What makes luxury beauty worth investing in, despite a surge of dupes?

We ask consumers what incentivises their love for luxury beauty products, and cross-question experts to find out if such marketable items pass the hype test

Unlike a few decades ago, indulging in beauty products was restricted only to a select few. However, today, splurging on such seemingly non-essential items isn’t just for the elite anymore, given that the market size of beauty products in India is about ₹1.98 trillion. The next big trend, even for a non-prestige consumer? Luxury make-up and skincare. 

As India becomes a significant market, brands that Indian consumers once aspired to shop from, or hoarded during international travels, are readily accessible within the country today. From Hermès launching its entire beauty line-up to YSL Beauty’s advent in India; from Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty arriving at Sephora India’s shelves to covetable brands like Dior Beauty, Laura Mercier, Fenty Beauty, Charlotte Tilbury, Maison Margiela, and Allies of Skin foraying into the Indian beauty horizon via omni-channel presence, the market is full of luxury beauty products. While consumers are left notoriously spoilt for choices, a pressing question surfaces: Do luxury beauty items truly do justice to their exorbitant price tags? Additionally, dupe culture has rapidly established itself as a key segment in the beauty industry. There’s always a cheaper alternative to every high-end beauty product, compelling you to be doubly sure about the kind of money you’re spending on them. 

Luxury beauty items continue to thrive, with motivators among consumers ranging from aspirational value to the perception that “expensive is better”. Moreover, the consumer base for such products is only expanding. We ask consumers what incentivises their love for luxury beauty products, and cross-question experts to find out whether such marketable items pass the hype test.

Dissecting luxury beauty items

Paying over ₹10,000 for a hand cream, ₹40,000 for a face moisturiser, or ₹8,000 for a bronzer can seem preposterous. Most times, it is the brand’s value and positioning you’re paying a heavy premium for. 

“The price structure of any beauty product is primarily based on two things—the brand’s positioning, but also the cost of goods (COG), which includes product development, packaging, warehousing, and freight costs,” shares Shamika Haldipurkar, founder of d’you. When you’re opting for a luxury beauty product—skincare or make-up—you’re essentially paying for technological advancements, state-of-the-art innovations, promising formulations, cosmetic elegance, performance, and convenience—all factors that require massive investments, which only high-end beauty houses or established conglomerates may have budgets for.

“Luxury skincare and make-up products often provide superior experiences due to high-quality ingredients and rigorous testing. They offer better textures, scents, and packaging, enhancing their application,” says Mumbai-based celebrity dermatologist and founder of Yavana Aesthetics, Dr Madhuri Agarwal. “Such products are known to have fewer irritants and more potent active ingredients, ensuring higher performance and safety. Investment in research and development also gives luxury brands an edge.” 

Exemplifying Agarwal’s point, Kavita Khosa, founder of Purearth and author of Beauty Unbottled: Timeless Ayurvedic Rituals & Recipes, shares, “The price of our products are based on the quality and rarity of the ingredients we use. For instance, our Pure Rosa Damascena essential oil costs ₹27 lakhs per kilogram. This is because we use natural ingredients rather than synthetic fragrance oils found in dupes. Similarly, the wild rosehip oil seeds we source through fair trade practices without exploitation also add to the price. Furthermore, the process of supercritical extraction and rigorous lab testing ensures the highest quality, with 100 kilograms of seeds yielding only 1 kilogram of oil.” 

Similarly, French cosmeceutical brand Biologique Recherche claims to use approximately 450 raw materials from all over the world for their product range. “Innovation is at the core of the brand. We invest a lot in R&D to propose to our clients the best formulas possible that science can deliver today. The R&D team tests new textures every day and tries out carefully selected active ingredients to develop new products or reformulate existing ones. More than 50 tests are conducted before a new formula is validated,” says Sinead Henry, International Trainer, Biologique Recherche.

There’s barely any difference between make-up and skincare in this aspect. While make-up products do not necessarily involve a myriad of potent skincare ingredients, performance takes centre stage in the case of this category. “Luxury make-up products are formulated and developed to offer several high-quality benefits including skin care, longevity and, most importantly,  performance and finish. When compared, the drugstore products could have limited merit to keep the cost more affordable,” says make-up artist Deepa Verma. Jane Richardson, a US-based freelance make-up artist, who has worked with brands like NARS, says “What drives me towards luxury make-up products the most is their quality and packaging. I need to trust that what I am using really works, looks great in all climatic conditions, and travels well. Luxury brands, for the most part, tick all these boxes for me.” She adds, “If I look more deeply into the ‘why’, it comes down to the sense that if you have luxury brands in your kit, it establishes you as a pro [at your job]. It also gives more confidence to the client as luxury brands that have been marketed for professionals are recognisable as just that.”

Are consumers addicted to luxury beauty products?

Most consumers begin their journey with beauty with a simple yet effective cleanser-moisturiser-sunscreen skincare regimen, and make-up basics such as a base product, a lip and cheek colour, and something for the eyes—most of which range from drugstore to premium beauty brands. However, once a consumer makes their first Chanel or Dior Beauty purchase, it is tough to convince them to go back to anything other than what’s perceived as luxury make-up products. This applies to skincare too—picks from iS Clinical, Augustinus Bader, Skinceuticals, Biologique Recherche, or Purearth, are considered to be sk-investments (a wordplay on ‘skin’ and ‘investments’). So, is anything luxury always addictive?

While Noida-based dermatologist and aesthetician Dr Nidhi Singh Tandon equates luxury beauty products with a “sensorial self-care experience”, Anuja Deora Sanctis, founder of digital marketing agency Filter Coffee Co., finds luxury beauty brands to offer a more refined customer experience with well-researched and informed sales reps, who provide one-to-one consultations. “Right from branding to R&D, and claims to efficacy—everything is thoughtfully positioned, which leads to more trust and brand loyalty,” says Deora Sanctis. Isha Sutaria, an avid user of luxury beauty products, attributes her love for this category to the feel-good factor that it offers. “Right from unboxing the beautifully designed packaging to applying the luxurious textures, the process instantly uplifts my mood and makes me feel special,” she confesses. 

Elizabeth Issac, founder of Gunam Beauty, claims to derive greater value from the premium-to-luxury beauty products she invests in. “I’ve noticed some benefits with high-end beauty products that I haven’t experienced otherwise. One key aspect is the safety and consistency of these products, especially those manufactured in countries like France, Germany, or the US. High-end products often adhere to stringent quality controls and safety standards, ensuring that you can rely on their quality and performance no matter where in the world you purchase them,” she shares . “Additionally, I’ve found that with luxury beauty products, sometimes, a little goes a long way. For instance, using just a pea-sized amount of Elemis’ or d’you’s cleansing balms is sufficient to cleanse your skin thoroughly. This efficiency can make high-end products more cost-effective in the long run.”

If there are hits, there are also misses

As a standard principle: expensive isn’t always better. A nominally-priced moisturiser from CeraVe could outweigh its high-end counterpart for someone with sensitive skin, even if the latter smells and is packaged better. “Largely, a majority of the beauty industry works on a set mark-up (or margin) of approximately 4x, which remains constant from a mass-levelto a premium brand. However, some prestige brands do enjoy a mark-up of 10-15x too, owing to their legacy of many years. For instance, a US$200 moisturiser might not be very different from a US$60 one in terms of performance and user-friendliness; however, a US$60 moisturiser could be considerably different from a US$30 one. The US$200 price tag, therefore, becomes reflective of the mark-up gap,” explains Haldipurkar.

“Many luxury brands are owned by companies that make both high-end and low-end make-up products, with very similar ingredients and formulas as they trade secrets and share the same laboratories. It makes decision-making tough so I would recommend comparing ingredients and learning more about what you are using,” informs Richardson. “I will always favour luxury brands for foundations and certain complexion products as they cover more ‘real estate’ on the face. They usually blend and build better, photograph beautifully, and stay in place for longer.” 

“While many luxury skincare brands do have a better formulation, packaging, and efficacy, for many others, it also comes down to just marketing and branding. You may be able to find certain mid-range products that are just as effective. Medical-grade skincare is often better tested in terms of safety and efficacy. Having said that, a lot depends on individual skin types and tolerability as well. So, it does not hold true unconditionally that luxury skincare would perform better,” states Dr Jaishree Sharad, a Mumbai-based celebrity dermatologist and author of Skin Rules, who claims to use and prescribe brands like Avène, Uriage, La Roche Posay, CeraVe, Skinceuticals Elta MD and Isdin alike. “The idea is to look at the ingredients and their clinical trials’ results rather than the price tag alone,” summarises Agarwal. 

When does luxury beauty truly equal investment?

Dupes of products like Charlotte Tilbury’s Hollywood Flawless Filter, Dior Beauty’s Lip Glow Oil, and Nars’ Orgasm Blush are easily available in the market today; however, these iconic products retained their loyalists. “I love the Tower28 SOS spray, but I recently found a more commonplace brand selling a hypochlorous acid spray that works just as well. Do I tell people about it? Yes. But would I feature the large, less attractive bottle on my Instagram stories? No,” admits Isaac. It’s fair to say that the surplus of dupes has only made the original product more covetable. “Luxury brands have established their reputation built on years of trust, and they’re known for coming up with limited edition products and collections. Chanel just launched a limited edition bottle of the iconic No. 5 L’Eau, offering customers a chance to own a piece of beauty history that stands out from the regular line-up,” shares Sutaria, highlighting yet another distinctive feature of prestige cosmetics and fragrance houses. Needless to say, luxury beauty brands will eternally enjoy the option of milking the aspirational value attached to them.

The first-mover’s advantage also gives several luxury beauty products an upper hand. Case in point: Chanel Les Beiges Touch De Teint, the first-ever product to suspend encapsulated foundation or Purearth’s Kwansha, a patented facial coin with unique curves and crevices featuring Kansa metal. “Consumers should trust a brand that “did it first” because these brands have established a reputation for quality and efficacy over time. Dupes often use synthetic ingredients and fragrance oils that can cause breakouts, acne, and a compromised skin barrier. High-heated oils used in dupes are often bleached, refined, and deodorised to mask toxic oils. The quality of original products cannot be duplicated, and dupes can cause allergies and contact dermatitis,” shares Khosa.

So does being a luxury beauty products-only consumer make you the gold standard of a beauty consumer? “Drugstore skincare has always dominated when it comes to basics like cleansers, moisturisers and sunscreens. But with anti-ageing ingredients, for example, vitamin C—to keep the pure form of vitamin C stable is expensive, making the ingredient itself an expensive product. The question is not which one is better, the question should be: where should I splurge?” advises Sharad. “Look at the quality of ingredients, their potency, and the research backing them. In the case of skincare, these could include unique or rare ingredients that have proven to be effective against whatever you’re fighting,” recommends New Delhi-based dermatologist, aesthetician and author of Skin Sense, Dr Kiran Sethi.

While opting for luxury skincare products, doing some homework is a prerequisite. “Unfortunately, many expensive skincare brands—some very exorbitant— do not use the best available ingredients or technologies. The best course of action is to select a trusted skincare professional who is willing to consult with the client to develop a successful skincare regimen,” recommends Dr Charlene DeHaven, clinic director at iS Clinical. Verma, on the other hand, recommends sampling, patch testing, and using credible brands for optimal results when it comes to make-up. “I don’t fully trust what is put out on social media. But, I do trust my hands and my eyes, and would recommend that others do the same,” says Richardson, underscoring the importance of touching and feeling a product before purchasing it, especially if highly-priced.

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