How to be a savvy beauty shopper

Money-saving beauty treats, tricks and tips to leave you radiant - but not in the red! By Trish Lesslie

Watching your pennies doesn't have to mean skimping on beauty... if you know where to look. Going by past recessions, our beauty products are among the last things we give up when times are hard. In fact, we need those affordable little luxuries - a new lippy, nail polish or hair colour - more than ever to cheer us up. Try these!

 

Be compact

 

Make-up kits are great value for money, and usually work out cheaper than buying separate items. And because they look so gorgeous, you'll feel you've splashed out on a treat.

 

Among the best are W7 Let's Make Up, £8.99 (Peacocks, 0871 231 3530), with four flattering shades of lip gloss and eyeshadow, two blushers, and a compact powder. Better still, the palette is dinky enough to carry in your handbag.

Beauty UK Eyeshadow Collection No4, £2.99 (from Superdrug), is a very wearable selection of bronzes, greens and greys.

 

Look for long-lasting

 

If products stay on longer, you won't have to keep reapplying them- and that means you won't have to buy replacements as often. The average lipstick fades in under two hours, while lipgloss often goes in a matter of minutes.

 

So try the new L'Oréal Infallible Lipstick Duo, £10.99 (available nationwide) - designed to stay on for up to 16 hours. Or Lipcote, £3.49 (available nationwide), which should keep colour put for eight hours.

 

Wander the web

 

You can find brilliant bargains on the internet. Try these sites:

 

■ www.cheapsmells.com This Guernsey-based online retailer was named one of Britain's best places to shop on the internet - and the best website for beauty products and perfumes. As well as fantastic deals on fragrances, you'll find premium beauty products at knockdown prices.

■ www.amazon.co.uk The internet retailer's beauty shop is great for appliances such as hair straighteners. Babyliss, Braun, Philips and Remington are among the brands on sale at discounted prices. You can also find Olay products on sale for up to 48 per cent of their normal retail price.

■ www.glossonline.co.uk Currently specialising in manicure and pedicure products, this has goodies from Essie, Leighton Denny and OPI at a fraction of instore prices - Essie and OPI polishes start at just £2.85. But the stock changes constantly and once it's gone, it's gone for good!

 

Great finds at the pharmacy

 

If you usually opt for premium cosmetics, check out some of the budget brands available exclusively at Boots, Lloyds Pharmacy and Superdrug.

Boots' own ranges, such as No7, Natural Collection and 17, are well worth a look, while at Superdrug you'll find great value for money on exclusive brands such as GOSH, MeMeMe and 2true.

Over at Lloyds Pharmacy, Urban Girl is designed for teens but most of the products are wearable whatever your age. And its own-brand collections, such as the Filled Luxury Vanity, £11.01, are amazing value. You'll often find good offers like three-for-two and BOGOF at these pharmacies, too.

Keep an eye on www.boots.com, www.lloydspharmacy.com and www.superdrug.com for details of special offers.

 

Supermarket savers

 

Department store beauty counters may look more inviting, but you'll find most things you need on the shelves of your local supermarket - and at a snip...

 

Sainsbury's

The simply packaged Basics range starts at an incredible 13p for the 300ml bottle of Shower Gel. With the Basics Shampoo at 27p and Basics Conditioner at 27p for 500ml, it's hard to find cheaper anywhere!

 

Aldi

Sales of Aldi's £1.84 Siana Anti-Wrinkle Cream soared by 800 per cent when it won a host of independent expert and consumer plaudits. Its new Lacura Make-Up range is causing a similar stir. Prices start at just £1.99 for lipsticks.

 

Tesco

Products in the All About Face range - everything from nail polish to lip gloss and foundation - are just 99p each or three for £2. The new and highly rated Q10 Derma Intensive+ anti-ageing skincare range is purse friendly, too. The 50ml Anti-Wrinkle Day and Night Creams and a 30ml Eye Cream each cost just £1.79.

 

Asda

The N-spa Fruit range, exclusive to Asda, has shower gels, body scrubs and body creams for £2.95 each. Only slightly pricier is the N-spa professional range, with bath and body products costing £4.95 or £7.95. Asda is also the only place to find celebrity crimper Andrew Barton's haircare range (£3.95 to £4.95).

 

4 final tips to save you pounds

 

Buy in bulk

Travel-size shampoos, conditioners and the like might be cheap, but they tend to be poor value in the end. As with most beauty products, the bigger the size you buy, the better the bargain, so if you're heading off on a trip, give the travel-size offerings a miss and decant your favourite products into smaller bottles. If you don't have any mini bottles lying around at home, you can find them cheaply in most large pharmacies.

 

Skip the salon

You can often wave goodbye to salon visits for hair, teeth or body treatments without compromising on your looks.

 

Use a daily tanning moisturiser, such as Dove Summer Glow, £3.25 for 250ml (available nationwide), and you can ditch the professional fake tans, which cost from around £25. Brush regularly with a dentist-recommended whitening toothpaste, such as Blanx Intensive Stain Removal, £6.84 (available nationwide), and there'll be no need for laser tooth whitening, which costs from around £300 per session.

 

And with DIY waxing strips such as Veet Ready to Use Wax Strips, £6.25 for 20 (available nationwide), you can have a fuzz-free body for up to four weeks without splashing out at the salon.

 

Finally, the better the condition of your hair, the less often you'll need to get it trimmed. Celebrity stylist Paul Bingham recommends Gliss Total Repair Conditioner, £1.99 for 200ml (available nationwide), left in overnight.

 

Perfume is best

When it comes to fragrance, an eau de toilette (EDT) may cost less than eau de parfum (EDP), but the scent won't last anywhere near as long. That's because EDTs have a lot more top notes (think citruses) than EDPs, which have more base notes (think woody and mossy). As base notes evaporate more slowly, an EDP will linger for longer, which means you won't need to reapply nearly as oft en as you would with an EDT. In fact, with top notes only lasting around 20 minutes but deep base notes sticking around for more than 24 hours, with an EDP you may need to apply just once a day.

 

‘Although more expensive, an eau de parfum is ultimately better value for money,' confirms Roja Dove, one of the world's leading authorities on fragrance.

 

Be a hair model

Track down model sessions in your area, when trainee hair stylists and colourists will do your hair for a fraction of a salon's regular prices. If you go to a renowned salon, the trainees are often pretty experienced, and they're always supervised.

Take time to make clear what style and/or colour you want - and, even more important, what you don't want!

 

 

 

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