Do They Scan Makeup When You Return It Or Can You Swap

Editor'south note: This article has been updated to reflect a response from Sephora.

Sephora'southward generous return policy is one of the reasons I keep to shop at that place. An expensive serum breaks me out? Return. Lipstick that fades after an hour? I return that, besides.

Co-ordinate to its website, Sephora allows you to return whatsoever product that was purchased inside threescore days, even if it'southward gently used, for full credit. In that location are different rules depending on whether y'all bought your items in-shop or online. Either way, spending $60 on a moisturizer you end up antisocial doesn't feel like a hard hit to your wallet when you can always return it.

We know that heading into the shop to go a sample before purchasing a production is ideal. But, allow'southward face it—fourth dimension, location, and laziness are reasons why we usually cease up ordering online. Because of this mindset, most people end up returning products that are the incorrect shade or weren't as pigmented as they thought they'd be.

Notwithstanding, the products you return have to go somewhere. When asked what happens to those returned products, Sephora told u.s.:

We besides spoke with Sephora employee and consulted an in-depth Reddit thread to notice out what happens with returns.

This lengthy Reddit thread from 2014 asks, What does Sephora exercise with returned products that have been used? It features comments from former and current Sephora employees, and luckily, they shared their experiences with the return process.

An acquaintance from a Sephora inside a JCPenney said products that are returned unused get back on the shelf. If a product is lightly used, it tin't be resold. "The amount of Naked palettes I've had to throw in the dumpster considering Ane single shadow had been swatched just once is so incredibly depressing," the Redditor commented.

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Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Sephora

| Credit: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Sephora

It's important to note that policies seem to vary by shop—or by when the private was employed by Sephora. Another user explained that in their experience, unused products get thrown out. "Even if someone says they didn't utilise information technology, we can't put it back on the shelf. That's how my store was, anyway," wrote bluesky747.

Sources take claimed that some products are used every bit testers, which would brand sense, but this is a policy that may also vary by store. According to bluesky747, their Sephora location didn't implement that. "We can't employ returned products as testers because their SKU has already been registered as bought/then returned," they wrote.

HelloGiggles spoke with an bearding source who works for a Sephora inside JCP about the returns process. While careful to note that the policy may exist different in freestanding stores, they said, "In our shop, our return policy has changed. Now nosotros have to have the bodily receipt. No receipt, no return. No exceptions." (Unless the customer has the production on their Sephora Beauty Insider account.)

"We have a very strong footstep-by-stride procedure and nosotros ever take somebody by our side watching our moves," shared our source, going on to explain the process of taping the return slip to the production and placing information technology into a liquidation bin before inputting the product into the computer for replenishment. The next step, bringing the products to the stock room, is highly supervised to an "annoying" extent, but the hovering is for good reason—"other stores were caught stealing their returns."

"For us to take it to the back and walk the flooring with it, we accept to exist escorted by a manager or security," our source explained, where they so separate the products into flammable or nonflammable hazard bins. The employee also has to fill out paperwork with their proper identification and details of the return.

Throwing abroad returned products—while wasteful—is often the virtually sanitary movement. Tossing returned trade is protocol, even outside of the beauty manufacture. However, some companies, similar Burberry, H&Yard, and Nike, do this to encourage product scarcity, rather than to promote cleanliness. (Recent pushback against this practise prompted Burberry to stop destroying its own products.)

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Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Westfield

| Credit: Kelly Sullivan/Getty Images for Westfield

Until the cosmetics industry figures out a way to reduce waste, at that place'due south another, sometimes illegal, way that thrown-out products are beingness recycled. Once your old lipstick or unused palette hits the dumpster, it might go picked up by someone else. Dumpster divers, every bit they're called, target the trash receptacles behind stores and pick out new and lightly used goods. Many are still in their original packaging.

While dumpster-diving stores like Ulta frequently results in incredible hauls, finding treasures in the trash at Sephora isn't as easy. When Sephora throws out products, they are often purposely damaged prior to going into the trash. Sometimes they're sent back to the manufacturer, or thrown into trash compactors. "The only things you'll ever notice in Sephora's trash are cardboard boxes, plastic, chimera wrap, actual trash…and even that has to exist thrown out in clear bags so managers tin check and brand sure there isn't any product in at that place to be found," wrote theworldexplodes in a comment on Reddit.

Until the manufacture figures out a way to best recycle returned products, some of the best means to eliminate waste product are to sample products when y'all tin, and give lightly used products to friends (when at that place'south no risk of spreading an infection). I know I would pay a small fee to purchase samples online from the retailer. Sephora, are yous listening?

Oh, and if you're a serial product returner, Sephora is definitely tracking y'all. "Sephora monitors render activeness for abuse and reserves the right to limit returns or exchanges at Sephora and Sephora inside JCPenney in all instances," reads the Sephora website.

Now that y'all accept all of this info, it seems that purchasing items in-shop is the way to get. You can swatch, exam, sample, and figure out what products will work best for you without the hassle of a render.

Source: https://hellogiggles.com/beauty/what-happens-to-returned-sephora-products/

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