THE LIPSTICK EFFECT! MEG'S JUST LEARNING BEAUTYNOMICS!
Meg here! I hope you all had a gorgeous Christmas! Now I'm jumping into a serious economic issue. With the stores slashing prices, jobs being cut and entering a dire financial crisis, I ask you this...Are you experiencing "THE LIPSTICK EFFECT?"
This term is being bantered around in the media. What is it? Otherwise known as the" Leading Lipstick Indicator": During times of economic uncertainty, women load up on affordable luxuries as a substitute for more expensive items like shoes and jewelry. It's a term by Leonard Lauder, Chairman of Estee Lauder, who saw lipstick sales sky rocket after September 11th.
He didn't just see sales rise, lipstick sales doubled! That's a lot of pucker potion!
Why are we doing this? Are we suddenly feeling the compulsion to try every new shade? Well, maybe, but that's not what the experts are saying. When the crunch of hard economic times stress us out we're still craving some retail therapy. We just can't do it via the $900 Jimmy Choo stiletto. There's no better pick me up then feeling pretty and for $9 we can grab it in a shiny new lipstick without the guilt.
The Great Depression? Yeah, everything was depressed..Except our lips. That's when the trend was first noticed. People weren't able to buy ANYTHING, yet Lipstick Sales again rose. They rose, red, pink, nude, (you get the idea.)
The recessions of 1990 and 2001 were tough..Unless you worked in cosmetics, then the need for more workers to fill the supply of the surplus for our quest for beauty increased.
Guess where we're at today?
In La-La Land we saw a huge house increase. I mean it was ridiculous. 4 years ago you could buy a cute 2 bedroom 2 bath house that ran around 1,000 square feet...For more then A million dollars! Not in Beverly Hills, you couldn't touch a teardown for under 2 million. I mean in the OK area of Los Angeles. A house anywhere else in the country (SF and NY exempt) that would run you $200,000.
Anyone that had owned a house prior to the boom felt rich. The houses were being valued for twice the price and hey, having an extra 500 grand in the bank make people feel rich. so they borrowed against the properties. They bought cars, and clothes and went on trips. Meanwhile milking the equity out of these properties.
Then the bubble burst. What comes up must come down (even if it's above Sunset Blvd.)
This is the town of the rich and famous...Yet, the "fancy" restaurants around here are pretty much empty at lunch. People are still going to the hot clubs, we're just buying drinks, not bottle service. If I need something new I drive past the luxury stores and head to Loehmann's.
If this is happening in the town of the "rich and famous" then what's going on in the towns of "middle-class and normal?"
I personally get sent more makeup then a clown. I'm trying to make this site work, I'm not buying new clothes or jewelry but when I'm in CVS you can bet the farm I'm walking out with a lipstick!
Stocks are in the toilet, bonds are down the drain, jobs are scarce and property values! HA! No really, I have to sell my house I'm getting divorced so I say HA! (Instead of SOB!) But I'm going to be fine, it's going to be fabulous. You see, I just picked up the most perfect shimmery gloss and I don't look like I have a care in the world!
Ladies, please let me know what you think about the "LIPSTICK EFFECT" and if you're apart of it?
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Reviews
In this rough economy, sometimes you need a little something for motivation. For instance, I have a difficult job. I'm a pharmacy technician so I don't sit down (at all!) and work in a posh area of Atlanta, so I have to kiss a lot of a-double-s. Add being 5 months preggo to the mix, and well, sometimes I have to tempt myself out of bed. I know bills must be paid, and I'm incredibly lucky to have a decent job without fear of layoff, but work sucks!What I do isn't lipstick, but Lush bath bombs. They run about 7 bucks a pop and I use 2 a week, but I NEED them. I justify their use as enabling me to continue to work. At the end of the day I'm incredibly sore, and frankly, they put me in a better mood. Besides, if I can't have something pretty and girly to show for all my hard work, what's the point!?! As women, we must still pamper ourselves even if money is tight.
My mom and I were on a long road trip to my grandparents... We were listening to the Cosmo magazine channel on Satellite Radio and they were talking about this very thing! The commentators had a very valid point and I believe it - there's research even going back to the 1930's Depression as well: Cosmetics are something we women (and men) can justify when big-ticket luxuriy items are absolutely impractical. But things like perfume and cologne are sort of hybrid "luxury-necesscities" that are easily justifiable. You can stretch the case to "lip-sticks, mascaras, and blush" too. The other idea was that applying makeup appeals to our more baser human instincts that being more "beautiful" or "attractive" will attract a man/partner/husband/whatever to team up with to weather the financial and economic storm together. It's not really an immediately intuitive way to look at it...but it does make sense!
Katie
For me its all about making things work when you have nothing to work from. I knowI would have been fine back then, using my eyeliner to draw a line up my legs tolook like I'm wearing hose, finding great thrift store finds and "gussying" themup, or just getting by with a flash of lip color. Its all about doing what you haveto with what you've got. And if a lipstick is all it takes to give you the courageand the will to get through the day then sometimes that's a luxury you can't livewithout. I had to admit this...but I've been EXTREMELY poor at times in my life.I'm talking shutting off the power and getting boxed food from a charity poor as a child. Sometimes when life is at its lowest, feeling human, feeling girly, feelingpretty is the only thing that keeps you going. If you can wake up, face the day,and have ruby red lips as your armor somehow we manage to make it through back tothe good times again.
Love, hugs and shoes...Angie
I was laid off of my job where I worked for 2 years+, I've been looking for a job for over 3 weeks and my sisters boyfriend has been looking for a job for over 3 months. I don't have a car so i'm limited to where I can go and work but my sisters BF does have a car and he's been EVERYWHERE. No one is hiring..but gas sales are down, discounts are up..So I'm spending my last $11.00 to my name on some makeup. It always makes me feel better. :]
true, i dont feel bad spending a few bucks on drugstore makeup, but as far as nice skincare- i am digging for samples. our town is pretty small and night life is pretty dead. though, it picked up a bit lately- hopefully, things are turning for better
I totally agree with the lipstick effect. I think I have falling pray to it even. It is always hard to find a job after you graduate from college, but it has been especially hard for me. I just graduated in May, and what an economy to graduate into. I have had no luck finding a job yet. I'm so desperate. I just need money. Luckily my parents welcomed me back home to save me some expenses. Living with my parents and little bro again is different, because I'm used to living by myself. But they are more then happy to help and they are awesome. I have recently found myself spending what little money I have left on beauty products. I love doing my own nails. Even when times weren't so bad, I could hardly ever justify going to get my nails done. Especially when they are so easy and cheap to do at home. I have really mastered nail tips, and the art of the acrylic nail. My last beauty purchases included hot pink nail tips, and a konad like nail art stamping machine. A little machine that can be used with image plates, to stamp a variety of cute things on your nails. For those of you in a nail rut check out ebay. They have the actual konad products, but they also have a competing brand for much less. If anyone wants to know the links to any of these things I will be happy to supply. The bag of hot pink french tip nails was $2.99 with free shipping. This is for 500 assorted size nail tips. The stamping machine cost like $14 including shipping. What great splurges. With my last bit of money I'm going to buy a MSF or a couple of lipsticks from MAC when they have the sale. And I totally agree that sometimes we are using makeup as a way to attract a mate to share our financial burden. I too have grown up very poor at times. It is sad, and I used to be embarrased by it. But without all the hard times, I wouldn't have cherished my good times as much. Makeup has always been a way for me to treat myself and feel like a million bucks. When I was growing up poor and get a little money I would go splurge on things like a $1 wet n wild lipstick, or a bottle of $1 wet n wild nail polish. All though financial times for me have got nothing but better, the economy has still taken its toll on me. Now I'm used to bigger higher end makeup splurges. But now that the times are tough and I have been poor before, I'm somehow a lot happier. I'm never ashamed to go back to my roots and pick up a $1 lipstick and dance around like it is Christmas:D
I don't buy lipstick, my cheap addiction is nail-polish. I have over 100 bottles (it's getting a bit scary)
-Allya (http://paintedtips.blogspot.com/)
I can't say lipstick, my addict is broad and covers all skin care, and cosmetics. So it is something. Anything. But lipstick is pretty high up there.
It's so true! No matter how much money I have I always make room to have my cosmetics! I won't give them up! And it's much easier to collect cosmetics than say strappy sandals and designer purses!
The Sephora Blockbuster was mentioned in a comment on here and I wanted to add a little tip. I have read some reviews on this product and most people do not like the lipsticks that come in this kit. This is because it is hard to get the product out onto a brush to apply it. So a tip for you ladies: You need to sort of dig the lipstick out onto a sponge tip applicator. This works perfectly. The lipsticks are really good you just need to know how to work with them.
A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.
-Coco Chanel
Yeah i agree with this. I'm now getting into Makeup and sometimes i buy myself treats just because they're cheaper than the usual things i would've treated myself to such as shoes. It gives me something new to play with and feel girly without the guilt of looking in my empty wallet when bill time rolls around. I buy alot of minera e.s pigments since i love e/s the most and they're usually very cheap if you know where to shop around.. variety at a low cost.. what's not to love ?
wow thats really interesting! now that i read this, it does make sense though! it makes me feel more economically savvy. im going to randomly use this term now :D
apparently psychic busineses also thrive in the recessions
This makes perfect sense to me. Lipstick makes women feel attractive and powerful, so when things are looking bad we want to cheer ourselves up, so we buy a lipstick.
http://www.beautifullyglossy.blogspot.com
I've never heard of this before, but I'm glad I know now.
I can totally understand this trend. Also, lipsticks are the perfect little thingie to make a plain face light up. At such affordable prices and variety, it does not surprise me. I've collected more lipsticks than ever over the last one year!