Blowing it

Lipstick sales boom as economies turn down

Boots must be pleased. Britons, we learn, are sacrificing foreign holidays, expensive nights out and new cars because of the recession. But they're still buying plenty of make-up – good news for chemists and lipstick manufacturers.

Indeed, L'Oréal has reported higher-than-expected profits for the first half of the year (£1.2bn) and Boots has seen a healthy increase in beauty product sales.

The link between make-up and recession is not new, as The Guardian points out. Sales of expensive lipstick soared in the wake of the September 11th attacks, too, leading an executive at Estée Lauder to dub it the Lipstick Index – make-up sales rise when times are bad.

The reason, I suppose, is that in difficult times women look for inexpensive treats to help them feel good – and look good. "A recession doesn't change people's insecurities about the way they look," says a researcher at Nitel, the beauty analyst. "They may have given up their long-haul holiday this year, but the reality is make-up is a small indulgence in the scheme of things."

Big stars lose their lustre

Bad news for Hollywood stars. Young men, according to The Sunday Telegraph, are losing interest in big-name movies "as they find entertainment elsewhere – the internet, video games and iPhone applications – usually without having to leave their sofas".

The stars are already feeling the effects, with the days of $20m pay cheques seemingly over. Disney ditched Julia Roberts when she wouldn't cut her $15m salary to star in the recent comedy, The Proposal. Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke are said to have accepted a mere $400,000 each (this is Hollywood, remember), plus a cut of profits, to appear in Iron Man 2. And Jim Carey took nothing upfront for his movie Yes Man, settling instead for 30% of the profits.

Instead of stars, studios are turning to relative newcomers. "In the past, studios believed that if they wanted a box office hit, they needed a big star," says Peter Guber, chairman of Mandalay Pictures. "But this year, we've had a summer filled with sequels, remakes and franchises that don't come with big names."

Ringing the changes

Luxury retailers in New York are resorting to stealth to boost sales. The likes of Tiffany and Bergdorf Goodman can hardly start slashing prices publicly – not without devaluing their brands. So what are they doing? Cutting quietly – letting buyers know with a discreet word that the item they would like but can't quite afford can be had for less. Tiffany, for example, has reduced engagement rings from around $10,000 to $9,000, but made no fuss about it. Perish the thought. "We wouldn't do an announcement saying 'attention shoppers, prices have just been reduced on diamond rings'," says a Tiffany executive.

Does it work? The Times says engagement ring sales have fallen by "slightly less" than the the sale of other items. Slightly less. It's hardly a resounding yes.

Tabloid money... grumbling GPs must earn those fat salaries

• Every time I write about GPs and the six-figure salaries many of them earn for working a five-day week I get the usual insults from those bleating that I have no idea how hard they work, says Carole Malone in the News of the World. "One wrote to me recently: 'It's 6pm and I'm still here working' – not realising that most people on huge salaries work till 6pm and beyond. Even, oddly enough, at weekends." Anyway, we now learn that because of GPs' refusal to work after hours, primary care trusts are being forced to fly in foreign GPs at £100 an hour. Many of them can barely speak English. "This lunacy has to stop. The government must tell GPs either to work overtime to justify their massive salaries – or forfeit them."

• Research reveals that girls get 10% less pocket money than boys, says Sue Carroll in the Daily Mirror. "Is this meant to raise my feminist hackles? Since when were children entitled to wages or payment of any kind unless it's earned? 'Parents are unwittingly contributing to the gender pay gap,' says the study. Easily resolved, I'd have thought. Stop giving the spoilt little brats handouts."

• Residents of Charnwood council in Leicestershire have had "a chummy newsletter from a smug character called Mike Preston, the council leader", says Fergus Shanahan in The Sun. He tells them he's signed a new recycling contract that will save £1.2m a year. How? By scrapping instructions to households to sort their refuse into different sacks and simply hurling it all mixed up together into the back of the recycling lorry! "Clever old Mick doesn't say whether Charnwood council will reimburse anyone fined by the recycling Gestapo for placing the wrong item in the wrong sack... But this does confirm our suspicions that all the maddening sorting of tins and paper from yoghurt pots and plastic bags is an utter waste of time and just a way for our councils to show us all who's boss."