With the rising cost of living, many of us are cutting the cost we spend on beauty and skincare products. Whilst we still want the luxury of fresh nails and defined brows, it can be a costly expense.
Recently, we read a survey by FragranceDirect about women’s spending on beauty. The average woman in the UK spends almost £500 on beauty and cosmetics in a year. With the right budget, you could save that towards a holiday or cover the cost of bills instead…
From loyalty programs to budget brands, the beauty industry has plenty of ways to save nowadays. We’ve put together this budget beauty guide to help you discover your beauty must-haves for less.
Sign Up for Loyalty Programmes
Lots of us are now signed up for a loyalty card program to make the best savings. If you’re not already signed up, it’s usually a great way to be sent a first-order discount from your favorite beauty brands. Most brands allow you to sign up completely for free with your email address.
A beauty loyalty program usually works by awarding shoppers points for their purchases, which they can later spend towards a future purchase. Sometimes, you can also get free shipping or be notified about early sales too.
From Boots to The Body Shop, we’ve put together Beauty Loyalty Card Comparison guide and table. Give this a read if you need help deciding which loyalty program is best for saving you money.
Hit Pan on Products
Here’s a fact for you: 37% of Gen Z spend £10-£20 on a single skincare product in the UK. That’s according to a recent survey from Statistica. With the cost of single beauty and skincare products, it’s a good idea to make the most of the products you do buy by hitting pan.
What does ‘hitting pan’ on a beauty product mean? This is when your product runs out and you can see the back of the container or bottle. I tried ‘Project Pan’ myself to see if I would save money, which you can read about in my Benefits of Hitting Pan on Beauty Products article. Whilst it might be difficult for makeup lovers to save with project pan, it’s definitely a mindful and sustainable beauty buying habit.
Try Mini Beauty Products
Mini beauty products and skincare products have become more popular in the past few years. These are miniature products that are usually priced lower than the normal-size version. There are definitely some mini beauty products that can save you money, although this isn’t always the case.
We’ve compared the cost per gram of multiple mini beauty products in our previous guide. We concluded that there are some mini beauty products that are worth it, although not many. Generally, mini mascara is more cost-effective as you should get a new mascara every 3 months.
Beauty Product Dupes
There are many affordable beauty brands that will normally have great skincare and beauty products. These can include ‘beauty dupes’ of more expensive, higher-quality beauty products. Popular brands to turn to for these dupes include e.lf. Cosmetics, The Ordinary, Primark, and Nyx.
We’ve also included a list of affordable beauty brands and retailers in our previous sister post A Guide to Beauty Products on a Budget. This post is a great place to start looking for a list of budget-friendly brands. You can usually save yourself a lot of money by browsing brands for a fraction of the price, although we’d recommend checking each product uses similar ingredients. For example, purely tea tree oil and not added perfume.
If you're searching for some cost-effective beauty dupes, give our Beauty Dupes article a read. We talk you through ingredients, vegan beauty, and cost-effective beauty dupes.
Use a discount code
Many of us spend way too much on beauty products and searching for the right places to shop. This guide has hopefully helped you to consider ways you can make your beauty budget work for you. Of course, one of the easiest ways to save on your order is to shop with a discount code.
When you add your discount code to your basket, you should get a total discount on your order. Simply check our website at MyVoucherCodes for the latest discount codes and save on your next beauty order.
