From housewives to high-fliers, a lot of women in the UAE have high maintenance approach to appearance. These beauty divas spend hours primping, dying, bleaching, tanning, pulling and shaping, just to conform to what the society considers "beautiful".
It's not just about time being spent. People spend so much money on beauty enhancers and accumulate many products, enough to fill a huge closet — not to mention a bank account.
A combination of factors, including the media, is responsible for this growing obsession with perfection. Consumers' purses are constantly being tempted with ads about the latest make-up and grooming products, including technological innovations that promise to make them look younger, prettier and slimmer.
"There's an obsession with beauty because of the media. Everybody wants to be a model or a film star. I wouldn't blame the media for that, but it's a trend nowadays," observes Dr Archana Ainapure, a senior dietitian at Health Factory.
Besides, looking your best is very much ingrained in the social culture of UAE or Dubai, where events, launches and parties are the norm.
"Here in Dubai, people are always out socialising. When you walk down the street in the middle of the night, you'd see people decked up. They're all dressed up, full of beautiful make-up. I've never seen any woman walking down the street without make-up," Ainapure adds.
The pressure to look good is strong that many people are willing to pay the high price of fighting obesity. Ainapure says their factory, which offers personalised healthy meals that cost Dh2,500 to Dh2,950 a month, is seeing a high demand for their weight-loss packages.
"There's been an increase in demand. It's a three-year-old company and so far, about 2,000 people have availed themselves of our programmes. Indeed, people are obsessed with how they look."
"Since I do body composition analysis, I sometimes see people who want to lose weight just for the sake of [vanity], but I try to convince them not do a weight loss program if their muscle mass is perfect. I just teach them the maintenance programme," Ainapure says.
At Beauty Solutions, people are spending their money on anti-ageing and toning products that use Electronic Muscle Stimulation (EMS) technology.
One of the latest craze is Slendertone Face, a beauty gadget that promises youthful looking skin and costs Dh2,000 a pop. The product made waves in the beauty circles in the UK, drawing 2,000 people to the waiting list, when it launched in Harrods in September.
"Here, we've sold around 50 units this year, excluding the ones sold by retailers. That's mostly from people going to our website. This product has had a huge demand recently especially because we've done a lot more advertising. Our phones have been ringing off the hook," Katia Andrejev, Beauty Solutions head of marketing, tells Gulf News.
Majority of the customers are Emiratis and Russians, although Beauty Solutions still get enquiries from UK nationals. About 20 per cent of Slendertone Face orders are, surprisingly, from men.
On the rise
Andrejev is confident about the future of their products in the UAE, because the local beauty market is growing.
"Everybody's paying attention to their appearance. Dubai, in particular, is all about how you look. People are very concerned about what other people think about them."
"It's a very glamorous place. Every evening, you've got a choice of two or three launches and events to go to. People get photographed a lot for magazines, so of course, everybody wants to look their best," she adds.
When it comes to make-up products, consumers are investing in the whole range: from lipstick to eye shadow and from foundation to eyeliner. Make-up professionals, however, note a high demand for foundation, eyeliner and mascara.
"Most of our eye make-up items in black — black eyeliner, black mascara, are always in demand. This means that women pay more attention to their eyes and they often go for a dramatic look," a store manager from Inglot tells Gulf News.
There's also a growing interest in natural and organic beauty solutions. According to Beautyworld Middle East, about one in three consumers in the US and Europe is captured by this sector.
"There has definitely been a surge in the demand for natural and organic beauty products worldwide. We have also seen this trend in the Middle East region in recent years," Elaine O' Connell, senior show manager of Beautyworld, says in a press statement .
Have your say
How much do you spend on regular beauty treatments? Do you think women have
become obsessive about having a certain image? Or are they just responding to societal pressures? Tell us
