Examining the ‘Cosmetics Placebo Effect’

Previous studies have found a positive effect of cosmetics on certain behavioral measures, such as the tip given to waitresses by male patrons. These studies have employed confederates who usually wear cosmetics. We therefore sought to examine whether the positive effect found in these studies could, in part, be explained by a change in behavior. In order to test the possibility of a ‘cosmetics placebo effect’, we employed a confederate to solicit donations from passersby. On some days our confederate would not have any cosmetics applied to her face (i.e., no cosmetics condition), on some days cosmetics were pretended to be applied to her face (i.e., placebo cosmetics condition), and on other days cosmetics were actually applied to her face (i.e., cosmetics condition). In line with previous research, we found that across conditions men donated significantly more than women to our female solicitor, providing support for the ‘showoff hypothesis’, in which male generosity serves as a mating tactic. When investigating men’s donations in more detail, we found that the highest percentage of donations came in the cosmetics condition, followed by the placebo cosmetics condition, and then by no cosmetics condition. The effect of condition on donation rates, however, was not statistically significant. Our study was limited to one solicitor and one dependent variable (i.e., percentage of people approached who donated) and therefore future research would benefit from using more confederates as well as examining other behavioral measures. Given the influence of cosmetics use on so many real-world outcomes, we believe that further exploration into a possible ‘cosmetics placebo effect’ would be valuable

A Sex Difference in Facial Contrast and its Exaggeration by Cosmetics

This study demonstrates the existence of a sex difference in facial contrast. By measuring carefully controlled photographic images, female faces were shown to have greater luminance contrast between the eyes, lips, and the surrounding skin than did male faces. This sex difference in facial contrast was found to influence the perception of facial gender. An androgynous face can be made to appear female by increasing the facial contrast, or to appear male by decreasing the facial contrast. Application of cosmetics was found to consistently increase facial contrast. Female faces wearing cosmetics had greater facial contrast than the same faces not wearing cosmetics. Female facial beauty is known to be closely linked to sex differences, with femininity considered attractive. These results suggest that cosmetics may function in part by exaggerating a sexually dimorphic attribute - facial contrast - to make the face appear more feminine and hence attractive

The Beauty Industry\u27s Influence on Women in Society

There has been a significant amount of research done on the effect that advertising in the fashion and beauty industry has on women. By creating advertisements with unrealistic images of beauty, it has resulted in anxiety, low self-esteem, and low self-confidence in many women. Most of these negative emotions stems from unhappiness among body and appearance. Less research has been performed relating to cosmetics and how this can have an influence on women, and how women can use cosmetics to manipulate their appearance. This paper first discusses the existing research that focuses on the cosmetic industry’s influence on women. From this research, a general survey was created in order to gather general information about a group of college student’s cosmetic usage, habits, and beliefs. The results indicate that college women are high users of cosmetics, are very aware of the cosmetic industry, and that some individual differences can have an effect on the choices a woman makes regarding cosmetics

Investigating the Factors Affecting Purchase Intention of Muslim Women Towards Halal Cosmetics

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between brand awareness, attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control and purchase intention towards halal cosmetics among Muslim women in Indonesia. The questionnaires were distributed to 304 Muslim women at Medan, Banda Aceh, and DKI Jakarta within end of January until early February 2019. To investigate the relationships between factors; the structural equation modelling (SEM-PLS) version 2.0 was used to analysed the data. The finding of this study has found that two components of TPB (attitude, perceived behavioural control) and brand awareness are positively related with purchase intention towards halal cosmetics, while subjective norm is found to be insignificant. The result shows that positive attitude is the most important factor to increase consumer purchase intention toward halal cosmetics. The result of this study provides information to cosmetics’ firm that Muslim women with high brand awareness, attitude and perceived behavioral control will have high purchase intention toward halal cosmetic products. The findings of this study contribute valuable information to scholars, policy makers and firms in order to understand Muslim customers in Indonesia. Research paper  Keywords: Corporate Governance, Firm Values, Firm Size, Gender, Tobin Q, Board Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Kamalul Ariffin, S., Fadhilah Azra, W., Abdul Wahid, N., & Yen Nee, G. (2019). Investigating the Factors Affecting Purchase Intention of Muslim Women Towards Halal Cosmetics, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, 7(2s), 78–105

PENGARUH PROFITABILITAS DAN LIKUIDITAS TERHADAP NILAI PERUSAHAAN (Studi Kasus Pada Perusahaan Manufaktur Sektor Kosmetik dan Barang Keperluan Rumah Tangga Yang Terdaftar di BEI)

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of profitability and liquidity on the value of a company in Manufacturing Companies in the Cosmetics and Household Goods Sector listed on the IDX in a comprehensive and simultaneous manner. The research conducted is research using quantitative methods. The determination of this research sample uses the total sampling method so that the entire population is used as a research sample of 6 manufacturing companies in the Cosmetics and Household Goods Sub-Sector listed on the IDX. This research data uses the financial statements of manufacturing companies for the period 2018 – 2022. The data analysis method used is multiple linear regression. The results prove that profitability has a significant effect on the value of a company and liquidity has a significant effect on the value of a company in manufacturing companies. The simultaneous results of profitability and liquidity have a significant effect on the value of a company in Manufacturing Companies in the Cosmetics and Household Goods Sector listed on the IDX by 60.5%. This result proves that the higher the value of profitability and liquidity is able to support the increase in the value of a company

The Regional Sales of Multinationals in the World Cosmetics Industry

This paper analyzes the regional characteristics and strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the world cosmetics and toiletries industry, based on the new work by Rugman on regional strategy. We test the proposition that MNEs may asymmetrically develop their upstream and downstream firm specific advantages (FSAs). We find that the upstream activities of the MNEs in cosmetics are home region based but that downstream activities are less so. Further, the asymmetry of FSAs in the world cosmetics industry is mainly due to the atypical Asian entry strategies of North American and West European cosmetics MNEs. Two case studies confirm how variations in FSAs can affect regional strategy.regionalism, regional strategy, cosmetics industry, firm specific advantage, Avon, Gucci

Symurban Nanocrystals for Advanced Anti-Pollution Skincare

Several of most common dermatoses worldwide, e.g., psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, are worsened in their clinical picture when the skin is regularly exposed to an increased air pollution level, e.g., particulate matter. This is explainable by the activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) in the skin, which results in an increased release of proinflammatory cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases. Symurban is a competitive AhR antagonist and thus allows the effective protection of skin. In order to improve its dermal bioavailability as a poorly soluble active agent (0.25 µg/mL), nanocrystals were prepared and evaluated. Nanocrystals are pure active crystals reduced in particle size to the submicron range of 100 to 1000 nm. They feature the properties of nanocrystals, such as increased saturation solubility and dissolution velocity, without having to be declared as nanomaterial. Production methods and parameters were systematically investigated. Wet bead milling at 2000 rpm for 30 min yielded the best results. A z-average of 280 nm was achieved for a 10% Symurban suspension with a polydispersity index of 0.20, indicating a narrow size distribution. For the long-term stabilization of the nanocrystal suspension, the performance of 15 surfactants of different categories and HLB values were investigated and evaluated. It was found that non-ionic surfactants in general were better able to stabilize the system than anionic or amphoteric surfactants. Highest stability of over 12 months at 25 °C was achieved with 2% Plantacare 810 UP, an ECOCERT surfactant with high skin tolerance. The suspension was also chemically long-term stable with >97% of remaining Symurban over 12 months. The saturation solubility of Symurban as nanocrystals was significantly increased from 0.25 to 2.9 μg/mL, which corresponds to a factor of >11. In a case study of one male volunteer with healthy skin conditions, penetration profiles of Symurban nanocrystal hydrogel and commercial anti-pollution serum containing an identical amount of Symurban were determined and compared. After 20 min of exposure, the relative Symurban concentration in the deeper skin layers (tape 19-30) was more than two times higher for nanocrystal hydrogel (16%) than the commercial serum (7%). These results suggest that nanocrystals are a promising delivery system for the poorly soluble anti-pollution agent Symurban

Beauty premium and halal cosmetics industry

This paper provides some insight on an unexplored most emerging sector of Islamic marketing and economy “halal cosmetics”.Beauty is one of the biggest reality in this world everyone likes to look beautiful and beauty around, that’s why in modern age expense on cosmetics increase. Cosmetics are articles that used to increase beauty.There are many types and categories of cosmetics.Muslims are bound to religious requirements in every sphere of life, including cosmetics, therefore, there is a big scope for halal cosmetics industry to flourish and earn the profit. It is a source of marketing expansion. Non-Muslims also attract towards halal cosmetics for its natural, environmentally friendly and green ingredients.Facts and figures also show evidence that halal perspective of cosmetics is a matter of concerns for consumers, producers, manufacturers, and marketers

Negative effects of makeup use on perceptions of leadership ability across two ethnicities

Cosmetics alter social perceptions, and prior work suggests that cosmetic use may aid female intrasexual competition, making women appear more dominant to other women but more prestigious to other men. It is unclear whether these findings reflect general improvements in perceptions of traits related to women's dominance or if they are specific to mating contexts only. Here, across two ethnicities, we examined effects of cosmetics used for a social night out on perceptions of women's leadership ability, a trait that denotes competence/high status outside of mating contexts. Participants of African and Caucasian ethnicity judged faces for leadership ability where half of the trials differed in ethnicity (own- vs. other-ethnicity face pairs) and the subtlety of the color manipulation (50% vs. 100%). Regardless of the participant's sex or ethnicity, makeup used for a social night out had a negative effect on perceptions of women's leadership ability. Our findings suggest that, in prior work, women are afforded traits related to dominance, as makeup enhances perceptions of traits that are important for successful female mating competition but not other components of social dominance such as leadership