From the time I was a teenager, I was endlessly trying multitudes of beauty and skin care products in an attempt to find the perfect “miracle products” – the ones that would erase my blackheads, make my hair look shiny and full, and make my lashes long enough to touch my eyebrows. Even though I knew it was wasteful to buy a product, try it, and toss it, I was on a quest and nothing short of finding those miraculous products would stop me.

After moving away to college and supporting myself after graduation, I realized just how wasteful this futile effort was, but still the quest continued.  I longed to be the girl who was so comfortable with herself that her beauty routine was simple and inexpensive – a girl who could walk past the shampoo aisle without anxiously glancing at the myriad of shampoos and face cleansers on display . However, I wasn’t the financially wise woman I am today, so my seemingly unending spending spree continued.

About a year and a half ago, I made a break-through and learned something that has saved me countless dollars and minutes — and put my restless beauty-product-shopaholic mind more at ease: purchase one high quality product and stick with it.

I also realized that the best treatments for hair are only natural ingredients — such as olive oil, or yogurt, honey and egg. This realization has transformed the way I see beauty products and how I shop for them, in turn saving me tons of money. I’ve summed up my quest for effective, yet inexpensive products in 4 simple steps.

1. Do Your Homework

If you are looking for a product, be sure to do your homework and read the reviews before you ever purchase one. Create an account on a site such as www.makeupalley.com where you can read reviews of products and discover which ones are the highest rated and are most likely to work for your skin or hair type. Even Amazon often has reviews of beauty products.

2. Do a Test Run

Go to the department store and try some free samples of products you think are quality. Stores like Macys, Nordstrom, and Sephora will often give you a sample to take home before you decide to purchase. And remember if you use it a few times and don’t like it, you can always return it! Don’t be afraid of them if they initially look expensive, because a one-time purchase of a quality, effective product is actually cheaper than buying ten cheap and ineffective products that you will throw away. Also realize that just because a product is expensive and a department store brand does NOT mean it is necessarily more effective than a cheaper brand. This is where research comes in handy!

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3. Drop Some Cash Where Necessary

It is important to decide where you feel it is most important to spend the money for quality products. Choose selectively and buy cheaper brands of all the other things. I actually only find a handful of products that are worth high end prices. A few tips on what to spend on and where to scrimp:

• Buy drugstore lipsticks – Maybelline and Revlon have good lipsticks, and they are often on sale. Sometimes cheaper lipsticks are a little drying, so just put a dab of lip gloss (again I use $2 Wet n Wild — every bit as good as $20 Dior) on top. Buy drugstore brand eyeliners and lipliners. NYC, Jane, and Wet n Wild offer a perfectly suitable range of liners.

• Department store foundations, concealers, and tinted moisturizers are worth the money – and may save you money in the long run. Drugstore foundations are pre-packaged so it is not possible to try the color or get a sample. Every time I have purchased a drug store foundation, I threw it away because it either didn’t work with my skin (made me oily or dry etc), or it didn’t match my skin. With a department store brand, however, you can not only test the color, but you can also take home samples so you can find exactly the right product before you purchase. In addition, higher end foundations rarely clog pores and almost always give a much more beautiful, smooth finish than drug store brands. Given that you are using foundation all over your face every day, it is important that the foundation have good quality ingredients! However, if you are on a tight budget and cannot buy the high end, the drug store foundations that get the highest reviews are Cover Girl CG Smoothers Tinted Moisturizer, Revlon Color Stay, Revlon Color Stay Active, and Almay TLC Truly Lasting Color.

• While there are some outstanding high end mascaras, if you are on a budget there are some perfectly suitable drug store versions. From my personal experience and based upon reviews, Maybelline Full n Soft, Maybelline Volum’ Express Lift-Up, L’Oreal Voluminous, L’Oreal Bare Naturale, and Neutrogena Healthy Volume are great choices – and even better than some high ends I have tried!

• There are some excellent drug store eyeshadows that stay put, especially if you first apply a good primer such as MAC or Urban Decay Primer Potion. Revlon and L’Oreal Wear Infinite stay on well. However, steer clear of the cheapest brands like Jane or Bonne Bell – the eyeshadows I bought flaked, creased, and rubbed off within an hour or two of application.

• Stick to a more natural drug store brand of skincare product. I have gotten the best results from the following natural skin care lines: Kiss My Face and Burt’s Bees. Alba Botanicals and Yes to Carrots also have some good products. These lines are quality (more quality than department store skin care lines, and they are moderately priced). Other inexpensive lines formulated for sensitive skin (therefore containing more simple ingredients and fragrance free) are Eucerin and Cetaphil and some Dove products, such as the sensitive skin beauty bar.

• Beware of cheap shampoos and hair care products. They are formulated with harsh chemicals that can ruin your hair in the long run. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), Sodium Laureth Sulfate, or Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate are harsh cleaning agents that most shampoos contain that can cause hair loss. My whole life I thought it was normal to lose so much hair – until I stopped using shampoos with these harsh chemicals. Now that I use Aveda, I rarely see any hair fall. I advise keeping with gentle shampoos such as Abba and Aveda that are sulfate free. While they may be a bit on the expensive side, it’s worth it to keep the hair on my head — and keep it healthy.

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4. Use plain, simple DIY treatments

Instead of continually purchasing lotions and creams, simply buy a big bottle of extra-virgin olive oil and maybe a bottle of jojoba oil. Use them for conditioning your hair and skin.

It’s hard to resist the urge to try new products, but remember that simple is always better, and your skin and hair are not guinea pigs. By reading reviews, staying informed, and sticking to what you trust is quality, you’ll have the freedom to walk past the beauty aisles in the drug store without so much as a passing glance.

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Ashley Dutta grew up in West Monroe, Louisiana, and attended college at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she studied international relations and French. Over the past six years she has traveled extensively and lived in India, France, and Thailand. Ashley currently resides in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, Sunava, where she is pursuing her Masters degree at the University of Washington in South Asian Studies. She hopes to find a career in the non-profit sector and aspires to be a writer, an artist, and to found a make-up and beauty product consultancy website.

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