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How to Save Money on Makeup

By Frida Qi

Like many people, I love makeup. Particularly, I was a fan of doing eyeshadow, which could be a huge problem since I couldn’t help collecting the various colors of eyeshadow. But since I spent more and more money on makeup, I started being cautious on how I spent the money. Now, here are my tips on how to save money on makeup.

First things first—if spending money is purely a personal hobby that lights up your day, then please stop reading. I know people who “buy” their happiness. If you’re one of them, don’t be too harsh on yourself.

Ok, now if you’re still with me, let’s talk about ways to save money on makeup.

Use one makeup for as many ways as possible.

The best examples are liners and pencils. You can actually use one product, either eyeliner, lip liner or eyebrow pencil, for all the other purposes. I have a blue lip liner and I use it as an eyebrow pencil. It works pretty well, especially in Halloween makeup—looking blue is the kind of scariness that makes you stand out. This tip also helps you pack your bag when traveling, doesn’t it?

Let’s talk about brushes. I have to say that different brushes do have different uses. But again, if your aim is to save money, you can minimize the brushes you have. Many people have a box of brushes in all kinds of sizes. This indeed looks very professional but think twice when you buy another brush if you want to save money—try to combine some of them instead.

Buy samples.

How many of you have used up any color of eyeshadow? And how many of you have used it up before its due date? Using up eyeshadows is just HARD! So, to save money, what you need is a collection of a smaller size of different colors, which is, a sample!

Also, many samples are larger than you think. I bought a sample of a primer water. It was almost as big as my hand.

Buying samples can also save you money on unwanted products. You don’t need to regret for a lot of money even if you got the wrong product.

There are many websites that particularly sell samples. You can go ahead and have a look.

Look for sales, especially irregular ones.

We all know many products are on sale on some specific days, such as the Black Friday. Actually, however, there are more sales out there! Many brands have irregular sales on some random days. For example, many have sales during the pandemic. So always keep an eye on the official websites of your favorite brands.

You can also follow some makeup influencers on social media—they often tell you when and where something is on sale.

Stop buying lipsticks!

Plenty of people have a penchant for collecting lipsticks. Lipsticks are usually not the top luxuries, but they satisfy you. Particularly, do you feel you spent more money on lipsticks during the pandemic? If so, you are probably influenced by the Lipstick Effect—people tend to spend more money on luxuries that are not super expansive, such as lipsticks, during an economic crisis. So, give yourself a breath if you are buying lipsticks: you are just one of the people in the crowd.

However, if you do want to change something, think in this way: Lip sticks also have due dates! Collecting them sounds amazing, but it is never fun when you have to get rid of these newly used, still pretty lipsticks when they are overdue.

How do you like the tips? Saving money on makeup is not mysterious at all. Hope these tips help you!

Qi is a senior at the University of Missouri.

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