Being a woman is an expensive business. Keeping yourself in moisturizer, make-up and all the other hair and beauty products to maintain your professional look can very quickly stack up. Not to mention manicures, perfume and the perfect pant suit.
Often as a woman you can find yourself forking out more dollars for those essentials than your male counterpart. A study conducted by Couponbox found that while men may pay more for a larger amount of the products surveyed, women pay for products at a higher rate. You could find yourself paying 317% more for female-marketed moisturizer than a male one and 42% more for keeping yourself in that all important feel-good underwear.
Here are the top four tips for helping you spend savvy on your beauty essentials:
Sneaky Swap
As a handy way of cutting your beauty spend it’s worth considering using the male version of products that are more expensive exclusively for being marketed to women (although perhaps stop short of investing in y-fronts, your undies need to make you feel just as powerful as your pant suit!). This will help you avoid the aptly named ‘pink tax’, a premium women often find themselves paying on products that are identical to the male equivalent except in branding and color.
Try swapping your Bic Soleil razors for the plainer male-marketed counterpart, testing out men’s moisturizer, or even braving a male-targeted waxing kit (boys use them too!). You could find these little changes make a big difference to your bank balance while still keeping you in the products you need on a daily basis.
Spot That Offer
Another great way of saving on your essentials is to look ahead. Make sure you know what’s in your bathroom cabinet before making your purchases and cash in on any special offers you see. If your favorite moisturizer or cleanser is on half price, snap up two or three pots for your stash. When you pop back to the store next week and see them back at full price you can feel smug knowing you have half-price bargains to see you through the next couple of months.
Check out the Competitors
Like any good businesswoman, keep an eye on competing products. It’s easy to get trapped into comfort buying your favorite beauty products, but chances are there’s a cheaper alternative out there that could do the job nearly as well. Next time you feel tempted to go straight to the Chanel counter, think twice and check out a more mid-range product, even if you end up settling for your old faithful in the end.
Stock up on Samples
finally, a free and fun way to save money on the contents of your beauty box is to collect all the samples you can. Often a little goes a long way and you might even find a new favorite among your array of goodies. Be shameless and hit the make-up and perfume counters, it always pays to try before you buy.
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