Hopefully, some of you would have heard about, or read about the Illamasqua Fight For A Fair Beauty Price in Australia campaign and if you have, I really hope that you could sign your name to it and supported it. Here's a link. It's easy, just click it and fill it out and you're done! http://www.illamasqua.com/fairpriceforbeauty/
Companies in Australia and New Zealand - being so isolated - Can pretty much charge what they want too. With little competition and nothing to drive the prices down, people keep buying because they have no choice.
Take a stand and go without it - or give in and buy it because you need it (or, let's be honest because it's shiny and you really really want it. I like shiny things...) This is all across the board in many different areas, from computer software and electronics, to clothes to makeup - it's a pretty common factor in pricing for most things over here.
England - being surrounded by, and so close to so many different country's as well as having such a huge population - while it is an expensive place to live, in many aspects it is a lot cheaper.
Makeup for example is much cheaper.
America is huge. There's so many different companies selling the same thing, they drop their prices down because if they didn't, people would just go else where.
For Australia and New Zealand, unfortunately it's a different story.
Things have always been more expensive here, but when the US dollar was strong and the Australian dollar was weak, it almost balanced out. Products where twice the price over here, but that's because the dollar in America was twice as strong, so once you converted it, add on a little for shipping to get it over here, it pretty much balance out.
Then the global financial crisis hit. The British Pound and the US Dollar dropped, while the Australian Dollar crept up a little higher.
Now $AUD and $US are pretty much on par and at some stages the Australian Dollar is actually higher!
But have prices come down to reflect this? No.
Why would they?
What company would drop their prices to reflect what the product is actually worth, when people are still buying it at the current price? Where else are they going to get it from?
MAC cosmetics in America does not ship to Australia (or anywhere outside the US), so unless you go over to buy it, you really have no choice but to buy it here. Believe me, I've tried. There are some things, that unless you have a relative or friend that can sent it over to you, or you go over yourself to get it - you simply can't get from "A" to "B". "A" being America, "B" being the Backwater Island (although a large one) that is Australia.
There are some companies that charge a reasonable rate for cosmetics over here, and there are a lot that don't.
Inglot Cosmetics is one of the best. Their eye shadows are $10 per shadow in the freedom system, while a MAC refill for a pro palette is $26 and an normal eyeshadow is $33. Compared with $15 for the same thing in the States.
More than twice the price!
You may have heard of Sleek Makeup before, it's a brand that has taken off in the past 3 years. Originally "discovered" by Sam and Nic of Pixiwoo, it has become hugely popular as a good quality but affordable product for makeup enthusiasts. When it first came out while I was living in England, the best thing about it was that a palette was under £5.
That works out to $7.80AUD (converted right now at this very moment.)
But I recently saw it on the Makeup and Glow (cosmetics and tools company aimed at professionals in Australia) website for $19.
Again more than twice the price.
A few days ago I looked into getting some Skindinavia makeup setting spray to try out.
Every website that I looked at in Australia had it listed at the same price.
$29 for the 2oz bottle
$49 for the 4 oz bottle.
Getting a little bit frustrated I decided to look on the actual Skindinavia website and thought I'd order it directly from there.
Here are the prices I found for the Orignal Skindinavia formula.
2oz = $19
4oz = $29
8oz = $39
Awesome. Wonderful! A done deal.
I went to register to buy some. Filled out my details, went to select my country... and couldn't find Australia.
Every other country is listed, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe - including New Zealand
Every country. Except Australia.
So I clicked on the link and hopped over to the Skindinavia Australia website and had a little looksee.
Here's what we are lucky enough to be able to get.
20ml (0.67oz) = $14 <--- this by the way, comes free with any purchase from the US website.
59ml (1.99oz) = $29
118ml (3.99oz) = $49
The 8oz (236ml) is not even available to us, and if it is, I'm sure that it would cost a small fortune.
I've seen comments and reviews on blogs and youtube and the likes from people in America "It was good, but it was pretty expensive" and "I liked it, but $29 for 4oz? Yikes, that's pretty steep" or "Great, but 2 eye shadows for $20 is a lot" that type of thing. Can you guys even imagine having to pay $33 for one eyeshadow? Or $49 for 4oz of a setting spray? It's insane.
Que Illamasqua's Fight For a Fair Beauty Price Australia.
At least someone out there is trying to help improve the situation, by promoting and encouraging a fair price for cosmetics in Australia.
While I believe the petition is still active and growing, Illamasqua recently held up their end of the bargain and lowered their prices by 40% which is pretty huge.
It will be interesting to see if any other cosmetic company's in Australia follow suit. I for one certainly hope that they do, and show respect for their customers, be them professional artist's or passionate makeup enthusiast - and lower their prices to reflect what the product is actually worth.
In the mean time, Well Done Illamasqua. Your fight for a fair beauty price is greatly appreciated, and we salute you!
