Beauty on a Budget💸

Hey guys,

Today I thought I would write about how to look and feel great on a budget! There are many ways you can save your money when it comes to spending. I've come up with 6 tips, tricks and ideas you can use to save your money!

1. Discount codes! - it sounds really simple and obvious but using discount codes online can really help you save some money. Sign up for newsletters to see when they have sales, free shipping and even email exclusive discount codes, is an effective way to save up on money.

Student discount is the best way forward - sign up with unidays or NUS for discounts to not only fashion and beauty stores but also restaurants and even days out. With NUS, you are eligible for a card from sixth form/college to university, and if you're not a student then ask a friend or family member!

Tip: my friend's trick is to to google some NUS card numbers and change the last number if the original one doesn't work! With student discount, always remember that stores will often boost the discount from 10% to 20% - I've found that they usually push the discount to 20% when student loan drops (Mid-end of September, Beginning-Mid of January and end of April), so if you're not desperate for your items, wait a bit and see when the discount rises to 20%!

Googling discount codes for the website you're shopping from will show you what's available as well as which ones have worked for other people. ALSO - let social media be your best friend💗 Often, brands and stores will throw in a discount code on their social medias (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram), so look out for those before you checkout and purchase your goods!

2. Dupes - Often you will see a great product being promoted or spoken about by a Youtuber or Blogger, but when you hear the price point you hesitate and feel that sense of disappointment. Do you really want to spend £35 on a lipstick? There are so many dupes and makeup brands that will do cheaper alternatives to what you want!

The most notable makeup brand that does dupes would have to be Makeup Revolution. Their products are actual dupes of high end brands, they really don't hold back. For example:

Redemption Palette Iconic 3 (£4)

Urban Decay Naked 3 Palette (£39.50)

I Heart Eyeshadow Palette Chocolate and Peaches
(£7.99)

Too Faced Sweet Peach Palette (£39.00)

Makeup Revolution Vivd Shimmer Brick
Rose Gold (£3)

Bobbi Brown Shimmer Brick Compact
Bronze (£35)

There are other brands that do great dupes and alternatives for high end makeup - (Check out my Kat von D Tattoo Liner Dupe post). Some great (cheaper) brands like Colourpop, Freedom, Sleek and E.L.F produce some really good quality products for sometimes half the price or even more! Can you believe the Makeup Revolution Shimmer Brick costs over 10 times less than the Bobbi Brown one?! The shades are near identical!!

3. Multi purpose items - If you're just starting out with makeup, then a great way to start your collection without breaking the bank would be having products with multiple use! This might mean buying a contour palette but also using them as eyeshadows, or buying highlighters (like the Makeup Revolution Shimmer Brick) with multiple colours in it and use some as lid shades for your eyeshadow, inner corner highlights etc. The great thing about shimmer bricks is that you can mix and match your shades and create different looks each time!

You could use concealer as a eyeshadow primer base, a face powder to set your eyeshadow base, an eyeliner pencil as your eyebrow pencil (NYX do one), you could also use a blush palette for eyeshadow as well, and buy a lip and cheek product like the Benetint or this Kiko one! Be creative with what you can achieve with your makeup - there are no rules with makeup♡ this is also a great trick if you want to travel light!!

4. Deals - Similar to the discount codes, look out on social media and email newsletters for any deals the brand may be doing. This might be 3 for 2 on beauty and cosmetics (Boots and Superdrug do this quite often), 2 for £x on clothing items or sale items on a selected line or brand. In general, look out for when your favourite product is on sale, especially skincare and day-to-day use items like moisturisers, makeup remover, nail polish remover, face wipes - Boots and Superdrug often will have discounts on your favourite items, stock up when you see your everyday item on sale even if you aren't running out any time soon!

5. Know where to shop - one brand might be stocked in multiple stores and websites. For example you can find Urban Decay on Debenhams, the actual UD website and feelunique; or Adidas clothing and trainers on Asos, Office, Schuh, Footlocker, JD Sport, Urban Outfitters, Zalando and more!, Maybelline at Boots, Superdrug and FeelUnique. Knowing where to shop may give you the opportunity to save money, sometimes stores and websites will have a product discounted but the same product at another store may be more expensive or even cheaper.

FeelUnique will often have offers on some great drugstore (and high end) products and brands. You can even do a 10% discount on a 'Brand for Life' selected by yourself so for 6 months you'll be able to save 10% on that brand no matter what you buy! The website always does x% off from everything from Benefit or Maybelline or other brands so look out for those. Not only that, FeelUnique offer a 'Subscribe and Save' option where you save 5% off every time you repurchase an item!

Buying really basic things like toiletries is an easy way to save money, not only from looking out for discounts but also where to shop - stores like Savers and Primark will actually stock some of your essential items for way cheaper than where you may usually shop. The other day I bought a Vaseline tin for 80p from Primark whereas at Superdrug its £1.95!! Shopping as Savers is great too, you'll get all sorts of products for a great value, buying things like moisturisers, makeup remover, sanitary products and lots more for cheaper!

Places like Boots and Superdrug may tend to have their products more expensive than other places because people will tend to buy whatever they need there, whereas no one really thinks to go to Savers or Primark to buy these things - also these stores bulk buy their products so they can sell it for cheaper as well.

6. Loyalty schemes - You will never lose anything from signing up to loyalty schemes. Boots and Superdrug are great ones to sign up for so whatever you buy, you'll get points for it and you can either save up your points to buy a more expensive product (like perfume or a high end makeup product), or use your points on a daily basis to buy your everyday essentials. I do prefer the Boots advantage card over the Superdrug one because with Boots, I get quarterly coupons to use, these may be double points when I spend over £15/20, Triple points when I buy 2 haircare products, and money off too! You'll never lose anything from signing up - the worst would be having an extra card in your purse!

Often when you join loyalty schemes you'll get discounts or benefits along with them, like the Boots coupons. For example, the FeelUnique has a 'My FeelUnique Platinum' scheme whereby the amount of money you spend on their website will accumulate and once you pass a certain amount spent (eg £10, £50, £150 total) then you'll get money off your next shop!

Asos also has a scheme like this - which is great because with Asos, not only can you get student discount, but you can buy such a range of things from there: beauty, clothing, haircare, shoes!

I hope you all found this post useful and helpful! And if you have read until the end then thankyou!!! You're a star💖

Thanks so much for reading!

Lots of love
xoxo