This post is in partnership with Ulta Beauty.
"Sales, sales, sales, sales, sales I do adore." Ulta Beauty has us sangin' with the drop of their 21 Days of Beauty sale! What does this mean? Let me fill you in. One of the biggest beauty sales of the year is currently underway, so mark your calendars and get your girlfriends because it's time to ball on a budget!
Let's be real, most of us either have or need a budget for our beauty needs. It can cost some major coins finding the right cleansers, the right beauty service, or the right brow pencils that will keep our eyebrows on fleek. Ulta Beauty has the game on lock. Each week, the beauty retailer will offer 50% or more off of various products for one day only.
Yes, that's right, this is the perfect opportunity for you to try all of those new products you've had your eyes on. Now you get to throw it in the bag for half the price! Products range from makeup to skincare and more.
The sale runs from March 15 to April 4 — that's almost a full month of deals. Keep in mind that the Ulta Beauty deals vary from week-to-week and there are new deals every day on-sale for a 24-hour window. We'll be releasing a new article for each week, so make sure you check back with us so you don't miss a sale!
Now get ready, mark your calendar and literally shop until you drop!
Let's get into the week 1 (March 15 - March 21) deals:
What’s On Sale For Sunday, March 15
Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz
Anastasia Beverly Hills is the GOAT when it comes to getting the perfect brow. You can get up to 50% off of their ultra sleek and precise brow pencils. Trust me, your brows will thank you later.
Mario Badescu Vitamin C Serum
Mario Badescu skincare products have been a game-changer since he hit us with the facial spray; now you can get his Vitamin C Serum at Ulta Beauty. Vitamin C Serum is your key to more supple, youthful-looking skin.
Mario Badescu Super Peptide Serum
Another Mario Badescu find that's coming in clutch during the 21 Days Of Beauty sale is his Super Peptide Serum. This rejuvenating serum works wonders by hydrating the skin while diminishing visible signs of aging.
What’s On Sale For Monday, March 16
Lancôme La Base Pro Oil Free Primer
It can be tough finding a good primer that helps your makeup stay on longer. Get 50% off of Lancôme La Base Pro Oil Free Primer for a seamless and vibrant beat.
Kopari Deodorant
If you're looking for vegan, aluminum-free deodorant, Kopari Beauty CBD Deodorant may be for you. It glides on clear with a long-lasting wear and is free of baking soda and not tested on animals.
What’s On Sale For Tuesday, March 17
BareMinerals Mineral Veil Finishing Powder
This is for ladies who like a soft natural makeup look. The BareMinerals Mineral Veil Translucent Finishing Powder also has SPF 25, so you can complete your look and protect your skin at the same time.
Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream
Elemis Pro-Collagen Marine Cream is an Elemis bestseller and is now available at a discounted price as an Ulta Beauty exclusive. Known for its gel-cream texture and anti-aging moisturizing properties, this beauty find is the Fountain of Youth in a jar. And we are living for it!
What’s On Sale For Wednesday, March 18
Estee Lauder DayWear 24H-Moisture Crème Broad Spectrum SPF 15
If aging or moisture is a concern for you, you might want to pick up some of Estée Lauder's moisture creme. The 24-hour moisturizer contains SPF 15 and helps prevent signs of premature aging. Whether aging is a concern for you or not, it's always a good idea to get a headstart before it becomes a major concern.
Juice Beauty Stem Cell Booster Serum
The Juice Beauty Stem Cell Booster Serum is formulated with an organic base of botanical juices, a blend of fruit stem cells and Vitamin C to reduce wrinkles, moisturize and provide essential fatty acid and powerful antioxidant action to the skin.
What’s On Sale For Thursday, March 19
Select Lashes
Who doesn't need a good pair of lashes (or two)? Ulta Beauty will also offer 50% off of select faux mink lashes, so grab yourself a couple for every occasion — work, date night, or your next girls' night out!
Shiseido Essential Energy Moisturizing Cream
The silky smooth moisturizing cream is the go-to for visibly smooth and deeply hydrated skin that glows. It counteracts dullness, dryness and the appearance of fine lines. This non-comedogenic beauty style is also dermatologist-tested and free of parabens and mineral oils.
Clinique Acne Clinical Clearing Gel
The daily acne treatment is formulated to create clear skin by clearing existing blemishes and preventing new ones. It's also allergy tested and free of fragrance, oil, and parabens.
What’s On Sale For Friday, March 20
Becca Ultimate Love Lipstick & Lip Definers
Becca Ultimate Love Lipsticks & Lip Definers offer a moisturizing, long-lasting (8 hours to be exact), satin lip color. It contains hyaluronic acid to hydrate and smooth the appearance of your lips. Choose from their wide variety of colors ranging from red and pink to neutral tones.
Exuviance Performance Peel AP25
The creators of the original Glycolic Acid Peel introduce a performance peel that improves fine lines and wrinkles, creates a more even skin tone, helps refine pores, and smooths skin texture. This is originally a $79 purchase that will drop to less than $40 on March 20.
Benefit Badgal BANG! Mascara
Bring out your inner bad gal with Benefit's Badgal BANG! Mascara. It will give you natural voluminous lashes without smudging or weighing down your lashes. It's also water-resistant and has a 36-hour wear guarantee.
What’s On Sale For Saturday, March 21
Tarte Shape Tape Concealer
Tarte's Shape Tape Concealer is America's #1 Concealer Brand according to the NPD Group, Inc* and now it's exclusively available at Ulta Beauty. Even better, it's 100% vegan with a full-coverage formula that helps brighten, smooth and give the skin a more lifted and brightened look.
Tula Day & Night Cream
Tula 24-7 Moisture Hydrating Day & Night Cream | Ulta BeautyThe creamy whipped moisturizer is full of naturally-derived probiotics and superfoods that give an even, glowing, and youthful-looking complexion. The 2-in-1 product is light enough to wear under makeup during the day and hydrating enough for your nighttime routine.
*Source: The NPD Group, Inc./U.S. Prestige Beauty Total Measured Market, Makeup Sales. Jan 2018-Dec 2018
Featured image by Shutterstock
RELATED
A Goddard College graduate, who earned an MFA from Pratt Institute and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College, Mahogany offers unapologetic realness with a side of grace and empowerment. "I started touring locally. I started creating chat books so that those poems will go in the hands of the people who were sitting in the rooms," she shared.
"And then I started facilitating poetry workshops, so I used my chat books as curriculum. And that, in turn, allowed me to further invest in my art and show the community and people who were hiring me that it wasn't just a one-off, that it's not just, you know, a fly by night—that I am invested in this art as much as I am invested in your community, in your children's learning, in our growth."
Mahogany has a special way of moving audiences, and her superpower sparks shifts in perspective, post-performance introspection, and strengthening of community bonds, especially among Black women. (One can undeniably recognize her gift for arousal of the spirit and mind merely from her listening to her insights from the other side of a Google Hangout call. I can only imagine the soul-stirring, top-tier sensory encounter when watching her perform in person.)
In this chat with xoNecole, Mahogany reflects on sustaining a creative career, the aftermath of writing a banned book, and using poetry for both healing, community-building, and activism.
Anthony Artis
xoNecole: What are three key things that have laid the foundation for a sustainable creative career for you?
Mahogany L Browne: What has helped me is that I'm willing to go in being an expert at knowing poetry and knowing the way in which art can change the landscape of our lives, not just as a poet, but also as a poetry facilitator. How you move through classes, those things are mastered, right? So when I go into another space that's maybe tech-heavy, I don't mind learning and being, you know, a student of the wonder of how we can make this magic, work together.
Two, you’ve got to know how to pivot. Sometimes we say, ‘Alright, this is what my life is going to be. I'm going to be a New York Times best-selling author. I'm going to, you know, have an album that's Grammy-nominated. And then, say you get dropped from your record label. That doesn't mean you can't make an album anymore. You can also still create an album that can be submitted to the Grammys. So, what does a pivot look like as an artist who doesn't have an institution behind them? Pivot being a student of the wonder.
Relationships also really help. How do I serve the community? And in turn, that tells me how the community can show up. For me, I have long-standing ties with a community that will outlast my one life. So, what does it mean to create space where these relationships can develop, can be nurtured, can be rooted, can be cultivated? Creating space—it happens through relationships.
xoN: With today’s economic challenges, what does your current creative process look like, and what are you working on?
MB: I’m always thinking five years ahead. I just reviewed the pages for two children’s books and recently released a YA novel. I’m drafting an adult fiction manuscript now.
Anything I create is founded with the root of poetry, but it can exist in captions. It can exist in commercials. It can exist as a musical. So that's where I’m at now.
xoN: You started performing "Black Girl Magic" in 2013, had an acclaimed performance of it via PBS and the work went on to viral success shortly after. Talk more about the inspiration. And what do you think about the continued relevance more than a decade later?
MB: I wrote it as a rally cry for the mothers who had been keeping themselves truly in harm's way by, you know, being a part of the community right after the death of their child or their loved one. They are usually mothers of victims of police brutality—and just seeing how they showed up in these community spaces, they are devout to the cause but obviously still grieving.
"I wanted this poem to be just a space of reclamation, of joy and of you, of your light, of your shine, of your brilliance, in any which way in which you fashion. Every room you enter is the room you deserve to be in. What does it mean to have a poem like that that exists?"
And the first time I did the poem, the Weeping that occurred, right? It was like this blood-letting of sorts. The next time I performed it, I'm moved to tears because I'm seeing how it's affecting other women who have just been waiting to hear, ‘You belong. You deserve. You are good. We see you. Thank you, despite everything that they said to make you regret being born in this beautiful brown, dark-skinned, light-skinned, but Black body.’
Black women are the backbone—period. Point blank. And so, that that poem became a necessity, not just to the fortitude of Black women in the community, but like you know, in service of healing the Black women.
xoN: One of your books was banned at a school in Boston, and it was later reinstated due to parental and activist support. What was that experience like?
MB: Well, I think it happened because they were racist. That's it. Point blank. The reversal of it was empowering, right? I realized, oh, I thought we just had to sit here and be on a banned book list. But no, parents are actually the leaders of this charge.
So to see that, the parents said, ‘Nah, we're not gonna let you take this book out of my baby’s school just because it's a Black kid on the front saying, ‘Woke’ and they're talking about being a global citizen. They're talking about accountability. They're talking about accessibility. They're talking about allyship, and you don't want them to have compassion or empathy or have even an understanding, right? So no, we rebuke that, and we want this book here anyway.’ To see that happen in that way. I was, like, reaffirmed. Absolutely.
xoN: You recently organized the Black Girl Magic Ball at the Lincoln Center in New York. Honorees included author and entrepreneur Rachel Cargle and National Black Theater CEO Sade Lythcott. What impact did it have and what expanded legacy do you hope to leave with your creative works?
MB: I was really interested in not celebrating just the book, but celebrating the community that made the book possible. And so I gave out five awards to women doing that thing, like, what does it mean to be a Black girl in this world?
I just thought it was gonna be an amazing time. Everybody's gonna dress up—we're gonna celebrate each other. And boom, I then realized that it responded to like a gaping hole. There was a missing thing for Black girls of all walks of life, all ages, right?
"It's very intergenerational. That was intentional to come together and celebrate just being us."
You have all these instances where just being you is either the butt of a joke or it's diminished and not worthy of a specific title in these larger institutions. So what does it mean to just to be loved up on and celebrated?
It felt like a self-care project at first. You know, for the first couple of years, folks were coming and they were getting that sisterhood. They were getting that tribe work that they were missing in their everyday lives.
I love the Black Girl Magic Ball because we got us. If I go out with a bang, they'll remember that Mahogany worked her a** off to make sure all the Black girls everywhere knew that she was the light. We are the blueprint.
For more information on Mahogany L. Browne, her work, and her future projects, visit her website or follow her on IG @mobrowne.
Featured image by Anthony Artis
