We may never agree on whether a beauty product is worth it
The math behind why value is so personal
You may have discovered this newsletter through my beauty value series on TikTok. I love making those videos and doing the analyses but everytime I post, without fail I get a comment or two about why a certain brand is not worth it. Yes, exactly. Value is personal.
Last year, McKinsey published a report on why people buy from beauty brands again and again.
What stood out to me wasn’t the specific reasons. It was that not one of them came close to 100% agreement. We are genuinely, measurably different in what we want from beauty. There are a few major overlaps. Most of us do not want a lipstick that disappears after ten minutes. But beyond that, the relative importance of different factors can vary.
So I made a formula.
There are four variables:
Performance - does it actually work? Coverage, wear time, hydration, pigmentation. Does it do what the brand says it will?
Longevity - how quickly do you go through it? This is where looking at the price per ounce/mL/g instead of just the retail price matters. A product you finish in six weeks and one you finish in eight months are not the same purchase, even at the same price.
Joy - the emotional side. The ritual, the packaging, the way it feels to apply. I travel with a bronzer that genuinely makes me happy every time I see it in my makeup bag. That may sound trivial to some, but for me, that counts as value.
Identity - the world you’re buying into. The aesthetic, the community, the version of yourself the brand reflects back at you. Glossier did this early and did it well. So have Pat McGrath, Westman Atelier, Danessa Myricks, and rhode in different ways.
Here is where it gets interesting.
We all assign different weights to each of these. Your w’s, or the importance you place on each variable, might not the same as mine. They’re definitely not the same as the person telling you that your favorite product is not worth the price.
Someone who weights Joy and Identity highly is going to see enormous value in a Westman Atelier product. Someone who doesn’t care about ritual or community is going to look at the same product and wonder why you just paid $75 for a bronzer.
Neither of them is wrong. Their inputs just look different.
That’s actually why beauty debates are so interesting! Many times we’re not disagreeing about the product and what it does. We’re disagreeing about the value formula and we don’t even realize it.
Which variable carries the most weight for you?