Thanks to my obsessive monitoring of the cosmetics marketplace, I’ve already purchased my advent calendars and holiday sets. Yes, holiday beauty has already begun Amazon is having a holiday beauty sale right now.
Why is Amazon having a holiday beauty sale so soon after their Prime Day? Because they have to do so.
Retailers are struggling with the uncertainty of inflationary pressures on their own cost of goods, just as consumer tolerance of rising prices is going down. Add in the ever-present danger of random new tariffs and retailers need to get every shopping experience in front of their consumers, as often possible. Q4 makes or breaks retail.
Another issue is the extreme bifurcation of upper and lower class shopping habits, which means retailers who serve multiple market segments must do everything to survive this volatile time and drive the top ten percent to keep buying. The top ten percent of Americans are driving close to 50% of purchases. Anyone who sells beauty needs to reach them with multiple touch points, as conversion rarely happens at first exposure. The devil works hard, but the chief marketing officer works harder.
“Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2% of total spending in the second quarter according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytic”
The Holiday Sets
So if you want to snag some deals, what is worth buying in the cosmetics space and what should you avoid? Well, I’ve got good news and bad news.
Sephora continues to disappoint, and they are doing it in sneaky ways. For the second year in a row, their Holiday Sampler sets are packaged in eye catching, but somewhat tacky, brightly colored scuba fabrics. I’d prefer variety and novelty, but it seems they can’t justify it.
Sephora is also being sneaky as hell about introducing Shrinkflation, even as the cost of the holiday sets rise. And if you didn’t purchase identical sets last year (like I did), you might not have noticed products going from 15ml to 10ml.
Laneige is hiding it well, but they also went from 15ml to 10ml as their average size. I buy their travel sizes and their full sizes, AND I chose it for my Birthday Gift, so this is hurting my loyalty. Notice it’s not the same product to compare against, but I save my empties, and by packaging norms it’s going down.
Youth to the People also went from 38ml to 30ml. Another brand I regularly purchase and this is my reward for buying into a new trial at the holidays?
And not only are you getting less but it will cost you more. The multi-brand sets are no longer in the $35 to $40 range. I found precious few in single brand sets, though ironically Youth to the People has some well priced with their $20 travel sets, but they are smaller sizes as mentioned.
The best multiple brand value I purchased was the Sephora $69 Holiday Must Haves. Which is still a lot for trial sizes. You might think “huh, why is this $69 thing a nicer set than than the $60 Skincare Must Have Set or $49 Glitz and Glam” and, alas, it boils down to what we call deluxe or discovery sizes.
The cheaper sets are stretching the usable definition of trial sizes. If you check the samples, close to half are in 5ml sizes, and these are not luxury brands, just middle market Sephora brands, so why not give more?
It’s fascinating that the category of minis has exploded just as Sephora is failing to deliver. Trial size, travel size, right size, discovery size and sample sizes has become such an important category in cosmetics ($700m in the US alone), that even the laggard adopters at the luxury houses have special names for them. Chanel calls them “Coffret de Voyage.”
The Holidays Must Have set has more bang for your buck, with more variety of products, that are more likely to be new to you, or someone you might gift. Random hand sanitizer aside, I was happy to get a full size Kiehl moisturizer, a Mario mini blush, to go with the mini contour I bought (I swear by the Milk Sticks, even at $24 for a mini, though I am sure they were cheaper).
The real winner in the set is the Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Balm Powder (an excellent powder, in a cream solid, and still the same 6g, but with smaller packaging!). Now that is the direction I want my cosmetics to go, good job Ms Myricks. That’s a new best addition to my travel makeup.
I got a Lys $18 contour mini set, but I’ve not yet tried it. If you want a contour set though, get the Makeup Forever HD Skin Blush and Glow Face Palette, which does everything but your eyes for $89 and is my travel staple if I have to do professional appearance level makeup.
I purchased the Sephora Advent Calendar, but I think it’s pushing it to say it was worth the $100, as it also has the Shrinkflation issue. It has a lot of new products, which is it’s saving grace, and I just love an advent calendar. I am considering returning it and splurging on Bluemercury’s $300 Advent calendar, but it feels absurd.
So now that I’ve just discussed my in depth disappointment over the missing 5ml at Sephora, and the gross inflationary pressures which have pushed what were once fun ways to discover new brands into luxury purchases themselves, what is worth buying?
Well, as I said, Amazon is having a beauty sale and there is a lot to like in there, including Laneige, which is much better priced, especially with its uber popular lip sleeping mask. Every woman I know loves it. Buy it for your girlfriend.
The Minimalist Guy Routine
Are you a minimalist guy hoping to find one really well priced “does it all” cream?
Honestly, OLAY Regenerist crushes it year after year in consumer testing. If you promise to wear sunscreen when outside, I’ll OK you buying their retinol cream ($23 on sale). If you need that day moisturizer to go with the retinol, my favorite French sunscreen brand ROC has a Hyaluronic Acid Daily Moisturizer ($25) lightly on sale.
If you are sticking with that cheap guy vibe, Aquaphor is modestly on sale (3 for $17). Slather this on your lips, buy your girl the sleeping mask, and your quality of life is going up.