Paper short abstract:

Consumption habits tend to witness drastic changes that say a lot about each crisis. How has COVID-19 changed our relationship with aesthetics? How have zooming and working from home impacted the cosmetic surgery and injectables industry and the DIY treatments?

Paper long abstract:

The beauty industry has largely been considered recession-proof. The phenomenon of increased desire for, and use of, appearance-enhancing items during times of economic recession has been called "the lipstick effect". The lockdown has brought huge changes to our self-care routines. How is COVID-19 changing our relationship with aesthetics? How Covid-19 is enhancing the beauty and cosmetics industry? How zooming and working from home are impacting the cosmetic surgery and injectables industry and the DIY treatments? How personal care and beauty categories are performing during and after the lockdown? Is the self-care effect the new lipstick effect? Is aesthetic surgery perceived by consumers as a strategy to cope with anxiety, to enhance lives inside and out, to increase dignity, happiness and self-esteem? How do we want to look aesthetically beyond the lockdown? Are the specific conditions of the present moment - isolation, an interest in health, massive joblessness extreme anxiety and possibly prolonged economic pain - linked to the prospect of increased competition? Do people invest in their appearance to increase their social and professional opportunities in the economic meltdown triggered by the Coronavirus outbreak? While it is vital to survive today, are people already positioning themselves to win the counterattack phase and be ready to win the post-COVID claim? Personal anxieties, motives and desires resist simple quantification and are often dismissed or overlooked in economic literature. Ethnography provides a possibility for a different approach, creating a better understanding of consumers' emotional and behavioral responses to the Coronavirus outbreak.