The beauty industry’s anti-aging message has always rung loud and clear, promoting the youthful ideal of supple, wrinkle-free skin with no gray hairs in sight. For decades, this rhetoric has not only glorified youth but also ostracized older women from the conversation. You’d think this demographic would be pouring their paychecks into serums and treatments to chase this ideal — but here’s the kicker: They’re not. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite.
A 2023 survey by Lending Tree surveyed Americans on the cost of their beauty routines. The results revealed a clear trend: Women spend significantly less on beauty as they age. Millennials lead the pack, investing an average of $2,670 annually in their regimens, with Gen Z close behind at $2,048. However, once women hit 40, those numbers take a steep dive — by their 60s and 70s, women are spending just $494 a year. A 2024 survey by The Cut found similar trends.
It’s not that women over 40 suddenly stop caring about how they look. Instead, their priorities shift. With time comes perspective, and beauty starts to feel less like a way to meet external expectations and more like a tool for internal fulfillment. For many women, cutting back on beauty spending is less about giving up and more about taking a stand. “Staying young” no longer defines their worth, and instead of chasing societal standards, they’re reclaiming their right to define it for themselves.
Experts believe this generational gap in beauty spending stems from cultural messaging, shifting life-stage priorities, and access to products and treatments that didn’t exist decades ago. From the influence of social media to evolving attitudes toward aging, here’s what’s really behind the shift — and how women are redefining beauty on their own terms. To learn more, keep reading.
Experts Featured in This Story
Patricia S. Dixon, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist based in Florida.
Sean O’Neill, LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and the clinical director at Westside Recovery.
Dendy Engelman, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist at Shafer Clinic in New York City.
Why Young Women Spend Big on Beauty
The question is equally compelling posed as its converse: Instead of why older women spend less on beauty, why are younger ones spending so much? And the answer, experts say, is relatively simple: It’s because they value it more.
“In American culture, we have an emphasis on youth,” clinical psychologist Patricia S. Dixon, PhD, says. “Across the board, women try to stay youthful because there’s more value put in how we look and how we can appear than in what we can do. That’s a large part of why younger women are putting more energy, effort, money, and time into their beauty routines.”
Studies show that women often face a societal double standard as they age, where their value is closely tied to their appearance, while men are more likely to be judged on their accomplishments or experience. This pressure can drive younger women to invest heavily in beauty routines and treatments, seeing them as a way to maintain relevance and social acceptance.
“When you’re younger and still searching for acceptance, societal beauty standards can play a bigger impact on your identity and who you feel you are in the world,” says licensed marriage and family therapist Sean O’Neill, LMFT. “As you age and start to develop more wisdom and self-acceptance, that starts to diminish, and there’s a deeper understanding of your values.”
How Social Media (and Better Products) Change the Game
Board-certified dermatologist Dendy Engelman, MD, isn’t surprised that Gen Z is investing more in their beauty routines than Gen X. Younger generations have grown up in an entirely different beauty landscape — one shaped by a wealth of accessible information, a cultural embrace of cosmetic enhancements, and a flood of new products and treatments.
“The younger generation has more skin-care knowledge and has fully adopted the normalization of cosmetic procedures and investments,” she says. “Some of my contemporaries in their late 40s are still considering whether or not they’ll get Botox, but for women in their late 20s, it’s not a matter of if they’ll do it, but when.”
Social media has played a pivotal role in driving this cultural shift. On TikTok, where 70 percent of global users are under 35, influencers regularly vlog their Botox appointments, while on Instagram, where 62 percent of users fall into the same age range, #injectables boasts over 2 million posts.
“When I first started practicing 18 years ago, people would whisper, ‘I want to talk about Botox,’ and they would keep it a secret from the people in their lives because they were afraid of being judged for doing an anti-aging treatment. Now, people livestream themselves getting their lips done,” says Dr. Engelman.
While this phenomenon can be problematic in that it exposes young women to treatments they may not need yet (or ever), it’s been powerful in removing the shame that used to come with cosmetic treatments. “When the older generation was coming along, there was a stigma associated with doing aesthetic and anti-aging procedures — it was all about needing to ‘age gracefully’ with no intervention,” says Dr. Engelman. “But the younger generation has taken away a lot of that because now you’re literally going into the exam room with people [on social media], and women who may not have even made a consultation to talk about [a procedure] are now like, ‘It’s so normal, and everyone’s doing it.'”
The conversation around cosmetics has shifted, and so have the offerings. “Back then, there really weren’t that many things you could do aside from getting plastic surgery,” says Dr. Engelman. “There weren’t these incredible skin-care actives or as many fillers or toxins on the market, so the only option was really to get a facelift.”
Now, though, we’ve got countless serums and pro-grade treatments that integrate seamlessly into any routine. And while they don’t come with the same concerns as a major surgery, they do drain your wallet. “There are just so many more beauty offerings, and the fact that it’s been normalized by the younger demographic means that they’re budgeting beauty into their daily routines and annual spend,” says Dr. Engelman. “It’s a different consideration than it was for those who grew up not having the options that we do now.”
And all you need to do to find these “options” is quickly scroll through your FYP.
Why Spending Shifts as Women Age
While the normalization of beauty treatments has encouraged younger women to spend more on their appearance, this trend often shifts as women age. Experts say another major factor that determines what women spend money on is the lifestyle shift that comes along with getting older.
“Some of it has to do with knowing yourself more and looking at yourself as beautiful inside and out, but it also has to do with changing priorities with career and family and different types of interests,” says O’Neill. “Financial considerations with a family and a job and all the different responsibilities that come along with getting older lead people to place less of a focus on beauty spending,” says O’Neill.
For many — including Dr. Dixon, who is in her 40s — that money feels better spent on experiences. “In talking to my friends, all of us had the same perspective that instead of putting money into beauty products, we’d rather travel,” she says. “I’d rather have lived experiences that contribute to me feeling good versus looking good so that money is going in a different direction.”
This priority change reflects a broader understanding of beauty and self-worth that evolves with age. “As we age, the emphasis shifts from wanting to look good to wanting to feel good,” says Dr. Dixon. Case in point? A recent study from Doctor’s Best found that 79 percent of women agree that if they feel healthy on the inside, they will feel more beautiful on the outside.
“I think you discover that the better you feel physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, you wind up looking better,” says Dr. Dixon. “You start to realize that there isn’t a cream or serum for that, so the focus has to be on treating yourself better — and that includes having confidence in how you feel about yourself.”
Aging With Attitude: Why Confidence Changes Everything
Ultimately, confidence becomes the driving force behind why women spend less on their appearance as they age. “When you get to a certain age and have more lived experience and perspective, there becomes more clarity that we’re more than how we look,” says Dr. Dixon. “Women recognize that their value goes so much deeper than that, so [dialing back on beauty routines] is almost like a rebellion against that. It’s not just fighting against the societal expectation that your value goes down after 40 — it’s saying ‘society doesn’t get to decide what my value is. I do.'”
There are ways to cultivate this confidence in yourself even without getting older. “There are a lot of societal pressures and expectations, but it’s all about finding what makes you feel beautiful about yourself,” says O’Neil. Positive self-talk — which, FWIW, is scientifically legit — can also help breed confidence at any age.
One message Dr. Dixon wants you to take to heart? “Your beauty doesn’t lie just in how you appear, and the standards from how you are judged shouldn’t come from other people — they should come from yourself,” says Dr. Dixon. “If you focus more on how you feel mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, then it will come from the inside out. So spend less time on the outside and more time on the inside.”
Zoë Weiner is a freelance beauty and wellness writer. Her work has appeared in Bustle, Byrdie, Cosmopolitan, PS, GQ, Glamour, Marie Claire, Allure, Self, Brides, and Teen Vogue, among others, and she was the senior beauty editor at Well+Good.
#Beauty #Spending #Decreases #Age #Experts #Explain
