It’s official.

I’ve broken up with lipstick. It wasn’t the lockdown that put a strain on our relationship; I like to dress up even for trips to the grocery store. It was the big mess of red left on the inside of my mask. Even after washing them, some of my colour-stay lipstick stayed on – a better track record than my actual lips.

I’m not the only one. Cosmetic sales have plummeted as makeup counters around the world temporarily closed during the pandemic. Many people also started working at home – just another reason to not bother with makeup.

Demand for lipsticks and other makeup products like foundation have dropped a whopping 70% due to Covid-19. Along with the pandemic came economic uncertainty. In the old days (read pre-pandemic) cosmetics used to sell well during hard times because it was seen as an affordable indulgence.

Estee Lauder chairman Lauder referred to this as the “lipstick index.”

But that does not mean we makeup users just don’t care about our appearance any longer. Hell no!

In an interesting turn of events, skincare sales have gone through the roof during the pandemic. This means we are focusing more on the health of our skin than simply looking good. (As an aside: the sale of nail care products have risen by 218%!

According to this story in the Guardian newspaper:

“This dramatic shift in spending priorities is borne out in figures from the department store chain John Lewis. Its sales of skincare, body and hair products are up 234% this year, as people opt to spend time caring for their skin rather than applying makeup.

John Lewis predicts some of the changes seen this year will stay around and that cosmetics bags will get smaller as women abandon lip pencils and contouring sticks – a hard-to-do blending technique popularised by Kim Kardashian – and switch to easy to use multipurpose products, such as tinted moisturizer and lip balm.”

I can get behind this.

Sure, we’ll one day wear lipstick again – soon if everything goes well with the vaccine rollout and the eventual harnessing of Covid-19.

But, for now, I’m in skincare heaven.