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Today’s Beauty on a Budget blog focuses on going bare face (without makeup) to save money and discusses a heated statistic found. Be a part of the conversation and read more.

During an early morning commute, I was floored to hear from the radio that nearly half of all women have negative feelings about their image when not wearing makeup and link going “bare face” with being unattractive. The survey conducted on behalf of The Renfrew Center also found that one-quarter of the sampled group of women started wearing makeup at age 13 or younger.

These statistics are being used to start a national campaign, entitled Barefaced & Beautiful, where women will be encouraged to go au natural on Without Makeup Mondays. Researchers are concerned with these findings because they believe it shows that women are depending heavily on makeup, using it as a security blanket instead of a tool for enhancement, and are concealing a bigger picture – poor self-image and self-esteem.

Wash All the Makeup Away to Reveal a Beautiful You!

Do you think these findings are accurate? Do you feel insecure without makeup? Answer with a comment below.

This topic leads me into my Beauty on a Budget blog post for today: places to go au natural to save money. Here goes:

• At home: As soon as you get home from work, wipe away all the makeup to give your skin some breathing room. It will help lessen breakouts, and you’ll feel more comfortable.
• At the gym: Sweat plus makeup equals clogged pores and major breakouts. Give your skin a health boost, too, when you workout makeup-free. If you don’t feel comfortable at your gym without makeup, you may want to find somewhere that you do.
• At the beach: The salt water is an excellent source for exfoliating your skin. So why put makeup on? Forgo makeup and opt for just sunscreen.
• At the grocery store: You’re just shopping for groceries, no need to cake on makeup for the cashier. Leave the makeup at home and walk with confidence through the aisles.
• Walking your pet: You’ll be exercising, so you’ll want to leave your pores completely free of makeup. Plus, the outdoors would love to meet your bare face.
• While cooking: The steam from cooking will open your pores and produce oil. Don’t wear makeup when you cook to avoid breakouts.
• Visiting friends: True friends love you for who you are! Why not give them a peek at the natural you?

And if you follow these beauty tips, you’ll save even more money on makeup because you’ll be using less of it!

Until next time, stay beautiful on a budget.

You might be thinking, “Beauty products and garage sales…Not so sure about that one!” Actually, scouring garage sales and yard sales is a great opportunity to save some money on certain beauty products and make a fashion statement all at the same time. The key is to know what to look for and what to leave behind, and sometimes what to run away from.

Cute & Vintage Hats are Great Finds at Garage Sales

Keep clear of…

Used makeup. It’s just gross and full of bacteria! Don’t pick up any foundation, blush, eyeliner, or eye shadows that have been used before. Even if it is completely sealed and unused, it could be expired. It’s best to leave it behind and keep a move on.

Eyelash curler. Any instrument that comes in contact with another person’s eye is a big no-no. Bacteria can easily be transferred into your beautiful eyes and we don’t want that.

Used products. Eye contact solution, cleansers, lotions, etc. fall into this category. Ask yourself, why wouldn’t they just finish the bottle themselves? What’s wrong with it? Exactly.

Blowdryers and hairbrushes. Blowdryers before 1991 have serious safety hazards, and there’s no guarantee when the blowdryer was made. Just steer clear to be safe. And hairbrushes have hair that’s not yours. That’s all I have to say.

Now, onto what you want to find at a garage sale…

Hats. Vintage hats from the time when Lucille Ball was sporting them are the best. If you find some at a garage sale, score! Just don’t throw the hat on right away. Take it to professional cleaners first to avoid anything the wearer may have left behind.

Shoes. I love a good find in the shoe department. Vintage Mary Jane’s, 80′s pumps, or 1990′s Steve Maddens, I’ll take it! Just be sure to not slip your toes into them without a gentle clean. Work Chic has a wonderful guide to cleaning vintage shoes.

Hair straighteners and curling irons. These are fabulous finds! Just be sure to rub each product with alcohol before use and plug in the item on the spot before purchasing to make sure it works correctly.

Perfume and perfume bottles. Most people grow tired of a scent and leave bottles half full. Finding an expensive designer brand is a treasure. Be sure to spray the perfume to make sure you like the smell. If you do, spray it on your wrist, walk around, and take a whiff of your wrist again. Perfumes can smell different person to person. And vintage perfume bottles are just fun to collect!

Visit our Garage Sale Tips Center.

Purses. Finding a Louis Vuitton? Count your blessings. Just be sure to give it a thorough and gentle cleaning to get rid of any leftover gunk. Yahoo! Voices has a wonderful how to clean vintage designer handbags.

Jewelry and accessories. Oh, yes, the holy grail of garage sale shopping. Finding a wonderful piece of jewelry is thrilling and fun. Just be sure to properly clean each piece before wearing like Pure, Green, Simple recommends in their How to Clean Jewelry at Home – The Green Way.

If you find any of these wonderful items at a garage sale, please share it with me by leaving a comment. I love a good garage sale beauty find!

In this edition of Beauty on a Budget, PennySaverUSA.com teaches you how to concoct your own beauty products to avoid the expensive price tags found at the drugstore. And don’t worry; it’s nothing like Mrs. Doubtfire’s melting cake mask. So, my dear, let’s get started:

Make your own beauty products and you'll never have to worry about potentially harmful mystery ingredients.

Natural Facial Steamer

Good for: Acne-prone skin, since procedure opens up pores and sweats out toxins

What you’ll need: stock pot, ½ cup of salt, 5 cups of water, 1 hand towel

What you do: 1) Add water and salt to stock pot, 2) Place stock pot on flaming stove, 3) Once the water starts boiling, turn off the stove and let the pot sit for 5 minutes, 4) Grab the hand towel and inch your face close to the water, keeping a comfortable distance (*do not burn your face), 5) Throw the towel on top of your head to create a mini-sauna room where the mist can barely escape. 6) Stay under fumes for 10 minutes

Natural Exfoliating Body Scrub from Spa Playground

Good for: Oily skin and to rid dead skin cells

What you’ll need: 1 cup of brown sugar, ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil, 1 tsp Vitamin E (cut open a few liquid gel caps), 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp of honey, large bowl

What you do: 1) Thoroughly mix all ingredients in a large bowl with a spatula, 2) Apply to skin while showering or bathing by massaging the scrub in gentle circular motions from your shoulders to your feet, 3) Rinse off

Natural Facial Mask from mhei on HubPages

Good for: Dry skin and adds moisture

What you’ll need: 2 tablespoon of fresh milk, 2 teaspoons of honey,and 1 large bowl

What you do: 1) Blend fresh milk and honey in a large bowl, 2) Dab mixture gently on your face and neck, 3) Allow the mixture to sit on your face for 10-15 minutes, 4) Rinse away with warm water

Natural Hair Treatment from thedailygreen.com

Good for: Revitalizing tresses and adding shine to your hair

What you’ll need: 1 medium avocado, 2 tablespoons of honey

What you do: 1) Peel and stone avocado, 2) Mash avocado and honey together in a small bowl, 3) Massage into dry hair, 4) Allow to soak in hair for 20-30 minutes, 5) Rinse hair treatment out

Natural Nail Treatment from Going-Well

Good for: Nourishing and strengthening nails

What you’ll need: ¼ cups of apple cider vinegar, ¼ cup of olive oil, and ½ cup of beer, 1 small bowl

What you do: 1) Heat olive oil in microwave or stove until it’s warm to touch, 2) Mix warm olive oil, beer, and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl, 3) Soak your nails in mixture for 10 to 15 minutes, 4) Rinse mixture away by washing hands

Each of these products should save you between $6 to $30 per product, and they’re are much nicer to your body than many chemical-laden store-bought products

Like all beauty products, be sure and taste out your homemade product on a small portion of your wrist or in a hidden area in the rare case that you might be allergic to the product.

Enjoy your homemade product and the money you saved with today’s helpful Beauty on a Budget post.

The schedule of a mom can be one where makeup in the morning rarely exists, where throwing on a t-shirt is getting ready to go out, and where baby spit-up is an accessory. In this edition of Beauty on a Budget, we honor the women who change lives and diapers by giving helpful beauty tips to make being a mom a little bit easier (if that’s possible).

1. Shower at night. This will help you avoid the chaotic morning routine and allow you to get ahead with morning duties. If your hair tends to get oily in the morning, invest in a dry shampoo that’s quick and makes hair look fresh ($ 12 Batiste Tropical Dry Shampoo is a favorite among reviewers).
   

   Click above to find local beauty salons.

2. Pick an outfit the night before. After putting the kids down, spend a few minutes in the closest pulling out your outfit for tomorrow. This saves moms from mismatched socks and feeling rushed to get out the door.
3. Lighten your purse load. When you’re carrying diapers, toys, and bottles for the kids, your shoulders suffer the consequences and may feel like slouching. Relieve your purse load by:
   1. Replacing lipstick, lip balm, moisturizer, and lotion with Vaseline petroleum jelly that can be used for any dry skin need.
   2. Taking out your blush compact; just pinch your cheeks to get some natural color instead.
   3. Downsizing bottles like SPF lotion to 2.5 oz bottles (great tip: refill and reuse these tiny bottles over and over again to save money).
4. Limit make-up routine. Makeup application can take precious minutes that you don’t have. Reduce the time your make-up routine takes by focusing on the key features that you would like to highlight.
   1. For those with a clear complexion, put on some SPF lotion and skip the foundation, since you don’t need it.
   2. For those with beautiful, big eyes, just add some mascara and eyeliner to make them pop and forgo the eye shadow.
   3. For those with pouty lips, run some Chapstick over your lips and head out.
5. Opt for a Shellac Mani and Pedi. Shellac lasts longer than regular nail polish and stands up to the hard knocks of mommyhood. Plus, it uses your natural nail so you won’t risk chipping a nail when you’re playing with the kids. To find a nail salon near you, use the PennysaverUSA.com classifieds.
6. Erase under-eye bags. Unfortunately, when you’re tired, it shows up on your face. 5RecipesforLife recommends, “just dab concealer on the inner corners of your eyes and under your lower lashes” to rid noticeable under-eye bags.
7. Smile more. Being a mom is strenuous and you may not always like how you look. But a smile is a quick-fix to make you feel great and appear flawless.

Have any quick fixes for being a mom and a beauty queen? We’d love to hear them; just leave a comment below.

And Happy Mother’s Day from Beauty on a Budget!

This edition of Beauty on a Budget gives you beauty tips on what to throw out of your makeup drawer right in time for March’s Spring Cleaning.

Find beauty products for sale on PennySaverUSA.com by clicking above.

You might be thinking, “The longer I can keep my make-up, the more money I can save down the road.” Ek, WRONG! Over time, makeup collects bacteria from your fingers, eyes, and lips that multiply and become unhealthy for your skin. Expired makeup can apply unevenly, lose its color, or cause your skin to break out.

Just think, if you keep your makeup past the expiration date, you’ll be spending even more on products to get rid of what your old makeup has left behind, like cleansers for irritated skin. So let’s get started with these spring cleaning tips for cleaning out beauty products from your makeup drawer!

Most makeup companies don’t put an expiration date on their products’ packaging; therefore it’s all on you to fish out what’s spoiled rotten and what’s good for now.

Smell & Consistence Test

Go ahead and take a whiff of your makeup; if it doesn’t smell right, throw it in the trash. Still smell sweet? Apply a small amount to your wrist. If the makeup is runny or solid when it was not before, time to toss it.

Know the shelf lives of different types of makeup

(These recommendations are courtesy of makeup professional Sharron L., formerly of Neiman Marcus):

• Liquid foundation or blush– 1 year at most (Liquid makeup tends to spoil faster than solid)
• Powder foundation or blush – 1 to 2 years (Depends on how many times you clean the brush)
• Mascara – 4 to 5 months (Throw this out immediately if you experience an eye infection)
• Eyeliner – 4 to 5 months (Again, throw this out immediately if it gets contaminated)
• Eyeshadow – 2 to 3 years (If it shatters before its shelf live ends, throw it out sooner to avoid a mess)
• Lipstick, lip liner, and lip gloss – 2 to 3 years depending on the “Smell & Consistence Test”
• Nail polish – 2 years (because it starts to lose its color and apply unevenly)

Once you get your makeup drawer nice and pretty, keep an eye out for coupons and rebates to replenish your supply of discount beauty products.

And two final beauty tips:

• From now on, after you purchase a new beauty product, take a small piece of masking tape and write the date when you purchased that makeup with a pen. It will make it easier to discard later on.
• Invest in brushes. If you don’t use your fingers to apply makeup, you increase the life of the product. But remember to clean your brushes monthly!

That’s all I have for now. Till next time, stay beautiful on a budget!

You’ve got your eyes, your lips, your hair, your skin, your nails, your cheeks…oy vey, there’s so much to beautify and not enough in your wallet to stock up on all the things you need to glamorize. PennySaverUSA’s new blog series, Beauty on a Budget, gives you the beauty tips that make being gorgeous a piece of cake.

Visit PennySaverUSA.com to get coupons for beauty products.

To start, you’ll need to know what beauty products you can save money on ($) and what beauty products you should spend a little extra on ($$):

1. Foundation ($$). According to O Magazine, you should drop a little extra dough to purchase a foundation at the department store where they can accurately match the foundation color to your skin-tone. Plus, you’ll want to make sure that your foundation comes with SPF 10 or higher.
2. Cleansers ($). After just three minutes, you cleanse and wash away this product, so why spend too much on cleansers? As Fit4elegance says, “even if the cleanser is loaded with “state of the art” anti-aging skin care ingredients, the chances that they will actually absorb into your skin are pretty small.” Your best bet is to shop at drugstores and grab their discount beauty products when it comes to cleansers.
3. Hairbrush ($$). Experts, like Mama’s health, recommend investing in a hair brush made with boar or nylon bristles for the healthiest results. Plastic bristles or synthetic bristles tend to cause split ends and an irritable scalp. Not good.
4. Eye Makeup Remover ($). The best eye makeup remover can actually be found at the drugstores. In fact, Good Housekeeping researched nine leading brands of Makeup Remover Wipes and found Almay Moisturizing Eye Makeup Remover Pads had the best overall performance in wiping it all away.
5. Nail File ($). In between a manicure and pedicure, use a nail file to keep your nails looking properly shaped and healthy. LiveStrong.com advises purchasing a nail file from a drug store or beauty supply store for a variety of choices and a smaller price tag.

Now that you know what you can save on and what you can splurge on, you’ll be prepared in making smart choices about your beauty regiment. Do you have a recommendation for a specific product? Leave a comment below and we’ll check it out.

Stay tuned for more beauty tips coming your way shortly. Till then, stay beautiful on a budget!