rinnah's consumer views|a straight talking, tell-it-as-it-is consumer lifestyle blog

I love this concept!

No makeup makeup is all about using barely there, minimal makeup to achieve a polished, no makeup look that is like the natural and original you, but better. I’m not a fan of bold, bright and colorful makeup although I do admit that on some women, it looks fabulous and perfectly suited to them. Some other women though, are sadly misguided in the school of thought that more is better and usually end up with too much makeup that you can spot them a block away. I’m pretty sure all of us have seen at least one or two perfect examples of this in real life, no?

As for me, I usually eschew any form of makeup on all days, except those rare occasions when I have an event to go to. That’s when I break out my makeup stuff. But watching Lisa Eldridge’s No Makeup Makeup tutorial below has really inspired me to want to start doing this even on workdays! Just watch the video below – how can anyone not like what they see?

Video credit to Lisa Eldridge

Growing up, I used to think that the daily papers was a necessity. This was mainly due to my dad’s habit of buying the papers at work and bringing it home. So, when I myself started to work, I carried on the same habit because it just seemed like the right thing to do. In the early days before I bought my car, I used to travel by commuter train and I could get a free copy of The Sun at the train station so it was no big deal. Later when I switched to driving my car, out of force of habit, I ended up buying The Star daily because my office building just didn’t have the free paper giveaway. See how a habit can make you spend money without thinking about it?

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After this went on for about a year or so, I got to thinking, “Hey, I can do without this. I don’t need to know everything that’s going on in Malaysia right now and don’t you think the papers print mostly bad news anyway?”

Nowadays, I just go online to the newspaper websites and read the headlines that interest me. I’ve found that this new habit of mine saves me quite a bit of time as I routinely skim the headlines of the day faster than I would if I actually sat down and read the papers. I won’t deny that there’s something very retro and nostalgic about hearing the newspaper pages rustle and actually feeling it in your hands but think of it this way – you’re also saving the environment this way because fewer trees have to be cut down to produce newsprint. Oh, there’s also the added benefit that I don’t have to store up the old newspapers before hauling them off to the nearest recycling center on a monthly basis.

Cost of switch? Nil. It just took a change of routine.
Savings? RM1.20 (weekdays) x 20 days + RM1.50 (weekends) x 8 days = RM36
In the long run? Assuming 1 year duration on average = RM432

So, think about your habits just a little bit and see if you can come up with your own savvy consumer tips.

I like to think of myself as a savvy consumer. Make no mistake, I don’t mean being a stingy consumer, just a smart consumer who knows value when she sees it. So, how can you ensure that you end up with the best deal that is just right for you, the savvy consumer? Let’s have a little demonstration of what I mean.

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Sometime last month (in January), I knew I was running out of my Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief. And I definitely knew that I needed to repurchase this staple in my beauty routine. Instead of waiting till the very last moment to repurchase, I decided I needed a plan of action. I would use the time I had between when I decided to repurchase and when I would run out of my moisturizer to ensure that I got the best possible deal.

I already knew that the regular sized jar (50ml) retailed for MYR 160 at all Clinique counters. Was there any way that I could get a better deal? I was willing to pay the full retail price of MYR 160, but yet I wanted assurance that I would get the best possible value for my MYR 160. Let’s see what I did.

Firstly, I checked out the price of online retailers. From friends’ recommendations and good experiences, Strawberrynet seemed the ideal place to start with. Unfortunately, they were having no special promotions and it would have cost me MYR 166 (with free shipping) when purchasing from them. Strawberrynet was a no-go.

At the recommendation of another friend, I checked out BestBuy World. Although the prices there are much cheaper, the product is not the full sized product, but rather travel/sample sizes as a discounted rate. The different type of packaging did not bother me, but unfortunately, they had no ready stocks of Moisture Surge then.

So, at that point of time it seemed as though I would need to pay the full retail price for my moisturizer. No problem, since I was already prepared to pay MYR 160 for the product. The next question was : Where to buy it? I decided to make my purchase at Parkson, since they have a retail program with Bonuslink which allows you to collect reward points for all purchases. In this way, I could be assured of accumulating reward points for future redemption against shopping vouchers. At least there would be some return on my money spent.

Then, as luck would have it, I received a flyer from Bonuslink informing me that there would be a members’ day at Parkson, which would allow me to collect 5 times reward points on any purchase. Even more value for money, right? So I deferred my purchase for a few more days while waiting for the members’ day to roll around.

During the time between the Bonuslink flyer and the members’ day, I received an email from Clinique, informing me of their latest promotion to redeem a sample of their new anti-aging moisturizer. I decided that I would redeem my free sample at the same time when I made my purchase.

When I visited the Clinique counter, I was able to accomplish a number of things at the same time – restock my moisturizer, redeem my free sample and I also asked the consultant for another sample of Clinique’s best-selling All About Eyes eye gel. Even though I did not purchase enough to meet the Gift-With-Purchase limit, I’m satisfied with getting samples on top of my purchased item.

Better yet, since I made my purchase on the members’ day, not only did I get the 5 times reward points, I also got MYR 20 worth of Parkson vouchers for spending above MYR 150 in a single day. Can you say score?

Total haul on that day :
Moisture Surge – MYR 160
Youth Surge sample redemption – free
All About Eyes sample – free
Parkson vouchers worth MYR 20 – free

Wouldn’t you say that’s a good deal? And all that for just waiting 1 week extra.

You might think that I unnecessarily spent a lot of time comparing prices and still ended up paying the full retail price for my moisturizer, but when I look at all that I managed to get for just one trip, to me that’s worth much more than randomly going out shopping.

So, plan your purchases ahead of time and save money.
Getting additional satisfaction in knowing you got a good deal? Priceless.