The battle is on to prove luxury cosmetics are worth it

In time those consumers usually revert back to their old spending patterns as the return of economic prosperity reinvigorates spending power, giving them the confidence to go back to buying more expensive products.

But things could be different this time. As the effect of this global economic downturn start to ease, the switch back to once preferred prestige products consumers may not occur so quickly.

Consumers may not revert back to prestige cosmetics​

Indeed, experts are predicting that in certain instances the cyclical spending pattern seen in cosmetic consumers during previous downturns may not occur at all.

The reason for this is simple: cheaper cosmetic and toiletries are now much better. The proliferation of private label products and the resulting competition has led to huge leaps in the quality of these products.

Not only has increasing sums of money been spent on the development of effective and safe formulations, investment has also been made on packaging design, so now they often look good too.

Cheaper brands go chic​

Gone are the days when cheaper brands looked just that. The packaging remains simple, but designers have taken cues from more expensive products and introduced a certain amount of chic that no longer makes them look like the poor relations.

Such products often make claims to fuss-free formulations, combined with less unnecessary packaging, which sits well with the growing trend to cut out anything unnecessary in an effort to simplify lives.

The sales figures speak for themselves. During the last year successive financial results have shown that prestige cosmetic manufacturers are suffering, while those positioned at the lower end of the market, particularly private label players, have profited.

So how can prestige cosmetics make a come back?​

In short many consumers have grown tired of bling, that is to say they no longer want fancy packaging that screams of excess and is likely to end up adding to the world’s growing land fill issue.

One of the problems with luxury products is that they often rely on needless secondary packaging to enhance their shelf appeal, a factor that is likely to drive away the increasing number of eco-conscious consumers.

Although enhancing prestige packaging without adding to the landfills is easier said than done, this is one of the main areas where developers are going to have to come up with more solutions.

Likewise, consumer awareness of formulations has never been greater. The emergence of natural and organic cosmetics as a mainstream category means that consumers have a greater knowledge of ingredients and the effects they have.

In conjunction with this, consumer ethics is also gaining in importance. This means that largely as a result of consumer pressure many product labels now boast fair trade logos on the labels, often alongside natural or organic certification logos.

The future should look greener for prestige​

As a result developers of prestige products are feeling the pressure to deliver products that use eco-packaging yet look chic and stylish and are formulated to the highest standards from the finest ingredients – natural or organic and ethically sourced, if possible.

All the pointers suggest prestige products that are marketed with green credentials might pave the way for the luxury market in the future, but as this category still remains fairly niche, this certainly will not prove to be the all-encompassing magic solution.

From whatever angle this is considered the challenge to developers is essentially to re-invent prestige cosmetics in an effort to once again convince consumers that this category of products is worth paying the premium for.

This will obviously be no mean feat, but as the trend for green cosmetics underlines, consumers will always be willing to pay more for cosmetics if they believe there are enough benefits.