Will the cost of living crisis stop you buying premium beauty brands?

[TheOGCCL]

Just wondering whether brands like Nars or Trinny London will suffer, or whether people will still spend up to £40 on a tinted moisturiser?

Of course it depends on your individual financial situation but I think many of us are going to notice inflation in one way or another. Often these sorts of items are seen as treats.

I'd probably prefer to cut out something else to make sure I can have my favourite products but it might stop me randomly experimenting with new stuff (rather sticking to tried and tested and something I know I will use up completely).

Cetaphil and cerave have made sure I’m sorted for skin care, and rimmel for make up, but I do have a few bits that have been a bit life changing that I got for presents, and I’m not sure I can give them up. Alpha h eye cream and pestle and mortar moisturiser and mac studio fx have done so much for me, and I’m not sure I can let them go!!!!

I use CeraVe cleanser. Use more expensive moisturiser and serum.
Use La Roche Posay sunblock and have just discovered Avene Cistaplast hand cream which is great for my health worker over washed and over sanitised hands!

No as they are just a case of the Emperor’s new clothes so I never buy them anyway.

In the last hour I have just ordered two different cleaning balms to try as I can't justify the Elemis cleansing balm going forward. They were £10 each compared to £44 for Elemis. I've also started using an Inkey list day time moisturiser and have also ordered the new revolution miracle cream to try. I've changed these bits so that I can still justify the sunscreen I buy and Elemis night cream which I wish I could find a cheaper alternative for but after years of trying various products I'm yet to find one.

Dear god what was that appalling noise over the end? I've had to mute it. My ears!!

Wrong thread!

I was thinking about this last night. DH bought me a Clarins set in the sale for my birthday, early January, so I’ll ask him to do that again. Chocolates for Christmas and reduced Christmas set of skincare for birthday.

I don’t use make-up every day. I’ve been using Clarins skincare for decades as it really suits my skin.

Can’t cut out sunblock though due to solar keratosis.

Like lots of posters, I won’t cut back my foundation which I know and love, but I am not going to be in the market for another eye palette for a while (that’s a good thing, I need to use them up!).

Cost of Living will hugely impact brands that were at a premium price point and doing well during lockdown when people had more disposable income. A Votary £80 face oil is going to be hard to justify when the Clarins £30 one is right there and so on.

I will only buy when there are offers on & only when I can get Boots points. I only use clinique & MAC makeup. For skincare I use No7, L'Oréal & Olay.

Yes and Boots points are good

I like the recycling scheme they run, I build up points then buy say Clarins or Clinique when it's gift time so it's essentially free

I do like L'Occitane but the Divine Immortelle 50ml is £80 a jar although I look out on QVC as never had to pay full price on there - I got 90ml for £90 and the serum is £46 normally but on QVC 2 are £62. L'Occitane sent me a 20% off voucher but QVC was still cheaper. I would like to continue with it as it does make a massive difference to me - I tried various other recommended creams eg Aldi Caviar and Nakin but neither float my boat.

When I retired I experimented with loads of cheaper products. Some I have stuck with eg Phoera foundation, Aldi hot cloth cleanser.
I went back to Clinique lash power mascara, elemis marine moisturiser, Ameliorate body wash and moisturiser. I now put these on my Christmas/birthday list and my family are glad for the ideas as I’m notoriously difficult to buy for.
If I end up buying I buy on offer/qvc, but if the products work I’d rather cut down on other stuff. Maybe cutting down on the supermarket bill will help me lose weight too!

I also have easy to please skin and am grateful for that -Superdrug hot cloth cleanser/glycolic toner, Garnier micellar water which is ALWAYS on offer somewhere and any old moisturiser does me fine.
I use Revolution 20% Vitamin C serum ( again, often on offer) and Dermatica retinol ( although I've paused my subscription as I'm not using it as often as I should and I've got tubes backed up). That's about it for skincare.

I love NARS foundation but have got some Wet and Wild from Boots recently on a whim and it's a pretty close dupe of my Sheer Glow shade and lasts just as well, so I'll bear that in mind when I run out.

Hypnose mascara is one I keep coming back to because it's excellent, however L'Oreal Lash Paradise has been the best of the rest that I've tried.

Revolution has great dupes for a lot of high end products - when it comes to lipsticks and eyeshadows if I find the colour I like then I'll buy it. I have so many already that I could sit out this and several more cost of living crises without buying a thing!

Oh and I've mostly shifted to dupes for perfumes unless there's one I can't find ( Dans tes bras by Frederic Malle is my absolute favourite and no bugger does it...)

I have a Liberty beauty drop subscription and will be keeping it as a way of treating myself each month to something premium. I buy the occasional beauty box too - the Next ones are good value.

I don't have a huge amount of spare money just for myself every month but I think premium beauty is quite good value for the amount of uses I can get out of a product compared to drinks out for example.

I have been keeping an eye out for the beauty advent calendars this year but feel they are a step too far and not something I can justify.

Surprised no one has mentioned The Ordinary yet - their serums and oils are really effective, don't set my bad-tempered dry skin off and are really not that expensive at all.

It's taken me years to get a skincare regime that works for me I'm not going to go through all that tweaking again and then spend money on trying to find cheaper products that my skin doesn't react to (and wasting money on those that have to go in the bin!) But I'm very fortunate that my mortgage and utility bills are all fixed quite low for a good while yet so I won't be as badly impacted as others. I save money where I can. I'm definitely using my car a lot less and trying to make sensible food choices at the supermarket.

I've been doing the Beauty Drop since Christmas as I wanted to a) finally splurge on a Proper Posh Calendar at Christmas this year as I've always planned to do this but then at the basket stage decided I can't justify the £. This means I can! And b) I loved the ideas of the quarterly box which on balance I've been very chuffed with especially as it's free.

Depending on how much I love the calendar I may keep on with the Drop as it's meant other than replacing items, knowing I have the box on the horizon I've cut back massively on beauty spends this year. I did buy the Ok Beauty one off box (well it will be when I cancel my subscription later! Mustn't forget!) as it was a bargain at £5 for the first month and a free mystery box worth £90. Seemed mad at a fiver not to go for it but it going to keep it for DD for Christmas.

I stopped buying premium brands years ago when I realised they weren't any better than cheap brands!

I recently started using Weleda Skin Food as a night under eye cream. A few months back I randomly started to get eczema under one eye (only there and never had it until now) and read this was good to moisturise the shit out of the skin in between break outs.

A combination of this applied very sparingly - although it's a multi purpose cream it should still last ages - and not buying any other eye cream for fear it'll flare up means I'm saving a load on eye products! Pleased to report it's been clear for almost two months now.

Oh and I've found any unwanted beauty items - especially the Beauty Drop bits - I easily sell on through Vinted

Definitely. I just had an email prompt from Next for a Laura Mercier product I had my eye on. When I saw it was £37 I thought I can’t justify that cost. I did Google and saw a similar version by the Ordinary for £5 which has good reviews so I will give that a try instead.

For me too.

I bought an £8 leave in condioner and then got a free Aveda one. There's in genuinely no difference between the two, so when they run out I'll be buying the cheaper one.

Bobbi brown prices seem to have shot up and I couldn't find any discounts - I couldn't justify paying the price at the moment.

I bought a 1 litre of Aveda Shampure from M&S when they had a 20% off , I top it up with smaller bottles when they have an offer .
It lasts about a year for me (even with my DS helping himself )

I didn't like the conditioner though.

I alternate this with Liz Earle ( bought from QVC) and occasionaly BodyShop Ginger (shampoo and conditioner ) if my scalp has a flare up . ( DS DH and DD also use BS ginger)

Buying these means I'm not tempted by other hair products which do not work on my hair and end up getting put in the cupboard for everyone else to use up .

For skincare , I switched to Alpha H , the products work well on my skin and its a simple routine . So again, I'm not looking at what else is out there .

Aveda , Liz Earle and Alpha H are not cheap ranges (and even BodyShop is more £ than it should be ) but work out cheaper than searching for something cheaper ( IYSWIM)

I don't buy too many premium products. Just Estee Lauder foundation and professional haircare (like Milkshake etc.). I already decided I will be looking for cheaper alternatives and I already found some. Foundation is pretty easy to replace for something around 10 quid. I also found good hair care, shampoos and conditioners for £7, mask £10. I love Tropic skincare which isn't the cheapest too. Switching to something costing half the price.

theres a huge difference between cheap shampoo & Aveda.

Is there? I was very resentful when I bought Aveda shampoo because I noticed no difference whatsoever compared to using a cheap supermarket shampoo. I felt mugged!

Same here. It smelled really nice, but it certainly didn't make any difference to my hair, only to my bank balance!