I love shopping for beauty products. New makeup releases excite my soul. Effective skincare makes my heart sing. But I’ll tell you what I don’t like, it’s seeing people get ripped off on beauty products. So today I’m going to give you my six biggest tips on smart shopping when it comes to beauty products.
But first let’s talk about what lead me to write this post. I have seen several posts from beauty bloggers/vloggers promoting a product described as a “coconut melt” Now, I love coconut oil products so I went to their site to check it out. 34 Bucks, a little pricey but ok maybe it’s worth it lets check the reviews…interesting they all seem to be pretty positive. Let’s check to ingredients. Now hold on to your panties kids because this is quite an ingredient list….
- Coconut Oil
No that’s not a mistake that’s the whole effing list. Hand to baby jesus they are selling a 34 dollar jar of coconut oil and people are buying it. While that made me do a dramatic Tina Fey style eye roll I let it go for the time being. Then a sponsored post promoting that product popped up in my Instagram feed, and I decided to read some of the comments. Not only were many people as bemused as I was about a 34 dollar jar of coconut oil, their answer to these people was essentially “we use really nice coconuts” I can’t. I’m done.
Even if they’re the best coconuts on earth and Mother Theresa’s final miracle was to bless them, I’m sorry but it’s a jar of coconut oil. You can get one at Trader Joe’s for 5.99
Now I’m not saying that the bloggers promoting this are being shady because for all I know they don’t even realize. I mean honestly if they sent it to me and I tried it I might be less skeptical because if I don’t have to shell out the money I’m far less likely to research it. But it does make me feel like that company is a little shady. It also makes me feel like I need to inform my readers on how not to get duped into wasting money on beauty products. I don’t think you guys are stupid, just to be clear
But on the whole people tend to be a little too trusting, and advertisers know juuuuust how to rope us in. So the more you know, the better off you are.
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TIP 1 // Always read the ingredients. Especially with skin and hair care. Fancy packaging, good advertising, and bloated promises can make anything sound like it’s worth shelling out a bunch of money. Granted many times you won’t know shit from shinola when you read an ingredients list because it’s often written in scientific language that you probably don’t understand, but at least you’ll know if you are about to shell out 75 bucks for a jar of vanilla scented vaseline or something, ya feel me?
TIP 2// Read multiple reviews. Read reviews on blogs, read reviews on review forums like makeupalley, on major distributor’s sites, try to find reviews from people who have similar style/skin/hair to yours. And then boil all that info down to decide.
TIP 3// Just because it’s hyped up doesn’t mean you need it. If everyones dyyyyying over a plum eyeshadow palette and you know plums make you look like you got punched in the eye, maybe you don’t need it. I mean if you just enjoy collecting things then go for it but if not then consider your personal preferences before you just see things look amazing on others and go for it.
TIP 4// If money is tight and you really want something, look for less expensive dupes. There are tons of places to find dupes for things, and often you can find something that’s not only a similar color but a similar formula as well. There are makeup accounts like @dupethat on instagram that make it really easy to find similar colors and with a little digging on the googles you can find similar formulas too. If you can’t find a dupe then maybe it’s worth saving for, but usually there are options.
TIP 5// Don’t be afraid to ask for samples at the store. Not only do stores have a butt-ton of pre packaged samples behind the counter, in many stores I have seen them open a product and put a small amount in a container for people to try. Things like foundation, skincare, hair care etc can be super pricey and swatching it on your hand in the store is not necessarily enough. Samples are worth asking for, they are likely to save you a trip back to make a return. Plus, what’s the worst case scenario, they tell you no? No biggie, keep shopping maybe they have samples at another store.
TIP 6// Speaking of returns, shop at stores with a good return policy. Even with samples, something may not work out for you and if you spent a lot on it then you might want to bring it back. I know a lot of people feel weird and bad about returning things but look, these companies account for that in their markup. They know a certain amount will be returned and they have it covered. That may not be the case with small independent brands, but their return policies will probably reflect that. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy from them, supporting small companies is awesome. Just know if it’s your last 20 bucks you might be taking more of a gamble with it .
And those my friends are my best tips for smart shopping when it comes to your beauty products. There are probably more that I didn’t even think of but if I come up with some more gems I’ll make a part 2 for sure.
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