THE TIMES I Monday September 3 2012 FGM

Desire for luxury delights beautylSales of costly treatments boom despite recession

alised ffing,limited edition products andbeautiful packaging are all playing theirparts in the growth ofthis sector."

Sam Bunting, a cosmetic dermatologist,said the benefits of many creams costing[50 or more are unproven. "There is agood chance these uber-pricey productswon't achieve what they promise," said DrBunting. "As long as consumers knowwhat they are getting, which is more oftenthan not a cosmetically elegant, sensorial-ly pleasing product which won't make atremendous different to their skin, then noharm is done."

to June, with products between f50 andtl00rising28percent. a

Without new launches from brands in-cluding Shiseido, Guerlain, Chanel, Lan-come and La Mer, the market would havebeen down 36 per cent. New releaseshelped Shiseido's sales grow 48 per cent,while Chanel sales rose 32per cent.

Marks & Spencer is the latest to enterthe lucrative market. It is hoping to lift itsmarket share from its curuent lowly I percent. The chain's boss, Marc Bolland,earlier this year appointed Patrick Bous-

quet-Chavanne, a former Est6e Lauder

By contrast, sales ofcheaper an-ti-ageing products, costing less

executive, to lead the introductionof revamped beauty halls.

than f30, plunged by 30 percent, with those costingbetween t30 and f50 dipping8 per cent. Overall sales grew 6per cent to [70 million.

photo-regeneration devicemade of 13 latest-generationLEDs". The trend towards tri

plefigure vanity lotions hasraised hackles in the femi-

lr;r nist community. Susie

Marcus Leroux, Andrew Clark

The quest for the elixir of youth is nopursuit for a skinflint. Women are increas-ingly opting for eye-wateringly expensivelotions and potions to keep the march oftime at bay, to the delight of the globalcosmeticsindustry.

Any anti-ageing product with a price tagof less than [50 is increasingly being lefton the shelf, according to new figures fromNPD, the market research Iirrh, as con-sumers upgrade their cosmetics boxes indefiance of the recession.

The data suggests that upmarketbrandshave successfnlly fought back against lessexpensive challengers such as Boots No.7to the chagrin of the industry's critics, whosay that high prices often yield little morethan a creamy soft sensation.

The rise of "superpremium" treatmentshas pushed the average price of anti-age-ing products to [185. Sales of superpremi-um products, defined as those costingmore than !200, rose 9 per cent in the year

and branfu are work-ing harder and smarterto get more value for theirrespective budgets", shesaid. "Product innova-tion, targeted and person-

Susie Orbach: "Placeboeffect rises with price"

Its most expensive productis a t274 Filorga "luminothera-py" kit comprising a lampand a l0ml tube of anti-wrinkle cream, which claimsto be the first "cutaneous mfffim

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$iliilfi. Orbach, the author and

':','*;r;;, campaigner, said that:.ll:;t;ir'.. manufacturers wefeii;g.i:itt tapping into a mistak-: i , : :' en instinct that achiev-i , ing beauty must in-

;a;;:,:, volve pain - whetheri;i*i# physical or financial.i,iil:;, "It's a throwback to

ffi somehowmeettheirneeds."1."

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Axa puts f320m into King'sCross offices development

Deirdre Hipwell

Axa. one of Errrone's hissest insurers. is

dence in futuretenant demandin London,particularly as only half of the building hasheen orelet to BNP Paribas and when

AntFageing creams have fetched as much as 126OOO yen (E1,OOO) in Tokyo

The findings may surprise as

they come only two years after a

run on Boots' No.7 anti-agingrun on Boots' No.7 antr-agrng .serum was sparked by "..".:'academic research cor- r8i:iilllllr$i:Iroborating its minkle- 1f:.!:;:.liruuurarxrB lrs wrlilKle- .. .,.i. l:bustingclaim. ',r,\,1 :

, :, .Li:I :JuneJensen, NPD's iibeauty director, said ,irr,

that cosmetics pur- ;i::

with a bust of new lii;lirlproducts. *"Both consumers

; Wi' : . when women used to goffil r to the hairdresser aid

really make an extra effortand sacrifice, these things will

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