Lancôme gift-with-purchase at Dillard’s joins Ulta’s spring beauty sale

Dillard’s has the sharper prestige-beauty gift right now: spend $39.50 on Lancôme and choose a free seven-piece set valued at up to $178, a buy that makes a small skin-care purchase look much more expensive than it is. For shoppers building a Mother’s Day basket or a self-care gift that needs to feel generous at first glance, that kind of bundled value matters.

There is a higher rung, too. Dillard’s is also showing a separate Lancôme offer tied to a $125 minimum purchase, with up to a free 10-piece gift. The retailer’s Lancôme gifts-and-sets pages are actively merchandised, and several items are flagged with “Free Gift!” messaging, which makes the brand feel especially giftable instead of merely discounted. The practical upside is simple: one prestige buy can arrive with enough extras to cover travel sizes, fillers, and a few bonus treats without another checkout.

Ulta’s answer is broader and more utilitarian. Its current “Let’s Haul” event runs across makeup, skincare, haircare, wellness and more, with up to 30% off in stores, online and in the app. Ulta’s Spring Haul sale is live through Saturday, April 18, and the retailer is layering in buy-one-get-one-50%-off deals as well as its separate 21+ Days of Beauty event, where top brands are marked down 50% through daily and weekly Beauty Steals. If a shopper is filling a basket with several different categories, Ulta’s discounts stretch farther than a single-brand gift-with-purchase.

The timing is no accident. Ulta Beauty World 2026 is taking over Orlando, Florida, on April 15 and 16 with more than 200 brand partners, and the company is selling that event around discovery as much as shopping, with a swag bag valued at more than $2,000 and tickets priced at $160, $75 or $199 before fees. L’Oréal, meanwhile, said 2025 sales reached 44.05 billion euros and e-commerce passed the 30% mark, a reminder that prestige beauty is still being fought over with promotions, events and bonuses, not just product launches. Nicolas Hieronimus’s company is betting the market keeps improving in 2026.

For Mother’s Day and self-care basket shoppers, the call is clear: Dillard’s is the better pick if you want one elegant purchase to do the heavy lifting, especially at the $39.50 or $125 threshold. Ulta is the smarter stop if you want to stock up across brands and chase percentage-off savings instead of a single, giftable payoff.