Cheap Doesn’t Mean Bad. But It Doesn’t Mean Good Either

Right after writing about my inexpensive KKV makeup brushes, I saw these.

KKV Mini Cake Powder Puffs.

They’re cute.

They’re cheap.

They’re ₱99 for a box. I can’t remember if there are 4 or 6 or 8 in one box. I just know there’s a lot because I already own another version of them in purple.

Unfortunately, I don’t particularly like them.

Which feels like an appropriate continuation of my argument that the price of a beauty tool doesn’t necessarily tell me whether I’m going to like using it.

My inexpensive KKV brushes?

Some of them are genuinely good. I reach for them despite owning much more expensive brushes because they simply work with my hand.

The powder puffs I bought?

Not so much.

There wasn’t anything particularly impressive about the way they performed, and I found myself reaching for other puffs instead.

They were too dense and not very flexible. And they sucked up foundation a lot! The cute but awkward shapes also didn't help.

Expensive doesn’t automatically mean better.

But inexpensive doesn’t automatically make something a brilliant little beauty find either.

Sometimes you discover an ₱89 brush that earns a permanent place in your makeup collection.

Sometimes you buy a cute, inexpensive powder puff and realize you’d rather use something else.

Price can tell me what something costs.

It can’t tell me how well it will work in my hands.

And these days, that’s the test I care about.

—-

With elegance and quiet fire,
Lady E
Founder, Glow by Lady E
An editorial space for stories, art, and intentional living

Comments

Soul Notes: For Your Journal Tonight

Come sit with me for a while. I have my journal open, and tonight I’ve been thinking about something I suspect I do more often than I realize. I turn healing into another thing I need to accomplish. I want to know when I’ll be over something. When I’ll stop thinking about it. When something that hurt will finally stop hurting. When I’ll feel like myself again. And somewhere along the way, healing quietly becomes another deadline. Another invisible date on a calendar. Another thing I can somehow be late for. But maybe healing doesn’t work particularly well under project management. Maybe there are things I will understand quickly and things I’ll have to revisit again and again. Maybe I’ll feel completely fine one day and unexpectedly tender the next. That doesn’t mean I’ve gone backwards. It means I’m still moving through it. I remember one day, many years ago, when I had fibromyalgia. I lived in constant pain. I just couldn’t get a good day. And then one day, in the office...

Used to the Last Drop: The Ones I’d Already Told You About

There’s something particularly satisfying about finishing a product you’ve already written about. Not testing it. Not forming first impressions. Not wondering whether I’ll still like it three weeks from now. Finished. My Molang Honey sheet masks and this body scrub both made it all the way to the end. (Finally for the Molang sheet masks, right?) I’ve reviewed both before, so I won’t review them all over again here. But perhaps using something until there is nothing left to use is its own kind of review. Beauty products come through my bathroom rather frequently. Some are lovely for a week. Some get pushed to the back of a shelf. Some simply stop working for me. And then there are the ones that quietly disappear because I kept reaching for them. Maybe an empty container is the shortest review of all. I liked it enough to finish it. If you want to read my thought about these products, just type them on my search bar. —- With elegance and quiet fire, Lady E Founder, Glow by Lady E...

Part 1: I Finally Had Enough of My Dry Feet and Did Something About It

I have been annoyed with my feet for months. Not because there was anything particularly wrong with them. They were just dry . Really dry. And you know I have a problem with dryness (hello skin, lips). And somehow, despite noticing this constantly, I kept doing absolutely nothing about it. The moment that gets me every time is when I’m waiting for my son at piano class. I’ll sit down, cross my legs, look down at my slip-ons or sandals and there they are. My dry, flaky feet. Then I become painfully aware that there are other people sitting beside me who can probably see them too. 😂 Every time, I think, I really need to do something about this. And then piano class ends, life resumes, and apparently my feet are no longer part of my jurisdiction. Eventually, I had enough. I found this Mond’Sub Chamomile Foot Peeling Spray at KKV and decided that my poor neglected feet were finally getting some attention. The process wasn’t glamorous. There was peeling skin involved. There were bits...

Glow by Lady E

Search This Blog