During the summer/Black Friday/Christmas sales, I normally stock up on products I use all the time. This allows me to save money or be able to buy pricier products than normal. Advent calendars great value when they are 50% off, and I tend to buy staples like mascara at Christmas, when you find the Christmas sets with free eyeliners and eye makeup removers on the sales. A great buy for me at the last Christmas sale was a full-sized Lancôme mascara and three free smaller ones.
This year, though, was disappointing sales-wise Generally, nothing has been at a deeper discount than 20% or 30%, and the products that were on stores’ own advent calendars were not things I used. Strangely, I am not the only person who found this. Many stores also increased the prices before Black Friday and then dropped them, but people noticed it this year. The financial crisis has made people more aware of their consumption I think.
I bought a grand total of two products this entire season – two tubes of Clinique Moisture Surge Overnight Mask at 50% discount. I use it every evening as a night cream.
The good thing about not buying anything is I have used up almost all my hair and skincare products. I will wait to buy new as I need them, full price if necessary. I am going to miss my little stockpile of favourite products though. And of course I will buy some of my South African favourites when I am there.
I never purchase anything on sale as most of the time the items I like are out of stock during that period.
Moreover I really dislike spending hours shopping in crowded boutiques. For me it kills the whole experience.
I know I could buy online but when it comes to clothes or accessories I prefer trying them on beforehand. The only products I purchase online are cosmetics.
So the sales are definitely not for me.