If there’s ever been a time when you walk into a skincare store, pick up a confusingly named bottle and instantaneously have your jaw drop at the price tag, you are not alone. Flashy marketing, brand deals and promises to “fix your insecurities overnight” can create a strong impulse to buy, claims which are certainly not factual. Even as the United States currently faces an affordability crisis, items like skincare and other various cosmetic products remain popular.
Archive Market Research estimates that the U.S. skincare industry is currently valued in the low $20 billion range and projects that it will reach $31.81 billion by 2032. In an industry worth billions, like skincare, the substantial price tags are logical. The Times reported in 2023 that beauty and skincare prices were increasing at the fastest rate in a decade. Popular products like Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Anti-Aging Moisturizer retail for $260 for five ounces. However, there is truth to the increase.
But do these outrageous prices reflect better quality? Short answer: not necessarily. Dr Charlotte Birnbaum, a board-certified dermatologist, said that the large price gaps between affordable and expensive skincare products are typically due to proprietary or marketing factors. While a product may seem like a must-buy, typically it’s marketing and that heavy marketing influence typically comes from influencers. According to Oxford Scientific, in 2023, 67% of consumers said they turn to influencers when looking for new skincare products. When influencers promote a skincare product, it’s likely a brand deal or something that works for their skin, not others’. This reliance on a primarily parasocial relationship does not improve skin health.
While marketing seems to be the primary reason for outrageous costs, who these products are marketed to is equally concerning. While skincare is increasingly becoming less gendered, the targeting of skincare products remains primarily aimed at women. Popular skincare products like Rhode’s Glazing Milk Ceramide Facial Essence or Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Glow PHA + BHA Toner, which work the same for both genders, are still showing only female models.
When other genders are included in marketing, it typically results in the pink tax. The Daily Titan shares an example from the skincare brand Shiseido, which sells a product named Ultimune Power Infusing Serum in their men’s line for $71. In Shiseido’s general line, marketed exclusively with women using the product, an identical version of the serum, the same formula and size, both 30-milliliter bottles, costs $74.
Marketing often takes precedence over science, take, for example, Helena Rubinstein. According to L’Oreal, she was the first person to classify skin as “oily,” “dry,” and “normal” in the early 20th century to market and sell her face cream. This idea of skin naturally producing oils being somehow “wrong” encouraged buyers to set that “wrong” right.
Considering expense when looking for skincare products is important, but not in the sense that a more expensive product is therefore better. A higher price does not mean a product will be more effective. The marketing intentions of the beauty and skincare industry are often malicious and prioritize profit over consumer well-being, capitalizing on insecurities, most often those of women. Purchase products that will be used and work and not something that an influencer said.
