Sneaky Price Increase of Clinique & Beauty Brands

I'm not one to notice finer details, but something was definitely amiss when I made my Sephora order. (Sephora currently has a 15% VIB discount I'm trying to take advantage of!)

A 6.7 oz bottle of Clinique Acne Solutions Clarifying Lotion cost me $14.00 at Sephora in January of 2012. Sometime between then and now, the price has increased to $15.00. While it isn't much, it came to me as a surprised as I've been buying this particular product for years now. It got me thinking, what else has gone up without me noticing? Looking back at my purchase history, the same 6.7 oz bottle of Clinique Acne Solutions Clarifying Lotion cost me $13.50 in August of 2010. In three years, the price has increased by $1.50 (over 10% of its original price).

Sigma Beauty has also increased their prices over the years. Their product quality has increased dramatically (remember the SS brushes?) - but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt our wallets. As of November of 2012, some of their brush prices has increased up to 10%. The permanent 10% off coupons help curb the pain, but Sigma went from being an affordable MAC alternative to being an expensive brand in itself.


It seems like the standard of the industry. Estee Lauder and L'Oreal brands have been competitively increasing their prices in recent years. Due to inflation and skyrocketing production costs, it's understandable why some prices must rise. It is just really surprising to me how little we tend to notice. The economy has slowed, but the prices of beauty and fashion products continue to rise. Not only that, but their sales have not dropped! So wherever money is tightening, it doesn't seem to be tightening around our beauty and fashion closet.

What does this mean for consumers like us? I'm not a financial expert in any sense, so I won't recommend you go out and buy up brushes, makeup and clothes at this point. Just realize that values can drop, prices can increase and the cost of today won't be the cost of tomorrow. A extra dollar here and there may not seem like much, but watch your wallet carefully.
Disclosure: Images are property of Sigma Beauty. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with your post here; I used to be a hard core Sigma fan until they started increasing their prices. I bought my first set of brushes for only $69 in 2009 when they had the SS system and now the price for the set for $109; that's almost a 60% price increase in four years. I've just really stopped buying Sigma because of that, and their exorbitant shipping cost. I never really notice price increases in store but those online ones really hit the wallet.

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  2. I didn't even realize that Sigma prices increased by that much! Wow, a $40 increase in four years is ridiculous. I actually remember it being cheaper just last year or so. Hope this is the end of it or we might just go back to ecoTools or drugstore brushes for an affordable alternative.

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