They say that beauty is pain, but what they often forget to mention is that it can get expensive to maintain. Yes, everyone has their own kind of natural beauty, however keeping to the standards of today’s grooming and style can be time consuming, painful, and be burning a hole in your pocket. Now, due to the mass-production of beauty, hair, and skin care products, if you want to have something that is high-quality and pure on the ingredient list, you are going to be shelling out dollars like you wouldn’t believe.

Here are the top 4 cash-grabbing beauty routines that you didn’t even realize were killing your budget:

  1. Hair Color

Dying your hair a few decades ago was a simple procedure. You applied a uniform dye to your hair and, voila, a few hours later you had a new colour. Today the trends like highlights, lowlights, ombre, and balayage are much more time consuming, meaning that the salon bill is proportionately greater. In addition to just the application, colored hair is a lot more frail and dry, so you’ll likely be stocking up on the specialized shampoos, conditioners, and deep moisturizing treatments. If you want to be a little more money conscious, ask your colorist to give you a style that is low-maintenance and doesn’t require frequent touch ups. This can lead to hundreds of dollars in savings!

  1. Waxing

No one likes the feel of stubble on their legs, and so many ladies turn to spas for their waxing services. Whether it’s a leg, bikini, arm, upper lip, or underarm session, this “beauty-pain” is also a pain for the wallet. It’s true that the hair takes more time to regrow than shaving, however, few venture home experimentation with hot wax and the spa knows it. They are making a massive profit from a service that doesn’t even take them that much time. If you are really against razors and shaving, opt for a more permanent solution like laser hair removal. At least then you are done and over with and don’t need repeat services every few weeks!

  1. Anti-aging Creams

Aging can be hard on us, both physically and emotionally, and one thing that we will not give up without a fight are our youthful looks! Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent a year on serums, miracle creams, and oils that are meant to keep our faces wrinkle-free and young. However, most of these creams have little if any impact on the process of aging and the money spent on these products is enormous. So instead of spending several hundred dollars every year on specialized creams, go big or go home! Botox injections have more than 30 years of proven success in the field of aesthetic medicine and anti-aging treatment. It might seem expensive at first, but when you split it up into the length of time that it’s effective for, it’s usually less than those bogus creams!

  1. Cotton Pads

These might not be that expensive, but between using them for removing your makeup every night, applying your toner, and even cleansing your face, that’s a lot of garbage. Instead of using close to a hundred cotton pads a month, just get a facecloth. That’s right! Buy a pack and use them to do all the things that you usually use cotton pads for. Once they are dirty, throw them in the laundry and they are ready to use again! That’s an investment!

And one last beauty secret: smiling makes you look younger, brighter, and overall, more attractive. Now that you’re saving all this extra money, you can smile even wider!