I Believe in High-Low Shopping—4 Drugstore-Luxury Pairings I Swear Were Made for Each Other

I'm a big proponent of high-low shopping in all ways. Whether it's pairing a $50 ASOS top with a $500 Aje skirt or stacking a $300 moisturizer on top of a $13 serum, balance is key for most people's wallets.

I've found that some of my most game-changing beauty combinations have been the result of happy accidents, like misplacing a trendy lip gloss and reaching for one previously forgotten, then shocking myself in discovering that it costs a fraction of the price of the missing tube. (Bonus points when it keeps my lips glossier and more hydrated.)

Now, that's not to say that all beauty products are made equal. As someone who tests products for a living, it's more common than not to have products pill after layering, experience breakouts after a less-than-satisfactory pairing, and watch my hair fall flat after trying a "volumizing" product. However, there are a few holy-grail products that greatly offset one another in the price department, yet my fellow editors and I keep coming back to them—especially when used in tandem.

The Best High-Low Beauty Pairings

1. Smooth-Skin Saviors

When I first tried Skintimate's Shave Oil and Tronque's Triple Active Body Milk together, it was pure luck. I'd just received both products in the mail and needed to give each a fair shot before deciding yay or nay, but the last thing I expected was to develop a whole new shower routine.

The coconut-scented Skintimate Shave Oil made my skin so soft that it almost didn't need another layer of moisturizer, but as fate would have it, the red Tronque bottle happened to be glaring at me from across the room, so on I went, slathering my legs with the runny serum.

Where I expected my skin to feel slick and sticky thanks to hydration overkill, I instead felt dolphin-smooth skin—a lightweight dose of hydration that absorbed quickly and didn't feel slimy when I slid my legs under the covers just moments later. While my skin tends to run dry, this no-fail combo improved the texture of my skin so rapidly that it's become my go-to routine. My first thought was to make a TikTok video about this discovery, but then I remembered that I write for a living.

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2. Preventative Nighttime Routine

Senior beauty editor Jamie Schneider has a similar story, often finding her favorite pairings due to TikTok trends, aptly timed package arrivals, and a little creative mixing and matching. Her go-to skincare routine right now? I'm glad you asked: Irene Forte Skincare's $225 Hibiscus Night Cream on her face and Weleda's $13 Skin Food Ultra-Rich Cream on her neck and décolleté.

Schneider's skincare routine is designed to prioritize preventative care, involving products with formulas that not only hydrate her self-described scaly skin but also work hard to prevent premature wrinkles, uneven texture, and hyperpigmentation. Though these two products vary greatly in price, they provide many of the same benefits: deep moisturizing, a soothed skin barrier, and a plumped, wrinkle-smoothed complexion.

The Irene Forte facial cream comes at a much higher price and has a thinner consistency, which means you'll want to be lighter with it—keeping it to your face most of the time. Though, your neck could benefit from its skin-rejuvenation benefits if you're feeling generous. Where the Weleda formula shines is in its affordability and gentle ingredients, serving as a great perennial body cream while also being able to spot-treat very dry skin patches during the cooler months.

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3. Low-Maintenance Matte Lips

My lip combo is ever-changing and largely reliant on the miscellaneous products I have jangling around at the bottom of my purse. But the one I've recently stumbled upon that I've since intentionally moved from purse to purse includes a drugstore lip liner and a pricey, editor-loved lipstick with a (gasp!) matte finish that never dries me out.

As a beauty editor, I own a fair share of mid-priced and luxury lip liners, but there's something about this Maybelline classic that keeps me coming back for more. Its creamy formula glides on like a breeze, even when my lips are a bit dry in the winter month. Each swipe offers dimension and shape with hours-long staying power. However, I've noticed that glossy layers have caused this formula to slip and fade away faster than I'd like, so I've swapped my regular glosses for this hydrating, barely-there lipstick from Westman Atelier.

If the words "hydrating" and "matte" don't sound like they should be in the same sentence, I don't judge your skepticism, but hear me out. The Lip Suede Lipstick does have a nonreflective, smooth finish, but that's not to say that it wears the same as the ultradrying matte liquid lipsticks of yore (ahem, 2016). Its formula is infused with hyaluronic acid to hydrate, meadowfoam extract to seal said moisture, and kaolin clay to mattify without stripping the skin. Plus, it has an anti-smudge technology that keeps each swipe in place for hours—solving my problem and making my go-to lip look both functional and chic.

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4. Summer Beach Waves

You'd be hard-pressed to find me using a hot tool to style my hair in the summer. Between the humidity and my tendency to look for any body of water to swim in on hot summer weekends, my hair tends to live in its natural wavy state throughout the entirety of the warm months. It's taken me years to find a combo that helps my hair dry nicely, makes my hair look (and feel!) smooth, and controls frizz, but I think I've finally found it.

The Odele Air Dry Styler is a lightweight hair gel that pretty much does it all—offering curl- and wave-defining separation without the crunch, imparting movable texture, smoothing frizz, and helping block humidity. You don't need much product to get the intended results, and it helps my hair look presentable in its natural state far more than it does when it dries on its own.

Because I'm nothing if not a little high-maintenance, I can't call this look complete until I've applied a small pump of the Kérastase Elixir Ultime Hair Oil. Not only does this luxe oil give my hair the luscious shine and hydration it so desperately needs after weekends doused in salt water, but it also noticeably improves the texture of my strands with routine use. This serum is lightweight and never greasy feeling, and it even offers heat protection up to 450°. My natural hair game has never been stronger, IMO.

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