Challenge: Part 2 of 2 in Beauty challenge: How much free beauty booty can you score in one day?

I’m back – with a bag full of beauty booty! Though not nearly as much as I had expected – the recession seems to have hit the beauty counters as well. Some counters claimed they had no samples at all, and at times I had to sit through a one-hour skin analysis/lecture/critique just to get one sachet of face cream.

I started out at 10.45am at Liberty in Soho, and finished at 7.10pm at Harrods in Knightsbridge. With a 15 minute lunch break, I spent around eight hours at beauty counters, and came away with a total of 35 samples. Here’s a breakdown of how I scored:

10.45am Liberty

• Kiehl’s – 2x sachets of cleanser and moisturiser

11am Selfridges

• Armani – 1x foundation vial in my shade
• Clarins – 3x sample-sized bottles of toner, moisturiser, serum
• Suqqu – 2x sample-sized bottles of moisturisers
• M.A.C. – 1x temporary tattoo by vinyl-clad Hello Kitty

1.30pm House of Fraser

• Clinique – 1x sample-sized pot of moisturiser
• Clarins – 2x sample sized bottles of eye balm, day cream
• Biotherm – 2x sachets of cleanser, 4x sachets of moisturiser, 4x sachets of serum
• Gucci – 1 vial of men’s fragrance

2.45pm: 15 minute lunch.

3pm John Lewis

• Clarins – 3x sample-sized bottles of toner, exfoliator, moisturiser
• Estee Lauder – 1x foundation vial in my shade, 1x sachet of moisturiser

3.30pm Kiehl’s, Covent Garden

• 2x sachets of cleanser and body lotion

4.30pm Harvey Nichols

• Sisley – 3x sachets of mask, moisturiser and anti-aging serum

5.45pm. Harrods

• Bobbi Brown – 2x sachets of foundation in my shade, 1x vial of cleanser, 1x vial of oil serum

7.10pm. Done. Check out my booty…

Best company for samples?

Clarins comes in at number one, with up to 3 samples of 5ml and 10ml bottles at every counter I visited.

Biotherm was also surprisingly generous, and Kiehl’s offered sachets at both their Covent Garden store and Liberty (however, no samples from their counters in Selfridges and Harrods).

Best tips for scoring freebies?

• Show some interest in the product, but be prepared for lengthy consultations and the hard sell.
  When pushed to purchase, say that you would really like the opportunity to try it at home for a couple of days. Cue samples!
• Sounds terrible, but flattery will get you EVERYWHERE. At one counter I was genuinely impressed with the sales assistant’s peaches-and-cream skin, and told her so. She was clearly chuffed and couldn’t give me enough freebies. So I tried it again. And again. It worked.
• Don’t just go from counter to counter asking for freebies, as the sales assistants will spot you a mile away and be reticent hand over the goodies.
• If you actually go through with a purchase, you’re in the best position to ask for samples. Tell the sales assistant that you were also thinking about buying X product at another time, but wanted to try it first.
• My friend’s tips for scoring samples at the beauty counter? Tell them that one of their products didn’t work for you. They’ll go out of their way to retain your custom and hopefully shower you with freebies.

PROS:

• Didn’t cost a penny.
• Freebies!
• Picked up some foundations in my skin shade. And I’m so impressed with the one from Bobbi Brown, I’m going back to buy it!

CONS:

• Had to put up with various insults and criticisms about my skin. Demoralising!
• Confusing and contradictory information – one particular brand’s diagnostic tool at three different stores came back with totally different results.
• Having to repeat the same spiel about my skin dozens of times in one day.

SPENT: NIL (Apart from £5 for lunch)

SAVED: Hard to put a value on it. In terms of quantity, I came home with around 175 mls in product. So if the average product was around £30 for 50ml, I scored product to the value of £105. Pretty good for nothing, huh?

How much booty can you score in a day! from OolaMoola on Vimeo.