What is more profitable to buy - cheap or expensive cosmetics
It is one of the most nervous times of the year: Seasonal sales and the fever of New Year's shopping very unfortunately intersect with the economic crisis and the promise of not spending money on the first weekend. We have already discussed the crisis and how to survive it, and today we figured out why it is easier to spend ten cheap lipsticks than one more expensive, but more desirable, and how to overcome the dependence on small purchases that imperceptibly empty the wallet.
The loudest sales of this year, “Black Friday” and Cyber Monday, have already ended, leaving behind the destruction both on swept up counters and in our wallets. Why is it so difficult to control yourself, seeing the cherished words "discounts" and "sale"? Why invest in high-quality and expensive things so painfully painful, but to put 10 tubes of lipstick for $ 3 at the checkout counter - not at all? Dopamine and the hope of human kindness certainly play a role in the robber raids on Rive Gauche, but most of them are attracted to the false idea of cheapness and economy - yes, I just bought 5 bubbles of varnish to complement my 80-canned collection, but it was a cheap lacquer, and I spent nothing at all! And each of the ten lipsticks cost less than morning coffee, which means that it is not considered to be a waste at all, too cheap.
It is from these bricks of thoughtless expenses that the Great Wall of China is formed which separates from a bright future, holidays, buying a car and heaps of other things that don’t give instant emotional relief, but drastically improve life in the long run. Impossibility to look on the other side of this wall does not help motivation at all: without buying a gym membership with a personal trainer, you never know that you can climb the seventh floor without shortness of breath, and without good thermal underwear the joy of winter walks will never seem real.
Are all cheap goods bad? Of course not. Mass-market cosmetics are less likely than they are accustomed to assume, inferior in quality to more expensive ones, so if you have not bought it in the transition, you are unlikely to find dramatic differences. You can safely buy decorative products from the rack of cosmetics for teenagers and not worry about the extra palette of shadows, but you should not skimp on the care products. This may even be harmful: unsuccessful experiments with care will have to be treated by a beautician for considerable sums, and all the savings will fly the cat down the drain. Reasonableness in spending is what is really needed, and not at all a barn lock on a wallet and coupons for lipstick, but no more than one in hand. If you have good skin and you didn’t stint on a sleep mask (in Urban Outfitters, by the way, there are terribly pretty, and only for 800 rubles), you may not have to spend money on MAC concealer (as much as 1390 rubles). Thoughtful savings are different from buying cheap things, and this is often forgotten.
And if the chosen fragrance doesn’t work, and the price of a grandmother’s retirement brush will make it difficult to gain rouge?
If the benefit of buying expensive things is so clear that it stops every time we are ready to lay out a couple of thousand for the "perfect scent" or the massage course that we have been dreaming for for half a year? A whole set of indoor units, that's what. Instant reward does not work, because the course of massage will last another six months, and there is no money on the card right now - it seems to the brain that there is no benefit in this, and a future in which the back does not hurt and the posture has improved - well, when it comes . But what if the chosen fragrance doesn’t work, and a brush whose value is equal to the grandmother’s pension will not be good enough to make a ruddy face? Cosmetics can not be returned, and the realization of this, together with the fear of making an irreparable mistake and generally making a contribution to the nebulous future, will chill the blood worse than the last season of American Horror History.
Dan Ariely, a professor at Duke University and the author of several books on irrational behavior, explains very well why sometimes, in the literal sense of the word, it hurts us to pay: a temporary connection between money spent and pleasure should be inseparable, and the larger the gap between the first and second actions, the more intense will be "pain of paying". Little different from the little animals from the experiment on cocaine addiction, we would rather choose the immediate pleasure of another cheap body milk from the supermarket shelf than spend time and effort to find and order a weighty jar of luxurious cream. By analogy, potatoes fried in butter will delight much earlier than the result of daily exercise becomes visible.
So far, the best solution to the problem of irrational spending under the guise of economy is planning, and only that. Make a wishlist cosmetics you need and do not replace it with cheap counterparts, if you know exactly what you need. And do not forget about Pinterest - the boards will help to visualize the style, figure out what the makeup bag is terribly lacking, and give you hundreds of delicious and cheap food recipes. Returning to the study of Arieli: he found out that despite the fact that the delay between payment and receipt of purchase intensifies the discomfort, getting more of a pleasure product only increases - spending is forgotten, and expensive packages are perceived as a gift.
Perhaps now is the time for the love of online shopping to shine with a new force and go to the necessary and planned purchases, which also raise your spirits if you have time to forget about them. And the main thing in all these economic troubles is to remember that quality of life is just as important a factor of existence as a hard spending plan, so you should follow the testament of the FBI agent Dale Cooper and give yourself a small gift once a day - but only one is better.
PHOTO: 1, 2, 3, 4 via Shutterstock