessOne]

@sprocketta  I mean, how is anyone supposed to resist buying anything during a PMG lipstick sale? 🤣 Especially the crazy low-price sales. Then you can justify a ridiculously large PMG lip collection by saying "but I only paid $10-19 for some of them, so it's all good!" 

I'm seriously afraid to tally my PMG-direct spend for 2020. But at least it was less than 2019, aka The Year I Bought Several Motherships (and Too Much Lipstick). 

[sprocketta]

@WinglessOne Exactly!

[tjffc]

@WinglessOne Oh my goodness.  I did not know there was a spend tracker until I saw this post.  I am astonished by my total and it does not even include spend from other sites for skincare and make-up products.  My total pre-tax is $5,310.  Once I saw your total I was shocked but when I saw mine, I could not believe it. 😱

[WinglessOne]

@tjffc  It sure is eye opening, right? 🤣😬😭 I'm not about to tally what I spent outside Sephora last year, but I do think it's less than my 2019 beauty spend. This exercise tells me I need to reset my 2021 budget categories and make even better use of all my reward program points/dollars (at all retailers) throughout the year. 

[tjffc]

@WinglessOne Yes.  Very eye-opening.  I need to make sure I adhere to my beauty/skin care budget this year.  I agree about the rewards program and I'm afraid to look at the spending for brushes and other non-Sephora beauty sites.  

[WinglessOne]

@tjffc Hey, at least you caught some good sales on the brushes, and they're great longterm investments! Silver linings. 🙂 

My new 2021 challenge is to use more Nordy Notes on myself throughout the year. I normally bank them and use most of them on gifts for others. But when I look at my 2020 Sephora spend vs. the $ amount of Nordy Notes I've sat on all that time, my heart sinks a bit. I love gifting treats to people, but I also gotta start treating myself more often with all this reward money. 

[Tamara76]

@WinglessOne Thanks for sharing and thanks for the tip!  I definitely spent more than planned, but now I can work on cutting back this year!  And, yes, Pat McGrath got a lot of my money this year, too!

[kristenyhan]

Hi @Tamara76! I achieved VIB this year, which may not seem like a ton in the BIC, but it's actually a lot for me, since I usually shop at places like Glossier (Glossier products are only sold on the Glossier website or in their stores) or directly from brands like Clinique or Lancome. I have to say, now that I'm actually getting into my Sephora account, I'm becoming addicted to their business model! It feels so gratifying to be able to redeem points, and I love their rewards program as well! 

Most of the money that I spent at Sephora this past year was on skincare, because I'm definitely more of a skincare person! The brands that I bought the most from this year were innisfree (top product rec: innisfree Super Volcanic Clusters Pore Clearing Clay Mask), Glow Recipe (top product rec: Glow Recipe Glow Together Set™), Sol de Janeiro (top product rec: Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Visibly Firming Refillable Body Cream 8.1 oz/ 240 mL, of course!), and Herbivore (top product rec: Herbivore Cloud Nine 5 Piece Favorites Collection - an AMAZING value). 

I found that I didn't even have to try to hit VIB, which was kind of scary - with frequent restocking of my favorite products and buying most of my friends' birthday/Christmas gifts from Sephora, I didn't even realize that I hit it! 

But just another compliment to Sephora's business model - I love that they give out gratis to people that are really active in the BIC/product reviewing - since I've been a frequent reviewer, they're planning to send me gratis, which is just a really great move on behalf of Sephora, since it really makes it seem like they care about their loyal followers! I'll definitely be spending more money at Sephora in the future! 

[Tamara76]

@kristenyhan Thanks for sharing!  I am a long-time Sephora fan - and it is wild how fast the spending adds up!  I love Glossier - I've only been to the LA store, but I was able to visit a pop-up in Austin last year!  I am going to check out that Innisfree mask!