Top Five Designer Makeup Duplicates!

One of the biggest complaints I hear when talking with friends about makeup is how expensive the "good" stuff is: MAC cosmetics, Lancome, Clinique and other designer brands, for example. But, here's a secret you may not have known - just because it's expensive, doesn't mean that it's good! Not only that, but merely because it has a designer label does not mean that you can't find something that performs exactly the same in a drug-store compact. As someone who has dabbled around in a lot of makeup, I have searched high and low for the perfect duplicates to my favorite designer makeup brands. Here my personal top five makeup dupes!

NARS Turkish Delight Lipgloss. Dupe: Neutrogena Moisture Shine "Groove." Both are high-gloss, pale pink cream glosses, but one will cost you a steep $24, while you'll pay a cool $8 for and be just as happy.

MAC Love Nectar Lusterglass. Dupe: Milani Coral Shimmer Lipgloss. Love Nectar is one of my favorite MAC glosses, but I felt like chopping my hand off every time I handed over $15 for it. It is a very nice, basic nude-pink tinted shimmer gloss - nothing special, and nothing I would recommend spending $15 on. The Milani gloss is an interesting dupe because it doesn't appear to be a dupe from the outside: the color appears to be much brighter and the consistency to be much thinner than MAC's Love Nectar. However, when you swatch both of them the colors show up almost exactly alike! I know that not everyone has access to the Milani line, but you can certainly order their products online and they are great quality for a low price - a great deal!

NARS Orgasm blush. Dupe: Mark. Afterglo. Mark products are great, because you can buy them from the Avon website or from your Avon/Mark representative, so they're easily reachable. NARS Orgasm is my favorite blush of all time and is NARS's most popular product, so understandably there are a ton of knockoff versions in every makeup line. However, I have found Afterglo the be the closest, and the best quality for the best deal!

MAC Humid. Dupe: NYX Mermaid Green. NYX has become my favorite "drug store" brand yet! MAC is known for its great shadows with high color payoff, but the prices for one pan of MAC eyeshadow is about $15. A perfect dupe for their mossy green Humid is NYX's $4 Mermaid Green, which has what I consider to be the same or better quality!

ZOYA Moxie nail polish. Dupe: Sally Hansen Beet Stain nail polish. Never in my life have I ever seen two polishes look more alike. Both are a flat, sheer berry color, but the Sally Hansen polish saves you about $6 over the ZOYA shade!

No matter what product you are using, there is always a duplicate of it. Brands like MAC and Lancome are great, but why spend so much money when you could easily buy a less expensive drug store match? Before you go designer, shop around a little and see if you can find a similar product from a cheaper line.