This just in: the average woman will spend around $450,000 on beauty in her lifetime, according to this Newsweek report. Now, take a moment to pick your jaws up off the floor.
That is a TON of money to spend on appearances, but I completely see it happening. It is human nature to want to look nice, and putting effort into appearances takes money. We buy clothes, shoes and jewelry that make us look our best — and beauty products nicely fill in the gaps where we each feel we could use improvement or something new and exciting. And with our general fixation on the superficial, trends changes season to season, spurring us into extra spending to keep ourselves on the leading edge of coolness.
Without going through the effort of digging up all my purchase history for recent beauty-related spending and embarrassing myself, I can safely say I’ve shelled out over $1,000 on makeup alone within the last 12 months.
The study takes in account all costs of beautification, including spa treatments, salon hair care, mani/pedis, tanning and waxing, among other stuff like botox injections, laser hair removal and other plastic surgery procedures.
I wonder if this six-figure revelation will curb the money people dole out on beauty stuff. I haven’t been buying much lately, mainly because I have everything I want and need in my makeup collection right now. And given this economic situation we’re in, will the booming beauty industry ever see a slip in its sales? I’m inclined to think not — in this culture, the surface is almost more important than the substance.