Face value: high-quality products without the hefty price tag

One of the most important retail lessons I’ve learnt in life is that no good will ever come from entering a shop that’s too posh to display its prices.

Allow me to share with you the cautionary tale of notebook-gate.

I was once browsing in a smart stationery shop in New York and decided to treat myself to a cute little pink travel journal. After casually handing the sales assistant my card, I idly asked how much it was.

"That’s 2,300, ma’am," she smiled. I felt my legs begin to buckle.

"Two thousand three hundred dollars?" I gasped, trying to sound like someone wholly unfazed by a two grand notebook.

"Tad more than I thought!" I stuttered.

One of the fabulous benefits of getting older is the utter lack of embarrassment I now have about calling out grand larceny when I see it. Especially when it comes to beauty products

"No problem," she insisted. "Our more affordable range starts at 1,000 dollars."

Reader, 30 minutes later I was still in the shop, too British to make a run for it. Eventually, I feigned illness.

The moral of the story?

If a shop doesn’t advertise its prices, I can’t afford to be there.

Of course, one of the fabulous benefits of getting older is the utter lack of embarrassment I now have about calling out grand larceny when I see it. Especially when it comes to beauty products.

For years, we all swallowed the beauty industry mantra that expensive meant better. Goodbye those days.

Because over the past decade, the entire skincare landscape has undergone a total price point revolution. And it’s largely online culture we have to thank for the rise in competitively priced skincare.

Now that real-life consumers are demystifying the beauty industry with their stream of no-holds-barred social media reviews, brands have begun lining up to offer us premium ingredients at affordable prices.

In fact, five of my current ride or die skin saviours are all – let joy be unconfined – priced at well under £15.

Saga Magazine's columnist reveals five of her skin care favourites under £15 — Image credit: Saga Magazine

Our 5 best skincare products under £15

1. Weleda Skin Food - RRP £7.95

If you’re wondering what I have in common with Victoria Beckham, Joanna Lumley and Adele, it’s a shared passion for one of the cheapest miracle moisturisers out there, Weleda Skin Food. Try this stuff and you’ll never go back.

The super-rich, creamy formula packed with hydrating sunflower oil, skin-calming pansy and healing calendula adds up to a moisturising powerhouse that will have you glowing like a 21-year-old.

Check price

2. Cien Q10 Night Cream - RRP £1.49

If you’ve not tried Lidl’s bargain beauty brand Cien, do get involved immediately either in store (£1.49), or from Amazon (£11.95).

Cien Q10 Night Creamoffers a wrinkle-busting blend of hyaluronic acid and vitamin E to restore skin cells overnight, leaving skin feeling regenerated, and renewed. It absorbs beautifully and is gentle enough for the most sensitive types.

Check price

3. Byoma Hydrating Serum - RRP £12.99

One of the more recent arrivals at the affordable skincare party is wonder brand Byoma. This Hydrating Serum gives your complexion an instant hydration hit with its moisture-replenishing pairing of squalene and glycerin.

The velvety texture makes it a dream to apply but it’s the results that’ll have you sold – an instant radiant glow.

Check price

4. Q+A Apple AHA Exfoliating Gel - RRP £8.50

Norfolk-based skincare brand Q+A is on a mission to demystify skincare with its pared-down products at no-nonsense prices.

Q+A Apple AHA Exfoliating Gel is packed with brightening and restoring apple fruit extracts that gently exfoliate and smooth without stripping skin of essential moisture. And best of all for us over-50s? It also works wonders on age spots.

Check price

5. Elf Skin Holy Hydration! Makeup Melting Cleansing Balm - RRP £10.99

Oh Elf, what on earth did we do before you disrupted the entire beauty industry with your purse-friendly formulae from heaven?

Elf Skin Holy Hydration! Makeup Melting Cleansing Balmmelts away all traces of make-up and its blend of hyaluronic acid and collagen-boosting ceramides leaves your complexion super soft.

Check price

So, there you have it, proof positive that beautiful skin needn’t cost the earth.

Written by: Emily Dean

Emily Dean is a writer, radio co-host and and podcaster. She is co-host to Frank Skinner on his two-time Sony Gold Award-winning Absolute Radio show and presents a hugely successful podcast called Walking the Dog, in which she interviews her high-profile friends, from Alan Carr and Ross Noble to Gabby Logan and Gary Lineker.

View author page