Food, Home and Style

Five Surprising Ways to Stretch Your Beauty Buck

Makeup is about beauty, and that extends to the packaging. We love shiny lipstick cases that snap shut, perfect eye shadow palettes, pretty bottles and boxes.

So you might think there’s nothing beautiful about an eye shadow compact held together with duct tape or a nub of concealer mashed into a jar. But especially if you buy high-end beauty products you can save a pretty penny by squeezing every bit of use out of them.

Here are five ways to save money on your gorg-ifying regimen. And if if makes you feel better, I’ve never seen a professional makeup artist lay out a row of pristine cases to work their magic. They mix, smash, drip and re-package.

Mend your broken makeup

When I was more free-spending, a dropped eye shadow would result in some mild cussing and another $15 charged at the makeup counter. But when I was unemployed and smashed a favorite MAC powder, it seemed crazy to spend so much on a little circle of pigment. Turns out, you can fix a broken shadow with a few drops of alcohol and a few other household items. It’s fiddly, but actually kind of fun.

Dig deep

Cosmetics that come in tubes—lipsticks, cream blushes, foundations—are all held in place by a stump of product. When you think you’ve reached the bottom of your favorite red lipstick, scrape the rest out with an orange stick and smoosh it into in an inexpensive container. (Muji has tiny plastic jars for 99 cents.) You might be able to get 10 or 15 percent more use out of it.

Take avantage of trade-ins

Save those empy containers! For every six you return to MAC, you get one full-sized lipstick. You can even do it by mail.

Dilute your foundation

Add a drop of light moisturiser before applying and stretch that pricey base as far as it can go…

Swap and sell

Believe it or not, someone might be willing to take your used cosmetics, especially if it’s something that can be disinfected with alcohol. MakeupAlley has a whole section devoted to trading beauty products. Thanks to Hilary for this tip

Tags: beauty, new frugal, Spending and Saving, style, tips