Our Bill Pickle

real life with (very) real debt

My favourite affordable curly hair products

Finding affordable curly hair products in Atlantic Canada has not always been an easy task. These are some of my favourite products right now.

Finding affordable curly hair products in Atlantic Canada has not always been an easy task.

In June 2018, I shared this post about my hair routine and the cost of embracing my natural hair.

At that time, I had been working on my curls for about a year after a lifetime of struggling against them. What worked for me: DevaCurl. For the first time in my life, my hair was, for the most part, behaving.

Fast-forward to 2019-2020. There has been a great deal of controversy about DevaCurl. While I have not been affected, the whole situation did get me thinking: what would I do if I started having trouble with DevaCurl? Or if the products disappeared from the shelves?

That started me on the path of doing something scary: trying new products.

That might sound silly but after years of searching for products that work, the idea of messing up a good thing didn’t sound appealing. Still, I knew I wanted to have more options.

More specifically, I wanted more affordable options.

So I set out to try some new products. Here’s a look at some of the products I’ve tried.

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Beauty on a budget: 5 tips to save money on makeup

Beauty on a budget - how to save money buying makeup

The first time I reached VIB Rouge status at Sephora was in 2014. I didn’t do it alone.

In fact, tis feat was achieved largely due to a shopping trip with a friend who purchased a significant amount of high-end makeup for her upcoming wedding. More skilled than I, she did her own makeup (along with mine) on her special day and used the trip to Sephora to buy what she wanted to use.

I can’t remember the exact total, but I know it was somewhere north of $300 (and let’s face it, by Sephora standards? That’s not terribly expensive). The combination of what we bought that day, plus my previous purchased pushed me over that $1,000.00/year threshold.

The cashier exchanged my silver VIB card for one in ruby red to show my change in status.

The next year, I was back down to VIB and I have yet to reach Rouge again since.

Before this year.

Yup. For the second time in my life, I reached the highest status available at Sephora. And this time, it was all my own doing.

I’m not sure if I am proud of this or embarrassed.

How did this happen? Hair products, mostly. I use DevaCurl almost exclusively and I buy it at Sephora. It’s pricey, but it’s worth it for me. Investing in the right products for my hair has dramatically reduced bad hair days – and taught me how to love my natural hair.

Considering VIB Rouge means I have spent more than $1,000.00 at Sephora this year, it may seem strange to write a post about how I save money on makeup.

But here’s the thing: $1,000.00 is a lot of money…but it could have been much worse.

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