Bargain Beauty: the Aldi swap challenge

It’s no secret that I have a lot of love for high end beauty products. Don’t get me wrong,, I love a good bargain, but over the years the lure of the luxury department store has proved too strong to resist. So when Aldi asked me if I’d being willing to swap some of my regular products for their own brand equivalents and see how they compared, I thought it would be a good challenge! 

I’ve previously used a couple of Aldi’s beauty products before (their Wrinkle Stop eye cream is amazing!), but never on this scale. I was a little bit worried about some of them initially as the brand snob in me came out – a 65p conditioner can never be very good, right?! Wrong. 

The Lacura Expert Day and Night Creams were actually pretty good. They’re designed to help reduce the signs of ageing, so for someone just over 30 with combination skin, they were a little rich for me, but the Day Cream would be great for really dry skins or for someone a little more mature. At £3.99 each, they're definitely something I'd recommend; there aren't many moisturisers that price that actually perform!

AquaV’s Kick Start shower gel wins the ‘best-smelling’ award – if you like Original Source shower gels, then this is a fantastic dupe at less than a third of the price. It’s definitely a morning shower gel as the tea tree and mint smells pretty zingy, but it’s a lovely way to wake up in the morning, and at just 69p is definitely one I’d repurchase. 

I’m kind of on the fence when it comes to the Carino Hairspray (79p, not pictured) as although I was impressed with its holding power, it was easy to overspray and end up with that ‘crispy’ feeling to my hair. I usually stick to Elnett at the moment which is over 5 times more expensive. While I’d happily use the Aldi version for a light touch to help keep a blow dry in place, for any up dos I’d want to stick with my trusty Elnett as I know this doesn’t go crunchy, but still keeps hair in place all day. 

35p cotton buds are basically a winner in anyone’s book – seriously, why bother paying more for something that does exactly the same thing?! The same also goes for Aldi’s cotton pads which I buy all of the time and are 79p for 200 I think. Double Aldi win on that front. 

The thing I was most impressed with was Aldi’s Sonic Toothbrush (not pictured). This was one of their special buys that run for a short period of time with limited stock, so I’m not sure that this is still in store, but definitely keep an eye out for something similar in the future. At less than £18, this is great value as far as electric toothbrushes go and it definitely rivals a MUCH more expensive version I’ve been testing out over the past month. Sonic technology is usually only found in the pricier models, making this seem even better value for money! 

I worked out that if I were to swap my regular items for the Aldi version, I’d save myself almost £200, which is a pretty ridiculous saving! It’s definitely made me take a look at some of the items I could switch long term, and I shall be having a serious nose through the rest of their beauty products in store at the weekend. Maybe I’ll end up with a whole basket full along with my halloumi… 

Have you tried any Aldi beauty products before? Would you be willing to trade your normal ones in for a bargain equivalent?

*PR samples