How much could you be saving on beauty treatments?

With a global revenue of 379 billion dollars in 2013 and a predicted worldwide turnover of at least 461 billion dollars by 2018 the beauty industry is positively booming. And it is not just cosmetic products that we are spending money on. We are also spending billions of dollars a year on spa services. A recent poll showed that the top reasons for women to visit a spa or beauty salon are waxing jobs, mani-pedis, tanning jobs and facials. After all, only a true professional can make us look our absolute best and we just have to accept that beauty doesn’t come cheap. Or does it? We decided to calculate the average cost of the most popular beauty treatments by comparing the rates of ten beauty salons and spas in Suisse romande and worked out just how much money you could be saving if you resorted to at-home beauty treatments instead. Take a look!

Waxing
From your eyebrows and upper lip to your underarms, legs and bikini line, these days you can get pretty much any part of your body professionally waxed. Facial waxing costs on average 24 CHF while having your underarms and bikini line waxed will set you back approximately 29 CHF. And for smooth legs you will have to cash out around 73 CHF.

So how much money would you save if you mowed your own lawn instead of having it professionally done at the salon? Stray eyebrow hairs and upper lip hair can be easily removed with a pair of tweezers or some special face wax and unwanted body hair can be tackled with a razor, a depilatory cream or at-home wax strips. Any of these do-it-yourself alternatives will cost you no more than 5 to 25 CHF and you will be able to use and reuse many of the tools and products for several weeks.

Mani-pedis
At approximately 49 CHF for a standard manicure – that means without the application or maintenance of false nails – and 79 CHF for a classic pedicure, mani-pedis sure are costly.

So what makes these professional mani-pedis worth their money and sets them apart from at-home nail treatments? The truth is not much, except for the fact that a trained manicurist does all the work for you and allows you to sit back and relax. The good news is that plenty of drugstore brands nowadays sell great nail treatment kits that contain all the products you need for an at-home mani-pedi and that many of these kits have a price tag of well under 30 CHF. Throw in a few nail files, a pair of clippers, a buffer, a cuticle pusher and some nail polish and you are looking at a total cost of around 60 CHF which will cover all of your nail needs for a whole year or more. That’s right, you could be giving yourself a full manicure and pedicure for just 5 CHF a month.

Tanning
Sunbed rates in Switzerland range on average between 5 and 10 CHF per five minutes and with most sunbed users visiting the tanning salon for a five to twenty-minute session two to three times a week this brings the average weekly cost for tanning treatments at 37 to 55 CHF.

So how much money would you save if you ditched the solarium visits? Sunbathing in your own backyard is completely free of charge of course, but if you want to speed up the bronzing process or prefer a sunless tan you can find great self-tanners at very affordable drugstore prices that range between 8 and 20 CHF. And since a little usually goes a long way you will only have to buy a new bottle of self-tanner every few weeks.

Facials
In Switzerland the average classic facial costs approximately 120 CHF while more specialized skin treatments like microdermabrasion and anti-aging facials are priced at around 180 and 250 CHF per treatment.

While getting your face pampered can be incredibly relaxing for both body and mind, the truth is that if you follow a good skin care regimen you really don’t need an extra monthly boost at the salon. It is much better to invest in good skin care products that you are going to use on a daily basis than to spend hundreds of francs a year on monthly facials, especially if you are just getting the classic ‘soin visage’. As long as you use high-quality products, take the time to care for your skin twice day and religiously stick to your routine there is no point in having a professional facial every month. Trust us, you will get much better results from sixty twice-a-day mini facials than from a single professional one.

We are not saying that you should never set foot in a spa or beauty salon ever again, but replacing some of your usual beauty treatments with at-home alternatives is a great way to cut back on your expenses a bit. Just think of all the extra money you could be spending

Melissa Van Roosbroeck is a style and fashion writer.