My make-up drawer looks more like the junk drawer in most people’s kitchens. What can I say? I like to try new things! The crummy part is I have lots of bottles and compacts of beauty products that I barely used because I was unimpressed.

Luckily, I discovered a new trick – ordering beauty product samples online! It’s easy and best of all, free! The only setback is you have to beware of spam and giving out your personal information to the wrong people. After several attempts, I learned some valuable lessons. So, here they are – my tips for getting great free beauty samples without exposing yourself to inbox abuse.

1) Before submitting your name, address, and email to any website, your safest bet is to only use the actual manufacturer’s website, or an established well-known retailer. For example, Walmart.com is always offering product samples for new items. Another great source for manufacturer samples is About.com. Well-known brands typically want to maintain a quality and trustworthy reputation, so they will likely abide with anti-spam laws.

2) Read the Terms of Service/Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy to make sure you are okay with the deal. I’ve found many supposedly “free” samples can only be received once I’ve completed several other “offers.” This is a big red flag of spam! Plus, your sample may not really be free if you are required to purchase something else you didn’t really want in the first place.

3) Setup a separate email account with a free service like Yahoo! or Gmail. Many manufacturers will still send a product newsletter or coupons to the email address you provide. So, even by using reputable websites, you may end up with a flooded inbox. Having a separate email account for ordering online will help keep your shopping adventures organized and separate from your other personal or business email accounts.

4) Finally, if the free offer seems too good to be true, it probably is! I’ve seen countless ads offering a free $100 gift certificate to a certain retailer/manufacturer. But after completing numerous other “offers”, I never completed enough to qualify for the prize. And, I ended up with more spam in my inbox than the state of Hawaii consumes in a year!

Now that you are armed with spam defense, go out and find great new beauty products! Please leave us at the BeautySchool.com blog a comment about cool free samples you find (and where to get them!), and we’ll do the same!