27 Women On The Beauty Item They Refuse To Spend Money On

Here at TFD, we are all about encouraging you to spend your money on whatever you want — no matter how “frivolous” it may seem to certain other people. As long as you’re building an emergency fund and contributing to your retirement, who cares where the rest of your money goes? That’s the exact point of discretionary spending: choosing to spend in a way that makes you happy, regardless of whether traditional finance experts consider it to be a good idea.

That said, sometimes our discretionary spending can get a bit out of hand, to the point where it’s not making us happy — it’s just a force of habit. In this week’s Making It Work, one woman explains what happened when she cut all makeup spending from her budget for an entire year. She’d become a little obsessed with watching beauty haul and tutorial videos on YouTube, and going on a makeup spending ban for a whole year forced her to reexamine her spending habits and decide which beauty products were actually worth the money to her. See the full video here:

In the spirit of examining all of our own beauty spending habits, we reached out to the greater TFD community to hear about the one beauty product (or service) they cut from their budget and don’t miss. Here’s what they had to say:

1. “A whole monthly ‘beauty box’ subscription. Shockingly, it did not magically turn me into a person who wears makeup.” – Maggie

2. “FOUNDATION. Focusing instead on treating my skin with toners and moisturizers is what I needed to achieve the ‘ideal’ that foundation was just emulating by covering my real skin and exasperating issues by not letting it breathe.” – Carissa

3. “Replaced my plastic razors for a good old safety razor, I buy the blades in bulk and they last me forever! Mother earth says thank you!” – Laurence

4. “Primer!!!!!! Ain’t got no time for that.” – Lauren

5. “Hair dye! Living the silver fox life and loving not having the root upkeep!” – Eliza

6. “LOTS of colorful nail polish. When I started undergrad, I painted my nails 2-3 times a week to coordinate with my clothes. I still like to throw on a fun color sometimes, but I’ve found that keeping them filed and clean keeps me feeling *polished* and professional.” – Lyss

7. “Shaving cream. Hair conditioner does the trick just fine and you can buy it in bulk.” – Angee

8. “Multi-step skincare. 1 face wash and moisturizer is all I actually need. No 12 step nonsense.” – Michelle

9. “Store-bought exfoliants. Now I just use a DIY mix that is 3 parts oat flour, 2 parts rice flour, 1 part loose leaf green tea. For $2.08 at Bulk Barn (or $16 if I use matcha green tea powder), I have enough scrub to last me 5-6 months of near-daily use.” – Robyn

10. “I switched out lotion for coconut oil and expensive razors for ‘disposables.’ So far, the disposables have lasted months longer than the expensive ones without any reduction in quality.” – Morgan

11. “Eyeshadow. It used to be my main makeup. Now I have none, and just do mascara and fake lashes.” – Angie

12. “Eye primer. Bye.” – Drea

13. “Foundation, powder, all that. Moisturizer is all I need.” – Courtney

14. “Feeling like I needed EVERY new/trendy eyeshadow palette. I use, at most, two neutral shadows on a day-to-day basis and if I’m ever feeling adventurous a little one-off color pan serves me a hell of a lot better than one of those massive products.” – Cait

15. “Super aggressive and expensive acne treatments. Turns out my skin just needed to be loved gently and hydrated.” – Emily

16. “The YSL Touche Eclait–  it really does, work but at £25 per pen, I can find a perfectly good concealer for less than half the price (also trying to buy animal-friendly brands).” – Sarah

17. “I stopped buying sheet masks when I realized I wasn’t sure if they were environment-friendly, as literally every pack of sheet mask (wrapper and the mask itself) is thrown after use. If I wanted to go extra with skincare, I just refrigerate my night cream and apply it cold.” – K.

18. “Honestly manicures. Clean nails are totally fine.” – Maria

19. “Makeup brushes! It seems like they have special brushes for every part of your face now, and I just don’t get it. I literally have ONE, that I got about 8 years ago from CVS. I use it every day and have it washed tons of times, still works great!”  – Jillian

20. “Setting spray. I just kept forgetting to use it after taking a break from makeup and found my make up looked no different without it. I still have half a bottle left of UD All nighter but I keep forgetting to use it as it’s so unnecessary and does nothing.” – Claire

21. “Liquid body wash. Dove works plenty well and keeps my skin in good shape.” – Diana

22. “Moisturisers, serums, eye cream, lip balm, exfoliators, body lotions and hair masks….all replaced with 100% extra virgin coconut oil. Smells lovely too!” – Lindsay

23. “Harsh astringents from the drug store.” – Miranda

24. “Eye cream! I just use my normal moisturizer around my eyes.” – Amanda

25. “Bronzer — I have come to embrace my paleness.” – Mary

26. “Toner, and body part specific moisturizer. Cetaphil is gentle, cheap, and works everywhere!” – N.

27. “Under-eye concealer! For special occasions, I might use some to look extra Fresh and Awake but on a daily basis I like the way my makeup looks without it.” – Allie

Image via Unsplash

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