Buying Beauty Products: Don’t Let the Price Affect Your Decision

Quite a fair number of people have been asking me to recommend beauty products recently. To be honest, I’m rather flattered and grateful at the same time because it means people value my opinions enough to ask me what under eye concealor or makeup remover they should buy. Good things are meant to be shared and I’m always more than happy to spread the word about a product that has proven to be more beneficial than detrimental. However, there seems to be a trend of people choosing a product just because of the price.

Now granted, I know not everyone is a beauty junkie like me. Not everyone will spend $50 on an eyeshadow palette or buy makeup that they don’t necessarily need but do so because it looks too pretty. But making a beauty purchase because something is cheap is definitely not the right way to go.

If we can spend a little more for that coveted handbag, a good haircut or food of better quality, why can’t we do the same for skincare and makeup? After all, our skin is the biggest organ that we have and the importance it plays in our lives has a much higher significance than any of those. Just take a minute there and ask yourself this question: Would you rather have blotchy skin for your entire life or would you rather forgo that cute work dress that is on sale? It’s pretty much a matter of priority.

The thing we should concern ourselves with isn’t so much of whether a bottle of liquid foundation fits into our budget as its efficiency. The ingredients. Its makeup. Whatever is inside of it, whatever it is, that’s what we need to focus on. It’s no secret that cheap, drugstore beauty products are generally – mostly – made from recycled materials or poorer grade chemicals. Some of these materials don’t even make the cut to be used in manufacturing for products from higher end brands and if this does not ring alarm bells in your head, you must be deaf! I’m not saying that all drugstore products are like this, just that most are. This is why they are generally very wallet-friendly. If you think about it, why would beauty companies throw away waste chemicals when they can use it to make products that they can sell, and therefore profit from? Even if the margin is small, it’s still nonetheless a profit and that’s what most companies are all about.

Focus on the ingredients in products instead of the price.

No, seriously, they don’t care about whether their products will give you an eczema outbreak or cause increased sensitivity. I’ve used moisturisers which came with disclaimers about how the product could cause a reaction during the initial phases and alluded it to my skin adapting to the product and purging out toxins. What atrocity! It’s a moisturiser. It should not be doing anything else to my skin other than moisturise! Why does my skin need to adapt? And if it causes my skin to detox, it should not be called a moisturiser!

When I give product recommendations, it’s based honestly on my personal experience with them, reviews from other people who have had used them as well as the ingredients in them. For example, I love Avene. In fact, I use its Extremely Gentle Cleanser for Intolerant Skin. But a closer look at the ingredients in the award winning Cream for Intolerant Skin shows that it contains petroleum jelly. Petroleum jelly! That’s the very stuff that dries your skin up as it evaporates! No wonder it gave me a bout of rashes (I suffer from rosacea) when I used it. Oh, and with such faith.

Another thing that has come to my attention is the topic about animal testing in beauty products. Some people mistakenly think that if a product has been animal tested and is labelled safe for human use, there is nothing wrong with it. What fallacy. You should think, instead, that the need for a product to be animal tested prior to getting the green light from authorities simply means that the chemicals added in the manufacturing process are toxic at least to a certain extent. That’s why it makes a difference when a brand is cruelty-free, even if its products may cost more than others.

So all in all, if a good product is a little more expensive than you’d like it to be, I say save up for it. Eat out less often and cook your own meals. Be more frugal in other areas of your life. Plan your expenses. Put aside a little bit of money every day, week or month to contribute to whatever you’ll like to get for your skin. If you understand the concept of health insurance, or the idea of saving up for an apartment to call your own, then you must understand how you can also save up for a beauty product that you need.

In the end, what you ultimately get is your choice but remember: Don’t let the price affect your decision.

TODAY’S RANDOM

Some lippie for you via I Stalk Fashion.

Image credits: Barcelona-Apartments and Clarie’s Blog