Five Buck Friday

Purchased by Me

It's back! I took a break from my Five Buck Friday series for the holidays, but it's back and for those who are new to this blog, let me quickly tell you what this series is about!

On Fridays, I like to do a post for the weekend that includes products that I personally love, own and have repurchased. And no matter how many products I post, they will ALWAYS add up to just five bucks. I sometimes post about five $0.99 products, and sometimes just one $5 product--it varies from week to week. To see all of my past Five Buck Friday posts, click the little pink blush on the top menu bar of this blog titled "Five Buck Friday."

So let's get started with my pick for this week!

Five Buck Friday

Purchased by Me 

Did you think I stopped with the FBF posts? Think again! I love this series and even if I don't get a chance to do a post every single Friday, I will still do them whenever time permits!

For new readers, Five Buck Friday is a series that I created to showcase some very affordable beauty products that I personally own, love and have repurchased. Everything featured here will add up to a grand total of...five bucks! 

This week's installment includes my very favorite $0.99 jelly polish, and more! Keep reading for all the details...

Five Buck Friday

Press Sample Purchased by Me

It's time once again for Five Buck Friday! For new readers, this is a series I created to showcase some of my favorite and very affordable beauty products that I personally own and have repurchased. The grand total of everything I feature in these posts always adds up to just five bucks! So let's get started with this week's picks...

Five Buck Friday (Facebook Fans Edition)

For new readers, Five Buck Friday is a series I created in order to share with your my favorite, super-affordable beauty products. All of the items in these posts always add up to a grand total of...five bucks!

A few weeks ago, I turned the tables and asked those of you who follow me on Instagram to tell me YOUR favorite $0.99 or $1.99 drugstore beauty products (you can see that post here). Well, for this week's installment of Five Buck Friday, I asked those of you who follow me on Facebook for YOUR picks! I've gathered some of your responses here and I'm excited to share them with you. I had a hard time narrowing it down, but I really wanted to include products here that haven't been featured in previous Five Buck Friday posts.

Let's take a look at some of your recommendations...

Five Buck Friday (Instagram Followers Edition)

For this week's Five Buck Friday post, I thought I'd do something a little different! If you follow me on Instagram, then you might have noticed that, earlier today, I posted a message asking followers to tell me their favorite $1 or $2 drugstore products, and why they think they're great. I received dozens of responses and I selected some of my favorites to share with you here today. I selected these responses based on a few things:

• Originality (products not already featured in past Five Buck Friday posts)
• Explanation (why the product works for you)

So without further ado, here are my picks for this week's Five Buck Friday post, as chosen by my Instagram followers! As always, all of the products featured in this post will add up to $5 total:

Five Buck Friday

Press Sample Purchased by Me 

This week really flew by, didn't it? It's Friday again, and you know what that means. Here are this week's Nouveau Cheap-approved bargain beauty treats that will set you back a grand total of five bucks!

Five Buck Friday

Purchased by Me

It's Friday and you know what that means! Time again for me to share with you some Nouveau Cheap-approved affordable beauty products that come to a grand total of five bucks. Keep reading for this week's picks...

Five Buck Friday

Press Sample Purchased by Me 

It's time once again for another installment of Five Buck Friday! For new readers, this series gives me an opportunity to share with you the super-inexpensive products that I personally own, love and have repurchased. As always, the grand total of everything in these posts always adds up to five bucks! So let's get started...

Five Buck Friday

It's time once again for Five Buck Friday! For new readers, this is a series I created to showcase some extremely affordable beaty products that I personally own, love and recommend  All of the products featured in Five Buck Friday come to a grand total of, you guessed it, five bucks! So let's get started with this week's installment!

Five Buck Friday

When I first started the Five Buck Friday series, I sort of explained my "rules" for products mentioned in these posts. First of all, everything mentioned here will always add up to a grand total of five dollars, and they're always products that I personally own and love. I usually give you three or four products every Friday, that always add up to five dollars total. But I did say that every once in a while, I would feature a single product that retails for five dollars, but that product has to be pretty darned special to be the sole Five Buck Friday featured product. 

So today, I've got a product that I believe is truly worthy of all five of your hard-earned bucks. Keep reading to find out what it is...

Five Buck Friday

This week's Five Buck Friday post is devoted to something many of us use on a daily basis: hair elastics (aka ponytail holders). I know that some of you have your favorites and you're probably quite devoted to them, but I've always been kind of a "hair elastic floozy." I've spent years (decades, actually), jumping from brand to brand and style to style, without any loyalty to one particular product. Well, I've finally found my perfect hair elastic, so I'm excited to share it with you, in case you, too, are a hair elastic floozy!

Goody Slide-Proof Black Elastics (retail: between $5 and $3.50, wherever Goody products are sold). Since these range in price and go all the way up to $5 at certain retailers, this is going to be the only product in this installment of Five Buck Friday (but you can definitely get these on sale at most major drugstores for less than $5).

Keep reading to find out exactly why these hair elastics have made me stop my floozy ways...

Five Buck Friday

I can't believe how quickly this week flew by. Here we are again at Friday, so it's time for another look at some Nouveau Cheap-approved beauty products that will, of course, set you back a grand total of five bucks! So let's get started:

NYC Matte Me Crazy Top Coat (retail: $1.99 for 0.33 oz, wherever NYC products are sold). This was such a great surprise when I first tried it last April (click here for my full review). Unlike some other affordable matte top coats I've tried in the past that left with me more of a satin-matte look, Matte Me Crazy delivers on its matte effect, and is probably the least expensive matte top coat out there. If you don't like the look of 100% matte nails, consider applying Matte Me Crazy over your entire nail (on top of your favorite polish) and then adding a glossy top coat to just your tips for a fun take on the classic French manicure (like this).

L'Oreal Feria Color Moisturizing Treatment (retail: $2.99 at Sally Beauty for 1.0 oz, $2.69 for Sally Club Members). I don't usually recommend trial sizes in this series, but this is an exception since I think it's wise to try a sample before purchasing a full size tube (the full-size tube is $8.79 at Sally Beauty for 6.0 oz, or $7.99 for Sally Club members). So here's the deal: if you've ever colored your hair at home using a box kit from the drugstore, you know that the conditioners that come in those kits are kind of amazing. They instantly detangle the hair like a hot knife through butter, and they can leave even the most coarse or dry hair feeling and looking like silk. Many years ago, I was in search of an affordable drugstore equivalent to those conditioners, and a co-worker told me about the L'Oreal Feria Color Moisture Treatment available at Sally Beauty. I bought it immediately and I've loved it ever since. It's very, very close to the conditioners your find in at-home hair color kits, and the price is right. Granted you can get the same effect with salon brand conditioners or treatments, but if you're on a tight budget, I think you might be very pleased with this one. Don't take my word for it though--check out the reviews on the Sally website here.

That's it for this installment of Five Buck Friday. Have you tried either of these products? I'd love to hear from you!

Five Buck Friday

After a brief hiatus for the holidays, Five Buck Friday is back and this week I've got a couple of fun little suggestions for your five-buck-fix. For new readers, this series is dedicated to beauty products that I personally own and love. The theme here is that everything I recommend in these posts will set you back a grand total of...five bucks!

Keep reading for this week's Five Buck Friday picks...

Five Buck Friday (Special Holiday Edition)

Since this is my last Five Buck Friday post before Christmas, and the holidays are the Season of Giving, I thought I'd do something a little different this week.

In this series, I usually suggest to you Nouveau Cheap-approved products that will set you back a grand total of five bucks. Well, if you follow me on Facebook, then you know that I'm participating in the 26 Acts of Random Kindness movement to honor the victims in Connecticut. If you don't know what this is, you basically perform 26 random acts of kindness to honor each victim. For more info, check out the Facebook page here. And I really, really urge you to click here to see some beautiful examples of what people across the country are doing (warning: have a tissue on hand in case you tear up--I know I did).

Critics of this movement say that we should be kind ALL of the time, not just now. And my response is always, "I agree. But what's wrong with being EXTRA kind right now?"  I'm not trying to preach about this or convince you to commit random acts of kindness. It's a personal choice and I respect if you don't want to participate. 

But if you do, here are five suggestions and, just like with my usual Five Buck Friday posts, the grand total for these random acts of kindness will set you back five bucks.

1) Take four quarters and leave them in gumball machines at your local grocery store, drugstore etc. Imagine the smile it will bring to a child's face when he or she goes to get a gumball or toy and sees that there's already a quarter in the machine.

2) Go to the card section of your local Target, drugstore, etc. and leave a dollar in a $0.99 sympathy card. If someone's taking the time to send a sympathy card to someone, why not brighten their day by giving them the card for free? (I got this idea from reader Kelly on Facebook--this is what she did for act #26. I thought it was such a beautiful gesture that I told her I was stealing the idea!)

3) The next time you're at the dollar store, hand the person in line ahead of you a dollar (this works best if the person is only buying one thing, but even if they're buying several items, at least they'll get one for free!).

4) Leave four quarters in the washer or dryer in your laundry room or local laundromat.

5) Buy a $0.99 thank you card and give it to your favorite employee at the drugstore (you know you have one!). Take the time to tell him or her exactly why you think they're awesome.

You don't have to be a millionaire to spread a little love and joy. Pay it forward, any way you can. Hugs and smiles are free!

G. xo

Five Buck Friday

It's time again for more fun finds that will set you back a cool five bucks! As always, the products in this post are all Nouveau Cheap-approved (I personally own and love every single product I feature in this series) and the grand total for everything you see here is always just five bucks.

Keep reading for this week's picks...

Five Buck Friday

It's Friday! And you know what that means. Time to share some Nouveau-Cheap-approved beauty products that will set you back a grand total of five bucks. 

Keep reading for this week's picks...

Five Buck Friday

Another week has whizzed right by and it's time again for my Five Buck Friday picks! Here are some fabulously affordable beauty products I love, own and use on a regular basis. You can purchase them all for a grand total of five bucks at your local drugtores/big box stores...can't get much easier than that!

Keep reading for this week's picks...

Five Buck Friday

It's that time again! After a brief lapse last week, Five Buck Friday is back, and today I've just got one product to share with you, but I think it's very worthy of all five of your hard-earned bucks.

Keep reading for your weekly dose of Five Buck Friday fun...

Five Buck Friday (Hidden Gems Edition)

I got my computer fixed just in time to bring you another installment of Five Buck Friday! I've got some Nouveau Cheap-approved hidden gems to share with you his week, so let's get started.

Five Buck Friday fun, after the jump...

Five Buck Friday

It's Friday and you know what that means! This week I've got two Nouveau Cheap-approved products that you can buy for a grand total of five bucks (actually, the grand total for this installment of Five Buck Friday is around $4.50 so that's even better, right?).

Keep reading for some Five Buck Friday fun...