Is a recession coming in the US? Some say you can tell by simply looking at women’s lips. But what do we know about this? Let’s take a closer look: Lipstick index Experts say the lipstick index is a good gauge of approach of a recession. According to CNN, the lipstick index was coined by then Estee Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Lauder observed that the purchase of certain cosmetics seem to rise during times of recession. For example, women swap more expensive purchases like designer handbags for smaller ones like lipstick. According to CNN, fall that year saw lipstick sales spike 11 per cent.
Going back further, cosmetics sales shot up 25 per cent during the Great Depression. According to The Independent, the concept returned to prominence after the banking crash and the 2008 global recession. A number of articles including a New York Times entitled Hard Times, but Your Lips Look Great appeared.
In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Estee Lauder’s CEO Fabrizio Freda said that the lipstick index was replaced as women donned masks and worked from home. “The lipstick index has been substituted with the moisturising index,” Freda was quoted as saying by CNN . “But the concept of the index is still there.
” The theory was floated again in 2022 as market research firm Kantar Worldpanel discovered that UK sales of lipstick were nearly 10 per cent higher year-on-year in the 12 weeks leading up to 18 September. Is a US rec.
