Lets just say, I got some coupons from my company for a normal grocery store. 
and I dont know what to buy from it, so I have decided to plunder the cosmetic section of it. So its like any normal grocery store with a small sortiment of cosmetic stuff, like creams, face, body care, soaps, bath minerals, now here is my problem, I dont know what to get, there are some normal cosmetic brands, like Loreal, Nivea, Oil of Olaz, creams, make up removers, and stuff like this, I dont know what to get, I have not been using much skin care lately and my skin has gotten dry and deadless, so I want to do something good for my facial skin, are these ‘normal’ products any good, or do only those expensive ones do something for your skin care, if yes then which ones should I get and what, I have mix skin.
well if you've got deadless skin, theres only thing for it. Book an all inclusive facial.
You can buy cosmetics in a grocery store? 
Well I meant lifeless ...
Yes Mehnaz, as we have small - medium store chains here in every corner, they sell everything from food to magazines, postcards, newspapers, small household ithems, and cosmetics ect...
Like a small version of Wallmart
oh i didn't read the grocery store bit.
I think you might have to take the trial and error route. You won't know how a product does on your skin unless you try it ... and don't always buy into stuff cosmeticians tell you cause most of the time they recommend the wrong stuff (at least with me). High-end products aren't necessarily good either. In my experience, for facial stuff, Body Shop products do the job for me. I've tried really expensive products before and, sometimes, they turned out to be an absolute waste of money cause of the way my skin reacted to it. Each person is different though. For others, it's other products like different oils (rose hip, olive ... check out Shahreen's threads and posts) ... they don't even touch traditional cosmetics but have amazing skin.
Do you drink enough water? If you have too much salt in your diet, that can also cause dull looking skin.
By the way, I found Nivea/Neutrogena to be really good for moisturizing combination skin.
Mehnaz, I think you are right, these expensive products dont do for me also. I do think I drink enough water.
I like Nivea/Neutrogena, got the tinted moisturiser from TO, but I havent seen it here so far.
I'll just buy a variaty of products and see which suits my skin best. Thanks
I'd spend the money stocking up on toiletries instead....it might not be as exciting as cosmetics but it's more practical and less risky than just buying a moisturiser etc for the sake of it and then end up not liking it.
^ practical advice, but how will she know which products suit her without trial and error?
Well most beauty counters have staff trained up to a point and they can usually offer some advice and recommend products which would be more better than others.
Another advantage of buying from cosmetic counters and stores is that if you do end up getting some kind of reaction to the product, then it's easy to get a refund so you don't waste your money either.
In the winter especially skin gets dry and needs extra protection. I like to use an exfoliating scrub by Aveeno. Then I moisturize with Oil of Olay with spf whatever. I also use vaseline on my lips and even a tiny bit on my cheeks for wind protection.
Also try a deep conditioner for your hair. Like a hot oil treatment. These drug store brands are actually very good because they're just basic ingredients without all the hype and fancy packaging. When you're young using Oil of Olay and Ponds is perfectly fine. Maybe when you get older and you want special enzymes or wrinkle reducers you can go to Creme de la Mer, or Stri-Vectin. What all skin basically needs is moisture and most moisturizers provide that very well.
Re: Skin Care / Cosmetics
Shaz, thanks babe, I dont have better experience with beauty counters also, they tend to sell their most expensive products and in the end you end up with one or two products, where as you wanted more for your money.
saima, thanks for the suggestions, I wanted to get something for my dry lips and vaselines is just great. Few years ago, Oil of Olaz did it for me, now its not so much affecting anymore. Right now I'll stick with these products.
So today I went out to buy ... I had the choice between, Nivea, Oil of Olaz, L'oreal and some no name products, I decided to get Nivea Visage as they had a better variaty range!
I got moisturizer creme, tonic, makeup remover fluid, makeup remover oil for the eyes and vaseline. I'll try those and see hows it helping for not.
There I was there, spend 20 minutes deciding to get the tonic for normal skin or dry or senstive skin without alcohol .. rolleyes In the end got the normal one.