Beauty is a Bitch

Beauty is a Bitch


S5 E8 The Truth About Dupes & Returning To The Beauty Classics With Karen Young

November 19, 2022

Who doesn’t love a good beauty dupe? Especially when the prices of skincare and makeup keep going up and up. But are they really the same? And have you noticed the old classics are back on beauty trend again? Why? Join Lauren and Karen Young, CEO of the Young Group and adjunct professor at FIT as they talk all about the trends in the beauty industry.


In this episode they examine why beauty dupes are and are not like the fast fashion of beauty, why there is such price disparity within the beauty industry, if the prestige brands have any recourse when they are “knocked off,” how the multi-national beauty brands like L’Oreal and Unilever justify this phenomenon within their own organizations, and how retailers get away with copying brands’ best-sellers and selling them as their own store brands.


Lauren and Karen then have a lively discussion on why everything that’s old is new again in the beauty world, what is the over arching trend that’s causing this behavior, how this is happening when many of these products seem to be contradicting current trends (like Vaseline vs. clean beauty) and what is really driving this trend.