10 Best Skincare Products Under $50 (Esthetician Approved)

Skincare products with expensive price tags typically come equipped with a nice and Instagrammy package, have a pleasant smell, rich texture, and they pretty much make you feel like a goddess.

Well, guess what?

That luxurious feeling is the main thing you are draining your credit card for, but this doesn’t mean that what’s inside the luxurious package will do your skin any good.

Once I realized how to read and understand the ingredient list, it freed me from thinking the more expensive a product is – the better it will be for my skin.

This couldn’t be further from the truth, so I started thinking more selfishly and started paying attention to the real matter – what is this product going to do for me?

In this article, I will teach you how to create a simple & efficient skincare routine in five easy steps, as well as give you a list of the ten best skincare products under $50.

If you are on the lookout for good skincare products but don’t want to drain your bank, this is for you! Here are…

The 10 Best Skincare Products (Under $50)

I’ve tried, tested, and loved all of these for different reasons, so here I am sharing this list with you guys. Enjoy.

The Best Cleansers (Under $50)

If I had to choose the two best cleansers on the market, I would undoubtedly go with Paula’s Choice cleansers.

Like all her products, these are formulated without drying alcohols, fragrance, and astringents, which are the three things I absolutely cannot stand in skincare products.

Everyone loves these cleansers and I can proudly say I’ve had my entire family hooked on PC products. Additionally, every client I’ve ever worked with has enjoyed a quick and most welcome improvement in whatever skin concern was in question due to PC products.

The Best Exfoliators (Under $50)

This one was a little difficult because I’ve tried so many good exfoliants lately and it makes me think that skincare brands are really upping their game when it comes to this particular product.

Exfoliation is an important step in your regimen as this will help you get rid of the dead skin cells on the surface of your skin, give you a brighter, hydrated, and more radiant complexion, as well as balance excess oil production, and get rid of your blemishes.

I managed to divide my two absolute favorite exfoliants I constantly reach for, so here are my favorites:

The Best Serums (Under $50)

When it comes to serums, you really don’t need to go all crazy about it.

Depending on your skin concerns, you need a serum that’s gonna deliver sufficient hydration into your skin or a serum that will brighten your skin and balance out excess oil production.

So, here are two very versatile and affordable products that deliver excellent results for all skin types:

The Best Moisturizers (Under $50)

Right after your serum application, you need to add an occlusive barrier that will help prevent all that precious moisture from evaporating out of your skin.

So, you need a simple moisturizer that isn’t too heavy but isn’t too rich either.

Luckily there are many moisturizers on the market to choose from, so make sure to keep it simple and efficient while giving your skin what it needs. Here are my recommendations:

The Best Sunscreens (Under $50)

Coming down to the most important thing, and that is sun protection. You have to protect your skin because if you don’t – it will never heal.

No matter the concern you have at hand, be it hyperpigmentation, skin aging, red spots, brown spots, acne, sensitivity, irritation, just whatever, one thing you need to be diligent about is sunscreen. Here are my favorites:

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How To Create A Simple & Efficient Skincare Routine (In 5 Easy Steps)

My knowledge about how skin functions have led me to become a firm believer that skincare shouldn’t be complicated.

Companies often try to make it sound like you need all these products because they are trying to sell you these products, but you surely don’t need to buy a $50 roller to roll across your skin and make the products absorb. You literally have your fingers for that!

So here’s how to create a simple and efficient skincare routine in only five easy steps:

~ Pay attention to your skin’s needs.

This is the first and most important thing to think of when you want to purchase a hot, new skincare product everyone is talking about.

Do I need it? Will my skin benefit from it? How will my skin benefit from it? Or should I simply stick to what works for me?

If your skin isn’t oily and you don’t have acne or blackheads, you don’t need a BHA exfoliant because everyone else is using it.

Or if you are in your early 20s, you don’t need to start using retinol because everyone else is doing it and swears by it.

Believe me; your skin won’t get better than it is in your 20s (collagen wise), so buying pricey retinol is just an extra and unnecessary expense for you.

The only anti-aging product you should use in your early 20s (and before) is sunscreen.

Pay attention to your skin’s needs and try to give it what it wants rather than experimenting with all these weird products you don’t need just because someone told you to.

~ Don’t overdo it.

It all comes down to paying attention to what your skin needs, again.

If you don’t wake up with a greasy face in the morning – you don’t need to use a cleanser and you can simply splash some water and get it over with.

If you’ve exfoliated the previous night, you don’t have to exfoliate again in the morning because your skin doesn’t need that much exfoliation.

You don’t need to do a face mask every day and you don’t need to use a toner if you already have a serum. It’s as simple as that, which brings me to my next point.

~ Don’t overcomplicate it.

I see all these 10-step skincare routines all over the internet and the only thing I am thinking is “Who the hell has time for that?”.

Yes, I take good care of my skin, yes I cleanse my face every night, yes I use an exfoliator, a serum, a moisturizer, and sunscreen in the morning.

And yes, I am very happy with how my skin looks. So happy, in fact, that I don’t have the slightest desire to go through these daunting 10-step routines when I can spend that extra time in the shower.

My point is, you don’t need to have a complicated skincare routine to have good skin. And let me tell you one more important thing:

Our skin isn’t designed for all these different ingredients and most of the time it will just freak out and start rebelling!

Which I think is the main reason someone came up with this popular (funny) meme:

Yes, your skin is probably just rebelling against all these new and unknown things it has to deal with all of a sudden.

~ Expensive isn’t always better.

I’ve said it million times, and I am going to say it million more times:

“Expensive doesn’t mean better!”.

Understand that if the ingredients ain’t shit, all you’re paying for is the brand’s name, luxury bottles and packaging, and a pleasant smell.

Stuff you literally don’t need in skincare.

You don’t need your skincare products to smell nice; you don’t need them to come in a luxury bottle.

You don’t need to support a multi-millionaire company (I’m looking at you, Estée Lauder) that decided to profit off someone that doesn’t know how to read and understand the ingredient list.

You need your skincare products to work! And products from relatively affordable brands like The Ordinary or the Inkey List work ridiculously much better than any Clinique or Dior skincare product.

~ Stick to what works.

Again, listen to your skin and make sure to give it what it needs. If you’ve found a product that works for you, stick to it. You don’t need to change it.

I experiment with many skincare products, but it’s my job to do so, and believe me, more often than not, I pay the price for it, and my skin sometimes gets irritated and angry because of all the stuff I apply for the sake of content.

But for the regular person who just wants to take good care of their skin, you don’t need all these things.

You don’t need five different serums. You need to stick to what works for you. Again, it’s just as simple as that.