All those teens

[pancakes8]

Hey guys! I am a teen with a very low budget ($10-$25 a month) and I wanted to talk about how to budget and get cheap products, but products that won’t damage our skin. Personally I have combination skin, mostly dry on my cheeks and oily everywhere else, and I have been told by Sephora employees to try various “affordable” products that have damaged my skin. I have tried brands such as too faced, belif, boscia, etc. but only a few work. Let’s all take this opportunity to chat with each other and discuss problems and solutions we have and products we can recommend to one another.

[TrysBeautyItems]

@pancakes8 "Damaged my skin" meaning what exactly? Sounds like you have dehydrated skin, dry lacks oil.

Understanding ingredients and how your skin takes to them, helps a lot to narrow down what's good or not for your skin. May want to start with a dermatologist/doctor to get on a good path for your skin.

[SoraDixie]

As far as makeup goes, I would avoid Sephora and go for Ipsy, boxy charm, and again, Target. Target often gives you a $5 gift card with a $20 beauty purchase. Look up youtube videos with reviews on drugstore makeup products and try those out. 

[SoraDixie]

I would stick to drugstore products. When I told my dermatologist I was using CeraVe and Neutrogena she basically jumped for joy. It's fun to buy stuff from Sephora but completely unnecessary (and lots of their skincare stuff is over-hyped junk in a pretty bottle and you're paying a ton for marketing). Also, Target has a better return policy than Sephora (Sephora is 60 days, Target 90).

Timeless skincare has very basic serums, like CE+Ferulic which is the best vitamin C formula you can find, and it's only 20 dollars with discount codes you can find online (25 without it).

Another good option is BeautyFix. It's a beauty box with pricey products that costs 25 a month. I don't buy it because I don't feel like I need it, but it is a fun way to try new things. 

[mawwwish]

This is really good advice, I received the same advice when I started skincare in high school as well. I have a question with the return situation though. Let's say you use a product, but it doesn't work or it causes me to break out. can I actually return the opened product or do I just have to throw it away? Do you have any experience with this?

[SoraDixie]

Most of the products I have returned are used. The thing is you can’t use a ton of product and be allowed to return it. Kind of a bummer when a product says results won’t be seen for 60 days, but if it’s an issue like clogging pores or drying out your skin or making you break out that’s probably going to be noticeable really quickly. 

[slp66]

Hi,

I use Ebates to save money. You just go to their site, and they send you a check 3 or 4 times a year with everything you've saved.

The other thing is I find great buys at TJMaxx and Marshalls.

Good luck!

[pancakes8]

Thank you for letting me know. I’ll be sure to check it out!

[GG84]

@pancakes8 Are you referring to skincare or cosmetics?

[pancakes8]

Well really both, because we could all use either and we all need suggestions for either