I have a thing for makeup—nice, quality makeup that doesn’t
look cheap or wear off quickly.
I’m also a graduate student and don’t make a lot of money at
my current job. What a conundrum, right? What am I supposed to do?
I’ve found a few ways to combat this issue, and I want to
talk a little more in depth about the various ways you can save money on beauty
products while still buying for quality.
Memberships
You know what’s cool about beauty stores? They often have membership programs
where your purchases earn you points that can be used for samples, coupons, or
free gifts.
If you don’t already know, one of the best perks is
definitely free birthday gifts. Ulta and Sephora both give their members a free
birthday gift each year during the month of their birth, and it’s always
something high-quality and worth stopping in to pick up.
Last year
Ulta gave members Calvin Klein mascara (full size,
not sample!) and this year it was an Ulta eyeshadow palette (normally $22) which
I use on a regular basis because it’s
that
good. It glides on so smoothly and holds the pigment all day.
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| Membership has its perks. |
Sephora also does birthday gifts to members. This year it
was sample size Nars matte lip pencils (which I was ecstatic about because Nars
is crazy expensive).
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| Membership has its perks x2. |
And let’s not forget about hair color! Back when I was a
redhead, I would buy my color from L’Oreal in a box. But did you know they have
a membership rewards program? Each time you buy a box from them, snap a picture
of the code on the bottle of dye inside. Enter the code on their website, and
when you have five codes L’Oreal will send you a coupon for a free box of hair
color. How neat is that?!
Coupons/sales
Ulta usually does a sale each spring called 21 Days of Beauty, during which
time select high-end products are 50 percent off. I like to keep an eye out for
sales like these (either by mail advertisement or emailed ads/newsletters). I’m
still kicking myself for not picking up a Too Faced blusher while it was only
$15.
Another thing I like to keep an eye out for is discount
codes sometimes emailed by companies whose email lists I subscribe to—especially
if I’m eyeing a certain product from a particular company.
Clearance sections
If you’ve never dug through the clearance section of beauty stores, you’re gonna
start after reading this. They’re a treasure trove of great deals—sometimes hit-or-miss,
I’ll admit—and you never know what you’ll find.
Clearance section products don’t necessarily mean that they don’t
work well or are out of style. Sometimes products are there because the store
overstocked, the products are seasonal leftovers, or because the makeup cake
cracked inside the package.
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| Two small cracks? No biggie. |
I don’t know about you, but a small cracked cake of
eyeshadow doesn’t bother me—especially when it means a $30 palette is marked
down to $19.
And did you know Sephora has a clearance section? They do.
And it’s amazing.
Sample sizes
I think I survived about a year and a half using sample sizes of Urban Decay’s
eyeshadow primer on a daily basis before I caved and finally bought a tube of
it. Crazy, right? They came free in one of the Naked palettes, and you really
can’t go wrong with free samples.
There are also sites where you can buy sample sizes for a
few bucks to test out an expensive product before you buy it. A great example
of this is
The Body Needs, where you can purchase little sample pots of MAC
lipsticks and other MAC products for $3–6.
This is fantastic for testing out colors or
foundations you’re unsure about and would hate to waste $18+ on if it doesn’t
work out.
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| The Body Needs MAC sample in "Dare You" |
Drugstore dupes
I like to do my research before buying any drugstore dupes of brand-name
beauty products, but there are definitely some out there that are worth their
salt.
One of my favorite drugstore brands for eyeshadow is e.l.f.
They’re cheap, but the colors have a nice pigment and brush on smoothly. I got
one of their 32-color palettes for only $6 and am very impressed. I mostly
bought it because I don’t have the Naked 2 palette, and the e.l.f. one has a
nice range of browns and greens without trying really hard to be an Urban Decay
product.
I also really like Wet’n’Wild’s matte lipsticks. Some of the
colors are good MAC dupes, but they don’t wear as well as MACs do. You do get what you pay for, however, as they’re
only $1.99 each. If it’s not a color I think I’ll be wearing on a regular
basis, I’ll opt for the Wet’n’Wild version (or any other brand that has a
comparable dupe).
If you’re looking for a dupe but don’t know where to start,
I suggest browsing Pinterest—I’ve found many great product reviews there.
Beauty swaps
But what about those inevitable impulse purchases that didn’t work out—the stuff
you swore you’d wear but hardly touched and would hate to throw in the trash.
Have you considered swapping products with a friend or
family member? I hadn’t either until fairly recently when my cousin and I were
woefully contemplating purging our makeup drawers of the stuff we’d hardly ever
used. It seemed such a shame to throw all that money away. We both mailed each
other a box, and it’s been a lot of fun testing out and swatching everything.
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| What fun! |
Ultimately, there are some things I won’t buy cheap. Foundation,
for example. Primer. Most lipsticks. You can usually tell when someone is
wearing a product that’s really cheap, because it won’t wear well on their skin
or look very flattering. But that doesn’t mean you can’t save a little money in
your pursuit toward nice cosmetics—hopefully some of these tips help! And as
always, I’d love to hear any tips you have that I haven’t mentioned.
