Beauty on a budget

May 31 2008 by Hannah Davies, The Journal

IT’S official. The Bank of England has declared the “nice decade is behind us”. So, if you aren’t already feeling the pinch of the credit crunch, your purse strings may be tightening in the future.

The UK beauty industry is worth an estimated £3.7bn and expensive luxury products are big business. Profits at premium beauty website Space NK surged by more than 60% last year as women treated themselves to products such as Eve Lom’s £78 cleanser and Chantecaille’s £145 eye concentrate.

Luxury beauty can make us feel like a pampered princess, but beauty on a budget is not impossible.

MULTI-USE

Forget lining up the bathroom shelves with piles of products. Sometimes one wonder product has multiple uses, meaning you save on space and money.

Look out for ‘-in-1’ products such as The Body Shop Honey & Oat 3-in-1 Scrub Mask, £7.50, which cleanses, moisturises and polishes the body in one hit, or Neutrogena Visibly 2-in-1 Face Wash Mask, £3.79, which acts as an everyday facial wash or weekly mask for deep-down cleansing.

Must-have classics like Johnson’s Baby Oil, £2.35, Vaseline, 79p, Pond’s Cold Cream Cleanser, £3.99, and Nivea Creme, £1.49, also provide a multitude of daily beauty rescues including cleansing, moisturising and soothing.

BUY IN BULK?

Keep your eyes peeled for red-hot beauty offers. Superdrug and Boots are regularly rotating limited three-for-two or buy-one-get-one-free offers for bargain hunters so check the websites (www.superdrug.co.uk or www.boots.com) for the latest offers.

It’s worth buying in bulk to get better deals with your favourite brands too. Nails Inc, for example, are selling their new Hot Tropical Collection at £20 for four shades, rather than the usual £9.50 per pot (www.nailsinc.com).

CHEAP AND CHEERFUL

We all love splurging every now and again but if you’re cutting back your beauty budget, it’s worth trying out new, cheaper alternatives.

If you’re experimenting with new colours, it’s a great idea to try out daring new shades with less pricey beauty buys first before you invest. Who knows, that shocking pink lipgloss may look slightly shocking once it’s on your lips!

For pocket money products check out e.l.f make-up, all products £1.50 each (www.eyeslipsface.co.uk); 2True cosmetics, £1.95 each (Superdrug nationwide); Barry M Nail Paint, £2.95 each (www.barrym.co.uk); Natural Collection Tinted Lip Balms, £1.99 each (Boots nationwide).

DIY BEAUTY

If cheap and cheerful make-up products just don’t appeal, put your beauty budget towards basic ingredients and build up your very own line of cosmetics.

Beauty journalist Carla Oates has unveiled a rewarding way to create beauty products using everyday ingredients, detailed in her book, Feeding Your Skin.

“In our quest to look good and feel modern we have indiscriminately forsaken the knowledge handed down by generations of women – nutritious, homemade, cosmetic recipes from the days when women successfully looked after their own skin,” Carla explains. Chemicals and high costs, she argues, can compromise our wellbeing. She says: “Unfortunately, most beauty products are not very beautiful at all, and neither are their price tags.”