Beauty at a Price.

At What Price Beauty? Check Today’s Deal

By Tatiana Boncompagni

Jasmine Chess had long wanted to try eyelash extensions, but the high cost had kept them off her beauty shopping list. Then Ms. Chess, 25, saw an offer to buy the service at a reduced rate ($225 instead of the usual $450) on Gilt City, an online portal that sells vouchers to fitness boutiques and spas (along with restaurants and other attractions).

“I wouldn’t have bought this on my own,” said Ms. Chess, an actress who had previously bought a juice cleanse, hair blowout and makeup on the site. “I did it because it was a deal.”

Thanks to the rise of social coupon Web sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial, beauty consumers are able to bargain-hunt for goods and services that were once rarely, if ever, discounted. Recent sales include an oxygen facial at Bliss Spa in South Beach for $112 (30 percent off) on Gilt City and two 60-minute massages at Balanced Health in Boston for $95 (53 percent off) on LivingSocial....

“It used to be, ‘Fifty percent off a haircut, what’s the catch?’ ” said Andrew Unger, a founder of Lifebooker, which began offering deals in late 2007, though it took two years, he said, for consumers to become comfortable with the concept. Since then, “every month has been better than the last,” Mr. Unger said.

According to Yipit, an aggregator of online daily deals, the number of sites offering health- and beauty-related services has nearly quintupled in the last year, to 341, while sales of these services (including spa treatments, dental whitening and hair salon services) reached $78 million for January to March of this year and are on track to reach $312 million for 2011, representing 31 percent of total daily deal sales.

Shopping for beauty services online isn’t something Barbara Fisher, a sales associate for Coach in Manhattan, ever imagined doing, but since hearing about Lifebooker and a half-dozen deal sites through friends, she has bought vouchers for waxing and dental whitening trays and signed up for a free boot camp class...

But are beauty consumers really spending less or just buying more? Jessica Israel, a buyer of television commercial space for an advertising company in Westchester, recently purchased spray tanning, a haircut and a few massages for a discount online, all splurges she would not have tried otherwise....

Yvette Rose, the founder of the Kickstart Diet, said she had more than 5,000 views on her company Web site the day that her deal, 40 percent off a five-day food cleanse, was listed on Gilt City. “I’ve been in Town & Country and Vogue, and neither of them gave me the visibility that Gilt did,” said Ms. Rose, who sold 100 diet packages for $250 instead of the usual $425.

Oscar Blandi, a Madison Avenue hairstylist, offered a highlight and blowout package ($145, down from $275) at his salon on Gilt City last December as part of what he called a marketing strategy to help his junior stylists and colorists build their business. “This gets them in the door,” he said. “It’s up to me to cultivate the client.”

But merchants like Ms. Rose and Mr. Blandi are looking for more than just exposure. More crucial to them is that customers return, and pay full price....

But at what point does a business risk devaluing itself in the name of finding a few new customers? Dr. Steven Pearlman, a facial plastic surgeon who listed discounted prices for chemical peels, laser services, Botox and Juvederm on Gilt City last year, said he would not work with a deal site again for a very long time.

“I don’t want to undercut patients who have been seeing me for years and paying full price, the majority of whom do,” Dr. Pearlman said. “I don’t want to cheapen the brand.”....

Ms. Fisher, the Coach sales associate, said: “Now going to the salon is like getting on an airplane. You don’t know what someone in the seat next to you is paying.” 

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I have to admit there's just something golden and alluring about the phrase "__% off". Doesn't really matter what the numbers are- 10, 30, 50 - it calls to me.

I also have to admit to subscribing to more than my fair share of online coupon sites - Groupon, LivingSocial, Sharing Spree and Travelzoo. However, while I may receive many coupons and deals in my inbox they usually end up in my trash right away. Whether it's because I'm not willing to travel over an hour to get my haircut or (like this morning's Groupon) have my "alignment checked".

There have been many times though when the deal is just too good to pass up. A restaurant I haven't tried but has got rave reviews (I'm a yelper too, did I mention?), a 2 for one spa treatment (Mothers Day - check!), a 50% off coupon for a tea shop (perfect give-a-way gift for the tea party themed party I'm hosting)...no they aren't things I would have bought anyway.

In some ways I think of that as the point. Not looking for that "alignment check" deal because I need one anyway and just have been putting it off. It's a luxury. An opportunity to do something nice for myself (or someone else).

What do you think?
Have you bought anything from an online coupon site?
What was it? Was it for you or someone else?
Did you need it or was it a special treat?

Strippers and Space Punch

I can tell you one thing the writers of Friends got right in regards to my 20-something life -- you never see the cast of characters going out and getting hammered on the weekends. Sure there was the episode where Ross and Rachel get drunk and married in Vegas and the "turning 30" episode that shows an intoxicated Monica at her surprise black-tie birthday party. But that was about it. 

Central Perk was a supplier of Mochas not Mojitos.

I should have taken my cue from our Friends and ordered a second espresso instead of the "Space Punch" from the Spaceroom last night...I learned something about this 20-something body of mine:

This ol' girl can't drink like she used to!

I wasn't a high school partier (my life was no Gossip Girl) - I was too busy dressing people in mythical creature costumes and turning a high school senior into the King of Siam. Admittedly once I got to college my alcohol consumption then increased (my college resembled the movie PCU...). Long weekends of Pabst Blue Ribbon and gallons of Carlo Rossi (hey don't judge, we were poor college students remember?) As the years went I lost my rank in the heavy weight division and eventually became the lightweight I am today.

A glass of Shiraz with my Pasta Puttanesca or even a good bottle of Mexican beer to accompany my tapas and I'm good for the night...I'm a cheap date and don't mind at all. That's where it started last night - a beer and order of Pollo Verde tacos from ¿Por Qué No? - but by the end of the night my beer multiplied itself, add a pomegranate margarita and then relocated me to the Spaceroom where I was forced to pick between "Space Punch" and "Fresh Underwear" (and yes, this is a drink). 

Space Punch (L) Fresh Underwear (R)

The evening was wonderful: reuniting with old friends, making new friends, good drinks and greasy bar food -- not to mention a waitress with a Masters Degree in Strippers (really she did her master's dissertation on the sex and porn industry in Portland Oregon - but a MA in Strippers just sounds way cooler). In the end, however, I was the designated "Party-Pooper". Closing up shop to head home and get ready for the impending Monday-morning work shift. Amidst the "boo"s and heckles of my new (and old) drinking buddies I wondered:

How were they ready for more and why couldn't I keep up?

Most had work the next morning, two of them planning a three-hour drive they were planning for 5AM to get to work on time, and all of them older than me.

So what was their trick?

How were they ready to move onto the next venue?

So here I am coffee in hand, tired but thankfully no visible hangover, rain pouring outside making me want to curl back into bed and no idea how I got this way.

Where is the indispensable 20-something liver and tolerance I once had?

Where did I go wrong?

I turned twenty-seven this year – fifty-two days ago to be exact – and while I’ve never been one to care about getting older, something this year was different. It wasn’t so much the being older either. My mother has always says “It’s not the age it’s the mileage” and if that is true my odometer rolled over a while ago! I guess what it was this year was looking back on the last seven years and wondering:

Is this what being in my twenties is supposed to look like?

I’m part of the generation that grew up yearning to have the characters on Friends be your bffs. I don’t know about you but I for one have never lived like this group of life-long friends; amazing well furnished and stylish apartments, working as a professional chef or archaeologist or being able to spend hours upon hours at the coffee house below my apartment.

I have to admit, the idea of my own “Central Perk” does sounds wonderful. I often think of my blood as being half coffee, but who has the time to sit around discussing “life” while sipping your latte? I’m lucky if I have time to order my Venti Dark Cherry Mocha before I have to run back to the office (which is far from being at the NYC Ralph Lauren office).

So here I am two months into being twenty-seven and I can’t help but wonder :

Where did I go wrong?

Perhaps this blog is to help me answer this question that plagues me lately.

Perhaps it is to connect with other 20-somethings and to realize I am not alone in this search for what it means to be “20-something”.

Either way I welcome the adventure that lies before me and I welcome you along for the ride.