Abstract

The market for natural makeup has been substantially increasing, primarily because many consumers believe that natural makeup is healthier and higher quality than unnatural makeup. However, perceived health hazards of unnatural makeup have been debunked, and, while there is no evidence disproving the perceived quality superiority of natural makeup, the manipulability of chemical ingredients suggests that unnatural makeup would be superior. Therefore, the question arises as to whether consumers choose natural makeup not because it is actually superior in quality, but because society has led them to believe it is healthier and more effective. A blind consumption test involving four popular brands of lip gloss - two natural and two unnatural - was conducted to determine whether consumers actually prefer their self-identified favorite makeup brands and how influence from the natural product movement affects how closely their self-identified preferences match their blind consumption preferences. Ultimately, it was found that consumers’ self-identified preferences rarely matched their preferences under blind consumption conditions, regardless of how influenced they were by the natural product movement. Thus, the results suggest that makeup consumers make decisions predominantly based on their emotional perceptions of certain brands, as opposed to actual sensed quality differences between makeup products; and, while the natural product movement may be one factor that affects consumers’ perceptions of makeup brands, it is by no means a sole or primary influence in forming consumer opinions.

Sunday, October 2, 2016

The Yeah!, the Meh, and the Bleh

Week 8 (09/26-10/02)

With October already here (seriously, where is senior year going?!) and the lit review due date only 3 weeks away, we have all spent the last week working hard to create quality outlines from our annotated bibliographies and put all the pieces of our research together. For this week's post, I will be outlining the assured, the neutral, and the intimidating feelings I have been having:

1. The Yeah!: I am still super excited about my methodology, and I am happy that I have my brands (MAC, L'oreal, Bare Escentuals, and Burt's Bees) and the type of makeup I am testing (lipstick!) down. I am personally familiar with each of these brands, so I am really interested in learning what consumers actually think of each, both in terms of their current perceptions of the brands and their actual rankings during blind testing. Each week, the picture of my actual research is becoming more and more clear, and I am becoming more and more enthusiastic about conducting my study. :)

2. The Meh: I know that I have all (or at least the vast majority) of the pieces I need to put together my line of reasoning. Still, it has been a little bit tedious stringing everything together and creating quality transitions. I also need to find a couple more sources justifying the use of the unnatural makeup brands I chose for my study, MAC and L'oreal. While I feel confident that all of these things are doable, I am not particularly excited about them. (However, I know that they are necessary for the full project, which I am excited about, so I will put in a quality effort for the sake of the big picture.)

3. The Bleh: As always when writing complex arguments, I have a nagging feeling that I am missing a link and will lose the reader somewhere, or that my logic is circular, or that there is just some major flaw that I am not seeing because I am overly familiar with my argument. I am especially concerned with the portion of my argument that transitions from explaining my methodology into justifying the use of my 4 brands. I try to argue that popularity and, for the two natural brands, the general consumer understanding that the ingredients are natural are the most important factors, but I don't know if I have justified it enough, and I don't know of any source that could help me with the transition.

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