In my beauty industry job, I make nothing meaningful. And then I go home

OpinionSeptember 2, 2026 — 7:30pmThere is a special kind of fatigue that cannot be cured by sleep, a vacation in Biarritz, or the incessant application of a 140€ ($227) super serum. It is the fatigue of having produced something for a living without ever having made anything meaningful at all. This is what it feels like to be a luxury beauty creative.Why? Because our industry is not really in the business of making something beautiful. It is in the numbers business, and beauty is merely a fabulous facade.The top beauty conglomerates collectively launch tens of thousands of new products every year. This means that somewhere, at all times, a person with a degree in fine arts or advanced literature is being asked to make the 947th lip gloss launch feel “disruptive”. Incidentally, the word “di