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?

So for bargain products I use at the moment:
.cocoa butter Vaseline which I think has been mentioned already (though if your lips are very dry go with something like o'keefes until theyre at maintenance level)
.cetaphil daily defense moisturiser with spf 50 (basically a good moisturiser with added bonus of facial sunscreen without the usual price tag)
. Aldi's healthy glow primer (especially good for breakout prone skin)
. Aldi rose facial oil (good for dry patches)
. Any pure micellar water (doesn't matter if it costs £1 or £10 it's the same thing)

I'll try to think of some more when I look in my bathroom cabinet

The Skinny Whip chocolate bars from Poundland. Game changing.

@meifly

Thank you so much!

I was lucky enough to get a jar one Christmas, to me it wasn't any different to the blue Nivea. It didn't give any improved results. Not that I expect blue Nivea to either. However for the price tag I thought it would.

I am just looking for a good cream that will or does reduce fine lines. Or that is good for daily use that will slow the ageing process?

What would you suggest?

I know there is no miracle cream but what do you suggest? Or is it just the luck if the draw and you either age or you don't?

Does water make a marked difference?

Not skincare but Fabulosa candles, anti-bac wipes and concentrated disinfectants, B&M bargains, smell absolutely gorgeous. I'm working my way through the different fragrances atm 😀😀

@MrOllivander

o'keefe body lotion in the yellow packaging. Sorted an itchy hand rash that even steroids hadn't worked on

Superdrug simply pure hydration serum

Salicylic acid soap from Amazon solved my back acne

Essence princess false lash mascara

Wet n wild highlighter mega glo (shade blossom if you're pale) all glow and no glitter

Superdrug vitamin e mist - is a Mac fix plus dupe

Bioderma shower oil. Lasts ages, value if you buy the huge bottles. Great to shave legs, shower with and can even wash hair with it

Any specific brand of soap youd recommend @MrOllivander?

@floofycroissant this one! I lather it up on a back brush as the last thing in the shower, apply it and let it sort of sit for a minute before rinsing
Cleared my back acne when prescription stuff hadn't worked

@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 😂

Can you tell us exactly which ones are the same?

@sophienelisse the closet thing I would say to a 'miracle product' would be something containing pharmacy grade retinol.

Not cheap but cheaper than creme de le mer for sure. Medik8 has some good options but it would depend on your skin type which worked best.

Another good product for what you are looking for would be the dermaquest peptide glyco cleanser - at £30 its pricy but it only needs using very sparingly so lasts forever (a pea sized amount and twice a week at most) - just moisturize like hell afterwards and always use sunscreen after use (same for any retinol)

While I'm sure there are cheaper retinol / peptide products out there I would not use any I didn't research thoroughly first as they could put in a tiny amount just to list it on the ingredients (so it would be useless) or at higher amounts it can actual damage your skin if in an unsafe formula

Aveeno baby 24 hour - only about £6,but also, often on a special in ASDA. This is now my daily moisturiser for face and neck. It would if made me spotty in my younger years, but now it makes my skin look dewy.

The ordinary azalaic acid, total game changer.

I swear by Essence False lash mascara. It's amazing

@HollowTalkI could probably get in trouble if I named the brands / products I managed but what I mean by identical or near identical is like this:

One client (brand a) was a supermarket backed own brand label, another (brand b) was a well known US headquartered international brand that would probably be considered mid level luxury.

Within the same week we had orders from both to run batches of their night cream jars. We realised while ordering the raw materials that the chemicals BOM for each was identical except the fragrance.

They had the same ingredients (except perfume), same mixing time, same filling process - literally everything except brand B had glass jars

When I was in the UK and saw them being sold I seriously couldn't believe how much brand B was selling for

Revolution 5D Lash Pow Mascara - it makes me look like I'm wearing falsies.
Olay daily glow polish, my skin has never felt so smooth and it helps brighten as well.
Asda hyaluronic acid cream and hot cloth cleanser, I think they're fairly new but they've both been great for my dry skin.
Revolution conceal and define foundation - I use it as a concealer on the days I don't want a full face and use it as a foundation for when I do.
Pantene bamboo and biotin shampoo and conditioner - my hair takes ages to grow because it's so thick, I started using this about 3 months ago and my hair has grown 2 inches at least which is a lot for me

Rose and Co Apothecary Rose lip salve. I have approx four tins, at any one time, and always take one out in my handbag. It's approx £2.50 on Amazon.

I think it's one of the few products to have survived when Rose and Co Apothecary shops, and online, ceased to exist.

Vosene. Contains sulphates but is otherwise a pretty simple formulation. I've had scalp problems forever and curly girl made them worse. Now use vosene as my cleanser (£2 or less a bottle) followed by all my favourite conditioners and stylers and my hair is pretty healthy and happy.

St Ives apricot face wash - a lovely exfoliate. Use it every other day and your skin will be glowing.

Rimmel Wake Me Up foundation gives a lovely dewy look - doubly good if you use their Fix and Perfect primer underneath. Both products are under £8

Bleach Reincarnation Mask - about £7 for 200 ml at Boots etc. Fabulous at giving body and definition to my fine (not bleached) hair. You don't need much so the tube lasts well.

(Originally recommended to me on this very board )

Oil of Olay the original pink one in the pink packaging. I keep forgetting to buy it though and it’s so cheap you can use it all over.

Atrixo hand cream.
The Bourjois CC cream - such amazing coverage, anti redness and extremely light on the face. So much better than all the more expensive Cc creams I've used. I had a little cry when they stopped selling this brand in the U.K.

For those interested in retinols, watch Nadine Baggott's videos. As meifly says, there's retinol and retinol and unless it specifies what type of retinol it is, and what percentage it is, the makers have put a tiny amount in that won't do diddley except let then stick a buzzword on the pot and a tenner on the price. (some for example are "granactive retinoids" and what this basically means is that on the bottle it will tell you 5%. That then needs dividing by 10 to get the actual active ingredient percentage, so 0.5%. The Ordinary was a bugger for this, and got into trouble for it, but have become slightly more transparent now- though you do have to look up their retinols and explanations. It still says 5% and 1% on the packaging.
Likewise vitamin C- it needs to be at least 15% to do any good and higher if it's certain types of vitamin C. Unless its stated on the packaging it might as well not be there. L-Ascorbic Acid is the best type.

I've just remembered (because I finished off my bottle last night) another great cheap product. Olay anti-wrinkle toner. £4.99 huge bottle. It's an acid toner (so like Pixi and all the others on the market) and it's the best I've used. It's packed full of niacinamide as well, so double whammy.

Nadine Baggott videos are worth watching for skincare- she says only 5 products are essential: a cleanser (anything you like, it goes down the plughole, no need for it to contain anything else) a moisturizer (ditto) SPF 50 (separate from moisturizer or makeup) retinol, vitamin C.

Anything else, acid toners, other serums and treatments are optionals. She recommends brands at all price points- lots of Superdrug as well as Skinceuticals.

@meifly, can you tell us which high street cream you'd recommend without telling us the name of its posher and more expensive twin?

Recommended on here several years ago and I’ve used it ever since.
Technic Megalash mascara from Amazon. Price varies from £2.50-£3.00.

Boots Original SPF15 Lipsalves £1.75 for a pack of two. Just brilliant.

If you want to buy cheap products, but don't like the sometimes naff packaging, I can recommend decanting the product into nice clear or amber glass pump dispenser bottles, which you can buy on Amazon. You can also put cheap moisturiser into a pretty glass jar. That's what I've done for years.

Just to add, I've noticed asda prices are different if supermarkets to asda home stores. My Pantene shampoo is £4 per bottle in supermarket but £1.99 in home store. No way am I paying £4 fro shampoo!

Collection 2000 concealer

Haven’t used anything else for 10 years as all others I’ve tried haven’t covered dark circles as well.