Beauty Products Worth (and Not Worth) Your Money

My sister said to me once as a joke, "expensive mascara is stupid". And in truth, this article could stop here. Yes, it is my opinion that expensive mascara is, indeed, stupid. Now there are other makeup items too that I prefer to buy more inexpensively, but let's go on with mascara a moment. Not only do I find that most drugstore-priced from Maybelline, CoverGirl, and Revlon etc) mascaras greatly outshine their high-end brand (i.e. MAC, Urban Decay, Too Faced price-land) and luxury-brand (Dior, Givenchy, Charlotte Tilbury price-land) counterparts, paying upwards of $20 or more for a makeup wearer's most indispensable and most frequently-replaced item is pointless. Not to mention, it is not just that we use mascara (usually) every time any makeup is worn on the face, but mascara is always the first of all types of makeup items to go bad or at least to become unusable by having dried out, hardened in the tube, or becoming too flaky to use because it won't comb through or stick to the eyelashes properly.

Per most new health and safety guidelines out there, mascara should be tossed out every three to six months after opening, regardless of how much may remain in the tube. Upon my reading, this is a recently updated statistic from the former "change it every three months on the dot" argument. But no matter which set of guidelines feels more comfortable to adhere to, this still easily makes mascara the shortest-lived piece of make-up in our drawers, and it is also, by far, the most dangerous to keep using after its expiration date. Mascara is, by its nature, a wet substance. What this means is that it both has a lot of water present in its formula and the brush, which constantly is taken from and then reinserted back into the tube, is being placed directly on your eyelashes and the eye area is also moist. This creates a very wet environment for the wand to start breeding bacteria, and when whatever preservative system used in the mascara formula to keep it fresh, usable, and safe wears down, the formula is no longer as protected from any bacteria or from the exposure to the air that inevitably comes when you open and close the tube. And this is, again, talking about a product that is applied to the eye area, which is quite prone to irritation if not also infection. So to pay $20 (or easily more) for your favorite department store brand's mascara, and therefore, at minimum $40 to $60 dollars a year (depending on which expiration guidelines you follow) for something that essentially just turns your lashes black and makes them look just a bit longer and thicker than they naturally would be, is, to my mind, not the wisest way to spend one's beauty budget. And so many drugstore mascaras provide the same benefits (and many do them so much better) at a significantly lower price point. And even as drugstore prices continue to slowly climb, mascara is still one of the cheapest items sold by any brand that is less expensive. My favorites are several from NYX and L'Oreal and, for a mid-price, Glossier's Lash Slick. At $16 USD, that is the maximum I'd pay, but the formula is truly beautiful and is comfortable to wear on the lashes and ease on my more sensitive eyes. It is probably the best mascara I've used in three years and ranks among my top favorites ever. And I have gone through a lot! :). Still, with a lot of drugstore mascaras going for $12 or $14, Glossier's Lash Slick at $16 isn't that much more expensive and certainly still beats the $20-$30 or more price tag of the truer higher-end or luxury brands.

But with the rant about mascaras and mascara safety over and done with, I am now compelled to think about makeup in totality. Which items are the best to splurge on, and which are the best to save on? Here are my general rules of thumb.

Foundation and Concealer: Right out of the gate, this one is very subjective because it is all about which formulas are compatible with your skin type and which formulas have a shade that matches your skin tone. Higher-end brands do have more money behind them to, theoretically, create broader shade ranges, though drugstores-brands like L'Oreal for example , ironically, seemed to be (along with MAC on the higher end) among the first to start very diverse shade ranges and also take into account skin undertone (cool vs. warm). But as much as foundation and concealer are daily use products for most people, including myself, and as good as it would be to save money I have to give my vote mostly to higher-end, just because my skin is pale and it can be hard to find a shade for fair skin that does not go too orange for me at the drugstore. Plus, my skin is also very sensitive and drugstore foundations, at least a lot of them, seem to have a lot of added fragrance which can further sensitize my skin.

Eyeshadow: I almost always use and recommend higher-end brands here. Urban Decay has long had my biggest stamp of approval probably, but overall, I just find higher-end eyeshadows more pigmented and to be longer-lasting than the average drugstore shadow. Also, I find there's a wider selection of colors in higher-end brands in total than at the drugstore. This is not to say that there are not great, cheaper options or great random colors here and there from the drugstore or that, overall, the quality hasn't improved significantly over the last few years (it has), I just feel more secure with a higher-end eyeshadow purchase. And since I use powder eyeshadows which last a long time, I know my shadow collection is going to stay with me a long while, so I feel OK at the occasional splurge.

Eyeliners: Liquid or pencil: Here, we have the same issues, largely, as mascara, especially with liquid liners (or gel or cream) in particular. Many affordable ones exist across every drugstore range. Save the money, and feel OK about tossing the older products when you need to. Or just use eyeshadow, wetting it for more precise or detailed upper lashline wings and such, and, therefore, take care of two products in one.

Blushes: These largely depend on the color sought, but for the standard pink, plum, beige, or peach, or even coral blush, definitely you can save. Milani ones are great. I, personally, just have a penchant for red blushes and in truth, that is the only color I ever really use. That particular tone is not often found at the drugstore, except in cream versions upon occasion.

Lipliners: These are not a product I use very much at all. I never have in my life except for theatre makeup or the occasional headshot or other formal photography But in my experience, I see no difference between any formula of lipliner, and colors are plentiful and don't need to be EXACT shade matches to work with every lipstick one own. So you can save some money here.

Lipstick: I am speaking about the traditional bullet lipstick here. This is my area of weakness for makeup, so there are brands and shades from all price ranges I love. I say play and let shade preferences dictate. I will say,to me, any lipstick more than $30 is not worth it. Lipstick is easily dupeable as, usually, colors are easy to find matches for. Go anywhere to any brand, and you will find a gem somewhere.

Liquid Lipstick: I personally don't like this kind of product, as any one I have tried has made my lips peel in a big way. But higher end ones have done that less than cheaper ones, so I guess I have to say to spend the extra dime to get the best quality you can, or just skip liquid lipstick altogether. Instead, just get a regular bullet lipstick, apply it, really rub it in and blot that until it looks like a stain, then apply a second layer and give that a small blot. Using a lipliner will also not only prevent bleeding, but also offers an extra layer of color to wear against fading.

Brow Products: I don't have a lot of experience here, as I mainly have only ever used eyeshadow to do some minor filling in my brows, but I will say that drugstore brands have released brow pencils that seem quite thin and precise now, which is very different from how it was, even just a year or two ago. So, for what is, again, such a daily use product, I would say you can try the thinner options of brow pencils from NYX and be probably well-pleased. Same for pomades: the newer, lower-priced ones are on my radar.

Lipgloss: The product of our first-ever makeup wearing days at least for most. This kind of product started in the drugstore ranges, I believe, and there is where it is best bought from. All gloss formulas perform and essentially look the same to me,and colors are abundant at every price point. Very easy to save money here.

So these are just my general thoughts about where I splurge and save on makeup, knowing of course, that there are exceptions to every rule. And though I agree with my humorous sister that "expensive mascara is stupid'", the journey of product testing is simply fun for me, no matter what, because you never know which luxury item will be stellar and which cheap find will be a precious jewel.