so i recently started trying to actually learn how to do my makeup because my cousins wedding is coming up in october and i realized i have basically nothing in my bag besides an old mascara and some lip gloss from high school... i went into a store the other day and honestly i almost walked right back out because i had no idea it was all so expensive. like why is one tiny bottle of foundation forty dollars?? i really want to get some nice things to try out but my budget is pretty tight since i am still in school and i can really only spend maybe 80 or 100 dollars total for a whole look.

im super new to all of this so sorry if this is a really basic question but i keep seeing girls on tiktok talking about how they never pay full price for high end brands and they mention things like deal alerts or stacking coupons and i am just sitting here so confused lol. i tried to find some of these deals myself by just googling stuff but i ended up on these weird websites that looked like they were gonna give my laptop a virus or something. i dont really know which sites are actually real and which ones are just fake ads.

im just looking for something easy and safe that a beginner could use to save some money. maybe like an app that pings your phone when sephora or ulta has a big sale? or somewhere that actually lists real coupons that work? i dont want to spend hours hunting things down i just want to know when the prices drop so i can grab what i need before the wedding. i live in a pretty small town so i mostly have to shop online anyway because our local stores dont carry the good brands.

• are there specific apps that are actually legit for this?
• do people use like certain groups or something else to find the secret codes?
• is there a way to get alerts for specific brands like elf or mac?

i really have no idea where to even start looking so i would love some help finding some reliable ways to track these sales without getting scammed...