Why "Bargain Basement" Deals on High-End Beauty is not Necessarily a Good Thing

There is often a struggle for those of us who love to explore and play with beauty products-- saving money versus try all that we can of what's out there. I more than sympathize with this tug-of-war and find myself caught in it more often than not, and while there is an ever-growing plethora of drugstore-priced products that not only rival but that I would put above their luxury-brand counterparts, there is a certain feeling of fanciness and finery and pleasure that one gets from swiping on a Tom Ford Lipstick or swiping on the creamy, glimmery Urban Decay eyeshadow. Finding a sale, discount, or promo code to deduct a percentage off of these higher-priced goodies can be an infrequent thing, so when one pops up, it can feel like our lucky day!

There is one way, however, in which I do not recommend buying designer and luxury-brand beauty at lower costs, and that is looking for these brands on secondhand or discount sites or brick-and-mortar stores. In the physical stores especially, you can happen upon trinkets such as Charlotte Tilbury eye pencils, Stila Glitter and Glow Liquid shadows, and in a lot of cases limited edition or no-longer-manufactured shades and products, all with the prices significantly dropped if not totally slashed. It is the thrill of the "surprise find" and scoring a deal rolled into one. However, buying beauty from these kinds of stores and platforms may not be as appealing as it seems for many reasons including--

No Sampling (though others may still try to): Department stores and dedicated beauty stores like Sephora and Ulta have enough and consistent enough product to have a one or a few testers of a product on display (or the ability to make individual samples upon requests) for their customers while still keeping a sufficient number of that product in all available shades in boxed, unopened, and sealed packaging. This gives a buyer a chance to see their shade of a product and look at and swatch the formula with the tester but also assures that when one actually purchases the product, that they will get a brand-new one in prime condition and untouched. Discount stores, by contrast, have such limited and changeable inventory that there is often not enough volume of any one thing, shade or item in general, to make samples or testers. This means that, assuming the item is boxed, you are buying a product completely sight unseen (and in many cases discount stores often exclude beauty items in their return policies), and, therefore, you have no idea what is its condition until you get it home. And because of the lack of samples, people can treat the actual item available for purchase as a sample and take it out of the box to swatch and test it but put it back in the box, contaminating the product you're buying.

Happening on Old Product: Like all companies, a beauty brand's primary goal is to make money and they do this most optimally by selling their products to the most people at full retail value. Therefore, it is a good assumption that most of the items that get sent to discount stores are the items that either aren't selling or the brand can no longer sell at full price. This goes back to the chance lucky finds of limited edition or discontinued items that sometimes happen at discount retailers or secondhand ships or sites. The reason why many of these items show up at these places is because they are often out of date, and even if the product is still currently being sold by the brand, the particular version of the item might often be old or at least not as new and fresh as it might be in a more authorized retailer. Makeup and all other beauty items have a shelf life after opening, but even if left completely unopened and sealed, the ingredients still can age to some degree and affect not only the product's potency or performance but also may make it unsafe to use. You can read my article on some of the dangers of using expired beauty products here.

Ending Up With a Fake: This is a possibility definitely applies more to buying steeply discounted beauty from unauthorized sellers on the Internet, but it is very possible to end up with a totally phony product of the website being used is not checked or vetted by the ocmpany itself. It is so easy now to screen grab images of bottles and outer packaging and even ingredients lists on a product listing only to fill an identical bottle to a product with a tampered or incomplete formuka instead. You might be paying less for a high-end product, but there may or may not be a guarantee of the product your buying actually being the real thing. And especially with the beauty industry, especially the luxury beauty industry, having such popularity and allure, some of these listings can just be scams to take someone's money and they end up with no product whatsoever.

While it is always good to save a bit of money especially on things that are as fun and exciting as luxurious beauty products, sometimes "too good to be true" can be just that. Everyone must use his or her own judgement and come to their own decision, but if there is ever a seed a doubt about the safety or the freshness of the beauty item your wanting to buy, or about the place you are purchasing it from, I would always encourage you to trust your instinct and perhaps pass it by.