Cheapo products that are secretly amazing?

[Gmamaofboys13]

Following on from the Nivea soft thread (under £5 on Amazon)...what other hidden treasures are there that I don't know about?

I've found carmex original lip balm in a tub to be amazing. Costs under £3

L'Oreal dream lengths shampoo/conditioner has really sorted my hair out. On offer it was £2.75 for 500ml.

Garnier hand repair hand cream 75ml is so good, cost £2 from Amazon

Garnier hair food, I think I have the brown one with macadamia oil. £3.50 for 500ml

Sudocrem for acne and sunburn, recently bought 400g for £5.75

Any other suggestions?

I buy the midnight blooms spray by zoflora. It smells just like alien. Which I quite like.

I've just bought the Aldi oppulance spray which smells like decadence perfume.

They are anti bac sprays.

Lidl's face cream is really good. I think it's called Cein. The night time moisturising cream is so rich and luxurious. I find a lot of creams sit on top of my skin not doing very much. The Lidl cream seems to soak right into the skin giving it all the moisture.

I also rate Primark's nail varnishes at only £1 each and also a shimmer type light foundation that I bought there a couple of years ago. A little application over the Lidl moisturiser and my skin has a lovely glow.

Oil of Olay beauty fluid
Maybelline Great Lash Mascara
Atrixo handcream

Revlon photoready 3 in 1, it was about £3.50 on Amazon in the fair colour.

Child’s farm hand cream
The ordinary skin care

I'm going to let you all into a little secret ... these top end and own brand products ... same exact thing

I worked for years in a cosmetics R&D and filler in China. I managed the accounts of several well known international brands that were produced there.

The majority of products we made their were identical or near identical to the generic.

Add 1mg of pearl essence or 1 ml of vitamin E to a 3T vat and you can list it on the ingredients and triple the price tag 😂

@meifly

Is creme de mer worth it? Or is it just Nivea with a different smell?

What products do you use/ recommend because of your knowledge?

Following on from the suggestion to use Badedas bath gel in the shower (agreed this smells amazing), thr Avon bubble baths are great in the shower too, on a puff, and they are often on special offer.

Oooh loving this thread.

Agree about Hydraluminous (just discovered few months back).

Aldi Hemp hand cream for very dry skin is amazing. £1.19 and better than Body Shop's at £9 which I used to buy.

Badedas smells fantastic- my DH has always used it and both teen DS love it now too. My skin's too sensitive for it, sadly

Avon ultra moisturising Anew lipstick (silver tube) is fab. £10 and better than any I've ever used, including Chanel/ Mac. I get compliments constantly wearing the dark Coral.

Any recommendations for an under eye concealer? I have dark circles, thick concealers make them look worse. At the minute I'm using No7 liquid- it's okay, not mind-blowing and not that cheap. Luminous would be good.

I really wouldn’t say Carmex is amazing. I thought it was well known it was terrible for your lips? The ingredients are irritants to get you to keep buying.

@Snoopdogsbitofposh the Maybelline Eye Eraser is my go to. I use it as a general concealer but works wonders for my dark circles.

Oooh must try the Avon lipstick.

Nivea intensive hand cream (dunno what’s in it but it beats everything else into a cocked hat and I only grabbed it as a stop FAO.)

L’Oreal wonder water for hair (a pre treatment, oily water, don’t understand it, but it’s great for smoothness on straight and curly hair).

Cocoa butter Vaseline. (Vaseline but kinder- very cheap. Now use it where I used to use £££ 8 hour cream).

@sophienelisse, the reason creme de le mer is so expensive is that it has a long fermentation process to supposedly get the best out of its ingredients. You can buy other high quality seaweed products which are a fraction of the price and similar ingredients but without the 3 month + processing time (the average face cream takes about 3 days to go from raw ingredients to packaged product depending on batch size). Weather this makes it worth it or not I don't know as we never made it at my workplace so I can't speak to how much effect the fermentation actually has.

Personally I haven't been tempted to try at that price tag!

In terms of products I like and use there are a few expensive products that are genuinely worth the price due to their ingredients and effects but those tend to be things you can't find cheap versions of.

I'm not really sure which things you want listed but happy to give recommendations (there are certain things that generally depend on skin type / condition etc.)

@meifly

I'm going to let you all into a little secret ... these top end and own brand products ... same exact thing

I worked for years in a cosmetics R&D and filler in China. I managed the accounts of several well known international brands that were produced there.

The majority of products we made their were identical or near identical to the generic.

Add 1mg of pearl essence or 1 ml of vitamin E to a 3T vat and you can list it on the ingredients and triple the price tag 😂

Why am I not surprised?

Any particular bargain favourites that you use yourself?

Not the cheapest but not super dear, I love the maui tubs of hair mask.

Palmers coconut hand cream is the best for me.

Also just to add that the products I worked with personally so know most about the chemical make up of were generally skin care or fragrance (which were made in our awesome 'explosion proof' area as they have an alcohol base)

Beauty Bays big £10 eyeshadow palettes. Never looking back.

Primarks single pair dramatic eyelashes in the white box, they are awesome too

Most of my bargains have been mentioned already:
Superdrug Hot cloth cleanser (i also use the day and night creams)
Essense (?) mascara from Wilko
Aldi rip off pixi glow toner
I have just bought the Gruum facial sunscreen too
Also, Aldi rip off of The Sanctuary bath soak.

All of the above are also cruelty free

@AmbushedByCake1

I love Dove pro age shower gel. Big bottle for £2, lasts ages and really moisturises my skin.

Superdrug foot moisturising bootie things, about £3. You soak your feet it them for half and hour or so and bingo: soft feet!

Can someone link me to the exact foot sock thingies please, is it just any of the Superdrug brand ones?

Poundland's £1 Slay the Brow brow gel in blonde. Not gingery, looks very natural and has incredible staying power. Unfortunately it seems to have been discontinued - I stocked up but am going to be bereft when I run out.

Ooh and Primark 3 in brow pen and Essence nail polish

Savers sell Bioglow and inecto body lotions for £1-2. Admittedly they have a slight synthetic scent but leave my skin very soft, don’t irritate it and are vegan friendly. The inecto body I like too when I can’t be bothered with making my own.

Aldi Lacura night cream (think it’s their q10 one, in a red pot) is good.

Alberto Balsam blueberry or strawberry conditioner is lovely and 99p. I follow the curly girl method as do my kids and it’s brilliant. I especially like it after swimming as it combs out and is less knotty.

TheChurchofEli I'm buying that eye eraser tomorrow.

Agree with Vaseline Coco Butter- brilliant stuff. Have one in every hand-bag and all my boys have one in school bags. DH swears by the Aloe one.

Avon avocado body lotion in the huge, pump action packaging is wonderful on my v dry, sensitive skin and a massive bargain.

A flannel.

Rinse it in very warm water , unfurl and place on face.
Then use it to exfoliate then immediately put Aldi facial oil on and/or Botanics Rose moisturiser.