Beauty products
I wrote this originally for my MSN column:
Does beauty care need to cost a fortune? And will a $500 moisturiser really make you look 10 years younger than a supermarket brand?
Some weeks ago I wrote about the phenomenal cost of fashion. This week I’ve got the beauty industry in my sights. But it’s going to be a difficult task. Many women would rather cut back on food than save money on their beauty regime.
Newsweek has just published some must-read research on the cost of a lifetime of cosmetic maintenance for the modern diva. The authors estimate that the average American woman spends $449,127 on hair and beauty over her lifetime. Ouch.
Keeping up good skincare is important. But it needn’t cost an arm and a leg. Once, in my early twenties, I asked a consultant dermatologist to advise the best moisturiser to buy — and I didn’t care what it cost. The answer, to my surprise, was E45 Cream — one of the cheapest on the market.
I wouldn’t deny any woman her $50 lippies, La Mer moisturiser, or a trip to the hairdresser for “the works”. If you budget, these can be included as special treats. What you shouldn’t be doing is treating them as everyday purchases if you want to get ahead financially. Try to use up what you have first and then decide which of these items you could save on and which you should splurge on.
Can you, for example, splurge on eye shadows and save money on supermarket-brand mascara, lip gloss and eye pencils?
One area of beauty care where you can save enormously is by doing your own beauty treatments. There’s nothing in a facial or pedicure, apart from the pampering, that you can’t do at home. Try checking out some of these DIY beauty treatments for more ideas.
And it’s possible to shop around and get your beauty treatments done for less. For example, where I live, in an expensive suburb of Auckland, eyebrow threading costs $18. Instead, I get it done for $5 a time when passing through modest Mount Roskill, which I do on a regular basis.
Even better, get your hair or beauty done cheaply or for free at a beauty school. There are heaps of listings in the Yellow Pages.
Thinking outside of the square can save you an awful lot of money over a lifetime. Just lately I’ve started making my own organic shampoo and conditioner thanks to the fact that my children developed mild allergies to soaps and shampoos, and my wallet is severely allergic to the cost of “eco products”. Making my own is both easy and satisfying and the raw ingredients are available over the Internet from websites such as Go Native.
Finally, remember that a big part of the cost of your miracle creams is the marketing, advertising and packaging. Can you do without them? Your wallet would be happier if you did.
Have your say: Do you save or splurge on beauty care?
Can you tell me where to buy E45 Cream in Auckland. I have recently arrived here from the UK and used E45 cream over there for my ezema and now my skin has broken down cause i can not fing it here….thanks
I know of E45 because I lived in the UK for a few years. I’ve never seen it for sale here. However I would think from personal experience that Aqueous cream, which you can buy in any chemist in NZ would do the same job.
I Googled aqueous cream versus E45 cream and came across quite a lot of discussions such as:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2268195
FYI, I had quite bad skin in my 20s and visited a NHS dermatologist in the UK. I asked her amongst other things what was the best moisturiser I could buy for my skin and to my surprise she said E45 cream – not some expensive cream. She did add, however, that a cream with a sunscreen was better. She was just making the point that you didn’t need to spend much money on creams.
Thanks i have tried the aqueous cream but it has not helped. I have looked everywhere for E45 and you cant seem to get it here. I will just need to keep trying creams until i find one that works. Thanks for your help.
In theory, it might be possible to get it sent from the UK. I think Boots delivers overseas. If not, a smaller online chemist might. All sorts of things are cheaper from the UK than here.
Two dermatologists have told me that the best cleanser is Cetaphil, which is also super cheap. Some dermatologists sell it directly for less than the standard retail in chemists (you can buy it from them without a consultation).
Thanks Jacki. I see Cetaphil in the chemist. I had made the assumption that like many of the products on the shelves that it still contained a lot of nasty chemicals. Quite often products that sit alongside it still have sodium laurel sulfate in them, which I try to avoid. I will take a new look at it when I’m next in the chemist.
$449,127 !!! holy heck …. love the links and will get creating some shampoos
One of the best things I did to cure myself of excessive spend on beauty products was subscribe to Beautypedia. A great site with thorough, accurate (and bias free) reviews of just about every product you can get. The site gives everything a rating from poor to average to great to great-but-too-expensive. It means you can pick products that perform really well but don’t cost the earth. And if you are tempted to buy excessively priced ‘hope in a bottle’ a quick look on the site to see if a product really does what it claims to can often stop you blowing money on rubbish. It costs to subscribe, but not much at all and I have more than saved the subscription price by not buying over priced products that just don’t work.