The Price of Beauty

Price of Beauty

With stores like Mac and Illamasqua bringing out collections every 1-3 months beauty supplies can leave our pockets feeling a little light. No wonder every beauty blogger/vlogger is constantly updating us with cheaper duplicates that we CAN afford.

But whats the price of other things that aren't makeup involved, like skin care, tanning, moisturizer, body butter, foot products,hair removal, nail paraphernalia, and hair care. Are these luxuries should we wash and go, or should we Pamper ourselves at a price?

In earlier posts about fakery and tanning, variation on maintenance is mentioned, and neighbors might think some looks need a lot of maintaining where as Facebook friend may think that is nothing compared to what they have to do to maintain their look.

An insight on what things cost is needed because everyone is wondering where their money is going in this recession, and surprisingly its only affected beauty quite delicately compared to fuel and groceries.

The average cost of things have gone up and more and more people are going without because of the recession.

Hair Removal

The daily mail said: "Every year, around £25m is spent on over the counter hair removal products" and every lady wants to be smooth a stubble free. Razor blades range from 10p to £10 then the replacement heads it can start to become a costly occurrence. Rust damage and not caring properly for your razor can damage it and need replacements quickly.
There is no reason that a razor head shouldn't last you a month even if shaving everyday.

An alternative to shaving is waxing because of the longer effects and over time your hair follicles cease to develop hair. Yayyy!
However its more costly over short periods of time and with added ouch factor its more hassle than conventional shower gymnastics with shaving.
A full body wax in central London can cost £175 with nostrils and a Brazilian included (nostrils??? seriously)
Leah Hardy a blogger for the daily mail recently tested the full body wax in her post.
Laser hair removal is also another route one can take to eradicating the hairy problem, Argos sell systems that can range from £90 to £400 where as laser cosmetic treatments can go into the £4000's depending on how hairy you are.

£4000 is a small price to pay compared to the many more thousands you might be spending just knocking a head off that is going to grow back time and time again.
Is this investment worthy of our vanity?

Hair Care

Shampoos and conditioners claim to boost body, give shine and make our hair grow, but infact they strip our locks of the natural oil it needs and then the conditioner puts it back in, making us think, What is the Point in that?

Back in the 40's - 60's weekly trips to the salon for a shampoo and set were all that was needed to keep their manes in check and daily or bi-daily home shampooing was taboo. Unless you were trained in hairdressing would you ever do it at home.

Beauty became DIY in the 70's for every household and home shampooing became the norm.

Simply put we idolize women of those times for there perfectly primped hair and it was all because of the LACK of shampoo not the source of it.

WE DON'T NEED TO WASH OUR HAIR!!!

But hair care and hair styling is a huge market especially now that every town has at least 5 hairdressing salons, our idea on hair beauty is to wash and wash again.

In shampoo there is an ingredient called sodium which is salt in a fashion. Salt draws moisture out of things which is why you see little packets of the stuff in electrical equipment that says DO NOT EAT.

This aids for the oil to be drawn out of our hair while leaving enough Sebum in there to make sure its not to dry and manageable.

Anyone that has their hair colour or highlighted knows that they sometimes have to get specialist shampoo so that colour doesn't fade and its still silky smooth to touch. These shampoos have less sodium.

Supermodels and Organic Hair

Miranda Kerr a supermodel has launched her own range of organic shampoo which doesn't include salt.

She has great hair and also married to Orlando Bloom so I'll take her word on hair as gospel.

I use treseme on a weekly basis just because my hair doesn't get greasy and I don't see the point of stripping it of the grease it needs when it doesn't have much anyway.

I am going to have a stab at organic hair shampoo and hope you will join me, I have bright red hair so if it works for me I bet it will work for anyone.

Here's a recipe I found on Google.

½ cup distilled water
¼ cup liquid castile soap (I like Dr. Bronner’s unscented baby mild… I can use it on my baby, too!*)
2 tsp avocado oil
1/8 tsp peppermint essential oil
1/8 tsp tea tree essential oil
1 tsp vegetable glycerin (optional, gives the shampoo a little more “body”)
10 – 15 drops of essential oils* (optional, but makes it smell goooood!)

Put the above ingredients in a bottle (you could even reuse an old shampoo bottle). Shake well before each use. Pour a little over your head. Lather good. Gently massage in the scalp for a minute or two. Rinse completely.

Skin Care, Face and Body

When I first started with makeup there was only wash it, moisturize it and slap it on, now theres toners, primers, concealers, BB creams and even CC creams, what next???
Daisy Duke Creams, slap it on ya face and ya bust gets bigger???

Plus who uses their conditioner as shaving cream and it works better than shaving cream, I know I do. There is a lot of double ups out there that you can use for both, however you can't use conditioner for your face.

Heres another recipe for face moisturizer I found on Google
Home made face moisturizer

4 Tbsp 100% Aloe Vera Juice (the drinkable kind)

1 tsp Vegetable Glycerine

6 drops Jojoba Oil
1/4 tsp Sweet Almond Oil

1 Container to keep the moisturizer in. (boots do a lovely clear bag with bottle and a pot)
Measure all of it into the container with a funnel and shake it to stir it. Its a watery product so shake well before use because the oil and juice will split.
Use with a cotton pad or CLEAN fingers. Wait for it to dry.

Perfect Gifts

Homemade luxuries make the perfect gifts too and they stop us from spending all holey hell in boots or super-drug (or Walgreen's if your American), Kirsty's homemade home is great for this kind of thing.

Compare and Shop Around

Amazon and eBay are amazing for makeup dupes and cheap used brushes, especially for the student or the beginner its great for when your running out of face and strapped for cash.

Avon is another great alternative, especially when you become a rep, if your living in halls you can pop a book under everyone's door and use the cash made for your own makeup. Your family can also buy off you.