Beauty products that you can buy cheaply

My mother was a beautician and worked in the most beautiful salons. I got a love for creams, skincare, and special perfumes sprinkled on my bread at every meal. I'm the last to say that an expensive cream wouldn't work, and I'm not one of those who blindly follows trends, but in some cases, when it comes to beauty products, you really don't always have to go for the A-brands.

Eyebrow pencil. Of course, you have the products from Anastasia and I think the three-in-one pencil from Sisley is fantastic, but at HEMA or Etos, you can buy a decent pencil with a brush on the back for a defined eyebrow. You really don't have to empty your wallet for that.

Eyeliner pencil. Seriously, there are great pencils. For those from Victoria Beckham and Marc Jacobs, I would almost change my travel destination, but there are also many pencils that I don't like: they break, are hard to sharpen, have a point that is way too sharp, and so on. My tip: go to a drugstore, look for a pencil that seems good to you, buy it and test it, and if you like it, you go back with screeching tires and grab ten of them.

Hairpins. There are those hairpins that are advertised on Instagram. They do all sorts of things with them, they seem like miracle products. They are, but they cost more than 10 euros each. In Italy, I bought 10 for €2.40. Now those are prices.

Things I would invest in (and what you probably aren't doing yet...) are:

• A good hairbrush
• Brushes
• Shampoo (that makes such a difference)