1) Look Online
There are so many good places to get a good deal online. I particularly like shopping on Fragrance Direct, which of course sells perfume but also lots of beauty products. They have Essie polishes for just £2.99 and OPI for £3.49. Then there's lipsticks from the likes of Rimmel and Maybelline usually around the £2 mark, as well as plenty of face and eye products from all the usual brands you'd find in your local Boots or Superdrug. In addition to this there's also a few bits of Bobbi Brown and Mac, some of the discounts on these products are just a couple of £s here and there but they do have some MAC shadows for £7.90 which is a fair bit cheaper. If you're after hair products they stock brands like Tigi and for perfumes they pretty much have all of the ones you can buy at the perfume counters of a department store.
If you're wondering how to pick items out if you can't see the real product colours, I wouldn't go by the colour charts they give, they're usually a bit off.. if you like the look of a colour then look at the name of it, most of the items will also have a shade name and if you pop that into Google with the brand name too you'll usually find some one out there that's swatched that particular shade for their blog. That's the great thing about the amount of beauty content on the internet now, nothing has to be completely blind bought.
Another good place to look is the special offers section on allbeauty.com they're another discount beauty site, usually not quite as cheap as fragrance direct but they carry a lot of slightly higher range skincare like Clarins or Clinique, click here to check it out.
2) Look In Non Beauty Shops
Naturally when you're looking for beauty products you're likely to just pop into shops like Boots or Superdrug but sometimes it's worth checking out the smaller beauty sections in stores like Wilko that primarily stock homeware or household goods. The Essence stand in Wilko is a dream for those on the look out for budget beauty items that all come under the £5 mark. Their long lasting lipsticks are smooth and opaque and for £2.30 you really can't complain. I also love their lipliners, they have good wear and they apply evenly if you've prepped your lips well with a good balm beforehand. If you're looking to do that whole 90's Kylie Jenner lip colour 06 Satin Mauve lip liner is perfect for it and its only £1! A final recommendation from me is their XXXL nude lipgloss in 06 Soft Almond, this is a really flattering brownish nude, super comfortable on the lips and gives quite a good colour payoff for a gloss, this ones a steal too at £2. I'm definitely going to try more from the range, their liquid lipsticks look intriguing and I'd be curious to see how well their face products wear for such a low price point. If you don't have a store near you the Essence range is also available here via the Wilko website. Just as a side note f you do pop into Wilko some of their brushes are pretty great, the range with the orange handles, they're soft and again, well priced.
3) Try Out Smaller Brands
I've discovered a few lesser known brands recently that have amazing products that are ideal if you want to keep your beauty products at a budget price points and you're bored of buying from the same affordable brands at Boots, such as Collection or Seventeen.
If you're a complete beauty blogger junkie you may already consider these to be fairly well known because their praises have been sung across many blogs but in case you've missed them I'll mention a few favourites I've discovered and I've just placed an order to try more from.
L.A Girl is available here at BeautyBay.com. I'm not sure if they sell in stores in England but I've never seen them around. I discovered them through a beauty YouTubers and I've really enjoyed a couple of the products I've purchased. Their liquid lipsticks are great, they call them the 'matte flat finish pigment gloss' and they dry down to a very matte finish with great staying power. I have the shade Dreamy (a perfect 60's style peachy nude) and Fleur (on me it's quite a true peach, a little darker than most peach lipsticks) I love both and I think these might be a new addiction. I will say though they are quite drying so be prepared for that but I love the retro matte look that gives and I don't find them to be drying to an uncomfortable point. These come in at £4.99 really reasonable for a liquid lipstick, which often seem to be pricier than normal lipsticks I guess due to the long wear claims. Their lipliners are great too, theyre retractable so no annoying sharpening required, they're creamy so don't drag across the lips if you like to fill the whole lip in with the colour like I do and they only cost £2.49. Unfortunately I can't get their pro concealer to work on me, which is a product I've seen a few people rave about, it's a little thick and I find it hard to blend but I always like to try and make a product work so that I don't waste it so we'll see. I haven't tried loads from L.A girl but for just the lip products alone I'd say it's worth putting in an order.
Another brand who's products I bought on BeautyBay.com at the same time as L.A girl is Morphe Brushes. I bought a few of their brushes which ranged from around £5-£12 and they are such great quality, on the same par as something like MAC in terms of softness, I can't tell you how long they will last as I've not had them too long but they seem to be holding up really well. Just like MAC they have such a wide range of types of brushes for any need, definitely worth checking out. I also bought an eyeshadow palette from them this 35 pan matte one, which consists mostly of neutral colours and is so useful. You get such a range of colours for your money and when you think about how much individual eye shadows from brands that are well priced like Loreal cost, which many of us probably won't even get through, it makes sense to pick up a palette like this for just under £16 with all of the colours I'll probably ever need in one place. They're mostly all very soft and easy to blend, even for someone as cack-handed as me, not quite on a urban decay palette level but for half of the price your getting something pretty damn good.
So there are 3 of my tips and budget product recommendations, I hope I've not been too much of an enabler ahem and if I have at least these beauty buys aren't going to set you back too much! Now I'm currently lusting after more lipsticks I don't need but will some how justify to myself, dammit.
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