ver wish you had some spare cash for a holiday, or just wonder where all your money’s disappearing to? You might want to take a look in your makeup bag. We’ve always had a sneaking suspicion our beauty obsession wasn’t doing our bank balance a whole lot of good, but then, good skincare is a basic necessity. And it’s totally normal to own five different red lipsticks… right? You may not think you use all that many products, but think about it: even if you don’t consider yourself a full-on beauty junkie, once you tot up your cleanser, serum, moisturizer and makeup bag (foundation, mascara, lipstick…) it starts to really add up. Fragrance Direct commissioned a survey of 1,000 UK women to find out exactly how much they’re spending on looking good.
They discovered that we shell out, on average, £482.51 a year on beauty products – that works out at £2.39 per day on the 12 different products we use on our faces. And the actual value of these 12 products at any given time? £113.77. Which, they’ve helpfully pointed out, could buy return flights to Barcelona, 35 tall skinny vanilla lattes at Starbucks or 16 avocado-on-toast breakfasts. But who needs coffee when you’ve got the latest life-giving highlighter?
There’s even a quiz to help you find out exactly where you sit on the beauty spending scale. The Face Value Calculator lets you select the products you use, from skincare prep to base, then eyes and lips. Set your price range: budget (under £5), standard (£5-£20) or premium (over £20), and it will calculate your daily, monthly and yearly spend. You may need to be sitting down for this.
We bravely took the quiz to face up to our beauty addiction once and for all. And it was pretty shocking – or impressive, whichever way you choose to look at it. Our yearly spend was a whopping £867.60, and it turns out we use 26 products in our daily routine. 26?! It’s no wonder we’re always so busy.
The research also showed that 16-24-year-old are the age group with the highest beauty spend, using an average of 16 beauty products a day, worth £153 in total. And serums were revealed as the most expensive products on average, at £17.41 a pop.
A spokesperson for Fragrance Direct said: “With new beauty trends such as contouring and ever-developing anti-ageing creams, our routines are becoming longer and more expensive. There is no shame in taking pride in your appearance, but by doing your research before purchasing, you can learn which beauty items are worth the splurge and which you can afford to scrimp on.”
But whether you’re a bargain hunter or love a beauty blowout, we reckon you should own your beauty-addict status. We always knew our makeup bag was our most valuable possession.
Source: Glamour
