From Glossier to Milk Makeup, These Are the Best Under-£30 Beauty Buys Out Now
The arrival of payday is always gratefully received, but there’s something delightful about how swiftly February’s paycheck has rolled around (well, compared to January’s, anyway). So now that we’re all firmly back in the green, I’ve been busy picking out the best new beauty products to treat yourself with.
However, although payday is often the best excuse to splash the cash, I’ve decided to take a different approach to my beauty shopping this month. Whilst I’ve got a luxurious list coming up later this week for those of you that want to indulge, this edit is a wholly affordable collection of the best in beauty right now. These buys all come in at under £30, so you can shop guilt-free and, most importantly, avoid a monetary meltdown come March. Scroll down to explore 21 of the best affordable payday purchases.
Makeup
It was love at first swatch for me and this iridescent highlighter. For affordable beauty buys, & Other Stories are something of a hidden high-street gem. This creamy pigment feels way more expensive than it is, and delivers a flattering wash of lavender to the eyes and cheekbones.
I’ll admit that it was the name of the brand that persuaded me to pick up this BB cream on a particularly gloomy Sunday afternoon. I don’t tend to be partial to a BB cream (I prefer to layer my skincare before applying a heavier foundation), but this stuff provides just enough coverage with a huge amount of glow.
After building a serious cult following on Instagram, Milk Makeup has finally landed on British soil. The brand’s latest launch dropped this month was in the form of these full-coverage, creamy lipsticks. I’ve got my eye on the new shade called Deuces.
This is a quartet of bold rose-tinted highlighters that look beautiful worn on your eyes (just in case you aren’t feeling brave enough to rock them on your cheekbones).
Unless you’re going for a full-on mani, all the cool girls on Instagram are either rocking bare nails or a subtle sheen. This one adds a barely there iridescence for a low-maintenance approach to shimmer.
Related: 5 Spring Beauty Trends That Are Dominating My Feed
When it comes to brow products, I’m loyal to easy-to-use fibre gels for easily adding thickness and definition to unruly brows. This new launch from Urban Decay, however, is great for creating precise hair-like strokes on days when only perfect brows will do.
Valentine’s Day might be over, but I think you should love your makeup brushes every day. It might look like a novelty tool, but, in fact, the bristles are densely packed for easy and streak-free application of liquid, cream or powder foundations.
Skincare
Brimming with nourishing ingredients to rival its more expensive counterparts, this lightweight cream sinks in quickly to brighten your complexion whenever it starts looking a little dull.
We might only be in the second month of 2019, but let’s be honest: It already feels like it’s been a long old winter. Instead of letting it get the better of you, pop on these brightening eye patches and let the blend of green tea and vitamin C disguise all signs of tiredness in just five minutes.
Science-backed skincare doesn’t have to be expensive. If the New Year has brought you a whole host of unwanted breakouts (same), this affordable trio of serums is a great place to start for a skincare boost. It contains a blemish-busting salicylic acid, pore-refining niacinamide serum and hydrating hyaluronic acid.
These dual-fibre pads have been a serious beauty game changer for me. I’ve had my head very much in the sand when it comes to the amount of beauty waste I generate, but these have set me on the path to greener times. These are also ideal for the end of a long night, as they remove all traces of your makeup using only water. Plus, Face Halos can be washed and reused up to 200 times.
This brand-new launch boasts serious makeup-dissolving powers. Part micellar water, part oil, it melts away waterproof and long-wear makeup without any elbow grease required on your part.
If I was a shower gel, this would be me. Seriously. Brimming with orange flower and clary sage, this is a relaxing yet uplifting body wash that looks super cute in your bathroom. Oh, and the brand is the new brainchild of Nails Inc. founder Thea Green, so you can trust that you’re in good hands.
Give your foundation a new lease on life with these innovative oil drops. Available in three different formulations (I love this antioxidant-rich detox one), it transforms your base makeup into a skincare hybrid and lends a dewy glow to your complexion.
Hair
Help your hair recover from a chilly winter with this intensive conditioning treatment. It uses mineral-rich pink clay to refresh lacklustre strands and restore bounce.
It might look like your average can of hair spray, but this new launch is actually the first micro-dispersed professional shine spray. Simply put, it guarantees an even coating of gloss on your hair for photo-ready tresses.
February might the month of St. Valentine, but how many of us bother to show our hair some love? Instead of reaching for a mask to reverse the damage, this gentle shampoo uses natural ingredients to cleanse and soften your strands daily.
When it comes to haircare, your scalp can often get overlooked, leading to dryness and irritation, particularly during the winter months. Enter this two-in-one cleansing and conditioning oil from IGK Hair. It uses coconut and sweet almond oil to hydrate and nourish your hair and your scalp.
Great hair for less than the cost of your morning flat white. These sachets might look small, but they pack a serious punch of haircare. This frizz-smoothing formula is my first choice (it’s packed with avocado oil for intense nourishment), but you can mix and match for a haircare cocktail if you want to.
If you love to wash your hair daily but hate how stripped it can leave your strands, this innovative leave-in conditioner just might help. It boosts softness and shine and helps coloured hair to look brighter.
Nobody likes to talk about flaky scalps, but this bottle of Scandi shampoo is formulated specifically to take care of your head. I recently found out you should think of your scalp as an extension of the skin on your face, and this daily cleanser cares for it in a similar way.
Next up, 31 items the Who What Wear team will buy in February.
Mica Ricketts is a freelance beauty editor, copywriter and regular contributor to Who What Wear UK. She also writes for titles including Marie Claire Refinery 29 and Cosmopolitan, and previously worked at Who What Wear UK as Beauty Editor. With experience in both editorial and content management, she also works with beauty brands and small businesses on brand messaging and content strategy. As a busy mum of two, she is passionate about finding efficacious beauty products that can disguise all signs of tiredness with minimal effort.