A Beauty-Cost Breakdown, By Age
20’s
Most Mentioned Treatments:
• Acrylic manicures
• Gel pedicures
• Lymphatic-drainage: These are the most popular forms of massage and are supposed to debloat and slim by moving lymph fluid through the body.
• Massages
• HydraFacials: The most popular facials, these are medical-grade treatments in which blackheads, dirt, and oil are vacuumed out of the skin while plumping and hydrating serums are applied.
• Injectable treatments like Botox and platelet-rich plasma.
“I have an account solely for beauty purchases and maintenance. I can spend in this category intentionally and guilt free.” —A 25-year-old who spends $4,831 per year
Most Mentioned Products:
• Topicals Faded Serum
• SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic
• Dr Dennis Gross Universal Daily Peel
• Paula’s Choice 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant
Total: $9,314
30’s
Most Mentioned Treatments:
• Corrective skin facials
• Laser hair removal
• Botox and filler
• Microneedling
• Red-light-therapy masks
• Brow lamination
• Invisalign
• Saunas
Most Mentioned Products:
• Caudalie Beauty Elixir and Vinoperfect Brightening Dark Spot Serum
• Youth to the People serum and cleanser
• Tatcha the Dewy Skin Cream
• Topicals Clearing Eye Masks
• COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence
Total: $9,784
40’s
Most Mentioned Treatments:
• Acupuncture facials: Often seen as a Botox alternative, these are procedures that improves skin texture, fine lines, and wrinkles.
• Chemical peels or laser treatments
• Yearly Botox or under-eye filler
Most Mentioned Products:
• Biologique Recherche Lait VIP 02 or p50 Lotion
• Olay Golden Aura Creamy Foam Face Cleanser and Ultra Moisture Body Wash
• Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen: The most-used product across all age groups is sunscreen (52 women apply it daily, often SPF 50-plus). Other favorites include Bioré, EltaMD, and Beauty of Joseon.
Total: $6,213
50’s
Most Mentioned Treatments:
• Waxing
• Salon visits to dye hair
• At-home hair masks
Most Mentioned Products:
• CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser
• Clinique Take the Day Off Cleansing Balm
• La Mer the Moisturizing Fresh Cream
Total: $4,219
60’s and 70’s
Most Mentioned Treatments:
• Hair trims and touch-ups for color
• Irregular Botox: “My doctor knows I don’t want to look like those ladies who are puffy around their lips and noses. He injects different substances into my face. My husband doesn’t even know I do it.” —A 64-year-old who spends $2,300 a year
• Manicures
• Neck-lift
• Blepharoplastysurgery
Most Mentioned Products:
• Neutrogena makeup remover, towelettes, and moisturizer
• Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Supercharged Gel-Cream and Perfectionist Pro Rapid Firm + Lift Serum
• Dove Original Beauty Bar: OG brands, including Olay, Vaseline, and even Gold Bond, start to show up more in the routines of women over 40.
Total: $2,190
Two Very Different Beauty Routines
A High-Maintenance Regimen of a 30-Year-Old
Daily A.M.
I drink lemon or lime water immediately.
For skin care, I start with red-light gua shua from Silk Skin Co. ($100) and the Kiehl’s Daily Reviving Concentrate Face Oil ($87). Then I cleanse with Skinbetter Cleansing Gel ($50), TirTir Milk Skin Toner ($25), Skinbetter Alto Defense Serum ($235), and Tatcha the Dewy Skin Cream ($72).
Work out for an hour, either reformer Pilates (membership is $220 a month) or with my personal trainer ($680 a month).
Supplements: sea moss, omega-3, zinc, magnesium, D-3, B-complex.
In the shower, I use Le Labo Noir 29 Perfuming Shower Gel ($63), followed by the Le Labo Noir 29 Perfuming Body Lotion ($83), then Anima Mundi Rose Body Oil ($72), and finish by spraying the Le Labo Noir 29 Eau de Parfum ($235).
Daily P.M.
I have to drink my teas. My favorite is the Tisane from Ebi ($40). It’s meant for postpartum, but it has so many incredible ingredients that are great for women’s health in general.
Weekly
I visit my hair stylist to do a refresh ($80 plus tip).
Whiten my teeth at home with GuruNanda Whitening Strips ($10).
Monthly
Structured gel manicure ($85 for simple, $125 for design plus tip) and a spa pedicure to keep my feet smooth; it includes a lavender sea-salt scrub with vitamin E and amino oils and a paraffin treatment from Bliss Nails ($70 plus tip). Refresh my extensions. HydraFacial at Skin Spa New York with dermaplaning ($400).
Quarterly
Masseter Botox for my jaw at a local medspa.
Annual
New set of extensions for my hair, which could be around $600 (and that’s if I just get one set). I also do three sessions of body sculpting, which includes lymphatic drainage, skin tightening with radio-frequency therapy, and wood-tool massages. Before my birthday, I’m going to try the same treatment on my arms and thighs to see if it’s as effective ($460).
A Low-Maintenance Regimen of a 64-Year-Old
Daily
Wash my face with Dove soap and water. At night, I take off makeup with Neutrogena makeup wipes and wash again with soap and water. I buy the wipes at Costco, and they last months ($21.99).
Monthly
I get my hair colored, and every third visit, I get it both cut and colored. It costs me $65 with tip per visit for just color, and each trim-with-color visit (three to four times a year) costs $90.
Six Surprising Findings
Women 40 and up are not excited about Botox.
28 of our respondents get Botox, and more than half of them are in their 20s and 30s. Meanwhile, women 40 and up often say they’re trying to hold off on injectables for as long as possible. “I may eventually do Botox, but for now, I prefer to be natural,” says one 49-year-old. “I’ve been curious about it, but I’ve seen so much bad Botox. I don’t want to change my face,” says a 54-year-old. Others prefer to stick with less invasive alternatives. One 51-year-old goes for a full face-and-neck Sofwave treatment, which uses ultrasound technology. And a 46-year-old highly recommends her annual Rescue Spa facial: “I swear it reverse ages me. I don’t need Botox, and I think it’s because their facials are so good.”
Black women are spending a lot on hair.
Especially on extensions and hair installments. One 29-year-old breaks down her regimen: “Because I’m a perfectionist when it comes to my hair, I get my extension installs taken down and reinstalled once a month. The takedown, silk-press, and tape-in install comes to $525. I typically reuse the hair I have for at least six months but often need to purchase a fresh bundle, as I typically layer and cut the hair I use. My bundles run me about $200 apiece, and I need four for a full install.”
Why go to a salon? You can now DIY it.
You used to have to go to a salon or medspa to get certain procedures done, but more of those treatments are now available as DIY kits. “There are great sets you can buy on Amazon that work so well,” says a 29-year-old who recently began tinting her eyelashes at home and can now skip mascara. Another woman, 33, does at-home cupping therapy using $10 silicone cups from Amazon; others swear by their personal hair steamers and face steamers, which, according to a 29-year-old, “keep the skin hydrated, prevent acne, and help combat redness.” One 30-year-old even does her own dermaplaning. “My friend’s mom taught us all how at a middle-school sleepover,” she says. “She used a scalpel, but I’m not pro enough. I buy the dermaplane razors from the drugstore.”
Cruise tickets count as maintenance too.
Ten women — all in their late 40s, 50s, or 60s — include vacations when tallying their beauty and skin-care regimens. For some, it’s a seven-day cruise; for others, it’s a getaway to the Caribbean. And for one 47-year-old, it can be as simple as a solo staycation. “Taking a solo trip is a necessity, and it doesn’t even have to be out of the state,” she says. “Some years it’s a trip, and other years it’s a two-night stay at a fancy hotel in the city. The thing is that I won’t even tell anyone about it, and I mean anyone.”
Beauty treatments are getting more invasive.
People’s beauty regimens include the gamut of faddish treatments, but there is one that’s very new: salmon DNA therapy. During the procedure, which isn’t widely available here, a mixture of salmon blood and reproductive fluids is injected into the skin to promote cell regeneration. “It was painful,” says a 32-year-old who tried it in Korea, “but I love trying out Botox alternatives to give me a healthy glow.” Six women are getting platelet-rich plasma injections, a.k.a. “vampire facials,” which involves extracting plasma and injecting it back into the face; microneedling or tiny skin punctures; and CO2 lasers, a new treatment to resurface the top layer of skin.
It’s all about the body.
From dry brushing to body-sculpting massages like lymphatic drainage, people are spending more time and money on their shape. One woman in her 20s spends $700 a month to get “body sculpting for her abs, back, and legs, as well as Emsculpt treatments for her hip dips and butt.”
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