Everyone is looking for ways to save money, whether it’s saving five or fifty dollars, it all adds up in the long term. Makeup especially can get extremely pricey, especially if someone doesn’t know what they’re shopping for.

Now what’s considered drugstore and what’s considered expensive or designer?

Well, drugstore makeup would be brands such as: Elf, Wet N’ Wild, Maybelline, Nyx, Covergirl, etc., You can find these brands in basically every store such as Target, Walmart, Ulta Beauty, sometimes DollarTree, Five Below, Walgreens, etc. 

The expensive brands would be ones like Dior, Gucci, Charlotte Tilbury, Drunk Elephant, etc. These brands can be found in stores such as Sephora or Macy’s, or if they are designer, they’d be found in that particular designer’s store such as Gucci, Dior, etc.  

Many people would want to lean towards cheaper makeup because nobody really wants to spend more than they have to on the same product. But does cheaper stuff actually work as well? Does it compare to the expensive stuff? Are companies just overcharging or is expensive stuff actually worth the price?

Well, the answer is both yes and no. Expensive quality tends to be better quality, blend better, and is much smoother, while sometimes the cheaper makeup can look “cakey” which means it isn’t as smooth and all of your pores are shown. 

Now this isn’t the case for every brand and person. Sometimes people can only wear cheap makeup, and some can only wear expensive makeup. However more people tend to lead towards expensive makeup as cheap brands tend to cause many breakouts. 

Expensive makeup usually has less ingredients that and are better for your skin as compared to the cheap makeup which are composed of many ingredients. 

Don’t let that fool you though, expensive makeup can still cause breakouts for some  and those people can only wear the cheap brands for their skin’s sake. 

Makeup is one of those things that you just have to roll the dice and try out to see what works best for you. Sometimes you have to throw away perfectly good products if it is causing breakouts while sometimes you hit the jackpot and it works perfectly. 

Let’s compare. Many people know these two very popular brands, Elf and Rare Beauty. While Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez isn’t the most expensive, it can still be pretty pricey. 

On the other hand, Elf is much more affordable. 

But really what should people actually spend their money on? 

The short, but vague answer is either one. Some products work better for some, whether that is cheap or expensive.

Makeup isn’t a one step solution where you can only wear one type, it all comes down to your skin type and if your skin is sensitive. However, if your skin isn’t sensitive some knock off brands such as Elf mimic expensive products with similar ingredients causing them to feel and look almost like the same product.

In simpler terms, look for the “dupe” products with overall great reviews if you want to save money. Buy whatever makeup you like and want to wear. Makeup is supposed to make you feel confident and most of the time nobody knows if you are wearing drugstore or expensive products.