The Age of Accessories
The Age of Accessories
Why are so many products being made for our products?
In today’s post:
Q (not) A Beauty & Pop Culture Questions
The Full Beat The Age of Accessories: Why are so many products being made for our products?
Quotable A Quote I Can’t Shake
Q (not) A
1. Why are so many brands trying to sell us “all over” body deodorant? Because it's profitable of course. Dr. Keren Landman writes that “a lot of American norms around body odor originated with people who had a financial stake in creating them.” That may explain why these companies want us to deodorize our cubital fossa. Although I lean towards the dramatic1, there have been a lot of body deodorant releases: See ? Do you see this? Are you seeing this???
My 2024 beauty predictions included more “all-in-one” beauty products from beauty and wellness brands under the guise of simplifying our routines and being more cost-effective.
2. Are you still aggravated by the refusal of companies to develop inclusive shade ranges (sans outrage)? I know the Youthforia “Blackface” debacle happened in April, but every time I think about I get annoyed. Because girl what was the reason??
3. Wondering how you can support families in the Congo, Sudan, and Palestine? Operation Olive Branch has organized a spreadsheet that has links to Gofundme’s for families in Palestine (and soon those in Congo & Sudan). Can you donate anything to support them, or share their information so others can? Of course you can.
The Age of Accessories: Why are so many products being made for our products?
Someone gifted me Bread’s Cooling Greens Exfoliating Scalp Treatment which I am really excited to try post sew-in. When I opened the package I noticed that a dropper was included in the box, but the bottle top twists on and off. I may not have noticed this a while ago, but I’ve been obsessing over beauty product packaging design, and functionality ranks pretty high. In this instance, I wonder, why the tool that delivers the serum to my scalp lives in the box like an accessory.
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Do you see the differences in the tops as the video progresses? And what am I supposed to do with the sticky dropper after I’m all finished, if not put it back in the bottle?
As one does, I started obsessing over beauty and cosmetic products sold with unnecessary accessories. In the case of the scalp treatment, I find it annoying that the tool you need to apply the product isn’t essential to its design. And, to preserve the aesthetic design of the bottle, the dropper is just in the box. A product that runs parallel is the Rhode phone case, which is an accessory to the brand’s Peptide Lip Tint. Just so we’re all on the same page, the phone case was designed to hold a lip gloss, even though they both will likely end up in the bottom of the same purse or pocket.
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Ya’ll, it’s a phone case for lip gloss.
Accessorizing beauty and cosmetic products is not just silly, it’s also bad for the environment. I say this as someone who could do better on both fronts and not as a finger-wagging compost queen. For example, while Rhode’s lip tints are made with upcycled materials and customers can send empties in to ensure proper recycling, the case is made of 100% silicone (it’s not biodegradable and is challenging to recycle). The case contributes to one of the problems the brand claims they’re trying to solve.
Creating products for our products also reinforces hyper-consumptive behaviors and the May Lindstrom Dandelion Wand is a great example. The wand is a 22-karat gold-coated mud mask dipper. Girl. On their website, the brand notes that this item is “not a necessity” and that sometimes we purchase items just because they bring us joy. While I get that, the item is also being marketed as a luxury way of getting face mask product out of its container, onto our hands, and onto our faces. The Dandelion Wand reminds me of this five-piece face mask tool kit, except dipped in gold. In both cases, the mask needs to get out of the container and onto our skin hygienically. Consumers can either wash their hands or buy a product that adds steps to their skincare routines.
While I am primarily interested in beauty and cosmetic products, there is a huge market for “things for our things” in the home update and restock communities. Items like toothbrush covers that project “cleaning light” and the tools one needs to transfer their products into different containers are a couple of examples. However, I recently came across a video of a woman whose content blurred the line between beauty/restock/home accessories. In the video below, the creator restocks her bag with toiletries and then decorates it with actual accessories like bows and a pearl necklace. This is a shockingly great example of my question: Why are there so many accessories for our accessories?
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I couldn’t have “AI’d” a better example of my point.
In Window Shopping During The Purge I wrote that consumers will seek ways to enhance how they experience products to differentiate their engagement from others. While the intensity of the experience varies from example to example, the point is that consumers want to engage with products in ways that are unique. Dupes, Klarna-like payment plans, and the fear of being called a gatekeeper make it harder and harder to engage with products like no one else.
The crux of that essay was twofold: (1) people were behaving like they were in the purge by fist-fighting over plastic cups and (2) these behaviors are bookended by a dystopian descent into greater hyperconsumptive practices. In what other context would we have phone cases for our lip gloss, necklaces for our bags, and lotions produced in a way that requires a winding key?
I don’t dislike the idea of buying things that bring us joy or not letting people “just enjoy things.” However, it is imperative that we think critically about how these kinds of purchases impact the world around us and shape our sense of self.
Hyperconsumerism: The consumption of goods beyond ones necessities and the associated significant pressure to consume those goods, exerted by social media, as those goods shape one's identity. defines it curtly as "a consumerism for the sake of consuming."
Products for our Products Honorable Mentions:
Tweexy Original Wearable Nail Polish Holder
These items are not linked to encourage purchasing, nor do I receive any coins if you do.
Quotable
“And I just don’t know quite yet what it is, but I know for sure that it will entail a moment of rest, some deep period of that. I think it’s as important as whatever comes next in some interesting way to pause. Because if I skip that, I’ve probably skipped the lesson.” - Marah Hoffman on pausing her brand after 24 years and resting until she decides share what’s coming next.
As I shared before, “My big three are Pisces, Cancer, & Gemini, so I was destined for drama.” This quote originally appeared in The Price of Shame: Has capitalism ruined my relationships with my edges? And I mean, how dramatic is that title?