Resale beauty products like make up is a rapidly growing industry which is being talked about more and more because of the sustainable factors. There are looks of ways that brands could show off second hand make up such as limited edition drops that are only available for a certain amount of time. Everyone is up for saving the environment there is a big factor stopping people buying second hand makeup and that is the hygiene factor; people don’t want to be buying dirty used makeup which could hurt and damage their skin.
There are a lot of websites that you can buy and sell unused or used makeup, these sites are mainly American or Japanese. One of the biggest online resale platforms is Glambot which was founded in 2013. Glambot works by consumers send in new or lightly used makeup and skin care and tools then Glambot makes an offer to pay out the sender and then sell the products directly on the website and app. Another big reseller is the Japanese market place Mercari, the trend of second hand make up is further along in Japan and it’s a much more common occurrence to buy second hand make up rather than buy brand new. Mercari has become a significant platform for beauty resale and is valued at $1.2 billion when it went public in 2018.
A market research firm Ipsos for Vouge Business conducted a survey to see who would by second hand make up and found that 37% of people were interested in buying second hand, and 68% were worried about the hygiene of the products. I’m not surprised about this survey because I know that hygiene is so important and there are lots of viruses and diseases that can be passed on. I would much prefer to give my make away to women shelters if I didn’t use a product so that I would be helping people rather my make up just sitting in my bag unused. Another thing I would do is go back to stores and get refills on the products that I have finished like they do at lush.
Overall, I don’t think I could buy second hand makeup if it was used but if everything was sealed then I would think about purchasing certain items that are usually a lot more expensive from the real store.
Eve x
Eve Rosevear 