Where to Get Good Stuff Cheap 2012: professional-quality beauty and grooming supplies at bargain prices

Shampoo
Beauty Supply Outlet
1568 Yonge St., 416-929-6533
While salons might charge exorbitant sums for a wash and cut, they make their real money selling product. The Beauty Supply Outlet isn’t technically wholesale, but salon-quality Goldwell shampoo sells for several dollars less than anywhere else. $14 for 300 mL of Goldwell Rich Repair.

Shaving cream
Toronto Barber and Beauty Supply
100 Dundas St. W., 416-977-2020
This is where the pros get their goods (in fact, some products are strictly off-limits without a salon licence). We recommend a tub of J. M. Fraser’s sha­ving cream, a Canadian-made barbershop favourite, for it’s thick lather and citrusy scent.

Cosmetics
MAC/Estée Lauder Warehouse Sale
905-470-7877
This giant warehouse sale is unequivocally the best place to stock up on makeup. The catch: it’s technically open only to MAC and Estée Lauder employees and their friends and family. If you can score a ticket (they’re often available on Craigslist), it’s more than worth the trek out to the Markham Fairgrounds.