The Rise of “Super Luxury” Beauty

If you thought Sephora was expensive, I’ve got news for you.

Beauty products are either a sham or a necessary indulgence, depending on your outlook and today Racked brings us a story on “super luxury” retailer Cos Bar a boutique catering to the very wealthy who feel it’s fine to spend $380 on an eye cream.

Where the One Percent Buys Beauty

The first Cos Bar was opened by Lily Garfield in Aspen in 1976 to fill a gap in the market, “after seeing her friends in Aspen give each other lists of beauty products to pick up at department stores when they went to Denver or other large cities.” One Cos Bar became multiple Cos Bars over time, with locations popping up in locations like Vail, Carmel, Montecito, Charleston and La Jolla, caterning specifically to those lucky enough to have a second home.

Selling $2,000 worth of merchandise to a single Cos Bar shopper is a daily occurrence. One customer even recently broke the $10,000 barrier, according to a representative for the company. Customers will come to their vacation homes for two weeks and pop in to Cos Bar regularly to add products to a box, which staff will then ship home for them.

Cos Bar replicates the dying department store experience of buying things at a makeup counter by giving their HNI shoppers the feeling of wandering through an extremely well-curated Sephora, except everything is super-expensive and smells very nice. You’d think that the need for something like this would be on the decline, but apparently not. For every millenial who graduates from college with student loans and debt, there is a rich person who winters in Aspen, looking to re-up their $500 eye cream and try a new serum.

Cos Bar’s founder is doing what she can to appeal to the older millennial, too, by leaning heavily on the aspirational aspect of beauty and the belief that something that costs more money is certainly more effective.

“She’s not buying the top-of-the-line product, but it’s that aspirational thing like, ‘Okay, I like what this product stands for.’” The implicit assumption is that once you get hooked on the fancy stuff it’s hard to go back to Olay.

On principle, buying a $500 face serum feels insane. But, every time I find myself with a beauty product that cost more than I was comfortable with spending — usually purchased on a whim, in a fit of pique — something about the amount of money I spent makes me feel like there’s noticeable difference, when in reality, there most likely isn’t. The “fancy stuff” only sinks its hooks in you if it actually works.

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