Look past the Botox

Studies have shown that when the economy slumps more women buy lipstick for the feel-good factor.

Marketing gurus say that make-up giants L'Oreal and Estee Lauder knew there was a recession coming at the beginning of 2008 because their lipstick sales went up.

Between the 1929 stock market crash that caused the Great Depression and the recession of 2009, the “Lipstick Factor'' I've heard, worked mainly because it helped many women who were faced with declining household budgets feel less guilty that they were spending money on themselves instead of on their children.

Another reason perhaps is that during a recession many women must go out and supplement the family income and lipstick helped them feel more confident at a job interview.

Botox played a minor role in plumping lips and soothing wrinkles but that was when the going was good and women had the Dh2,000 spare change they needed every time they had the toxin injected.

However, since January this year there has been a paradigm shift from lips to eyelashes. Allergan, the company that made Botox – a muscle paralyser – a household name has made a side effect of Lumigan, a prescription ophthalmic solution for the treatment of open angle glaucoma into a cosmetic marvel called Latisse that helps women grow longer, thicker lashes.

I have always been aware that camels, my brothers and my male colleagues have eyelashes that drive me insanely jealous. Mascara and false eyelashes have been the refuge of many an eyelash-challenged woman like me, but to actually be able to thicken my lashes with a solution that costs the same as a month's supply of coffee at Starbucks – Dh450 – is tempting.

Clinical trials have proven that the lashes grow; but stop using the solution and they will shrink to their original size eventually. I wonder if the solution will make thin eyebrows thick or help bald men grow hair.