The actual cost of women's makeup.

It's more than most guys think.

Recently I saw a Tiktok of a girl’s boyfriend shocked at the fact that his girlfriend’s lipstick costed over $20.

I’ve noticed that a lot of guys don’t know about the hidden costs of being feminine and beautiful. If you were curious or maybe you’re a woman who doesn’t budget that great you might be surprised to find out how much makeup costs.

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According to Yahoo:

A separate survey conducted by Advanced Dermatology found that women spend an average of $877 per year on their appearance. Here’s a look at how that number breaks down, and how women’s spending compares to men’s.

Now, I don’t find this data to be accurate, specifically for women in the age group of 18-40~ years old. I’m going to show you why I think this number is a massive lowball.

I am going to fact check the data reported from Yahoo, based on buying reasonably priced products (Meaning not overpriced but also not so cheap that it’s bad) that women usually need for a “Full face” of makeup.

So, a full face of makeup like how you see online celebrities or Youtubers usually consists of the following:

1. Foundation- Used to make your skin look even or hide skin flaws

2. Concealer -Used to cover undereye as foundation is too heavy to achieve this

3. Contour -Used to add dimension to the face or can be used to make the nose look smaller by adding shading to it

4. Eye shadow- Used to add dimension to your eyelids

5. Eyebrow pencil -Used to fill in eyebrows

6. Primer -Used to give grip and staying power under the makeup so you don’t have to use as much product to reapply it throughout the day

7. Finishing spray -Used to set makeup in place so that it doesn’t budge as much causing you to have to redo or reapply and waste makeup product

8. Lipstick/Lip tint/Lip Stain -Used to color your lips

9. Lipliner -Used to shape your lips and keep the lipstick from going everywhere

10. Highlighter -Used to bring dimension back to the face in the specific places you need such as the nose and cheekbones

11. Face powder- Used to make sure that the makeup doesn’t crease and to redirect where light goes (i.e. having an oily face)

12. Eyeliner -Used to emphasize the eyes i.e. cat eyes

13. Mascara -Used to emphasize eyelashes and make them look bigger

There are a few things that I could have included in here such as False lashes, lip gloss to go on top of lip stain but I am trying to make the list applicable to most women who are doing a full face and not everyone uses some of the products not included. You also need makeup brushes but I chose not to include these because usually you only buy brushes once a year, and beauty blenders (to blend the foundation) are usually replaced every few months. So when I’m saying this estimate will be on the low end I really do mean that.

Makeup is about adding dimension to your face so a lot of these steps are necessary for a makeup look to not look 2D and flat. Here is a comparison from the Youtube channel dear peachie.

On the left is how makeup looks when you don’t add dimension and you only do “Lipstick and mascara” (She’s wearing eyeshadow I know) like how some guys believe women do.

Now if we were being modest, and say that the average woman doesn’t do a full face -most women still do wear makeup by default and usually they are wearing eyeliner, mascara, lipstick/lip stain, eyebrow pencil, and concealer at the bare minimum. I often see women wear foundation and eyeshadow in the normal real world as well.

Now for the expenses breakdown.

Most women are shopping at the drug store/pharmacy like CVS or at Sephora or MAC.

Sephora is usually the go-to for decent makeup meaning makeup that is actually useable and stays on for a reasonable amount of time and does what it’s supposed to do.

Disclaimer

There are SOME products that you can get for cheaper than listed such as eyeshadow for $6 at a pharmacy but often they aren’t that pigmented, have fallout (very messy), and are hard to apply.

Also, some products women may not have the option to go for something on the cheaper end such as foundation if you have a specific skin tone that only some more expensive brands carry.

I have first hand experience with this as someone with light olive skin which is notoriously hard to find a match to and I end up having to use 2 different foundations to actually get the right color for my skin. The same goes for my eyebrows where only a few brands actually carry the right color “Ash brown” because it’s just not that common.

There are also other issue for people who have very acne prone skin or skin issues that require certain formulas or cleaner formulas which are on the higher end.

On Sephora, I found the products on the lower end to be roughly the following prices:

Foundation $20-$35

If you have a unique skin tone or skin issue you may have to spend upwards of $50> for a foundation that works for you.

Concealer $10-$25

Again this is a skin shade issue, women with unique skin colors (Like mixed girls) may have to spend more closer to $30 to get the correct shade.

Contour $15-$30

The Fenty Beauty skinstick is very commonly used among women.

Basic natural color eyeshadow palette $15-$40 (Depending how many shades)

Pharmacy eyeshadow is hit or miss but if you do get a good one you can get it for <$10 however it does take time and effort and time is money.

Eyebrow pencil $10-30

Some women use eyebrow powder to fill in instead which costs an additional amount of money if used WITH the eyebrow pencil -which for some women is necessary. You can get away with drug-store eyebrow pencil for $10 if you have a common eyebrow color.

Primer $6-$15

This is actually a case where drug-store makeup is fine such as ELF or the Milani skin quench hydrating primer) which are both <$10

Finishing spray -$10-$20

Lipstick $15-$25

Lipliner $6-$20

Highlighter $10-$20

Finishing face powder $16-$30

Eyeliner $7-$25

Note that some women also need a separate liner to do something called tight-lining where it makes the inner eye more dark and look fuller (The illusion of more lashes) This would be an additional $10-$20.

Tightlining

Mascara $8-$16

You can definitely get away with drug-store mascara which is $10 roughly.

So for the bare minimum for a full face of makeup on the low end it would be $150 on the low end and $330 on the higher end.

Again, this doesn’t include products that other women need for their specific face or skin types; it does not include “Skin prep” which is a routine to hydrate your skin so that the makeup actually applies without pilling with little balls of dried makeup and dead skin -and that’s not hot!

It also doesn’t include when women need to switch colors and have alternative options i.e. a red lipstick instead of a pink one.

This also does NOT include makeup tools/brushes which can be expensive. Beauty blenders which are sometimes used as an alternative to brushes in some instances are anywhere from $5 to $25 for an anti bacterial one.

This one was $8

To give some insight on how much makeup brushes are, a decent but low-end brush kit costs $30. They often do NOT include individual brushes that you need such as an angled brush for eyeliner or brushes that have specific densities in order to properly blend makeup so that it doesn’t look uneven or patchy.

Not sponsored for this just sharing a brush set I bought recently, while trying to keep it reasonable.

In some cases, depending on the person’s individual skin needs, they might need higher end brushes. Makeup artists use brushes sold individually for a reason. These can range from $15-$50 and in some cases $50 isn’t unreasonable because again, certain hair density is needed to achieve certain looks and you might need specific shapes to make certain brush strokes. Longevity of the product is also a factor for all these things and the pricing. Cheap brushes fray very quickly.

Here’s an example from the google shopping tab. By the way, Mercari on the right is a SECOND HAND online store and it’s STILL that expensive.

Makeup is basically like art for your face so it’s pretty impressive that most women manage to learn it and be decent at it considering the skill and years of practice it takes to make it look good.

That’s why a lot of women really appreciate when other women make full heavy makeup looks that are super colorful and flawless looking online. It’s an appreciation for the artform of not only painting everything on right, making the skin moisturized enough to have a nice blank canvas to “Paint” on, picking out the right colors that look good together (Usually involves some color theory), picking colors that look good on the INDIVIDUAL (face shape is a factor i.e. blush placement.)

but also being able to blend everything out.

So imagine how impressive it is to have all that knowledge in face shape, color theory and linework and then also making it a tutorial for others to be able to follow along with.

I’ve tried doing my makeup with a camera in my face, and having to somehow use a mirror while still being in shot REALLY close to my face where you can see EVERY pore and it is not easy (Hence why I never uploaded it on my Youtube channel despite requests for a makeup tutorial from my female viewers).

To sum it up, I don’t agree with Yahoo’s estimate on how much women spend on appearance because makeup alone already makes up (haha) like half of it realistically if you were to budget and also have a reasonable amount of options for colors and tools. I severely lowballed on the makeup, realistically women have 4 different lip colors, several eye shadow palettes etc. Also, makeup needs to be replaced even if it’s not used every so often.

If you want to see an article on the cost analysis of skin care please consider paying for a subscription it really does motivate me to continue to write!

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