It’s pretty rare to meet a woman who doesn’t have a love for beauty products. Even she doesn’t spend a lot of time at cosmetic counters, she may enjoy different shades of nail polish or even lotions and bubble baths. Yet no matter what may tickle her fancy, there’s one blaring reality that she has to deal with: beauty costs and just about every beauty product comes with a price tag.

If you’re someone who enjoys “all things beauty” and you can certainly relate to finding ways to afford it, there is some good news that we have for you and it’s this: There are some things that you can do that will help you to save money, especially on expensive beauty products. If you’d like to know that those things are, please keep reading:

Do some online shopping. Aside from the fact that online shopping provides you with the opportunity buy items from the convenience of your own home, you can also found a lot of discount stores that sell some of your favorite products. All Cosmetics Wholesale is one that immediately comes to mind. Plus, if you go to a website like Retail Me Not, there’s a pretty good chance that you can also find a promo code that will knock off a couple of more dollars or free shipping.

Be open to recycling. There are more and more cosmetic companies that are doing their part to encourage people to do more recycling of their products. Take MAC, for example. If you bring in one old tube of (their) lipstick, they’ll give you a free one in return. Origins is another cosmetics band that’s pretty “green”. If you bring in any compacts or tubes for recycling, they will provide you with some free samples as a way of saying “thank you”.

Try a few samples. Some people frown at samples but they shouldn’t because another way to look at them is that they’re free makeup; just in a smaller size. If you go to your favorite cosmetics counter, usually they will offer some samples as a promotion. However, don’t forget to also check out some of the websites that are dedicated to sending out samples to their members. Samples Beauty and POP Sugar Sample Squad are just two of the many that you can find on the internet.

Speak with your stylist (or the sales associate). Whether you regularly go to a salon for a cut and color or you schedule a time to visit a laser gentle medical spa in order to remove unwanted hair don’t hesitate to speak with your stylist or the person at the front desk about if they sell some of the products that they use at a discount. More times than not, they do.

Make some of your own. OK technically, this last tip isn’t one on how to save money when purchasing beauty products. However, oftentimes we buy products because we’re not aware of all of the things that we can make from home. There are lots of websites that will provide you with recipes on how to make everything from lotions and body wash to lip gloss. Just go to your favorite search engine and put “homemade beauty recipes” in the search field. Who knows? You might become your next favorite beauty maker.