It seems we are truly living in a beauty and skincare renaissance. So many brands and so many products. To navigate this expansive world, the best beauty tip, or most practical tip, is to buy travel size. Sometimes referred to as “mini” or “sample size,” it translates to a fraction of the product for a fraction of the price. Most big retailers like Ulta and Sephora sell minis of many popular products and sets where you get a bunch of sample size products together. This means you can try something first and then decide if you want to splurge on the full-size product from Sunday Riley or Peter Thomas Roth later.
Modern skincare rivals NASA in scientific ingenuity. There are new formulas and ingredients all the time. You don’t have to know your BHAs from your AHAs as well as a chemist, but trying a sample before you invest in the full product is a way to make sure the ingredients agree with your skin.
Although, you don’t even have to just use minis to test products. With so many new products and brands coming out all the time, you might get tired of one serum or moisturiser just due to the allure of something new. We’re all in a constant search for our “holy grail products,” but the truth is there are actually a lot of products that will work for everyone. The only things to avoid are things that make you break out or stress your skin, our body’s way of telling us to stop. This also applies to love interests and other narcotics.
Skincare used to be the realm of women of a certain age, but what they got through all those years of Nivea Cold Cream was more than just great skin. It was also a sense of control, of self-soothing, taking time to end the day in a meditative act of caring for one’s physical body. What millennials have realized that the act of skincare can be a joy and of itself, and they have the medicine cabinet to prove it.
But, they still have to watch their budget. Which is why minis are such a great option. You can indulge in brands like Drunk Elephant, Tatcha Harper, and Ole Henriksen and still afford rent. Variety is the spice of life, and if you buy travel size you’d have enough left over to buy a spice rack on Amazon to store all your minis in.
