The very best places to shop online

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. March 11, 2008. Bags, Beauty, Clothing, Jewelry, News, Shoes

We get a lot of emails asking, “where is the best place to look for …”

To help us answer your questions, we have a list here at BQ HQ where we share all our favorite shopping spots with each other. As well as helping us answer your questions, we also use it to find fabulous things to write about, and of course, to work out which retailers we want as affiliates too!

Today, we’ve decided to share our ’secret’ list with the world. It’s been months of work compiling it, so we hope you find it useful.

Next time you’re looking for something fabulous at a reasonable price, we recommend that you try these retailers. We always have great luck with them, so we’d love to hear your thoughts on them too!

Without further ado, here’s the list:

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The Bargain Queens are on the road!

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. March 3, 2008. News

Just a short note to let you know why we’re a little quiet here: we’re on the road!

I’m currently in San Francisco, where I’ll be ’til the end of this week.

Then, Meg and I will be attending the South by Southwest Interactive festival and conference in Austin, Texas from March 7th-11th.

After that, I’m headed to New York city, where I’ll be for at least a few months.

We’d love to catch up with our readers in any/all of the places we’re traveling, so if you’ll be there when we are, please feel free to drop us a line!

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Best of The Bargain Queen: Wipe off the makeup wipe mark-ups

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. January 5, 2008. Advice, Makeup, Shopping, Skin Care

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

If you use makeup wipes to clean makeup from your skin each night, here’s something you need to know: baby wipes are basically the same thing, and cost a lot less money.

I started wondering about them when I noticed that the baby wipes my sister-in-law uses on her adorable sons’ bottoms look and feel almost identical to the makeup wipes I use on my face.

Curious, I took a look at the ingredients and there didn’t seem to be many differences. It seemed like the makeup wipes I was paying $10 for 25, were the same as the baby wipes that cost $5 for 80.

I asked the experts, and here’s what they said…

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Best of The Bargain Queen: Highlight your unusual features

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. January 4, 2008. Advice, Style

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

Everyone has features that make them different, unusual and special.

If you’ve read a lot of magazines, you might consider these attributes to be ‘flaws’: you’re too tall, too short, too thin, too fat, flat-chested, top-heavy, pear shaped or whatever else.

I’ve written previously about why your unusual features aren’t flaws at all.

Today, some practical tips for embracing, rather than hiding, the things that make you special.

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Best of The Bargain Queen: Fashion icons don’t follow fashion

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. January 3, 2008. Advice, Style

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

So we’ve seen that neither the fashion editors who push new trends nor the fashion designers that create them actually follow fashion themselves.

Today I’ll show you that the fashion icons so adored by industry insiders also don’t follow fashion trends. They wear their signature look consistently for years, regardless of fashion’s dictates.

Look at almost any fashion icon and you’ll see a distinctive personal style that evolves subtly over their life, but rarely changes dramatically.

Take a look at the ultimate fashion icon for proof.

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Best of The Bargain Queen: Why cheap shoes are too expensive

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. January 2, 2008. Advice, Shoes, Shopping

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

Tempted to buy some really cheap shoes? Don’t do it.

I’ve been test-driving cheap and cheerful, fast-fashion shoes for the last few months — knock-offs of the Marc Jacobs and Chloe numbers I’d love but can’t afford.

My verdict? I’m going back to wearing better quality, less trendy footwear. Here’s why.

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Best of The Bargain Queen: How to spot fake designer goods

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. December 31, 2007. Advice, Fakes, Shopping

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

Fake designer goods — bags, shoes and clothes — are something a lot of people are interested in, if the number of questions I get in my email is any indication.

I wrote a long article about how to spot fake designer goods on eBay, which contains all the general rules for making sure you don’t get ripped off.

I also get a lot of specific questions though, about items people have bought and suspect might be fake — so today I’ll share the warning signs that make me suspect that a lot of the possible fakes people email me about really are fake.

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Best of The Bargain Queen: How to recover from fashion mistakes

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. December 29, 2007. Advice, Shopping

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

It looked fab, you bought it, you took it home. You put it on for its public debut and felt… blah. For some reason, that thing you loved is now leaving you cold.

Or, you love it but it doesn’t love you. It didn’t stretch like it was supposed to… the ankle straps cut into your feet… it doesn’t work with anything else in your wardrobe.

It’s a Fashion Mistake.

Don’t feel bad about it — we all make them sometimes. The sooner you let go of the item, the more likely you are to get your money back so you can move on to something you’ll really love.

Here are your options…

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Best of The Bargain Queen: Is expensive skincare worth the money?

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. December 27, 2007. Advice, Shopping, Skin Care

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

I’ve been asked many times whether I think it’s worth spending money on expensive skincare products.

It’s not easy to answer that because it depends on your individual priorities: for some people, skin care is a higher priority than it is for other people.

I can answer the underlying question though: do expensive skincare products do the things they promise?

Read on for the answer.

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Best of The Bargain Queen: Fashion editors don’t follow fashion

By Sydney's Bargain Queen, Sara. December 26, 2007. Advice, Style

Here’s one of our favorite posts from the Bargain Queen archives for your enjoyment over the holidays.

Fashion magazines are arguably the single most influential source of fashion information. They show their readers the new trends, hot designers and desirable items — and they encourage readers to buy them.

The editor of a fashion magazine has a great deal of influence over the tone and content of their publication… but they rarely wear most of the trends themselves.

Today, I’ll show you how little the style of three very powerful fashion editors has barely changed over the years, despite massive changes in fashion trends.

That’s right: fashion editors don’t follow fashion! Continue reading this dirty little secret…

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