Messy Messy Fail - Our house cleaner was just here and the house is already chaos. Trying to decide if goals for our spring vacation should be specific or just clean entire rooms, hmmm....Tidy Victory - Ahhhh just went shopping today and Easter baskets for the boys are done, phew! Putting together a Paw Patrol basket for the toddler and Thomas the Train for the baby.
As you may recall, I try to be quite frugal (cheap!) as often as I can, including with some of my beauty items. I find it quite amazing how much can be spent on creams, lotions and other beauty items that claim to practically change your life! Does that cream pick up dog poop, fold laundry, vacuum floors? Then it's not changing my life. End of story.
Here's a quick list of my 5 favorite frugal (cheap!) beauty saves that I myself use:
<One> Baby Oil as a Body Moisturizer - When I was pregnant with the baby, I'm not quite sure what he did to my body but I became dryer than the Sahara desert. It didn't help that the 2nd and 3rd trimesters happened during the winter months but my goodness, I felt like I was shedding an entire layer of skin every day. After a nice shower, I found that literally covering myself in baby oil (be careful don't slip!) helped keep me moisturized for the day. And when you can get a giant bottle of it for $2 and change with a generic brand, you can't beat that price! I prefer the oil with aloe and vitamin E.
<Two> Baby Oil as Eye Makeup Remover - I used to pay about $15 for a 3.75 oz bottle of a very nice eye makeup remover, but I would go through it easily in a month or two. I had also tried some of the drugstore brands like L'Oreal and Maybelline, but they would sting my eyes and that was no good! My mom, Nana Patti, suggested I try baby oil to remove eye makeup since I had stocked up on so much of it to keep my skin from completely sloughing off. I had seen recipes online for makeup remover using water, baby oil and baby shampoo before. I'm telling you people, plain old baby oil does the trick! I can get my waterproof mascara off with it AND it moisturizes my horribly dry under eyes as well.
<Three> Witch Hazel as Face Toner - A few years ago, my husband and I took the toddler (when he was a baby) on a vacation to the Outer Banks and I forgot to bring my face toner with me. I typically used the L'Oreal Toner which was nice, about $4.50 with my L'Oreal coupon for an 8.5 oz. bottle. So I went to the local Food Lyon to pick some up and they had NOTHING. Literally no face toner in their beauty aisle, with the exception of Dickinson's Witch Hazel Toner which I begrudgingly purchased. I swore the stuff smelled like pizza or something when I first started using it. But it was so light and gentle on my skin, which can be sensitive, that I became a believer. The Dickinson's bottle is about $4.50 for a 16 oz. bottle which is quite fair. But then I discovered you can purchase a generic 16 oz. bottle of witch hazel with the exact same alcohol content in the first-aid section for about $1.98 and it's the EXACT SAME THING! I just love this stuff, and it's safe to use on kids for cuts, scrapes or insect bites.
<Four> Moroccan Oil for Eyes - One of the worst aspects of my pregnancy with the baby was having dry skin under my eyes - this had never been an issue for me in the past until him. Previously I had used Oil of Olay or Origins (mighty pricey but that was a special treat!) under eye cream for moisture, but neither of those products worked when I became pregnant. I went to Sephora to ask for help keeping my face from peeling off, and the poor girl who was working on my under eyes with creams and concealers kept apologizing, "I swear I know what I'm doing, I'm so sorry your under eyes are just flaking right off!". I told her OF COURSE I believed her and explained that this had only started since my pregnancy. She had me try Josie Maran's Argan Oil which finally did the trick! The product came in this convenient little bottle with a dropper, about $15 for .5 oz. in a travel bottle. It doesn't sound like much product, but I would literally use only a drop on each eye so it lasted quite a while. I knew that these oils were becoming popular at the time, so I did a little searching at my local Wegmans when my bottle ran out and low and behold, Suave had a Morrocan body oil listed at about $6 for 3 oz ($1 less if you use a coupon). This product worked just as well on my eyes as the Josie Maran Argan Oil and cost significantly less. Of course I reused the Josie Maran bottle with the dropper and filled it with the Suave Oil - it was just too convenient to get rid of - and my under eyes remain intact and presentable to the public.
<Five> Tear Your Cotton Ball in Half - I said I was frugal (cheap!), didn't I? Just from the description of the products I use you can tell I must use a cotton ball. At our Wegmans, a bag of 200 count Triple-Size (whatever that means) Cotton Balls is listed at $2.69 - to make them last twice as long I rip each cotton ball in half, that's all you really need folks! Sorry this isn't really a product recommendation but more like a life-hack to double the life expectancy of your cotton ball bag (hehe).
I hope you enjoy my little frugal (cheap!) list and are able to try something out. However always remember - when trying new products, always use a small amount in an inconspicuous area to check if you have an allergic reaction. What type of frugal (cheap!) beauty tricks are up your sleeves?
