While visiting some friends in the Big Apple this weekend, I found myself in Duane Reade browsing the makeup aisle. Since I consider this pharmacy far superior to CVS, Rite Aid, etc., mostly due to its tricky marketing to unknowing 20-somethings as a “chic” place to shop, I think I was looking for a form of happiness that I could not find in the drab suburbs of Pennsylvania.
And I found that happiness in the form of a lip gloss.
This sounds really shallow and, in fact, it is. But studies prove that during times of economic downturn and mental distress, women often turn to lipstick to cheer themselves up.
As cited by Meredith Barnett, writer for the Huffington Post, in a 2008 article,
It’s called the Lipstick Effect or the Leading Lipstick Indicator: During times of economic uncertainty, women load up on affordable luxuries as a substitute for more expensive items like clothing and jewelry. It’s a phrase coined by Leonard Lauder, Chairman of Estee Lauder, who saw a huge jump in lipstick sales after September 11th.
When it’s time to tighten (nay, cinch) the economic belt, unlike certain former New York governors, I’m all for cheap thrills. A quick (and calorie free) pick-me-up that doesn’t come with the downside of a lighter wallet, a heavier midsection, or that “leave the Barneys bag in the corner of the apartment and stare at it with longing and trepidation” feeling of post-shopping guilt is, to me at least, simply priceless — or at least $100 or less.
Eve Pearl, another Huffington Post writer, continues to discuss this phenomenon in “The Lipstick Effect of 2009.” There is a discrepancy to note, though, as each writer refers to a different originator of the phrase “lipstick effect.” Pearl writes,
History and research has shown that when the economy goes into a recession or a depression, the sale of lipstick increases. “The Lipstick Effect”… A term coined after the Great Depression, which saw sales of cosmetics rise in the four years from 1929 to 1933.
Though this may seem a small niggle to many, this discrepancy of information is continuing to increase as the media moves online and quantity of information usurps quality. And for a simple psychological revelation such as the “lipstick effect,” one would think that a writer for a highly lauded media outlet could get this right.
A stupid slip like this could even be comparable to the simplistic view of why the world is the way it, unfortunately, is. More and more information, less and less value. Kind of how the big players make more and more money, and attribute less and less value to their fat wallets.
Uh, do I sound jaded? Oops.
As long as “the economy” continues the way it is, women will treat every day like it’s a job interview. Which means a new outfit item or two, or at least a berry Maybelline tube to brighten up their computer-job-hunt pallor.
