Recently I've had to rein in the expenses a bit, and one of the places I thought I might tighten up on is my skin care. I love my Origins products, but the full regime is a bit expensive. I'm sticking with the face wash ($20 and lasts several months), but the moisturizer ($61) and the serum ($35) have to go. 

Thankfully The Body Shop sent me an email alerting me to their buy 2 get 1 free skincare products sale, and off to the mall I wandered. Besides a saving in price, I was also looking for products that had the least harmful ingredients. Skin Deep cosmetic safety database helps me evaluate the products I am putting on my skin. It's a helpful tool, but you also have to take into account the ratings on ingredients are often evaluated on "moderate" amounts, which can be much more than how much is in the product you are using. 

The first product (Vitamin E Moisture Serum) isn't rated by Skin Deep yet, but based on the other products in that particular line, it's probably not as good as I'd like. Had I known that before hand, I probably wouldn't have purchased it, but oh well. The second two products (Aloe Soothing Day Cream and Vitamin C Intensive Night Treatment) both had extremely low hazard ratings when I looked them up before going to the store, so those were my main targets. 

Anyways, in place of the Origins A Perfect World serum twice a day, I'm using the Vitamin E Moisture Serum in the morning, and the Vitamin C Intensive Night Treatment at night. I follow the Vitamin E Moisture Serum with the Aloe Soothing Day Cream before applying any makeup. 

So far the results have been great. I just made it through that difficult time of the month without any blemishes, my skin is still soft and smooth and I spent $44 instead of $96. Also, the two serums combined were 2 fl. oz. as opposed to the 1 fl. oz. for a comparable price, and the moisturizer was the same volume (1.7 fl. oz) for less than a third of the price. Regular price I'd pay $60 for all three items, but I'm still saving money and getting more product per dollar.

In conclusion, if any of you ladies (or fellows!) out there need to scale down on your beauty budget, I would definitely recommend checking out The Body Shop.