The New Age of Beauty-Social Media vs the Department Store Counter

You’re walking through the department store beauty section. You’re passing every counter and already curating your ideas about each brand as you pass. Clinique with its white coats, MAC with its trendy music, Origins with its delicious smells and Tom Ford that you’re totally intimidated to approach.

With probably more than half of beauty shopping now done online, visiting a brand counter can feel almost old school and slightly nostalgic. For some, it can even feel frustrating. We now live in a world where social media greatly influences our purchases. We are making up our minds about products before we even see them in person. If our favorite influencer likes a product, we’re buying it, whether it suits our skin or not. And to sweeten the deal, we’re buying the product with the click of a button so that if said product does not live up to its claims, we can return it discreetly and without any guilt.

This is the world we live in and quite frankly, it’s not a bad place to be! Gone are the days of going to the counter to be told by a sales rep what we need. We now allow influencers to tell us what we “need.”

But as I was wandering the partially empty aisles of the beauty section yesterday, having women and men trying to hand me perfume samples, it got me to thinking, “What if social media was shut down?” What would we do? If Mark Zuckerberg had some major epiphany and decided to take the social media world out from under our feet, would we go running back to the counters for advice?

With every new product launch comes a new fragment of hope.

And that’s exactly what we’re chasing. Hope.

This hope can certainly be backed by science, or nature, or tales or even trials. But ultimately, as products work differently on each individual, it’s hope that we’re embracing.

It’s that feeling of cracking open your new Drunk Elephant Passioni and hoping that this is finally the retinol that will not cause your cheeks to flake. The sense of calm when you’re favorite brand releases a sunscreen and you just KNOW that it will work for you because the rest of the brand’s products suit you.

That is hope, my friends. And let me tell you, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of hope. Hope is what keeps us going.

But back to the idea of the “beauty counter.” What if Instagram didn’t exist? What if makeupalley shut own and Beautypedia vanished? Would we be able to make our own, educated purchases without relying on a brand sales rep to make our choices for us?

Knowing your skin and what suits you is so incredibly important. You certainly don’t have to be a beauty expert or even a beauty lover to learn what works for you! Take a look at what you already own. What colors do you gravitate towards? Look at photos of yourself. What shades/textures make you feel most like yourself? What skincare products work really well for you? Research the ingredients of those products and dive deeper into what ingredients work well for you.

One of the aspects of the beauty counter that one cannot experience through online purchasing and social media is the art of playing. Go to any Bobbi, Clinique or MAC counter and you can have a field day playing with all of the textures and new formulas. It’s so nice to be able to see product in store and see what shades look like in person. This is particularly important when it comes to color. Foundations can be SO tricky to color match, particularly if you have several undertones to your skin (some days, I’m yellow, some days, I’m golden, other days I’m pink!) Lol. The art of play and the hands on human interaction is something that social media and online shopping will never be able to replicate.

Personally, I like a bit of both worlds. There are many, many nights that I spend window shopping on Sephora.com. It’s such a brilliant thing because I can sit there and really browse ingredients, research reviews and truly be ultra aware of my purchases.

I can’t really do that in a department store.

Of course, I can (and sometimes, I do.) It’s when the sales rep asks me for the 5th time if I need help and starts to give me a strange look that I become uncomfortable and just want to leave. I can’t help it that I take 20 minutes to decide between the pink or the black beauty blender. Give me my moment! : )

Stores like Sephora and Ulta will only become more popular with time. The ability to play, try on and browse hundreds of brands at once. Also, look at brands like Glossier and Beautypie that are taking over the industry with their no frills marketing and lower price points. Their inability to purchase in store makes them uber intriguing (yet slightly annoying at the same time.) I also think there will continue to be a shift in the skincare industry since the brand “The Ordinary” was launched. Though not all of their products are under $10, many of them are and most cost less than a Frappuccino. (If you’re an oily gal like myself, their niacinamide and zinc should be on your vanity right this moment!)

It will be interesting in these coming years to see the shift in the beauty industry.

It’s already happening.

Social media influencers are the new sales associates. Free shipping is the new gift with purchase and Youtube tutorials are the new “in store makeup classes.” Let’s just hope that Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t ruin the online beauty party for all of us!

Let me know in the comments below your thoughts on the shift in the beauty industry. I’m super curious to hear if any of you still rely on visiting the beauty counters to pick up products or to receive beauty advice. I love hearing how everyone gets their beauty fix! : )

“People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” -Edmund Hillary

Love and light, Carrie xo

Shop the Post