First off, let me clarify that I had NEVER heard of the term "High Street" and I assumed it meant "drug store" so I asked the #2014BloggerChallenge group on Facebook about it and I did come to learn that it is a UK term (the host of the challenge is in the UK and so are many of the participants). It was explained to me by the lovely, Rachel of All Natural Inspirations this way: "Here in the UK we never used to have 'malls' (or shopping centres as we call them) and all our shops were on the main street of the town or the 'high street' which is where the term comes from - and basically it is the equivalent to drug store but applies to all things, not just cosmetics. We use it for clothes, etc as well."
I do believe, in most cases "you get what you pay for" - however I do not think you MUST have the most expensive items (designer labels) to have the best quality.
Personally, I wear mostly moderately prices clothes (but I'm a HUGE sale shopper so I rarely don't ever pay full price or not use a coupon to reduce the price). I shop at Old Navy, Target and Bealls for the most often and once I get back down to my goal weight I'll be back in Express and NY & Co for the majority of my work clothes and "nicer" outfits. I don't feel like I need to have $200 jeans and a $1000 purse just for the designer name but I do always choose to spend a little more money on my handbag. I'm a Coach type of girl (which I buy at the outlets and it is never more than $150 for the type of bag I happen to like) and I noticed I can use the same Coach hand bag for MANY years, every day (I don't change out my bags often) and it'll stay in great shape. I know it's not a $1000 bag but it's certainly more than a purse at say Target. (not saying Target bags won't last, I just really love my Coach bags and will continue to purchase them unless their quality starts dropping). Whereas, I have friends who "must have" the labels and hear them complain that after a few months the leather is cracking, threads are coming out, they have holes in shirts after one washing, etc, so I'm not sold on designer items. I buy what I like and I tend to be a "cheap" person so I don't like to spend a lot of money on most types of items (i'd rather spend it on vacations!) but every once in a while I do splurge. One thing for sure that I don't go cheap on is my running shoes, you need a good quality shoe that is fit for YOUR type of foot.
When it comes to make-up/beauty products, I am also not sold on the more expensive products. I've been getting both Birchbox and Ipsy for awhile now (links are back to my reviews on each of those that I have received) and have tried some pretty expensive, high-end beauty products. For the most part, I haven't been completely sold on ANY of them where I just HAD to go buy it after trying it. Although, I'm not really "in-to" beauty products so that might have something to do with it, so I haven't bought any of them again, but I am saving my Birchbox and ipsy Review Points for a few of my favorites.
One of my good friends, Katie, blogs over at MakeUp Your Mind about beauty products. She's the complete opposite of me when it comes to this stuff and is super knowledgeable and open minded to all the different types of products out there. She has two GREAT posts that I want to share with you all:
and
Like you, I will splurge for sporty stuff. I do quite a bit of sports, but they really need to cater to you in this case so they aren't a nuisance while you are really trying to focus on getting fit. But make up and clothes, I shop more for finding something comfortable that I like than brands at all.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my post on the same topic here: http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/02/high-end-vs-high-street-2014-blogger.html
I'm wishing for a Coach handbag for the longest time. I'll have to go on the hunt for some outlet stores.
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