I firmly believe that, for the most part, you can get great beauty products on a budget—I never never never purchase beauty products at department store counters or from high-end brand lines—I’m strictly a Target/WalMart/Walgreens kind of a girl. That being said, I have certainly encountered some budget beauty products that were NOT a bargain at all.

For example, while I love Clairol’s Natural Instincts hair color, I once tried the Shine Happy (no color, just shine) product from that line, and while it says it’s safe for all color treated hair, I found it actually lightened my color and for some reason lifted it completely from where my roots had been touched up previously. I was NOT happy. So I would warn against that one . . . anyone else have a product to add?

La Mer.. which is like $125 for something Nivea could do for $10 and overpriced mascara and nail polish cause the formulas are the same in the4 cheap version as they are in the expesnive version

Maybelline Great Lash Mascara. Yuck. This may be my least favorite beauty product of all time. It goes on thin and watery and does nothing for your lashes. I cannot understand why so many women rave about this when there are so many other fabulous drugstore mascaras (CG LashBlast, Neutrogena Healthy Volume, Max Factor Lash Perfection just to name a few)

staceyd - 04 October 2008 09:30 PM

Maybelline Great Lash Mascara. Yuck. This may be my least favorite beauty product of all time. It goes on thin and watery and does nothing for your lashes. I cannot understand why so many women rave about this when there are so many other fabulous drugstore mascaras (CG LashBlast, Neutrogena Healthy Volume, Max Factor Lash Perfection just to name a few)

All Maybelline mascaras seem to give me major raccoon eyes, including Great Lash. I like Cover Girl Lash Blast and Almay One Coat Triple mascaras.

Another product to stay away from is Revlon Hair Color Remover. I used it in college to go from black hair back to auburn. After using this product I was lucky I had any hair left. I had major damage and breakage. I ended up having to get my chin-length hair cut pixie-short and use a salon-product protein pack conditioner that cost more than the cut. Fortunately my hair was able to make a full recovery. In the long run you’re better off getting hair color stripped by a professional.