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Expensive Care

Women who pursue a ideal of beauty that is often uattainable, believe that it can be obtained for a price. The higher the price, the rarer the ingredients of this ultimate magic potion, the more convulted the preparation, the greater their faith in its efficacy. Even an economic downturn will not deter them from paying a high premium for beauty.
“The cosmetic business tends to be a place where customers can feel good about themselves, an uplifting and motivating focus on themselves, regardless of other aspects of their lives,” said Kay Mazza, Herberger’s store manager.
Per this IHT story vegetables are now being used to create skin-care products :
It takes 55 pounds, or 25 kilograms, of spinach to create one pound of extract, and PurGenesis has been working on the formula since 1999. The company hopes it will be available in face creams by the end of next year.
As with sending someone to scour the Amazon rainforest for the ultimate blend of herbs to rejuvenate the skin, the act of going through 55 pounds of spinach to extract a morsel of face cream, is about an arduous journey. The guarantee of beauty like dragon-slaying or finding the Philosopher's Stone, does not come easily and therefore the high price is quite justified in the minds of the customer.

I wonder what happens to the left over spinach and hope the answer is not it is rendered unfit for human consumption. It would be a real shame to waste so much food to create a face cream. If the cream is really any good for the skin, the buyer might want to save her money and buy the raw spinach to eat instead. However, if this is true that is unlikely to happen :
"Women have a basic belief that they save on the things they have to buy in order to spend on the things they want to buy," said Julia Beardwood, principal at design shop Beardwood&Co., New York, who has worked for Bath & Body Works and Procter & Gamble. "It's like men and booze. The economy is not going to stop men drinking because that's how they relax. For women, cosmetic skin treatments are their counterpart to booze."

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myths said…
hey ... came by your blog via desipundit. I like what you write ! Made me smile :)
7:28 AM
Heartcrossings said…
myths - thanks for stopping by :)
8:22 PM
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