My "Stance" on Illamasqua's Fight for Fair Beauty Price Campaign

This topic has been posted about on a number of blogs. I first came across it on Agnieszka's blog - Beauty Cat Castle.

Illamasqua wants consumers to "sign" their petition. When they achieve 20,000 petitioners they will reduce their prices in line with what women in the UK pay for their products. In return you pledge that you will buy Illamasqua's products when they do reduce them. It has been put forth that this is a challenge to other beauty retailers in Australia to also reduce their prices.

Illamasqua Stance stamped with China Glaze 2030. Image from BM-309

This is what I had to say earlier about the campaign:

Remember the outcry from Australian retailers about people buying online and from overseas rather than in Australia?

This is the reason why. Unless you have bottomless pits of money, why would you buy a product in Australia rather than getting it significantly cheaper from overseas if you can?

Sure, if I spend my money here I can help support someone else in Australia but I would rather save the money for something I want to buy and use it to support my own family.

I don't understand why we need to demonstrate and sign petitions to make Illamasqua to "slash" their prices. Surely they have some control over what the Recommended Retail Price is. Surely doing the campaign and lowering prices at the same time would work the best. I hope that they do reduce their prices as Illamasqua is lovely.

There has been some reported criticism of the campaign from the Choice consumer group. They claim that it is a clever marketing campaign and a data gathering exercise. One reason why I have not "signed" the petition is because I am not comfortable with sharing my personal information.

I do think it is clever marketing but obviously I would like to get my hands on affordable Illamasqua to join my lonely Stance. In my opinion, I feel that they should have dropped their prices in conjunction with the exposure of the campaign. This would have highlighted the brand and the new price. People would not be buying at the current levels but more. Illamasqua cite current low volumes of sales as the reason why they have not reduced prices.

There is one thing about Illamasqua I like over the other brands. My bottle of Illamasqua was bought in Australia and it was MADE in Australia. Wouldn't it be great to spend the same amount as people in other countries to get the same product and to keep some of the money in country? Yes, I like the idea that Illamasqua is investing the interest and part of their workforce in my country. So many of the Australian brands I have featured during Awesome Aussie August have moved their production offshore.

Currently they sell Illamasqua for $34 in Myer. To buy the same item from the Illamasqua website in the UK costs approximately $20.35. In Sephora for United States customers, the same product is US $14. Considering that the Australian dollar is currently around parity with the US dollar, we are paying $20 more a bottle. Compare the three screen shots below for the same nail polish.

Stance screenshot - Myer Online

Stance screenshot - Illamasqua UK

Stance screenshot - Sephora

I know that I would be more likely to buy an Illamasqua nail polish if it were $14 a bottle. I would have a hard time paying $20 a bottle. I have only paid this once for a bottle of OPI Not Like the Movies because I wanted to be sure of which duochrome version I was receiving. Yes, I buy my OPI, China Glaze and Orly from overseas as it costs me much less than their price in Australia and that is including the shipping. That is if you can obtain the same product in Australia. For the $50 note in my pictures I could buy one bottle of Illamasqua in Australia, two bottles in the United Kingdom and three bottles in the United States. It hardly seems fair to live at the bottom end of the world.

Another thing about nail polish in Australia is that a lot of the time you can not buy products such as OPI or China Glaze unless you have a nail technician qualification or can verify you are a beauty student. There does not appear to be any type of restriction like this in the United States. Australian websites quote in their terms and conditions that this is to ensure that qualified people use the products and that they are not misused. Pardon? For the nail polish?

Stance with reflective plastic (yes it is real) money.

What is the best way to correct this balance? One way is to vote with your money. If you will not pay the outrageous prices then there is not a market for the high priced items. It seems with the retailer outcry over losses of profit due to online retailers and overseas online purchases that maybe some might slowly be getting the idea. We can easily shop around for the best price now and it does not need to be local.