Opinion
What you don’t get with Kim Kardashian’s $700 skincare range
Cat Woods
ContributorWhat lengths would Kim Kardashian go to for the sake of maintaining her flawless face? “If you told me that I literally had to eat poop every single day and I would look younger, I might. I just might,” she recently told The New York Times.
Kardashian has just launched her nine-step skincare range, which is mercifully free of poo, but nonetheless, reeks of opportunism and cynicism. Her makeup and fragrance ranges are now defunct, and this latest range of products – SKKN by Kim – will surely follow when consumers realise that they do not resemble airbrushed, unwrinkled perfection despite the juicy price tag.
Kim Kardashian’s flawless beauty achieved with the help of a skin treatment regime, laser surgery, botox and assorted other interventions.Credit:@kimkardashian
The complete range will cost about $AUS700. This is beyond the means of most of Kim’s social media followers, so who will buy it?
The real problem raised by this skincare range is that Kim’s beauty is hardly the result of skincare alone. Her looks have been enhanced by numerous surgical and cosmetic procedures over more than two decades which havesignificantly altered her eyes, nose, jaw and cheeks.
Further, her reality show and social media are proof she has indulged in regular, extremely expensive skincare treatments from lasers to plasma injections. At no point has her use of skin cream ever been championed as the cause of her perfect visage.
The nine-step range is sleekly packaged. It’s chic, minimal and almost architectural in aesthetic: designed for a mature audience, I suspect.
A post from Kim Kardashian West's Instagram page announcing her shapewear line.Credit:Instagram
In its clear lines, stony hues and minimal flounce, the packaging reflects the immensely popular shape wear brand Kardashian founded, Skims. Skims doubled in value in February this year, becoming a $US3.2 billion juggernaut so obviously, underestimating the 41-year-old reality star-entrepreneur and her business acumen would be a mistake.
The difference is this: Skims’ cropped leggings for $120 are aligned with the price point of Lululemon and other mid-range activewear brands, but a $700 skincare range that boasts the same ingredients we see in standard supermarket fare is not.
Women will not be fooled, surely. Glycerin, witch hazel, vitamin C and hyaluronic acid are available in products that are less than half the price of SKKN cleansers, exfoliators and creams.
Kardashian has admitted that her beauty is not all natural. “The P.R.P. facials, stem cell facials, lasers – all of that is work,” she lamented to the Times. But it’s worth it. She’s a preternatural, glowing beacon of beauty, helped by some savvy scalpel work, a regular barrage of Botox and filler, and her own makeup artist, photographer and social media editor on hand at all hours.
If you want to look like Kim, my advice is to skip the $700 skincare range and get to work building a multibillion-dollar business. That lends a glow that no serum can ensure.
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