Okay, I know there are more important things to write about — like the U.S. Senate’s outrageous votes to sell or give away all federal lands other than national parks and monuments (presumably to their owners friends, the Koch Bros. & Co) — but for a nominally personal finance blog, this is too, too good to pass up.
By now you must have heard that the cosmetics industry is marketing to men almost as fast and furiously as they always have to women. Most of the paints and creams sold to all and sundry are overpriced junk, but they’re nice junk, junk of the sort that makes you feel pampered and privileged, however briefly.
Well, it turns out that as with clothing, there’s a difference yet not a difference between his and hers. In the case of luxurious personal products, the difference happens to be price. Products that are essentially the same will cost, when sold to men, about 50% less than the fare for women.
Consider, for example, the goop that you smear around your eyes to reduce age-betraying puffiness. Half an ounce of Ahava Dead Sea Osmoter Eye Concentrate, touted by its marketer as some sort of miracle balm from the stagnant pond of salinity, will set a woman back $50. But if she stepped across the store to the men’s counter and bought the same stuff as Ahava Men’s Age Control All-in-One Eye Care, she would pay just $28 for it. For $5.14 an ounce, she can buy a deliciously pampering body scrub from L’Occitane, or for $2.33 an ounce she can get an equally ridiculous luxurious product over at Sephora: Blue Sea Kelp Body Scrub, by Anthony. Both smell great and smooth your skin to a finely polished sheen. Clinique for Men SPF 21 moisturizer: $7.65 an ounce; Estée Lauder SPF 15 “advanced protection anti-oxidant creme”: $29.41 an ounce.
How to make this work for your family? Seek out products that are made by the same company — Clinique, Lab Series for Men, and Estée Lauder, for example. Although the perfume may different (with any luck, you may find a fragrance-free product), the supposedly “active” ingredients are similar or identical. Or simply experiment with a few men’s products — at those prices, ladies, you can afford it!
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Images:
Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Woman at Her Toilette, 1889.
Actor Jim Brochu puts on his makeup. Opening night of The Big Voice: God or Merman, by Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu. Photographer: Basykes. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.