prestige

Chatter: On Discounted New Releases

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This post started with a question from a friend: If (prestige) palettes go on sale soon after they are released, are they worth the starting price?

Not shopping for certain things – say, palettes – enables you to save money (not looking/not tempted/not spending). It also, however, means you miss peculiarities in the market.

Several brands released palettes in the last handful of months only to have them rapidly marked down. Not marked down now that the holidays are behind us, though – before Christmas!

Basically – if we’re seeing 30%+ off discounted new releases within three months of release, why should anyone buy at launch? Why not wait?

Personally, I see the issue being twofold:

  • Most of these palettes were the part of the holiday collections for the lines in question. Previously, I said I was opting out of limited edition/holiday palettes. I still feel that way and do not see it changing for the forseeable future.
  • The target market for products like these are primarily (not exclusively) younger, trend-centric women. They don’t occasionally jump on the hype train, they have a Metro Card. It doesn’t matter to them that the product is good, just that it is relevant in-the-moment or that it happens to be their preferred influencer’s flavor of the day.

The Bottom Line

I don’t presume to tell anyone how to spend their money, but if you watch the beauty market for even just a couple years you can identify this pattern.

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Full vs Travel

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Last year, I won a travel sized Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder (my post on it here) in Dim Light. I liked it so much that I splashed out for a full-size (on sale, of course). Sites obviously shares the volume of product in each, it can be hard to tell without a side-by-side. My local Sephora store, for instance, does not carry Hourglass – and when I have an idea that I think would have helped me, I like to share.

Side-by-Side

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Full vs TravelHourglass Ambient Lighting Powder Full vs Travel

The difference is pretty comical – so to put numbers to that picture, the left is 0.35 oz (for $46); the right is 0.04 oz (for $22). You’re getting over 8x the product for just over twice the price…and with how long the tiny travel size has lasted me (barely looks used), that is going to last me sometime into the 22nd century.

The Bottom Line

Unless you need the tiny size for some odd reason, skip it – the value just isn’t there. The price-per-ounce is already painfully high in the full size (I keep reminding myself of the fact that this stuff is going to last 2/3 of eternity) at around $131. The travel size comes in at a crushing $550 per ounce. It’s sheer (ha) lunacy.