Experts reveal their best beauty bargains of 2023… and YOU can vote for your favourites too

Have your say in our sixth annual beauty awards, with a focus on budget beauty
READ MORE: My hot insider guide to finding the best bargains

A well-groomed welcome to this, Inspire’s sixth annual beauty awards, and the second to take place during a cost-of-living crisis.

Many of us also struggled through pandemic financial woes, meaning it’s a long time since we have felt anything remotely resembling flush.

Money has rarely felt as tight, not least as we stagger into Christmas, all of us busy cutting corners.

But we still need our beauty wares — we will always need their magic. Indeed, I would argue that we crave glamour now more than ever: for cheer, for charm, for screwing up our courage into a ball and plodding Britishly on.

Fortunately, nowhere does budget beauty as brilliantly as Blighty.

Hannah Betts argues that we crave glamour now more than ever: for cheer, for charm, for screwing up our courage into a ball and plodding Britishly on

In Boots and Superdrug, we have retail giants committed to bringing us the best the industry has to offer at bargain prices.

Whether it’s their own brands — such as Boots’ trusty No 7 skincare or Superdrug’s cracking cosmetic newcomer Studio London — or decades-old stalwarts such as Rimmel, Batiste and The Body Shop.

From 1980s colour king Barry M to playful pioneers 3ina (pronounced ‘Mina’), the UK is the place for power pigment costing pennies.

Add supermarket deals — Lidl and Aldi included — Amazon offers and international names such as L’Oreal, Bourjois, Maybelline, Max Factor, CeraVe, Byoma, Garnier, Bioderma, Vichy, Aveeno, e.l.f., and Italian geniuses Kiko Milano, and it’s entirely possible to look, feel and smell as dazzling as if you had spent hundreds.

Many of us will also have subscribed to Beauty Pie, which offers state-of-the-art products without the mark-ups (from £4.95 a month, or try its 60-day free trial, beautypie.com). With the wolf at the door, we are no less chic — but we are more inventive.

To guarantee bang for our buck, we asked three industry giants for their product passions: CEO and founder of the British Beauty Council Millie Kendall OBE; make-up artist and brand owner Ruby Hammer MBE; and beauty guru and podcaster Emma Gunavardhana, of The Emma Guns Show.

I have given you my own award-winners, too: the beauty buys I’ve lived with, loved, and relied on time and time again in 2023, bringing me joy when it felt thin on the ground.

Take a look at our inventory of excellence, cherry-pick for your Christmas stocking, and vote now to be entered into our fabulous prize draw to scoop a selection of our winners.

…AND HERE ARE THIS YEAR’S ESTEEMED JUDGES

Millie Kendall OBE

Millie, 56, dispels the myth that you need to splurge on expensive products when you get older

Millie, who is the CEO and founder of the British Beauty Council, has been involved in the industry for almost 40 years. She says:

‘It’s easy to think that when you get to my age — 56 — you have to splurge on expensive products to get results, but that’s not the case. Some of my favourite bargain products are just as effective as more expensive counterparts.

‘Take Curel’s Intensive Moisture Facial Cream (£19.50, boots.com). If you put your fingers in the pot with your eyes closed, you wouldn’t know it wasn’t Tatcha’s Dewy Skin Cream, which is more than three times the price. It doesn’t have the same fragrance but it’s just as good.

‘There are also some great steals to be had if you look at brands that you might not think are targeted at you. My daughter and I both use the Byoma Creamy Jelly Cleanser (£9.99, byoma.com), which is quick and easy to use in the shower and a good all-round cleanser.’

Similarly, 3ina Lipsticks (£13, uk.3ina.com) come in really great colours and the finish is a lovely semi-matte. The 503, a wearable nude pink, has become a digital media viral sensation.

Ruby Hammer MBE

Ruby, 61, is a professional make-up artist and the founder of her own range of beauty products

Make-up artist and brand founder Ruby, 61, has been a beauty world go-to since the 1980s, and launched her own range, Ruby Hammer, in 2019. She says:

‘As a professional make-up artist, and now the founder of my own range, I’ve tried hundreds of products. And while there are some premium products I think are worth the money, the High Street is packed with really great, affordable products.

‘Mascara is a basic staple. It should only last you three to six months as every time you open it you pump air into it so it dries out. You want something inexpensive enough to replace without hesitation. I’ve had Max Factor Masterpiece (£12.99, superdrug.com) in my kit since it launched. The brush grabs every lash and it lengthens, volumises and defines.

‘I won’t do ads or paid collaborations until I’ve tried something and know that it works. That was the case with No7 Future Renew Serum (£34.95, boots.com) — I tested it at its launch and I have to say it’s bloody good! Given the technology and clinical trials behind it, it’s a great price — although, like anything, the results are cumulative so you have to stick with it.’

Emma Gunavardhana

Emma, 45, has seen seismic changes in the beauty industry during more than 20 years working as a beauty journalist

Beauty journalist Emma, 45, hosts The Emma Guns Show podcast which has had more than 15 million global downloads (instagram.com/emmaguns). She says:

‘I’ve been working in the beauty industry for more than 20 years and the changes I’ve seen have been seismic. More effective, affordable products are available, and brands such as Skin + Me (£29.99 for a subscription, skinandme.com), which offers prescription-by-post skincare, have been serious game-changers.

‘Once you have had the remote consultation, it takes all the guesswork out of standing at a beauty counter, it’s democratised dermatology, and my skin has been changed for the better since I started using it.

‘But there are also a handful of low-priced products that are classics for me. Bourjois Healthy Mix Foundation (£12.99, superdrug.com) launched in 2010. It was discontinued in the UK in 2019 but returned three years later. It’s one of those foundations that makes skin look instantly healthy and radiant.

‘My favourite budget beauty buy is Vaseline (£1.80, boots.com). Stick a layer on your lips before you go to bed, and you will never struggle with dry lips again.’

Hannah Betts

Hannah, 52, chose Glossier’s extraordinary Stretch Fluid Foundation (£34, ukglossier.com) as her product of 2023