Budget Beauty Buys

In these hard times purchasing decisions are critical to making good use of your budget. Wise product buying can make all the difference to how you feel and your purse strings.

The best way to maximise your spend is to get a loyalty card - both Boots and Superdrug have one but Boots one has the edge with its 4 points per pound spent reward. Use the card to check any offers and build up points to use in the future to buy products. If you shop consistently at Boots (or Superdrug) each month you can count 1 - 2 months of your beauty budget as free or use the points for Christmas presents.

But which budget buys really pack a beauty punch? It depends on who and what you believe but in reality affordability should come first. The facts are with your skin the main ingredient is how good are your genes followed by the degradation effects of smoking, sun, alcohol and then food. What you put on only has a small impact. High price doesn't always mean high value but there are some consistently high performing low, mid and high price brands. Beware gimmicks and pseudo science and the rest is just what you like or works for you.

I think the trick is to blend the price points and use offers wisely. My current bargain basement favourites are a mix of low and mid ranged priced products:

1.Herbal Essence shampoos and conditioners, my preference lies with the hydrating coconut range.

2. Aveeno products (lots of offers on these i.e. 3 for price of 2 etc.) and the great thing about Aveeno is the benefit to your skin particularly if you have ezcema or psoriasis, in fact any dry skin condition. Aveeno does treat ezcema but not psoriasis but it does bring relief to the symptoms of it.

3. La Roche-Posey BB's cream which I use on top on my moisturiser which is currently the cheap as chips but highly effective as a base Astral all over moisturiser. Astral quite rich in some respects but if you have normal to dry sin it is a budget buster which works. I always apply a sun screen over my moisturiser as I prefer separate creams to those that include an SPF. Again I use La Roche-Posey.  

Stick to your budget, buy wisely, get points to make prizes and above all use up what you have before you stock up. Don't forget to save those freebie sachets from magazines as well, always handy to have a stock of those as well.