Vanity Case

Apparently, a great deal of people who know its worth is regularly purchasing "status skincare".

- Bryan Goh

At a recent skincare brand lunch (eat, drink, listen attentively and coo when necessary), its manager proudly exclaimed that its best-sellers are not entry-level ones that came at a respectable price point. Without batting an eyelid, she exclaimed it was the most expensive one. By that, she meant a serum that roughly clocked in at 20% of Singapore's national median gross monthly income C a cool $900 of which is just a pittance to the brand's customers who swear by its results. Singaporeans are not the only spendthrift ones either.

Research by GlobeNewswire reported that the global luxury skincare market was estimated at US$21,767.45 million in 2022 and is projected to reach US$35,797.48 million in 2028. That is a lot of serums, creams and unintelligible things we are smearing on our skin, but is efficacy justified by its cost? Psychologists and media platforms might tell one so. The former has been studying this phenomenon for years and concluded that human beings gaslight themselves into thinking higher price tags come with more efficacy, while the latter has developed its kind of test: Can so-and-so celebrity tell the difference between expensive and cheap? "Every brand has a different position within the market, which becomes a determining factor in the retail price," says Dr Dennis Gross a board-certified dermatologist and co-founder of Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare but how does position play a part in pricing?