Best Beauty Deals | The Strategist
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Prime Day is here, and we’re updating this story hourly. To find the best deals in every category, follow all of our Prime Day coverage.
Prime Day has become a shopping holiday, an event not unlike Black Friday or Memorial Day weekend. Like any other holiday, there are traditions and customs, and if you’ve shopped a few years in a row, you sort of know what to expect: There will be discounts on Olaplex and Bioderma and CosRx, and some sort of Dyson will likely be the cheapest we’ve seen it all year. This year will be a little different, though, since Prime Day is running twice as long —from July 8 to 11 with new deals dropping daily.
This is my sixth year on the beauty beat, and in that time, I’ve come to learn the idiosyncrasies of the holiday, like when 20 percent is a good deal because a brand is rarely on sale, as is the case for Starface and EltaMD, and when the deal is decent but not a once-in-a-year discount, like CosRx’s snail-mucin essence, which isn’t the cheapest I’ve seen it since January but still worth it at almost 40 percent off. This year, Prime Day is pretty standard, but with some exciting new additions, like the Vacation Whip sunscreen, which is 20 percent off. I also expect that some of the standard fare will go quickly because savvy shoppers will know what to look for, like Laneige Lip Balm, which sells out every year, and the aforementioned Starface pimple patches, which I for one will be adding to my cart.
As in years past, I’m following our deal writer Sam Daly’s house rules: A good deal is at least 20 percent off. From there, I’ve prioritized products we’ve written about before. Below, I’ve also included products I’ve integrated into my own routine or seen around that haven’t yet made it on the site but look promising.
Seeing a discounted tub of Laneige’s lip mask is akin to the Rockefeller tree lighting — it’s how you know Prime Day is here. The mask has made fans of both celebrities and makeup artists, who like that it’s moisturizing and actually nourishes lips, thanks to ingredients like hyaluronic acid and vitamin C.
Read more: What Actually Is It About the Laneige Lip Mask?
The daytime alternative, the brand’s lightweight, glossy balm, is also on sale.
Another Prime Day staple, CosRx’s snail mucin, is almost 40 percent off. Snail mucin is an all-in-one ingredient, helping with everything from dryness to hyperpigmentation to scarring.
Read more: What Is Snail Mucin?
The snail-mucin moisturizer, which has a thicker consistency than the essence and contains additional good-for-skin humectants, is available too.
These beloved toner pads, which contain ingredients like white willow bark and citric acid, exfoliate without causing irritation.
This has been called a dupe for Rhode’s glazing milk and compared to Then I Met You’s birch refining milky toner. All three have a lightweight consistency and hydrate skin, but this one is the cheapest of the them all.
When I chatted with RuPaul’s Drag Race season-13 winner Symone about what she buys at the drugstore, she mentioned these makeup wipes from Neutrogena, which she says remove heavy makeup in just a few swipes.
Read more: What Drag Race Winner Symone Buys at the Drugstore
Supergoop’s silicone-textured sunscreen was recently reformulated and has become even better since the relaunch. The new iteration dries down to a whisper-thin finish and is a bit less oily but still works well as a skin primer.
Read more: The 23 Very Best Sunscreens for Your Face
And for the entire body, there’s the lotion, which is fast-absorbing, sweat-resistant, and comes in a massive pump bottle so you can use it on the whole family.
Read more: The 11 Very Best Sunscreens
On the mineral front, this one from Australian company Blue Lizard is beloved by Strategist staffers and dermatologists because it’s affordable, reef-safe, and, owing to the mineral ingredients, less likely to trigger a breakout.
Our favorite eczema-fighting itch-relief balm contains ceramides and colloidal oatmeal, which helps to soothe skin and support the skin barrier.
Read More: The Very Best Eczema Treatments
Few products do a better job at zapping acne than adapalene, an over-the-counter vitamin A derivative (think: retinol) that helps to speed up cell turnover and stop pimples from forming underneath the skin.
Read More: The 15 Very Best Cystic-Acne Treatments
And for a French pharmacy option, there’s this low-percentage retinol from A313, a favorite of Gwyneth Paltrow’s and, by extension, the Goop crowd. The mild concentration, along with moisturizing ingredients like lanolin, make it a good option for beginners trying to stave off the peeling and flaking side effects of retinol.
Read More: 15 Cult French Pharmacy Products You Can Buy On Amazon
This scrub contains tiny pumice beads to exfoliate skin along with 10 percent AHA (a blend of glycolic and lactic acids). The combination of physical and chemical exfoliation smooths skin and even though it’s marketed for keratosis pilaris, writer Brenley Goertzen says it works well on the bikini line and for butt acne too.
Read More: The Very Best Body Scrubs
Our favorite sunscreen of all time, which also happens to be every dermatologist’s favorite sunscreen, is 20 percent off, the cheapest it gets. What makes this good is the combination of physical and chemical blockers along with its lotion-y texture, which moisturizes and protects in a single step.
Read More: Finally, A Mineral SPF for Brown Skin
For extremely dry skin, we recommend this oil-based body wash, which cleanses and moisturizes at the same time.
If you’re curious about what I’ll be adding to cart, it’s this micellar water from Bioderma, which we’ve named our favorite makeup remover overall. It’s excellent at getting off product, but I also use it at the end of the day to wipe off SPF and the gunk of the outdoors. Its one of the few formulas that doesn’t sting my eyes or leave some kind of residue after.
For completing a heavenly scented bath routine: the Necessaire body wash in the scent Olibanum, a blend of fig leaf, vanilla, and cassis.
Starface wins the cutest-pimple-patch award by a mile. These inject a little fun into managing acne and come in lots of colors and patterns.
Read More: The 8 Best Pimple Patches
Do you need a facial mist made up of mineral-rich water? Probably not. Do I swear by this because it feels nice and gives my skin a little jolt of hydration throughout the day? Yes.
Strategist senior editor Crystal Martin loves this formula, which offers broad UV protection, sinks in quickly, and doesn’t leave a white cast.
For the first time, Vacation has included the brand’s whipped-mousse sunscreen in Prime Day. It’s lightweight, water-resistant, and reef-safe, and it has a pleasant, aquatic scent.
There’s a reason most of the beauty people I know keep this in rotation — it’s effective but not irritating and helps keep breakouts at bay.
Rosemary is a go-to for thickening and growing hair. It’s also the star ingredient of this shampoo and conditioner duo from Nécessaire, along with proteins to strengthen strands. Another bonus is the spalike smell—in addition to the scent of rosemary, it has notes of mandarin, jasmine, and cedar.
The Dyson Airwrap dupe, is on sale, offering a multi-styling blow-dryer that has lots of attachments and makes it easier to achieve a blowout at home.
Revlon’s one-step blow-dryer brush is a perennial Prime Day deal, and this year it’s particularly good. It’s more than 50 percent off right now and is likely the cheapest it’ll be all year. This brush is our favorite less-expensive pick, particularly for natural hair and thicker hair types.
A dry shampoo that makes hair feel freshly washed and oil-free without buildup or residue, beloved by both beauty expert Rio Viera-Newton and Kylie Kelce.
Read More: This Is (Seriously) the Best Dry Shampoo
Ceremonia is popular among Strategist staff — four people swear by the Guava Rescue Spray — and the brand’s leave-in conditioner is on sale. It deeply hydrates hair and contains antioxidants that helps to protect hair from environmental stressors that weaken it over time.
Our top pick for hair oils is good for all hair types and is the epitome of “a little goes a long way” — I use a little more than half a pump for my entire head. It contains moringa and argan oil along with bamboo extract, which helps strengthen hair.
Read More: The 8 Very Best Hair Oils
Our favorite “clean” mascara for lengthening is also on sale. It’s two steps: primer, then mascara, which work together to create definition and lift.
For locking in makeup, this setting spray from Urban Decay is a favorite of makeup artists, who like it for its longevity and ability to set makeup without enhancing texture. It’s also my go-to — I don’t do my makeup without it.
Read More: The Best Sweatproof Makeup, According to Experts
We dubbed the iconic Clinique black honey the “black turtleneck of lipsticks” because of the dark tint adds a little intrigue to the lips.
For a waterproof formula, it doesn’t get much better than this one from L’Oréal, which doesn’t transfer and lasts all day. It’s also a favorite of Jessel Taank’s, who has been using it since she was 15. “I’ve tried everything on the market — Chanel, Saint Laurent, every brand you can imagine — and I always come back to this,” she says.
Read More: What Jessel Taank Can’t Live Without
For maximum drama, Too Faced’s ultrapopular Better Than Sex delivers.
Photo: Courtesy of the Retailer
Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star Lisa Barlow swapped her Tom Ford lip gloss for this much-cheaper option from NYX, which she likes for its shade range and non-sticky feel.
Read More: What Lisa Barlow Can’t Live Without
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The Strategist is designed to surface useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Every product is independently selected by our team of editors, whom you can read about here. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
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