Going into a beauty department can be lots of fun and then bring on severe sticker shock. What’s a budget conscious girl to do? With a little creativity and shopping savvy you can have great products without breaking the bank.
Don’t be afraid of drug and discount stores. You would be amazed by the selection of products you can find from national brands to the store brands. Do try to the store brands, most have a guarantee and work well. I use an anti aging face wash I get for less than $3 a tube as a hand wash. Other great buys are make up from brands like Rimmel and Cover Girl, Burt’s Bee’s lip balm, and individual packets of facial masks.
Rethink what products you use for what. I love the scents from the bath store but I don’t like the price tag so I started to think through getting the most bang for my scented lotion and shower gel buck. Store brand unscented oat lotion makes a great base for my dry skin. I use scented lotion as well but a lot less of it because I’m treating my skin first. I usually use the unscented right before bed so it can absorb all night. I also love big bottles of inexpensive conditioners that smell nice as a skin conditioner, it’s really nice under the shaving cream when shaving your legs. It smells nice and gives you silky smooth skin.
Ebay is your friend. When you have a name brand you really like do look for it on ebay and similar auction sites. I buy most of my Bare Minerals and Rare Minerals products new and unopened for less than half the retail price this way. Before you buy this way you need to do your research and know the prices elsewhere but it’s well worth the time. You also want to watch the shipping charges.
Make your own. Look online for tons of great recipes for homemade beauty and bath products, you would be amazed what you can make for yourself with things you may already have in your kitchen. Oatmeal (not the flavored kind) makes a great scrub and mask when mixed with very warm water. You can also take a mismatched old, clean sock and fill it with plain oatmeal and toss it in the tub to help relieve dry itchy skin add whole milk and honey to the tub for an awesome moisturizing milk bath.
Buy in bulk if you can. Whenever I can I pick up my Bed Head shampoo and conditioner in big 750ml bottles. If I buy them together I pay $22 for the pair, if I buy the small ones they’re $16 each it’s an easy choice. I have fairly short hair so they last me at least 6 months, but if I see them on sale before I need them I try to pick them up.
Tricia started her first business as a teenager and has run her own businesses since then. In 1999 she started her first beauty and style company using recipes she’d created to make her own products over the years.