As possibly one of the poorest people in the land, I'm all about that dupe life. I think even if my adulting skills were good enough so that I didn't need to spend my recreational time picking pennies up off the floor, I'd still shop in the same way - some of the prices I see on high end items crush my soul. Like, who pays £20+ for makeup wipes?
I've always sourced alternative brands for cost-cutting reasons, but recent questionable moves by high-end brands such as NARS [ie them totally selling out and, in essence, embracing animal cruelty by selling in China] have meant that there's now extra incentive to shop elsewhere - for the love of fluffy pets.
A fantastic place to load up on bargains, top brands and dupes galore is via BeautyBase; a website I've discovered recently which stocks an amazing variety of brands at great prices. Loads of my faves are on there - BeautyBlender, LA Girl, Milani, Technic etc and there's hundreds of pages of triumph to scroll through.
You CAN be beautiful on a budget and you can totes get just as good results with dupes as you can with the most-high end products the world has to offer - no matter how much the world of blogging might make you think otherwise. Here's just a few examples of fab dupes that perform every bit as well as their high-end counterparts; all of which can be found online at BeautyBase. They're great dupes, but also fantastic products in their own right.
vs.
I'm obsessed with Milani; they're one of my brands of the moment. Their products are fantastic quality and the most damn Instagrammable things you'll ever see - as well as being affordable and cruelty free; which Mac definitely isn't. Milani's Matte Naked Color Statement lippy is packaged beautifully - in my opinion, much nicer than your typical 'bullet' Mac lipstick packaging. AND it saves you a tenner when compared to its high-end rival; Viva Glam II.
I find that Mac lipsticks tend to fade and smear off my lips pretty quickly for the price; but Matte Naked seems to last considerably longer for me - and feels more nourishing / creamy on the lips. Granted, it doesn't last forever and eventually will fade off - but it defo lasted longer than my typical Mac experiences have AND didn't rob me of a tenner I don't have.
If you haven't tried Milani, I 100% suggest you do - this lipstick has become one of my most reached to at the moment; as it's the perfect nude and applies really nicely - without accentuating dry patches on my lips, which I find Mac lipsticks do sometimes.
Milani vs Mac - Save £9.55 with Milani; whilst being kind to fluffy pets. Also, Instagrammable AF packaging
vs.
I've always loved LA Girl's products; I have a few of their concealers, which I use daily. Both brands - LA Girl and Urban Decay are cruelty free, so I'm happy to support them both... but I'm not prepared to shell out an extra £15 for a brand name, when I can confirm that this LA Girl colour correcting fluid is frigging awesome and one of the most effective green correctors I've tried to date.
I'll give it to you Urban Decay, your cult following and beautiful packaging does make your products somewhat coveted and iconic within the beauty blogging world - and if I wasn't poor as hell, maybe I'd own more of your collections. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to. But gals honestly, don't feel like you HAVE to fork out a small fortune to keep up with what you see on social media; labels aren't everything and the brands you have in your stash don't make you a better / worse beauty blogger than anyone else. It's all about how you use them. And not comparison against what other people can afford.
This LA Girl Pro Concealer is fab and works really well at hiding red patches on my face [my whole face is like a massive spot atm] and for £4.49, I cannot recommend it enough.
LA Girl vs Urban Decay - Saves you £14.51. Fab product, works REALLY well. Maybe a smidge less Instagrammable than UD... but at the end of the day, you're buying it for your face, not the Gram. Hahaa
vs
I just need to overly excitedly get this out there - this Milani foundation is my new favourite thing ever! It's super high coverage, long-lasting and a little goes the longest way; due to its formula and consistency. I will add that I do feel that Milani could do with a wider variety of shades in their foundation, as I struggled to find a colour match initially [I've tried this foundation before, but it was totes the wrong shade] but now I've matched with their palest option; I'm sold. And just look at that saving - £14.05.
Although everyone raves about Clinique's 2-in-1 foundation [and admittedly, their packaging is all the minimal goals my life revolves around] at £27, it's not something that's attainable to my lifestyle. I know you could argue that it's a concealer AND foundation in one, so maybe that justifies the price ... but when you see that Milani have their own version for less than half the price, the argument kinda stops there for me. Plus, Milani are cruelty free; Clinique aren't.
The coverage of this Milani 2-in-1 foundation is that good, I honestly haven't had to reach for concealer much these days. It completely conceals redness and evens out my mad skin tone perfectly; the only place I'll still use a little concealer is under my eyes when I'm doing my out-out makeup, as this helps brighten my face and add to my contouring game.
Although everyone raves about Clinique's 2-in-1 foundation [and admittedly, their packaging is all the minimal goals my life revolves around] at £27, it's not something that's attainable to my lifestyle. I know you could argue that it's a concealer AND foundation in one, so maybe that justifies the price ... but when you see that Milani have their own version for less than half the price, the argument kinda stops there for me. Plus, Milani are cruelty free; Clinique aren't.
The coverage of this Milani 2-in-1 foundation is that good, I honestly haven't had to reach for concealer much these days. It completely conceals redness and evens out my mad skin tone perfectly; the only place I'll still use a little concealer is under my eyes when I'm doing my out-out makeup, as this helps brighten my face and add to my contouring game.
Milani vs Clinique - Saves you £14.05 and saves the lives of some cute fluffy pets. Obviously this is all down to your personal preferences, but for me; Milani is the clear winner.
vs
Isn't this palette just the prettiest thing ever? I love the gold packaging and the shades are just SO on-point. It's amazingly versatile; from the everyday to the smokey, smouldering looks you'd sport during a hot date, night out or blog photoshoot [haha.] I do love Tarte as a brand, don't get me wrong; Shape Tape is revolutionising my life right now and their cruelty free, natural ethos sits incredibly well with me ... but those prices, man. I can't afford to eat most of the time, let alone fork out £36 for an eyeshadow palette.
That's the beauty of a good dupe; it can save you a tonne of money, leaves you looking / feeling just as great as its high-end counterpart would and doesn't have to compromise on your morals either.
Milani vs Tarte - Save yourself anything from £7.05 - £23.05, with packaging which is pretty much like-for-like and cruelty free eyeshadows.
vs
Kimmy K has made Banana Powder one of those must have contouring products. I'd never even heard of Ben Nye or Banana Powder [terrible excuse of a blogger, I know] before she brought it to my attention across every social media platform available to mankind. I suffer with horrendous purple undereye circles, so I can totally understand / enjoy the colour correcting, setting properties of this loose powder... but would I pay £17.99 when I can pay £6.95 instead? No. No, I would not.
Both brands are cruelty free, which means that whichever you choose to support, you're supporting the rights of our fluffy friends. But with both these products aiming to do exactly the same thing [and Ben Nye definitely only reaping in the rewards of a high price tag thanks to its sudden celebrity endorsement] I'd definitely opt for the £6.95 option.
This powder is lovely and soft and doesn't cake at all on the face. W7 are definitely one of the most under-rated brands in terms of dupes - blogger bbz, check them out, honestly. They even offer Urban Decay and ABH eyeshadow palette dupes which are totes comparable to the actual thing and again, literally a fraction of the cost.
W7 vs Ben Nye - Saves you £11.04, every bit as effective as the more expensive counter-part
vs
Wow. That difference in price cannot be ignored. You can buy almost TEN W7 Illuminators for the price of just ONE NARS tube. Plus, there's the whole NARS selling out and dropping its cruelty free ethos thing to take into account here; W7 are cruelty free, and will remain that way. Y u like dis, NARS? If you've been let down by this unexpected bombshell and you're looking to source a dupe Illuminator, W7 have got you. And will save you over £20, in the meantime too.
I guess depending on what you use your Illuminator for, this W7 alternative might not be ideal - it's not as blindin' as some of the others I've seen on the market [such as the Iconic London drops] but it does give you a healthy, radiant, shimmery pink glow and I LOVE using it on my collarbone; to accentuate my figure and make me resemble some kind of bronzed, shimmery goddess. It gives a lovely, fresh luminescence to the skin when used as a makeup base too. And for just £2.50 for a tube JAMMED full of radiance, I can't think of any possible counter-argument!
I'd never heard of Beauty Base before working with them on this post, but I've bookmarked the hell outta their homepage as I've been so impressed with their range of affordable beauty brands and speedy delivery service. I LOVE Milani and finding another online outlet that stock them is a legit dream for me.
There is SO MUCH I now need to order from the website - my stack of credit cards are trembling in fear of the bashing they're going to get. If you're tempted too, don't forget to head to the Beauty Base Store to check them out.
Final tip, and I cannot stress this enough. Secure your payment channels with a VPN before you click pay on ANY e-commerce sites to make sure that hackers cannot steal your password. If you live for online shopping like me, you could lose your card details literally anywhere for someone to run up a HUGE bill before you even find out!
W7 vs NARS - Saves you £20.50, a fantastic dupe choice if you're looking to boycott NARS, given the recent news.
I'd never heard of Beauty Base before working with them on this post, but I've bookmarked the hell outta their homepage as I've been so impressed with their range of affordable beauty brands and speedy delivery service. I LOVE Milani and finding another online outlet that stock them is a legit dream for me.
There is SO MUCH I now need to order from the website - my stack of credit cards are trembling in fear of the bashing they're going to get. If you're tempted too, don't forget to head to the Beauty Base Store to check them out.
Final tip, and I cannot stress this enough. Secure your payment channels with a VPN before you click pay on ANY e-commerce sites to make sure that hackers cannot steal your password. If you live for online shopping like me, you could lose your card details literally anywhere for someone to run up a HUGE bill before you even find out!
Have you tried any of these products or brands before? What's the best dupe product you've ever stumbled across?
*This post contains items I was gifted for the purpose of review, but all opinions and cost saving opportunities are 100% legit!!
**This post also contains a sponsored link
Add your comment