Looking Expensive When You're Actually Broke As Hell

I'm extremely tired of beauty gurus and the makeup industry acting like it has to cost a fortune to feel beautiful. I call BS. Here are some of the ways that I cut corners when I'm painting my face!

Eyebrow Pencils

Great eyebrows are what we all strive to have, but never feel like you need to go outside of your budget range to have them. To be perfectly honest with you, eyebrow pencils are just crayons for your face. Whether you go Crayola or whatever Dollar Tree has in stock, you can whip up something nice looking. For comparison; an Anastasia Beverly Hills Eyebrow Pencil costs 18 USD, while a L’Oreal Brow Stylist Definer cost 7.99 USD at the drugstore. You can do the math on that one.

Lipstick

Kylie Jenner made selling overly expensive lipsticks into a booming business, but if you read the ingredients on one of her lip products, you’ll find that the list is shockingly similar to the formula used by ColourPop. The cheapest Kylie Lip Kit you can find will cost 30 USD, while ColourPop’s lipsticks rarely cost more than 6 USD. I’ve never used a Kylie Lip Kit, but I have used Colourpop many times and they are definitely one of my favorite brands (and you don’t have to give money to a Kardashian to get it)!

Highlighter

Highlighter was a huge trend a couple months back, but it’s still as expensive as ever. A full size bottle of Benefit Cosmetics’ High Beam Highlighter costs 26 USD. I actually once bought this product with a gift card, and I won’t lie and say it doesn’t look nice. However, a big downside was that I had to use a lot of it to get my desired effect, and I ran out of it super quickly. I felt like I was burning up dollar bills every time I put it on my face. Wet n’ Wild makes great highlighters that are much less expensive, such as their MegaGlo Liquid Highlighter. This dupe will cost about 5 USD depending on what drugstore you shop at. Also, if you want to join in on the holographic highlighter fun, don’t spend 20 USD on the Moonchild Glow Kit by Anastasia Beverly Hills. Use eyeshadow singles from the drugstore instead! Since you don’t have to worry about crinkles or smudging when eyeshadow is on your cheeks, you can pretty much buy any shade that catches your eye without worrying about the brand!

Lip Gloss

Let's just talk straight facts here. Glossier makes a clear lip gloss for 14 USD, and e.l.f. makes a clear lip gloss for 2 USD. e.l.f. also makes a lip plumping serum for 5 USD. You can get glossed and plumped for a whole $7 less than what Glossier is trying to charge you for what you can basically accomplish by licking your lips. If Glossier's price hiking sounds sus to you, that's because it is.

Eyeliner

Again, it’s a crayon for your face. So let’s talk about liquid eyeliner. Kat Von D sells her Tattoo Liner for 20 USD a pop. I have been wearing liquid eyeliner nearly every day since I was in the seventh grade, and my favorite liner of all time is the L’Oreal Lineur Intense. It costs me 8 USD, and lasts upwards of a month. I'll admit that I've never tried Kat's liner, and I'm sure it's great, but I can't imagine what more my eyeliner could be doing. For $20, it better be doing my makeup for me.

Mascara

This is probably the overpriced makeup item that frustrates me the most. There is only so much mascara can do, and the differences between drugstore and high-end brands are so minute that I’m not convinced they exist. However, if you’re positive that Too Faced’s Better Than Sex Mascara is absolutely going to change your life, here’s how you can save some cash while still getting the fancy stuff; mascara has less to do with the formula, and everything to do with the wand. Better Than Sex will cost you anywhere from 12 to 30 USD depending on where you buy it from. Once you’ve bought it and used the whole thing up, do not throw away the wand. Instead, buy a cheaper mascara (my favorite is Covergirl Lashblast, which is around 6 USD) and use the wand from the expensive mascara in the formula for the cheap one. That way, the money you shelled out at Sephora is more like an investment than a splurge, and you’ll never have to spend that much on mascara again (I’m not a doctor, and I’m not sure what kind of eyeball germs live on mascara wands, so make sure to wash it every once and a while)! If you're not about all that then trust me, Lashblast will keep you looking cute as ever!

You are gorgeous no matter what your credit score is.

I hope this list was helpful to someone out there! I know it’s sort of a clickbait-y thing to write about, but I get so genuinely frustrated by how expensive makeup can get. Years ago, I would feel so ugly when I couldn’t afford the hot new products, but I know now that my money would have been wasted. Often all you pay for is the packaging and the name on the label. Don’t buy into their game, and keep your hard earned cash in your pockets where it belongs! And for the love of God, don't spend more than $10 on mascara.