Because You're Worth It

I was flipping through the January issue of Real Simple magazine, and they have an entire story about luxury beauty products. And while I am disgusted by things like La Prairie's $650 facial cream, I do think it's important to pamper yourself from time to time.

According to Real Simple, some splurge-worthy items include:

• Frederic Fekkai's $95 hair brush. While I'm sure the boar's hair bristles and craftsmanship of this brush are amazing, I'll stick with my $15 Target stand-by. Honestly, I can save myself some cash and still have a beautiful yet functional hair brush.
• Ojan Restorative Hair Treatment,$55. This product promises deep hydration and will leave your hair nourished and smelling great. But for the price I'm sure you could find a decent substitute. Maybe even an at home treatment made from mashed up avocados, mayonnaise, or olive oil? Nah...on second thought if you want to splurge on a fancy haircare treatment, go for it. $55 won't break the bank...and if it's too spendy you can get a smaller jar of this stuff for $21. Not bad!
• Chanel's $85 Collection Essentielle Lumiere Soleil Makeup Palette. The Real Simple beauty editors touted this product's packaging, saying that the compact feels like "jewelry." That might be, but you're only getting 4 eyeshadows, 4 lipcolors, and one blush. So you're spending about $9.40 for each sample-sized offering of color. Okay--now try this: With the $39.50 Jewelry Box, Too Faced gives you 8 eyeshadows, 6 lipglosses, a blush, a duo bronzer, a foundation powder, brow powder, eyeliner, and a face illuminator. Let's see...that amounts to just under $2.00 per sample-sized item. And Too Faced products are very decent quality-wise, so you're not sacrificing for quantity.

So this whole thing got me thinking...I have so many beauty products but do I consider any of them luxury items? Not really. Sure I use Purity Made Simple from Philosophy--a spendy little face wash when a $3.50 bottle of Clean and Clear from Target would do the job. And yes, I use Bare Escentuals foundation....though the cost for BE foundation and powder isn't too tough to swallow considering how long I use them for.

So what are my luxury items? If pressed, I'd have to say that I sorta, kinda have a thing for designer mascara. Oh, Great Lash is the bomb, but there's nothing like the full brush of a primo mascara like Too Faced Lash Injection ($20). I also must admit to my ongoing lipstick/lipgloss obsession--I don't even bat an eyelash when I pay $25 or so for a tube of gloss. But that's more of an addiction than a splurge. And I'm pretty sure there's a difference.

What about you? What do you spend way too much money on?