Is Premium Beauty Worth It?

I love beauty products. I could spend an entire day perusing the beauty halls of Debenhams and House of Fraser trying, testing, speaking to staff and most importantly spending. As much as I enjoy the experience of shopping for premium brand products, I still get excited when I find a new bargain brand or a product that costs a few pounds and contends with a far more expensive product from one of the counters. This lead me to asking myself if premium beauty is worth it.

Of course when you buy from the immaculate ladies and gents behind these beauty counters you pay a larger price tag for it. But what exactly is it you are paying for? Is the eyeshadow palette really worth all of that money? Is the face cream that much better than the one from Superdrug that you pick up off the shelf on your own? What people tend to forget with premium beauty is that although the products themselves tend to have more expensive ingredients, less fillers and go through a different manufacturing process than the budget brands, you are still paying for a service. You pay a price for the experience for buying from a lady with completely flawless makeup and hair, you are paying for her knowledge and expertise to make sure you choose the correct face cream for your oily/combination skin that has the odd dry patch here and there. Given, it is not a great deal of the price tag of each product that goes to paying for staff, but it is still there, if you want that personalised service then go ahead and shop premium. But if you don't appreciate it and aren't all that bothered about the products then why are you paying for it?

Personally, I love the experience, as I said I could spend all day and hundreds of pounds at each counter - my bank balance is the only thing stopping me at times. I like to have a chat with the salesperson about what I'm looking for - nine times out of ten I know what I want or need because I have researched it meticulously online before setting foot in the shop, but I like to make sure that my decision is correct. Sometimes I like to test the knowledge of staff too - I'm not going to lie, I like to ask questions. The other bits I love? When you get chatting to the salesperson who tips you off on an event or new product launch; when you get a handful of samples along with your purchase because you've chatted and not been rude grunting at the staff member; bonus time and points events - hey, if you're going to be spending a lot then why not get as much out of it as you can?

Don't get me wrong, there are certain products that I would rather buy budget. I have quite a good bank of duped products which will be on the blog later this week. On the whole, however I love shopping premium. I don't mind paying that bit extra to get a superior product that does the job better than a budget version and I love buying from a salesperson who knows (most of the time) what they are talking about.

Do you prefer to shop premium or budget?