Beauty buys on a budget

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

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Patricia Lopez
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HOUSTON (KTRK) -- New beauty products hit the market all the time, and usually, the newer they are, the more expensive they are. But in our Stretch Your Dollar report, we found some similar items for a whole lot less.

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Usually new technology and innovative ingredients increase the price of beauty products. But salon owner Rachel Gower is on a mission to save us money.

First up, Kinerase's ultimate lip conditioner.

"It uses antioxidants, collagen, and peptides to keep that area moist," she said.

But the lip conditioner is a splurge at $34. The steal is Sally Hansen's peptide lip line treatment for $11. The product contains the same ingredients as the expensive product.

Gower said, "Sally Hansen does a great job at looking at some of the newest technologies and incorporating them into a lower price product that almost anyone can afford."

For many people, foundation is the priciest product we routinely purchase. One of Gower's favorite new beauty products is Lancome's oscillation powder foundation that comes with an attached sponge.

She said, "It gives you really nice coverage and it comes out looking more like a sheer liquid than a powder."

But Lancome's oscillation powder foundation is $48. A similar product is Maybelline age rewind foundation with sponge on top for $10.

"It goes on very similar to the Lancome product, and you'll get a light, very even, very natural finish," Gower said.

An old product that's making a comeback -- lip stain.

"The old lip stain formulas tended to be a little bit drying," Gower said. "The new formulas are fantastic."

Gower says you can get great results from Tarte's natural lip stain, but it's a splurge at $24. Revlon's just bitten is a steal at just $6.50 and our testers didn't notice a difference between the two.

"Both of the lip stains that we tried, Tarte and Revlon, lasted a long time," Gower said.

If you are looking to get rid of dark puffy circles, Gower says YSL's flash touch wakeup eye care works well.

"It does help tighten up and get rid of the water retention that tends to accumulate in that area," she explained. "So this is a great product, but it's also $44, so we found a very similar product at Walgreens by Garnier, and it's only $12."

Garnier's anti-puff eye roller contains the same ingredients, and is applied exactly the same way as the pricey YSL eye care product.

Below are a list of some new beauty products and their inexpensive counterparts that have similar ingredients