Clark's Big Book of Bargains (13 page)

Nails

You don’t have to go to a fancy spa to get a manicure and pedicure. Go to a national chain and it’ll cost about $20 for your manicure and pedicure, which isn’t bad. A lot of times it will include a neck and back massage, which feels great after a long week.

It’s hard to do your own nails, but you can get your nails done for free if you’re willing to do someone else’s. Have a manicure-pedicure party with your book club or just a few friends, and you each do someone else’s nails.

Or go to a school that trains people to do facials, skin treatments, manicures, and pedicures. You can get an amazing European facial that normally might cost $60 to $100 for just $30, or you can get cheaper facials. The students are supervised very carefully, and they all have to put in a certain number of work hours to get their degree. They need people to pamper.

Most nail salons don’t heat-sterilize their manicure tools, so the best way to make sure you won’t be harmed is to bring your own tools. That’s especially true if you get your cuticles clipped.

Going to a school is the cheapest way to get a massage as well. Look in the phone book under cosmetology or massage schools, or search on the Web, and you’ll get a deal.

* COSMETICS *

If you listen to the typical advertisement for women’s cosmetics, you would think these products can do just about anything. The truth is, women waste a lot of money on over-hyped department-store creams that don’t deliver what they promise.

In a January 2000 report,
Consumer Reports
found that a face lotion that cost $1.59 per ounce did a better job of moisturizing than a product that cost $32.35 per ounce. The bottom line is, you don’t have to spend a lot of money to look beautiful.

You can buy most of the makeup products you might need for less than $50 at your local drugstore, says Karen Gerson Duncan, who has been a professional makeup artist for twenty-five years. That’s $4 for mascara, $4 to $10 for lipstick, $5 to $10 for moisturizer with sunscreen, $8 to $12 for concealer cream and $10 to $13 for mattifier, an oil-reducing gel that Duncan loves. It’s relatively new, but available from a number of manufacturers, including Neutrogena and Mary Kay. Add another $10 for blush, $8.95 for a set of four eye shadow colors, and another few bucks for an eyebrow pencil. Yet, many women will spend $250 or more at a department store cosmetics counter, trying to buy youthfulness that cosmetics can’t deliver.

One of the most common claims in cosmetics ads, usually for a moisturizer, is that a product makes wrinkles less visible. One company claims its moisturizer “greatly diminishes the appearance of fine lines.” Some products achieve this effect by using a mild irritant to puff up the skin around the wrinkles. But that’s a temporary solution—it’s not a good idea to constantly inflate and deflate the skin in this way, according to Duncan. Another product, if you can believe this, is a $350 department-store face cream that contains the foreskins of baby boys. It’s hard to say which is more repulsive—the price or the ingredients.

If wrinkles are your chief complaint, see a dermatologist. A dermatologist can perform a technique called microdermabrasion, sometimes known as a “power peel” or a lunchtime peel, that essentially sandblasts away the top layer of skin and exposes the smoother layer of skin beneath. Or, a dermatologist can prescribe Retin-A, a medicine that strengthens skin and reduces wrinkles.

Duncan is not as fond of another popular medical solution, injections of the toxin Botox to paralyze muscles around the wrinkles. Duncan, who works with a variety of TV actresses, said casting directors are asking for women who have not used Botox, because the treatment lessens their facial expressiveness.

The main job of a moisturizer is to lubricate the skin with an emollient that replaces natural oils that aren’t coming to the surface as they once did. That makes skin feel smoother and softer. Moisturizers use ingredients such as lanolin, glycerine, and mineral oil to do this. Most now add a sunscreen to protect skin from the wrinkle-inducing rays of the sun. You can’t tell which moisturizer is better by the ingredients. According to
Consumer Reports,
“the top products all contain water and glycerin—but so do many others.”

But you don’t have to spend a ton of money to get a good moisturizer. You can buy a bottle of Oil of Olay lotion for about $8. Wal-Mart has a brand called Equate that does the same thing for even less.

Mascaras sell for $3.95 to $28.50, but all do the same thing, which is coat your eyelashes with a layer of waxy goop and dye to try and give your lashes the lush, full look they had when you were a child. People lose eyelashes as they age, and they get sparse. Duncan doesn’t see any difference in quality among mascaras, so she recommends that you buy the most common, Maybelline. More important than the brand is to keep mascara only up to three months, after which the preservatives can no longer protect you from bacteria that could infect your eyes. Don’t use anyone else’s mascara, and don’t let anyone in a department store put mascara on you, even if they use a new brush. It’s unsanitary.

Duncan does see differences in quality among lipsticks. A more expensive lipstick does seem to last longer, and she will sometimes buy them at a department store. But again, for reasons of sanitation, don’t test a lipstick on anything but your hand.

Duncan uses concealers to mask the circles-under-your-eyes effect that gets worse when people are tired or bothered by allergies. The circles come from blood flow beneath the skin, and it’s more visible on some people than others. Duncan said she’s had the best results with concealing creams that are yellow-based rather than green or purple. The products come in a stick or as a cream. She recommends creams because they don’t dry as fast, and thus are easier to blend.

• Tips on Cosmetics •

• You can get a basic makeup kit together for less than $50 at your neighborhood drug store, including mascara ($4), lipstick ($4 to $10), moisturizer with sunscreen ($5 to $10), concealer cream ($8 to $12), and mattifier ($10 to $13).
  

• Don’t rely on a moisturizer to fix wrinkles. See a dermatologist.
  

* EYEGLASSES AND CONTACT LENSES *

The amount of money people can spend on eyeglasses seems unlimited. I met a fellow in New York who spent more than $500 for a pair of glasses. It’s not hard to find glasses at a much more reasonable price.

Consumer Reports
has done several surveys of the eyeglass market, and has found consistently that people are the happiest when they buy their glasses from an optometrist in private practice, as opposed to an eyeglass chain. Unfortunately, that’s one of the most expensive outlets for glasses.

Second in customer satisfaction is one of my favorite stores, Costco Wholesale. And next is a regional chain that’s called For Eyes. Both Costco and For Eyes have the right mix of price, selection, and customer service.

I’m wearing a pair of Costco glasses now that cost $64 complete. The frames cost $39, and they’re indestructible. For Eyes does a lot of two-for-one specials, so you can buy a pair of glasses and a pair of sunglasses for a good price, or a pair of regular glasses and a pair of computer or reading glasses.

If you can, wait until the Christmas holiday season, when no one else is looking to buy new eyeglasses, for specials. Check your Sunday newspaper for sale fliers.

Wherever you buy your glasses, stay away from the designer frames, or instead buy imitations of the designer frames. That’s where the money can get away from you. You can buy good frames for as little as $19, and I’d consider up to $59 a reasonable price for frames. Sometimes you’ll have to ask, “Where are your less-expensive frames?,” because stores want you to buy the ones that cost $100 or more.

The disadvantage to buying at Costco or For Eyes is that you have to wait about a week for your glasses. That’s not as convenient as the chains that will make your glasses in about an hour. But you pay a lot more for that convenience.

If you have vision insurance at your job, you might get an eye exam for free, but have to pay some charges for lenses and frames. And you might be restricted to buying at certain places. Even if you have insurance, you might end up paying more than you would without insurance at Costco or For Eyes.

There are a number of add-ons they’ll ask you about when you buy glasses, and some make sense to buy. If you have weak eyesight and your glasses would be very thick, it makes sense to pay more for lighter and better-looking extra-thin lenses. A scratch-resistant coating makes sense for plastic lenses, which most people wear. I have to have anti-reflective coating because I wear my glasses on television. The anti-reflective coating is vulnerable to damage. They don’t last nearly as long.

Contact Lenses

Contact lenses are a lot cheaper than they used to be. They’ve dropped by more than half in the last four years. So if you’ve considered contacts before but shied away because of the price, take another look.

You can buy contacts for less at a warehouse club, a discounter, or on the Internet. And they will be identical to the lenses you buy at your eye doctor’s. They’re exactly the same, so all you’re doing is saving money. I found the best prices at Costco, just $13.95 for a box of Acuvue disposable contacts. But LensExpress (www.lensexpress.com) was cheaper than a retail store. When we checked, they were selling for $18.95 a box, vs. $21.95 retail.

LensExpress also sells regular, non-disposable contacts, and you can order them at Costco. But regular lenses now represent a relatively small portion of the market.

You can save a ton of money, too, on contact lens solutions. You worry so much about the health of your eyes, and that fear might stop you from saving money by buying off-brand contact lens solutions. But as long as the ingredients are the same as the brand-name products you like, there’s nothing to worry about. You have good eyesight because you’re wearing lenses. Use it to compare ingredients on the label. If they’re equivalent, buy the off-brand with confidence.

The savings are real. Costco’s store-brand Kirkland Multi-purpose solution costs just 14 cents an ounce, and it had brand-name ReNu Multi-Purpose solution for just 42 cents an ounce, quite a bit cheaper than CVS’s 69 cents an ounce.

• Tips on Eyeglasses and Contact Lenses •

• For great prices, buy your glasses at Costco Wholesale or the regional chain For Eyes.
  

• Stay away from designer frames, or look for imitations. You can buy great frames for $19 to $59. There’s no need to spend more.
  

• Look for special deals during the Christmas holiday season.
  

• Buy contact lenses and solutions at Costco for the best prices. The lenses are identical to what the eye doctor sells. Solutions are equivalent. Just check the ingredients to see if they’re the same as your brand.