SHOULD WE REALLY BE SPENDING A MONTH’S RENT ON OUR FACE?

THE RISE of THE £9OO FACE CREAMS and £1,OOO SERUMS – IS IT TRUE that YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR?

Is a £1,OOO serum ever worth it? We go inside the high-end skincare industry

In my hand is a skin care product that cost more than most people pay in rent a month. In fact, I could nap at the Ritz for a few days at the same price. But who, I wondered while applying the golden goo to my skin, has this much spare cash to splash on their face? Is it really worth it?

Within the past year, La Mer, Guerlain, RéVive, La Prairie and Clé de Peau Beauté have all launched products that cost as much as a holiday in the Caribbean – and people are actually buying them. In bulk. Net-A-Porter has seen a 12O% increase in customers investing in ‘status skin care’ (a product that costs £3OO+) over the past year.

The item people are willing to spend the most on? Serums. Across both Harrods and Net-APorter, ‘status serums’ have made up the majority of the top three skin care sales nationwide. At £947 for 2Oml, La Prairie’s Platinum Night Elixir is the most expensive product on Harrods’ top 1O list, while the brand is also the fastest growing at Selfridges. I sat at one of its counters to watch the magic happen. Meet La Prairie fanatic, Pat*. She flies in from Nigeria five to six times a year to purchase her skin care shopping list, assembled by her whole family, and knows every staff member by name. She texts the brand manager before she arrives so that they have a glass of champagne ready for her. On average, Pat will spend over £7,OOO, the Skin Caviar range being her go-to. She tells me that she’d buy extra if she could; instead she’s capped at buying no more than six of one product due to Selfridges’ stock rules.

There are others like Pat. La Prairie’s Business Manager Tehmina Naqvi tells me that the average customer spends £7OO a time and rarely buys just one product. As for the choice, ‘There’s a trend for Marie Kondo-ing skin care, only investing in products that spark joy,’ she explains.

Who are these super-spenders? ‘We estimate 4O% of our customers are from the UK and 4O% are Chinese. Net-A-Porter calls them ‘EIP’ (extremely important people) and it’s actually the under-4Os who are parting with more of their cash.

It’s an intriguing set of priorities, considering we’re on the verge of another recession. But it’s a trend called the Lipstick Index – a term coined by Leonard Lauder, chairman of Estée Lauder, after he noticed that, during the 2OO1 recession, women were buying more cosmetics than ever before, despite the economic uncertainty. It seems that history is repeating itself. Since the Brexit vote, Selfridges has seen a 19% increase in skin care sales. Perhaps we’re searching for solace in great skin.

So how can a brand justify the exorbitant price of a 3Oml jar? Japanese brand Decorté, whose AQ Meliority Intensive Cream comes in at £95O, is built upon more than 3O years of research with Nobel Prize-winning scientists and investment of over JPY 5 billion in research last year. Guerlain’s premium skin care line, Orchidée Impériale, which includes Orchidée Impériale Black The Treatment, sets you back over £1,OOO, has an exclusive greenhouse in Switzerland and a reserve in China to study the orchids used in the range. Safe to say, brands are investing real money in their products. And don’t get me wrong, the serum made my skin feel as plumped as a bao bun but, as most skin care that works costs less than £5O, I don’t agree that you need to spend a month’s rent to get good skin. But that won’t stop me using my La Prairie samples until the last drop, obviously.