Cost Cutting
The beauty industry is a wild world. We’re sold literal ideas in bottles. Promises of thicker lashes, more radiant skin, better coverage, or alluring scents. These ideas and promises may or may not improve our outward appearance, but to us unsuspecting consumers, we definitely think they will. Why else would we be forking over enough of our hard earned cash to support a $528.6 billion dollar industry?
Think of how many sandwiches that would buy. Let me tell you - a lot!
Uh…where was I? Oh yes! Whether consciously or unconsciously we gobble up the illusions fed to us by the beauty industry. The truth is, we humans love our illusions. Regardless of which take center stage - wealth, power, control, endless youth and beauty - we really let our imaginations run wild with pursuing and obtaining these fraught goals.
But this isn’t a post about illusions and how us weird little humans pursue them - nay nay. This post is about thinking beyond illusions to perhaps make wiser choices that can help us grow our savings into fat stacks of dolla dolla bills y’all!
Spending Money On Beauty
Now, I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I’m not a vain woman, because I most certainly am. I’m also not going to sit here and lie about the vast amounts of money I have spent on snake oils and various elixirs in the almost certainly useless attempt to maintain my youth and/or beauty.
I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m not entirely sure where my money has gone over the years. However, I can say (with deep irritation and a wince) that a lot of that unknown money has likely been spent on beauty products. Ugh, I know. I should know better. But I, like everyone else, am also susceptible to beauty industry marketing telling me I need these products, because who are we if we’re not young and beautiful?
As it relates to spending, throughout my life thus far I would estimate that I’ve probably spent more than $18,000 on beauty creams, makeup, peels, cosmetic treatments - you name it! Ooof, that’s a lot of cheddar. However, this might be a lesser amount in comparison to what an average North American woman spends on beauty products during their lifetime.
Regardless, as of late I’ve been WAY more conscious of how I’ve been spending my money on beauty products.
The Switch
Not unlike a lot of women (or men) out there, I was spending A LOT on products that I thought I needed. Though I was apprehensive to transition away from products I thought worked for me, I decided to keep things simple. I would only try new, more cost effective products when I ran out of my old ones. And first up was shampoo!
The before shampoo: My favourite shampoo is Olaplex, which costs a painful $45 a pop. This is glorious, beautiful shampoo, and if I was a millionaire, I would certainly use it. I, however, am not a millionaire, so I knew my bi-monthy spending habit on this baby would need to change.
The after shampoo: I changed my shampoo to The Soap Works shampoo bar for $2.50. A wee bit of a difference in cost there.
End result: I’m not going to lie, the Olaplex is better than the shampoo bar…but not by a huge amount. Honestly, though it’s a bit more work to lather up a bar than pouring soap onto your hair, I’d say the soap bar is comparable to drugstore or generic shampoo. It’s also way more environmentally and economically friendly, so why not use it?
The savings: I would typically go through a bottle of Olaplex every other month (if I was lucky), costing me about $315 a year. The shampoo bar usually lasts about six weeks for a rough cost of $21.65 per year. This is a savings of $293.35, which certainly helps with my savings goal.
The conditioner of it all: Since starting my savings challenge in January, I have yet to run out of my “pre-savings goal” conditioner. I’m almost out, but I’m not sure which product I’ll buy yet (if you have a recommendation, please share it in the comments below).
Since my shampoo transition went pretty well, I had my eyes set on my next target - my daily facial moisturizer.
Now, allow me to boast about my skin for a hot second. I have good skin. I get a lot of comments on my skin, and I often get mistaken for a functioning humanoid about 8-10 years younger than I currently am. Do I honestly think this phenomenon is directly related to my facial moisturizer over my healthy lifestyle, genes, and almost religious devotion to sunscreen application? No. But can I say for sure? Also no.
As a result, changing my moisturizer was a bit of a gamble in my eyes. Luckily, a random social media post got me onto a bulk and cheap product that (for me) works even better than the hella expensive products I was using.
The before moisturizer: Perviously, I was spending a poop-ton on moisturizer. I was trying different brands constantly - chasing youth, as it were. To make things simple, let’s use La Roche Posay as my example. I was spending probably $25 a month on this moisturizer. It did the job, but I was always on the hunt for the perfect cream.
The after moisturizer: The gods were kind to me and introduced me to Cetaphil Moisturizing Cream. This ambrosia in a tub retails for roughly $30.
End result: Go home, La Roche Posay, you’re drunk! I cannot - repeat CANNOT - say enough good things about the Cetaphil cream. It’s in an ugly ass package and looks like something your grandmother would have in her medicine cabinet, but it is the best cream I have ever used. Will it make you look like you’re 19 again? No. Will it maintain what you’ve got and give your skin and skin barrier life? Oh heck yes!!
The savings: With La Roche Posay, I was on track to spend around $300 this year on moisturizer. I recently made the switch to Cetaphil, and I’m about two-thirds into the tub, which I bought in February. I assume I’ll go through another tub in the second half of the year. This will bring my spend on this product to about $60. Between the two, this is a savings of roughly $240.
I was shocked, with these two product changes alone I’ll save roughly $533.35 this year - like whaaat?? And my savings will likely far more because I was purchasing face creams to a mindless degree. This is not an insignificant amount of money, wow!
What We’re Really Talking About
Here’s the thing, when it comes to youth, beauty and the products we believe will deliver these traits, we can be blind to our spending. We want to believe our investments are good and that we’re getting value for our money. Having done a bit of testing and trying different, less flashy, more price conscious products, I can categorically say, you do not need to spend the kind of money you think you do to invest in your appearance.
Us women (and increasingly men) are told we won’t amount to anything unless we look a certain way. And we tend to spend godawful amounts on things to help us look that “certain way,” when really, we don’t need to. Alternatives exist.
And beyond that, as humans, all we want is to feel cool and confident in our own skin. There are ways to do that without breaking the bank, or spending any bank, really.
I suppose what I’m trying to say is, get a bit curious, test things out and see what works for you. Just because something costs a lot money does NOT mean it’s the best product for you, savings can most certainly be found.
And always remember, we’ve totally got this!
Over the past many weeks of creating content and templates, I realize that to help sustain this passion project I would be grateful for your support!
For those with a dollar to spare, I’ve set up a Buy Me A Coffee account for folks to contribute to here and there. For those frugally focused, I would be incredibly grateful if you were to share my work with your networks and folks you think would enjoy my journey (via email, social media, or homing pigeon).
A special thank you to those who contributed to my Buy Me A Coffee or shared a post! Your support means the world to me - truly.
Whether you're able to contribute or not, I’m so glad you’ve joined me on this journey!
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I am chuckling because I recently purchased an expensive clarifying shampoo as my hard water was making my newly no longer coloured white hair a bit orange. I only have to use it one time per week with my slightly more expensive purple shampoo. I am guessing the $20 clarifier will last me 3 months - that is $80. Given I am saving over $2000 on hair colour if and cutting - I think this is worth it.
Besides there is something rebellious about being mid 40s and rocking the white!
Saves money in other ways as sometimes 19 year olds think you are way older and give you senior discounts. I will save $ wherever I can