Makeup

How Much Should You Really Be Spending on Beauty Products?

Four women hand over their salon statements and Sephora receipts to our expert analysts to find out whether their beauty spending fits their budgets

by Emily Woodruff | 1 COMMENT

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Calculating Your Beauty Budget According to personal finance expert Farnoosh Torabi, author of "When She Makes More," beauty products should be purchased only after paying for essentials. "The 'discretionary' or 'miscellaneous' bucket in every budget -- which includes not just beauty products, but also travel and entertainment -- [should] amount to about 10 percent of your income," she says.

That means if you're pocketing $25,000, you can spend $2,500 a year (that's just over $200 a month) on fun things like concerts, clothing, dining out and, yes, beauty products. However, it's important to remember two things:

1. You should be calculating your income not based on the salary figure in your contract, but the number on your pay stub after taxes.

2. If you put 10 percent toward beauty, you have to cut yourself off in other areas. As Torabi puts it, "The trade-off is no concerts and nixing that spring break trip!"

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There's nothing quite like the feeling of purchasing a new beauty product. In part, it's a gamble. (Will this lipstick shade work with your skin color?) It's also a way to improve or even redefine yourself. (New highlights will show your ex that you're a mysterious lady he never had a handle on anyway.) It's a thrill that never really gets old.

But beauty comes at a cost. If you're 11, that tube of lip gloss is worth an hour and a half of babysitting money. If you're interviewing for a new job, a spruce-up might cost a week's rent. If you're a brunette who's finally fulfilling her redheaded calling, it might add up to $200 every three months.

Where do you draw the line? We called in Wall Street veteran Jacqueline Ko Matthews and personal finance expert Farnossh Torabi, author of "When She Makes More," to provide some insight into what these four women's beauty buys really cost them.

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