Bargain beauty products with luxury ingredients: the 9 best to buy

Once upon a time, ‘active’ skincare ingredients, the retinals, peptides, growth factors and acids came wrapped in big promises, premium packaging, and a hefty price tag. But now we’re in the midst of a cost of living crisis, and the beauty industry is witnessing a transformative shift.

Where “reassuringly expensive” – suggesting a higher price being synonymous with higher quality – was once a compelling motivator to buy, we’re now entering the era of Reassuringly Affordable: whereby more and more brands are harnessing high-performance active formulas and breakthrough ingredients at a fraction of the traditional cost. In so doing they are democratising access to transformative skincare for all of us, and acknowledging that affordability is no longer a compromise. In fact, it’s fast becoming the most compelling sign of value.