From lipsticks to concerts, the trend in “treatment” is booming

“Thementonomics” – The consumer trend to cover spending on “everyday luxury” with a greater life-affirming experience is booming as people seek to boost their mood in an ongoing, unsettling economic situation.

Spending on small scale “pickups” tends to withstand established recessions, and consumers often can boost morale when time is stiff or uncertain, such as low-key personal items such as makeup, perfumes, and candles, or collectible rubber ducks and lovebour dolls.

It is no wonder that consumer trends have been viewed as an inadvertent sense of how consumers feel about the broader economic context, represented today by inflationary pressures, sustainedly high interest rates and concerns about growth and work.

The phenomenon is not new. For example, the “lipstick effect” – the theory that lipstick sales increase during the economic downturn has existed for almost a century. The term, first recorded in the Great Repression of the 1930s, took place in the Renaissance in the 2000s when Leonard Lauder, former chairman of makeup brand Estee Lauder, realized sales had skyrocketed after the September 11th terrorist attack.

“The effects of lipstick basically mean buying a small treat when you’re under financial pressure,” John Stevenson, a retail analyst at Peel Hunt, told CNBC on Tuesday.

“We can’t afford a new dress or outfit, but we can always get a new lipstick. We can’t afford a new sofa, but we can get a slow or cushion. We can’t reorganize a new tablecloth, but we’ve mentioned that HomeWares’ retail category is “a lot more resilient than you might imagine.”

The Covid-19 pandemic, and the reassessment of personal happiness, and what makes a rich and memorable life, has spurred the trend in treatment with consumers willing to make daily sacrifices to “experiences.”

“Therapeutics may be reducing the costs of daily life, reducing the basics, and buying more brands in supermarkets, but they may be spending between 500-1000 pounds (up to $1,330) playing an oasis concert over the weekend.

Economists agree that treatment trends could thrive in an age of economic uncertainty and unstable consumer trust.

“The rise of this “treatment,” also known as the “little treat culture” by Gen Z of Tiktok, is not about “guilt,” but about injecting moments of innocent joy into your life,” Meredith Smith, senior director of Kanthal, a retail analytics firm, said on CNBC Tuesday.

“It’s like the ‘lipstick effect’ on steroids. This is because consumers, coupled with more options and access than ever, are linked with more options and access than ever, to turn everyday life decisions into therapeutic opportunities.

Smith said traditional milestones in life, such as marriage, home ownership, workplace achievements and retirement, appear to be different from “almost every living generation” and have reinvented or disappeared “from desire or because they are no longer able to reach them.”

This prompted the transition from being able to celebrate “milestones” to celebrating more “inchstones,” which resulted in the rapid rise of this treatment.

“For example – for those who couldn’t afford a home before age 40, treatment was a welcome rest and a way of expressing themselves in their own environment as milestones passed,” Smith said.

“For those without partners or children, instead of celebrating weddings and baby showers, they throw energy into splitting parties, dog birthdays, treatment routines that have led to higher happiness. We see if the rise of “resignation parties” in China, even the US and Europe are promoting them in Europe as well.

Similarly, Millennials and Gen Z have turned into “Kidulting” – enjoying an adult version of childhood joy. This “catalo counts LEGO adult products and spends up to $1,000 on the kit,” added Smith.

In the UK, GFK’s consumer confidence index measures a variety of consumer attitudes, including general economic conditions, positive expectations about household financial positions, and views on key household purchases. It fell to -19 in July 2025, falling by 1 point since June.

Meanwhile, in the US, consumer trust rose slightly in July. Overall, however, consumer confidence levels remained restrained as “below the difficult levels of last year,” with Stephanie Gichard, senior economist for global indicators at conference committees, generating consumer trust data pointed out in last week’s statement.

The prolonged pessimism feeds cure trends, economists say. This means that at a more affordable price, perhaps more satisfying purchases and experiences remain attractive.

Kantar’s global economic policy uncertainty index declares the present era as one of the “great uncertainties” compared to the past 40 years, a measure of the degree of uncertainty surrounding economic policy at the global level.

Kanthal predicts that the volatility and uncertainty we are experiencing is unlikely to radiate for the next five to eight years.

“This gives us a strong indication that treatments will last for at least three to five years. However, we can expect the ‘little treat culture’ trend to move faster and more fragmented due to geography and cultural niches.