If you feel like you've been seeing higher numbers on your makeup receipts, you're not alone. One person vented about it on Reddit, lamenting the reality of "shrinkflation" — the phenomenon when prices stay the same, but products go down in quality and/or quantity.
"Since when did it become normal to see a bunch of sephora hauls… i'm talking about… $500-$1,000 worth of money being spent on products???" they wrote, baffled.
"As an avid user of sephora, i'm literally so turned off by their prices," they continued. "The value sets used to be so good 2-3 years ago, you'd get amazing sample sized and full sized products… and now… they're just throwing small 'viral' products and selling it for around $40+… like this is insane? why is it so normalized to spend this much money on make up?"
As they acknowledged, this isn't an issue limited to Sephora or to the makeup industry in general. Rather, it's a societal mindset geared toward overproduction and overconsumption.
One commenter summed it up well: "I'm so tired of people telling me I need things. I don't need s***, leave me alone."
"Have you taken a dive into fragrance tok?! They're casually buying $100 bottles of fragrances every other day," another pointed out. "Ever spent a day in a Stanley or Lululemon Facebook group? People casually drop hundreds of dollars weekly."
"Nothing feels special anymore," another added. "There's just. So. Much. And literally every day there's more. It's not even about the actual products anymore, it's just about BUYING. The stuff doesn't matter, ONLY the purchase."
Unfortunately, the "stuff" still does have a monumental impact — not only on people's wallets but also on the planet.
The energy and resources that go into manufacturing and shipping everything from clothes to makeup are nothing to sniff at. According to Clean Hub, the cosmetics industry is one of the biggest contributors to water use, ocean pollution, and wastewater creation, but it doesn't even come close to rivaling the fashion industry.
🗣️ When you're choosing health and beauty products, which of these factors is most important to you?
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🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
And with most people discarding products after just a handful of uses, they end up sitting in landfills — or oceans — and polluting the natural environment as they emit planet-warming gases.
Instead, choosing to buy only what you truly need — and actually using it for the span of its useful life — is an excellent way to keep costs down and minimize your own impact.
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