Barely Fashionista.

I was never one to splurge on cosmetics. In Manila, the only time I get to buy new makeup is when the Avon lady of my mother comes to the house. That happens once in every two months so I only update and upgrade whatever is left on my stash during that time. I’m a very low-maintenance gal so I am settled with Ponds loose powder, Ever Bilena blush, and a Nivea lipgloss for my every day face color need.

But I decided to experiment with make up since I landed in Riyadh, I decided to create my own beauty arsenal from scratch (nearly scratch since I still use a few makeup pieces from home). I was at the Geant Hypermarket again this week when I visited the counters of drugstore brand favorites: Maybelline, Rimmel, Nivea, and Prestige.

When you visit hyper/super markets here in Riyadh, you’ll always see these brands, and only these brands at the cosmetics section. Most high-end brands like Mac have their own stalls and kiosks at the mall. Paris Gallery (Dior, Lancome, etc.) and Sephora (Nars, Givenchy, etc.) have huge branches at Danube Mall. I settle with the hypermarket brands because they’re affordable… when bought one at a time.

Imagine my shock when I spent a little less than SR200 for beauty products:

Nivea Beaute eyeshadow in Sienna, SR49.95 (P624.37); Rimmel eyebrow pencil in dark brown, SR15.85 (P198.12); Maybelline Shinylicious in Chocolate Cherry, SR35.00 (P437.50); Prestige classic lipstick in Bubbles, SR27.35 (P341.87).

Kiehl eyelash curler, SR37.95 (P474.37); Kiehl tweeer, SR28.95 (P361.87)

That’s SR195.05 worth of beauty products! And that’s only six items! Argh! It’s more heartbreaking when converted to pesos (P2,438.12). I think that’s the total of all the prices of beauty products I bought since I started working in PInas in 2005. I can still imagine the disapproving look from the father when we were at the Geant cashier. Nyak!

I guess I was too engrossed in looking at all those beauty products that I kept on putting them on my basket without calculating how much each costs. Oh well, I’ll go on cosmetics fasting for now. No more buying… but when the lipgloss is really cheap, I’ll think about it. Hehe.