The Beauty & Money Aesthetic

Written By: Madeline Rosene

Some of the most extraordinary thinkers and powerful minds the world has seen have been quoted on the subjects of beauty and money. Fyodor Dostoevsky words, “The world will be saved by beauty,” and George Burns’ lyrics from Cabaret “Money makes the world go round,” point to the great importance that these two forces have in our world. It’s no wonder that the strong relationship between beauty and money is so blatant and evidenced, for example, by findings from analysts at Goldman Sachs who estimate that the global beauty industry—consisting of skin care worth $24 billion; make-up, $18 billion; $38 billion of hair-care products; and $15 billion of perfumes—is growing at up to 7% a year, more than twice the rate of the developed world’s GDP.

LEFAIR Magazine was proud to be the media partner of the recent Los Angeles Beauty & Money Summit that took place on Thursday April 19th at the luxurious SLS Hotel.
Burgeoning beauty brands, investment bankers, and media platforms gathered at the summit to form partnerships, discuss industry trends, and gain insight from beauty executives and investors. It was great to see so many beauty industry entrepreneurs confidently presenting their business models to potential backers.

One of LEFAIR Magazine’s favorite presentations was from Ali Hersh Pace, Industry Manager of Beauty at Facebook. Ali spoke to the increasing impact of mobile device shopping and how to maximize sales with the Generation Z’s attention span of only 2.8 seconds (a goldfish has an average attention span of 9 seconds).
“It’s easy to block everything out when you have something here.” Ali said from the podium and held her phone to her face. “There is no periphery anymore.” The PowerPoint shuffled through words quickly on the screen, and the audience discovered that, although we usually read at round 300 words per minute, we were reading at 500 words per minute.

“That’s what happens when you have something right here.” Ali held her phone up again. “It’s so easy to block everything out and your ability to do things is actually faster. That’s why branding fast is so important.” She explained that the Generation Z customer is going to be the largest number of beauty consumers. “They’re all graduating college and they are only giving us 3 seconds of their time because they are all scrolling through 300 feet of content on fb every single day. That’s the size of the Statue of Liberty so we have to be really really thoughtful about using mobile as their storefront.”
The key takeaway for LEFAIR from the sessions we attended and the attendees we spoke with is that beauty is a vital part of our ecosystem. It’s no surprise those of us on Instagram are highly engaged, because the platform is all about our personal aesthetic, a word meaning ‘relating to perception by the senses’ from the Greek aisthētikos. Beauty and how things look, because of access to images and videos 24/7, are big business. The beauty industry recognizes that social media gives consumers access to what we find beautiful and then the ability to buy the cosmetics, beauty products or treatments, or fashion instantly. Ali said at the summit, “Our phone has now become the remote control of our lives… from ‘I am going shopping’ to ‘I am always shopping.’” Brands recognize this, which is why – the successful ones – are always on and always available. The internet and our smartphones cater to the consumer who has a short attention span and wants instant gratification. This is why the beauty industry is bigger than ever before.

LEFAIR is also always on and always available, offering current and future beauty, fashion, health, lifestyle, travel, and entertainment trends to readers who want to see it, watch it, click it, share it, experience it, and even buy it – right now.