CVS Just Gave Its Beauty Club a Makeover, and You’ll Love the New Perks

Update: This post previously said that Beauty Club members get $3 Extra Bucks on their birthday; as of July 2018, that birthday gift will be a physical item.

Need an incentive to spend a little more time at CVS? Once you’ve picked up your prescription or grabbed the milk or bread you just ran out of, you might want to swing through the beauty section.

The drugstore recently updated its ExtraCare Beauty Club rewards program that shoppers can opt in to on top of the regular ExtraCare rewards they earn throughout the store.

Current Beauty Club members may already know to expect $3 in ExtraBucks rewards to use in stores after spending $30 on qualifying beauty products.

But the revamped Beauty Club will offer additional perks, like “surprises and samples,” exclusive discounts and a monthly beauty trend report delivered to your email inbox.

Members will learn about exclusive offers and get birthday gift notifications via email or the CVS Pharmacy app.

Birthday gifts, which may include a free lipstick or nail polish, can be retrieved at the counter and will change a few times each year, a spokesperson told us in an email today.

In addition, the chain will host a monthly “exclusive themed shopping event” for Beauty Club members.

How Does the CVS ExtraCare Beauty Club Stack Up?

Walgreens’ Balance Rewards offers a simple point redemption program. At Rite Aid, Wellness Plus rewards members can buy select items to earn bonus cash.

But CVS is the only major drugstore that offers a beauty sideline to its rewards program. Through ExtraCare, members can earn 2% cash back on purchases, delivered in a store coupon each quarter.

CVS’s update to the Beauty Club feels more like a specialty retailer offering and less like something you’d cash in on at your corner drugstore.

Sephora’s Beauty Insiders get a coveted birthday gift each year and collect points to put toward travel-size products. That’s all on top of the copious samples the store is known to throw in with in-store and online purchases.

Ulta’s Ultamate Rewards program also offers a points system, along with a free birthday gift and double points during your birthday month. Online shoppers can choose a sample when they check out.

This spring, CVS launched its first beauty campaign that watermarks promotional images that have not been digitally altered in postproduction.

Lisa Rowan is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder, where she covers the retail and grocery industries.