by Penny Parker

Created on: August 23, 2009

With so many beauty brands out there these days, it's tough to figure out what to spend your hard earned money on. Do luxury brands do a better job than drugstore brands? Is a certain product all about hype and packaging rather than results? Will that shampoo give me gorgeous, shiny hair like the commercial portrays?

Before the internet, it was very difficult to tell. You would have to hit your local CVS or department store and purchase the products to try out at home. Sometimes products would work well and others might sit in your bathroom cabinet forever, having only used them once. Another option would have been to ask your friends if they had tried the product to get some word of mouth advice.

While these options can still be used, the internet makes choosing products a whole lot easier. There are literally thousands of reviews on every beauty product imaginable on the web, as well as sites that help you to locate products that may have been hard to find before, unless you lived in a large city.

To find out which products will suit you, there are a number of sites that review products to give you a better idea of what to purchase.

Totalbeauty.com is the most comprehensive site for makeup reviews. If you've heard of a product, chances are, they've reviewed it. Besides reviews, they feature a how-to section as well as videos to give advice on makeup application, hairstyling and more. The site features expert advice from gurus such as Ted Gibson, Frederic Fekkai and Howard Murad to name a few.

Makeupalley.com is another review site that has reviews on just about every brand of cosmetic, skincare and haircare on the market. They also have a Swap section where you can trade (unused) makeup with other members.

I have also found that store websites such as Sephora (luxury brands) and Drugstore.com (both luxury and budget brands) have reviews on all of their products as well, which is helpful if you are already on the site ready to purchase products.

For shopping, I recommend the following sites for luxury products:

Sephora.com- Sign up to be a Beauty Insider to get tons of perks and free samples and products!

Blissworld.com- The famous Bliss Spa's website also has a ton of other luxury and hard to find brands.

Beauty.com- They offer free shipping, free samples and gifts with purchase. They also offer a 5% cash back program.

For budget beauty shoppers, I recommend:

Drugstore.com- A partner site of Beauty.com, this site offers the biggest selection of products I've ever seen, often at prices lower that I will find in the drugstore. They also offer products that are hard to find in your local drugstore, such as a Jergens moisturizer I thought had been discontinued.

Target.com- Target offers many budget-friendly brands that are exclusive to them, and they also offer customer reviews to help give you an idea of what to buy.

There are also a few fabulous sites where you can find high end makeup at deep discounts:

Beautyticket.com- offers luxury brands such as YSL, Stila, Vincent Longo, Bliss and more at up to 85% off. I actually saw $60 YSL eyeshadow quads for $24.99 on this site!

Amazon.com- There are tons of beauty deals to be had on this giant site.

Online Sample Sales- Sites like gilt.com, hautelook.com and ruelala.com offer designer clothing at deep discounts, but also occasionally offer beauty products.

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