Sephora & Ulta Sale Calendar: When Beauty Brands Are Cheapest

Premium beauty almost never goes on true clearance, so the handful of real sale events each year are when savvy shoppers stock up. Miss them and you pay full price.

Sephora's key events

• Spring & Fall Savings Events: The two big ones (April and November). Beauty Insiders get 10-20% off depending on tier — the only reliable sitewide discount Sephora offers.
• Holiday gift sets: Late November through December, value sets deliver the best price-per-ounce of the year.

Ulta's key events

• 21 Days of Beauty (spring & fall): A rotating daily 50%-off deal on a different premium product each day — Ulta's best event by far.
• Gorgeous Hair Event & Love Your Skin Event: Category-specific 50%-off rotations (hair tools, skincare).
• Black Friday: Doorbuster mini sets and tool bundles.

How to stack savings

Layer a sale event price with rewards points, a store coupon (Ulta frequently issues $3.50-off-$15 type coupons), and shop through a cashback portal. On the right day, these stack into 40%+ off premium products that are otherwise never discounted.

Clearance corner

Both retailers have a quiet online clearance/sale section for discontinued shades and packaging — the same formula, marked down because the box changed. That is where the deepest individual-product cuts live.

We track beauty markdowns across major retailers. Browse current beauty clearance →