Disappointing Expensive Beauty Product

Shop assistant talked me into a very expensive spray tan with a special brush - £75 and I only needed it for my arms on my son's wedding day!

I nearly bought myself a jar of 'creme de la Mer' as a treat some time ago but I googled the ingredients in it and was horrified.... i'll stick to my plain old organic Shea butters, Oils and Suncreams thankyou...

tinafl my OH bought me some Chanel products for a couple of Christmases. He didn’t know what to buy and the sales assistant saw him coming, is my guess. I had to tell him not to buy any more as I couldn’t possibly use it all or I’d be getting it still. I do love the perfume though and have been trying not to be wasteful. We don’t go anywhere to wear it and my skin reacts if I wear it a lot. So the body spray is now a beautifully scented bathroom freshener (£££, I know!!) but I get the pleasure without the reaction and at least I’m not wasting it.

I agree with you all about expensive creams being a waste of money. I've tried a few in the past, Lancôme, Estée Lauder, Clarins. No better than my cheaper products. These days I use either The Ordinary, Garnier or L'Oreal. Aldi is too far to go for me but on the occasions I have been they've never got the caviar cream in stock.
My one more expensive brand that I love is REN, I love their one minute mask and their aha toner. Both only used once a week on different days but I really feel the difference.
Lastly, never buy special eye creams, usual moisturiser is fine.

My daughter gave me some Covent Garden Sanctuary products a couple of years ago. They smell gorgeous but the body moisturiser is in a rigid plastic bottle and is quite a thick consistency. It's lasted ages because trying to get some out is a real pain! I did write to them about the packaging and got no comment but merely a voucher towards my next purchase.

My husband gave me some creme de la Mer for my birthday some years ado. It cost £100 and perhaps he thought I would look 24 again. I didn’t! Complete waste of money. Back to Aldi or Lidl. I really think grease is grease, no matter how you package it or make it smell.

I use Aldi Caviar day and night creams. They are really good and a fraction of the cost of high end skincare. They are at the top end of Aldi’s skincare-£6.99 each, and last ages. I often feel a lot of expensive skincare is overrrated and advertising adds to the price.

I bought Aveda blue mauve shampoo for my grey hair, based on positive reviews on Gransnet. It was a huge 1 litre bottle (which was really difficult and heavy to use - I had to decant it in to smaller bottles!). It cost almost £50 (but it was a very large bottle). It did nothing to remove any yellowing from my hair, and did not make my hair feel particularly good. I think people react very differently to different shampoos - our hair must all be very different, and I know lots of people swear by this shampoo. I have almost used it all, and will return to my favourite White Hot shampoo.

GreenGran78, spot on, gullible people buying a dream.

Skin cells are constantly replaced from below, so diet is very important.

Apart from sunblock, nothing will make a long term difference so use any moisturiser that feels good - or none at all.

BlueBelle

I use soap and water ??? never used any creams and got a a reasonable skin I really do think they are all a con

Just like Lulu, then!

I like a bit of sun protection so I use Elemis moisturiser with factor 30 in it. Just lately though it's started giving me occasional spots. And although it's quite fun feeling like a teenager again, it's not what I want for my skin. Am looking for a good alternative now.

Darned unwanted apostrophe crept in when I wasn’t looking!

When it comes to ‘beauty aids’,or any other so-called miracle products I have always been a total cynic. They probably cost little to produce, and sell for stupid prices to gullible people looking for miracle results.
I only use tried-and-tested, and inexpensive, cleansers and Nivea cream for moisturising face, hands and body. My mum used Nivea, and had lovely skin. I’m 81, and have been complimented on mine, too. Guess what my daughter’s use!

Tinaf1 that could have been my post about the Clarins Serum because I heard Nigel Slater on the podcast “ Fortunately”say he used it So I asked for it for Christmas and like you I tried to prise every last drop out I even tried to take a sharp knife to it to get the middle bit out!! How gullible are we women?!! It didn’t stop me buying Trinny Blur tho! Ridiculous! Haha haha

I'm coming to the end of the Clarins serum now (£78) and I wont buy another as it made no difference to me at all I prefer their face oil when I need a bit more moisturiser and the smell is lovely very calming..

The beauty business relies on the gullibility of people. Any scientist will tell you it's all expensive snake oil.

Ywars ago now thwre was a particular "mud" based face oack that was all the rage in the beauty magazines. Not cheap. I had disposable income at the time so bought some and used it once - couldnt even bear it on for the recommended time as it stung so much.

Then there were the "juicy tubes" lip glosses. Tried one of those and hated the way it sat on my lips. Since then I have just stuck with the old favourites!!

Pump action very sensible - portion control, less exposure to oxidation from atmosphere & minimal contamination from finger-bourne bacteria.

I have often found that the cheaper products from the supermarkets work just as well on my skin , if not better than the higher priced ones.
Clarins and other high priced brands, has built up a reputation for being "pure" and innovative but I always think that most of the cost goes in lab work where so called skin specialists spend hours, weeks, months in trying to find the next mix of chemicals to mix up and then put in expensive fancy jars and pay a lot of money to advertise in glossy magazines to persuade the public into buying that year's cocktail to try and win a permanent youthful skin!
I have had some horrible reactions to some higher priced brands - most often caused by the amount of perfume in it. I'll stick to my cheapy ones thanks.

Reading all your comments underlines the drastic action I took in 1987, yes that’s right, 1987. I had always used Clarins and or Juvena, both cost a bomb, even then. I noticed my skin looked grey and muddy, couldn’t get it improved with any product, then I used a mascara and suddenly had hugely swollen tearing eyes, burning. What a panic. I stopped using anything, saw a dermatologist, who didn’t help much. Now, 35 yrs later, I don’t use anything! I use a pouf, that’s that plastic shower thing that exfoliates as it washes, brilliant, and just a hypoallergenic shower gel. I have really wonderful skin on my face now, bright, healthy, has its own glow. Maybe more of us should do this! I haven’t used makeup, except lipstick ever since.

After using many expensive products over the years when I worked I decided to cut back when I retired and started using some Aveeno Soothing Relief Baby cream that I already had on my face. It costs £6 for a large tube in Sainsbury's. I works equally as well as any expensive cream I have used before.

It's Olay 7-in-one for me. I like the feel of it on my skin and it's pump action as I don't like digging my fingers into a pot of cream (I know that sounds odd!!)

I was silly enough to purchase Elemis eye cream at £45 a jar, you guessed it, I did absolutely nothing to help my baggy eyes, lesson learnt

Soap and water for me too

I used to buy Clinique when I could afford it but now can’t and use Aldi day cream and Nivea night cream. Interestingly the Nivea day. Team was awful and I used it up as a foot cream

I used to use expensive creams but after watching a documentary about the subject I now use Aldi products or similar. A consultant dermatologist explained all these claims of certain ingredients penetrating the deeper levels of the epidermis were rubbish and nothing gets through the outer layer of skin. He explained that a moisturiser is just a barrier to protect the skin against the elements, preferably with an SPF and a cheap one is just as effective as an over the top expensive one. When someone from the cosmetics industry explained that most of the cost of an expensive one is the packaging I decided to stop wasting my money. I often get complimented on my skin so it was a wise decision.