Rise of the £1,000 face
We might be in the middle of a recession, but we’re also in the midst of a luxury skincare boom. Confused? Beauty Director Victoria Jowett investigates why we’re investing more in our beauty products than ever before ›
says beauty influencer Jamie Genevieve, as she giggles her way through an Instagram Live video.
“They got me with the sample,” she continues, “but it’s killer. I’ve treated myself to two bottles and I think that’s it, I’m going to try and move on…” You could be mistaken for thinking she’s talking about something a tad more addictive than a moisturiser, but no, “The Cream” she’s referring to? Augustinus Bader’s £205 face cream.
Jamie isn’t alone. Since it launched in 2018, Augustinus Bader’s famous blue bottle has become something of an icon. It works by stimulating your skin’s natural renewal process over 27 days, visibly reducing signs of ageing and environmental damage, leaving your skin looking and feeling better than ever – and, according to Bader, you can forgo all other skincare products, save for cleanser. The Cream does it all. It’s been everywhere, from the glossy bathroom shelfies of celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell, Margot Robbie and Alexa Chung, to the un-glossy skincare threads of Reddit. It seems like everyone’s tried it (and loved it).
I pause Jamie’s skincare chatter for a second and switch my attention to the BBC news presenter on my TV, whose stoicism gives me a feeling of dread; one that I’m all too familiar with after months of lockdown. More bad news. COVID-19 is still holding our country in a tight grip, with millions out of work or on furlough. It’s a lot to take in. I turn my attention back to Jamie’s soothing skincare video; listening to her, it’s almost easy to forget everything that’s happening in the world around me, even if only for a few moments.
It’s not just Jamie’s indulgent Augustinus Bader cream that’s caught the internet’s attention (and cash) of late. Scroll through the skincare sections of Space NK, Cult Beauty and Selfridges, and you start to become desensitised to the product price tags: £180 for La Mer’s Eye Concentrate, £391 for Tata Harper’s Elixir Vitae Serum… But what about £797 for 3Lab’s Super Cream? (Yes, really.)
The UK might be in economic free fall, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the skincare routines of half my Instagram feed. It seems like we’re willing to spend more on our skincare than ever before. But how did we get to this point? I thought we were still living in a world where budget brands such as The Ordinary dictated what we massaged into our faces every night. When did everyone become so free and easy about dropping over £200 on a face cream?
BACK TO THE FUTURE
In 2016, Deciem launched The Ordinary and our skincare routines haven’t been the same since. The affordable brand instantly disrupted everything we thought we knew about moisturisers and serums – stripping away expensive branding, slick packaging and refocusing the skincare industry on the power of single, targeted ingredients. Suddenly, the idea of paying more than £10 for a face serum felt completely unnecessary, but as with all trends, the tides turned. At the end of 2019, it was reported that Net-A-Porter had seen a 120% increase in sales of £300+ skincare products. Science-led beauty brands such as Dr Barbara Sturm, 111Skin, Clé de Peau Beauté, 3Lab and, of course, Augustinus Bader, promised us a whole new level of efficacy from their luxury formulas and, naturally, those results come at a price. One that it seemed we were willing to pay.
But then COVID-19 happened, and the world was suddenly thrown off its axis. As the UK entered its first national lockdown, demand for skincare products suddenly skyrocketed: Google searches for serums went up 80% and moisturisers went up by 58% over April and May 2020.* We had to wave goodbye to Botox, fillers, lasers, professional facials, chemical peels… the lot. Suddenly, the only thing we could do was spend our evenings in the bathroom, loading up our skin with all kinds of lotions and potions. In many ways, COVID sped up the country’s growing demand for skincare by forcing us to consider investing in at-home treatments that could potentially rival what we used to get from a professional salon or dermatologist. One retailer that witnessed this trend first-hand was Cult Beauty.“Lockdown created a new focus on particular beauty products, as many looked to replace their salon treatments with high-performance skincare,” says Cult Beauty’s co-founder Alexia Inge.“But then, as the UK’s first lockdown eased and consumers returned to salons, they found they couldn’t give up the ‘everyday
“DO I NEED THE CREAM? YES, I NEED THE CREAM” “In many ways, COVID sped up the country’s demand for skincare”
incredible’ results they were seeing. Because of this, sales of our high-end products are up 85% year-on-year.”
LITTLE LUXURIES
When I asked consultant dermatologist Dr Anjali Mahto why she thought we were all willing to invest more in our skincare routines than ever before (despite the fact the UK is still wrestling with the financial aftershocks of COVID), she brought up the beauty industry’s resilience to past economic distress.“While economic recession is often accompanied by periods of reduced consumer spending, industries selling items that enhance one’s appearance have been shown to flourish during periods of recession,” she explains. “Willingness or desire to spend money on appearance-enhancing items, despite financial limitation, is a phenomenon known in both popular and scientific press as the ‘lipstick effect.’” It seems there are a number of hypotheses to explain why the lipstick effect exists, but one rationale is, cashpoor consumers (like you and I) turn to small indulgences when we might not be able to afford more extravagant items.“While people have less money this year due to the pandemic, they often still have enough to be able to buy skincare,” says Mahto.“People may put off buying a new car, but they may still be able to afford an expensive skincare product – which is cheaper as a form of indulgence.”
I, for one, can relate to this. While I’m not in the position to buy a new BMW any time soon (or even a Fiat 500, for that matter), I can buy a high-end face cream. But as I look at my bathroom shelf, littered with products promising smoother, brighter skin, I think about the combined cost of all the items sitting there. It’s a lot. Working in the beauty industry has meant I’m lucky enough to try a large number of new products for my job but, of course, that’s led me to fall for formulas I go on to purchase time and again. Take skincare brand Dr Barbara Sturm, for example, whose Calming Serum costs £175. As its name suggests, it works wonders when it comes to soothing sensitised skin. It calmed the red blotches on my cheeks and eased stress-induced breakouts. All in all, it’s just a damn good serum. But since dipping my toe into the Dr Barbara Sturm waters, I’ve managed to amass the Hyaluronic Serum (£235) and the Night Serum (£245) – both of which I’ve found to be just as fantastic. That’s the problem, you see, it’s rare I find a high-price product I don’t like.
SCI-FI SKINCARE
I’m not the only one who’s partial to the Dr Barbara Sturm serums; after speaking with Selfridges, Net-A-Porter and Cult Beauty, it seems one thing they all have in common is the brand is flying off their virtual shelves. “This year, we launched Dr Barbara Sturm, which has performed incredibly well,” explains Emily Saunders, Selfridges’ beauty buyer.“We have seen a real cult following among customers who were thrilled to be able to engage with the product.”
It’s a similar story over at Cult Beauty, where the brands backed by scientific experts are blowing up in
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popularity. Inge explains how our attitudes have shifted from a distrust of experts during Brexit, to a surge in trust for science as our world battled with COVID-19.“Brexit killed the expert, and the pandemic has brought them back as an essential part of a consumer’s consideration journey,” says Inge.“Yes, high-end skincare is gaining huge interest right now, but only the brands with mind-blowing technology and expertise behind them.” She explains to me how the products that are selling well across Cult Beauty all come from worldrenowned biochemists. Cast your mind back to Jamie Genevieve’s favourite moisturiser… “Augustinus Bader is celebrated for his stem-cell and biomedical work, and much of the profit from The Cream funds his research into treating much more serious conditions than ageing,” says Inge. And it’s not just Mr Bader. Cutting-edge Japanese skincare brand Ubuna has just launched a capsule collection of four serums (each costing £180) that have been making serious waves across Cult Beauty. “Ubuna’s proprietary technology came about as an unexpected byproduct of medical research too; a leading professor at Kyoto University discovered that the antibodies used to fight a virus also helped boost the skin’s ceramide production and neutralise skindamaging antigens
[which cause wrinkles, sagging and dullness],” reveals Inge.
Space NK’s chief merchandising officer Margaret Mitchell agrees that, right now, we can’t get enough of science when it comes to our skincare: “The luxury skincare products that have been booming in the market are all linked to expertdriven brands – new technology researched and developed by doctors and scientists is resonating with customers.” She’s right – as consumers, it seems we’re not interested in blindly buying designerbranded face creams any more. We’re no longer convinced by style alone, there has to be some substance – and we want to see the receipts: Does it actually work? What percentage of active ingredients does it contain? Is the formula sustainable? “Luxury for the sake of luxury has become less relevant. A product needs to be associated with very strong clinical claims and, ultimately, result in an improvement,” says Mitchell.
THE BIG QUESTION
While it’s clear that high-end skincare products are working for the people buying them (otherwise, why on earth would we continue to drop £200 on the likes of Dr Barbara Sturm or Augustinus Bader?), there’s some debate as to whether a product can ever be worth such a big price tag. Especially
when there are so many other (more affordable) options.
Dr Mahto put it best: “Everyone has an amount they feel is worth spending on skincare, but I would really struggle to see what a product that expensive would do for your skin that a much cheaper prescription agent [eg tretinoin, a prescription retinoid] wouldn’t do better.” She makes a good point. When it comes to treatments for ageing or acne, prescription skincare is often a more affordable contender to over-thecounter formulas (albeit, you’ve still got to fork out for a dermatologist consultation if you want to get your hands on a prescription).“Ultimately, skincare is a cosmetic product – legally, to be within EU regulations, it cannot change the structure or function of your skin,” says Mahto. So there’s a limit to what any of those bottles on your bathroom shelf can actually do, and that limit may help you decipher what’s worth investing in (and what isn’t). A cream will never be able to give you a face lift, but it can add hydration, which can help smooth rough texture. It can shift dullness by dissolving dead cells on the surface of the skin. It can balance oil production and aid in preventing breakouts. And, finally, it can help to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, but honestly, it’s not going to get rid of them altogether. For that, I’m afraid you may need something a little more invasive.
That being said, I find myself nodding along to what Dr Mahto was saying about prescription skincare. As someone who religiously applies a blob of tretinoin serum every night, I know that it genuinely works. As a potent derivative of vitamin A, it’s clinically proven to have anti-acne and anti-ageing benefits. But it isn’t without its faults; the serum can cause intense dryness, redness and irritations if you don’t get the dosage exactly right (I know this first-hand), and there are zero frills when it comes to user-experience. I’ll be honest – and please don’t judge me – but my favourite product to use alongside the affordable tube of prescription tretinoin is Crème de la Mer’s Moisturising Cream, which retails at £240 for a standard-size jar. I know what you’re thinking, but stay with me… The rich cream soothes any irritations caused by tretinoin and leaves my complexion soothed, soft, plump and dewy. The scent is comforting and, sure, I’ve tried a bunch of other moisturisers that have all worked well but, to me, none quite measured up to La Mer. It reminds me of something Alexia Inge said when we were discussing why high-end products are able to convince us to part with our hardearned cash, even though we know there’s likely to be a more affordable option out there: “While price is not always a guarantee of efficacy, it always brings with it a beautiful experience, from packaging to scent and texture. Luxury, done well, is highly addictive.” And even Mahto agrees: “Sometimes, a product is expensive, and we know deep down that we don’t need it; however, it looks good, it smells good and it makes us feel good – and that’s OK.”
There’s no doubt that some truly excellent skincare products exist in both the luxury and affordable markets. It’s like an H&M handbag and a Gucci one. Sure, no one is arguing that a high-street bag won’t work, it will hold your wallet and phone just as well as a designer one, but the experience may be different. For me, it’s all about balance. I’ll always have a soft spot for budget brands such as The Ordinary and CeraVe, but that doesn’t mean
I won’t indulge in an incredible luxury skincare experience once in a while. And if Jamie Genevieve has anything to do with it, that experience might well come in the form of an iconic blue bottle.
“Brexit killed the expert and the pandemic has brought them back”