There's a lot of products on the market. Like, A LOT. If you wanted to buy a cleanser or moisturizer, there's literally thousands to choose from. And even if the products are super popular, there's no guarantees that it will work well for you, so you can't just be safe and just buy the cheapest, most popular products either. There's so many products you can try that might end up being HG products but might also end up being duds; that's anywhere from 5-40~ or however much the product was. Like I recently read up on "Korean skincare" where there's about ~10 steps to a routine with about that many products too. I read up a lot on the advantages that their products have over American ones, and since my skin isn't where I want it using different kinds of products over the years, I really want to try Korean products. BUT THERE'S SO MANY THINGS TO TRY. Before I buy anything, I'm planning on making an excel sheet of everything I want to buy, sorting it into groups by what they do and the prices. I would want to add in sale times, but then I'm not too sure when Korean companies have sales. Is there anything else that would be beneficial to quell my fancy for shiny new products? Or really, any tips to save money if I do end up buying them? I don't often buy things online, but it's nigh impossible to find this stuff in physical stores.
I'm a self confessed cosmetics junkie, but I try not to get bogged too down with the many options out there. Otherwise I'd probably find myself buying every single "shiny" product. What I usually do is shop for a specific reason like say I'm looking for a new skin shimmer. I go online do a quick search of the most popular ones, then with that list I go to my favourite online discussion forums for beauty product reviews and scour the pages for reviews. Next I'll go into the store to look these products up and do more research and test them while I'm at it. I usually end up with the right product
I honestly had to stop watching videos and reading posts and blogs about beauty, because they recommend and try to push so many products I was starting to spend too much! People make products to sell, so they will tell you that you need to use 3 or 4 things when only 1 or 2 are enough.... so you'll spend more money and companies will profit more. But that is a dangerous path because if you are anything like me who isn't rich and is always on a budget, buying only the necessary is essential not to have financial problems in the future! You are right to create lists, that is wise!
I've tried not using any for my skin for a few weeks to see if that would help, but it only made it worse for that time. It might've worked if I did it for a few months, but if it didn't, I don't want to be left with a whole bunch of blemishes for nothing. I'm looking at a lot of reviews for the products I'm thinking about buying and seeing if the tester's skin is similar to mine. Most of this is from beauty blogs as it's hard to find reviews for foreign products on most forums unless there's a dedicated group for it. And with my list right now, there's like 5 different products I want to try for each step. I have to find if there's ways to get samples so I don't end up wasting a lot of money for things I can't use >_<
There are a lot of products that I want to have for my beauty regimen. If something has come out, I'm quick to want to try it. And often when I go to the mall, there's just a lot that I want to include in my cart. But later I would simplify the items to the ones that I need the most. One time I tried to buy a lot of stuff, later on I ended up not using them all, because of their number, I eventually got lazy.
What do you with your products that you didn't use? Recently, I just threw out about 5-10 products because I had bought them like 2-5 years ago and never used when they didn't work as I had hoped. I found that some people do product exchange or sell their leftovers, which I wish I knew before all my products expired lol. Though, most of the products are just random beauty brands that probably most people wouldn't have heard of. I've repurposed a few of my face creams that didn't work well into just lotion for my body and that's one way of getting rid of excess product.