How Much Do Celebrities Spend on Their Looks?

This morning on "Good Morning America" there was a story about Britney Spears's spending habits. Although it was not the focus of the story, they mentioned that she spends around $2,595 per year on hair and makeup. This reminded me of a story from a few months ago on how much Kate Middleton spends on her look. I became intrigued by how much celebrities spend on their hair and makeup alone. I'm not including their personal fitness training fees or their diets. Check out some of these figures:

Celebrity Yearly Expenditures on Hair and Makeup

Britney Spears
$2,595 - hair and makeup
Total: $2,595

Kate Middleton*
$18,760 - hair (blow drys, low lights, and cuts)
$1,206 - makeup
$4,000 - skin care
$3,484 - nails
$2,832 - spray tans
*I think to assume that she wears the same fragrance every day is misleading, so I did not include that expense. Also, her orthodontic treatment was a one-time occurrence, so I didn't include that either. She probably gets regular whitening treatments, but I haven't found a story on that.
Total: $30,282

Kim Kardashian*
$13,918 - hair sessions (Philip Wolff is her stylist and she has to keep her extensions "in tip top condition." Let's assume that she gets her extensions fixed every three weeks: $13,918 per year.)
$1,285 - 24-karat gold facials
$9,636 - Fraxel laser treatment (I couldn't get a good idea of how often Kim gets these, but on this Cincinnati Fraxel site, it says that "3 to 6 treatments spaced one to two weeks apart" should do the trick. Let's assume that Kim only has 3 treatments at $3,212 per treatment: $9,636.)
$1,500 - eyelash extensions (Kim did confirm that she wears permanent mink eyelash extensions.)
$4,224 - body scrubs at the Four Seasons spa
$3,360 - mud wraps at the spa (I assumed that Kim has her mud wraps done at the same spa as her body scrubs. This is the "Body Treatments" page with prices of the Four Seasons spa site.)
$3,672 - nails (The site I cited at the beginning of this says that a nail session is 95 pounds. Assuming she goes for bi-weekly sessions, the yearly total would be $3,672.)
*I used the Google conversion calculator from pounds to dollars, since this site is in pounds.
Note: This doesn't include any makeup products or makeup sessions, which, according to this site can apparently go for $4,000 each.
Total: $37,595

Jennifer Aniston*
$7,973 - hair sessions
$49,206 - makeup (I did the math with her getting only one professional make-up session per month and buying the products three times per year.)
$10,704 - skin care (facials and "Purple Bag" products)
$1,920 - eyebrow treatments (I did not include the initial $120 fee, because I assume she has already had it. I assume she goes for an $80 treatment biweekly.)
$1,080 - spray tanning
*I did not include the speculative nose job costs. They weren't concrete, and they also are a one time occurrence. Well, I guess a two time occurrence for her!
Note: Manicures weren't mentioned in this article, and I couldn't find out where Aniston gets her nails done.
Total: $70,883

The grand total of these four celebrities' hair and makeup costs is...drumroll, please...$141,355.

This is absolutely fascinating to me. I decided to look at what I spend per year on my own hair and makeup.
$180 - hair ($30 per haircut. 6 per year.)
$4 - Herbal Essences styling mousse
$4 - Maybelline mascara
$9 - L'Oreal eyeshadow
$5 - Revlon eyeliner
$36 - Neutrogena concealer ($9 each. 4 per year.)
$36 - Maybelline Fit foundation ($6 each. 6 per year.)
$59 - Clarins moisturizer (I use it every other day at most, so it lasts forever!)
Total: $333

I am amazed! I had no idea I spend this much on my looks. I don't get my nails done (I got acrylics done 5 years ago), I don't dye my hair (again, only once in my life), and I don't pay for eyebrow treatments (another one of those things I tried once).

It is obvious that I am not "required" by society to look the way celebrities look. Whenever they show up on the red carpet, or anywhere else for that matter, they're expected to look a certain way. If they didn't, they would get completely destroyed in the media. But is it worth spending over $30,000 per year on hair and makeup? Does it make a difference? I think this might be the topic of my second social mini-experiment sometime soon.

I think this is something that "normal" women and girls really need to realize: we don't have $30,000 every year to spend on our looks. So why do we put ourselves under so much pressure to look like celebrities? If it really does take this much money to look that good, then why do we even try to compare? Magazines are full of "Get This Celebrity's Look For Less" articles, but most of those still cost a significant amount of money. For example, this Camilla Belle "Look for Less" was still about $92.

Look at yourself in the mirror today and smile. You look great!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." --Gandhi

Divorce: The Throes of Media and the Hope of Reality

It seems like Fridays are turning into reflective, thankful days. Last Friday I wrote about gratitude and taking time to tell someone you are thankful for that you appreciate them. Today is going to be about relationships. This might scare off some of my male readers, but, hey, I'm a chick and you had to know relationships were going to come up sometime... :)

I was spurred to think about relationships because of the latest celebrity news headlines.
These, of my team's former receiver (so glad he'd already gotten cut and was with the Dolphins when this happened):
"Chad Johnson [previously "Ochocinco"] Pleads Not Guilty to Misdemeanor Battery Charge"--ABC
"Chad Johnson Gives In, Responds to Divorce Case Filed by Evelyn Lozada"--E!
"Chad Johnson Files for Divorce from Evelyn Lozada; Admits Marriage is Over"--NY Daily News
And these:
"Kelly Rutherford Breaks Down about Custody Battle on 'The View'"--Daily Mail
"Kelly Rutherford Feared Abduction During Custody Battle"--ABC
"Kelly Rutherford Loses Custody of Children in Brutal Divorce"--SheKnows.com
And finally these, about one of my favorite models and TV personalities:
"Heidi Klum, Seal's Divorce is Getting Messy"--HuffPost
"Heidi Klum Admits Something--But Not Cheating--with Bodyguard"--latimes.com
"Heidi Klum Calls Seal Divorce 'Horrible,' Says Bodyguard Is a 'Great Man'--Yahoo! News

These make me so sad. I'm not really going to touch on the fact that their personal lives are splashed across the headlines, because they're celebrities and that's what happens when anything goes on in their life, regardless of how personal it might be (Do I think it's right? No. But that's not what this post is about.). Even though these are just the headlines from this week, we hear about divorce and separation and custody battles all the time. We never have headlines like these: "Diane Sawyer Stays Married to the Same Man for 23 Years" or "Mystery Writer Michael Connelly and Wife of Almost 30 Years Go on Vacation Together." It's just sad that our society sees marriage as being something that is okay to get out of. I'm not saying that divorce shouldn't be allowed or anything like that--I, myself, am the product of a second marriage, so I wouldn't exist, had that previous relationship not ended. I just wonder how hard people work, honestly work, to work things out.

I often wonder what it would be like if divorce had not become socially acceptable. It is common in films, TV shows, and our press. What would happen if the press refused to publish anything about divorce? What would society be like if our TV shows didn't have divorce in them? I am very well aware that relationships aren't fairytales, but what if there were more movies out there like "Hope Springs"? That movie is so focused on the couple's problems and how they work through it, even though at one point, Meryl Streep's character wants a divorce. They still worked through it! It's fantastic! That movie is not a fairy tale at all; it's realistic. Realistic of what marriages that have slumped can return to and how much work it takes.

Today I'm going to tell my fiancé that I believe in us. We still have things to work through, but, you know, I'd like to keep working through them together. :)

Have a wonderful weekend.

P.S. I hit 1,000 views this morning of this blog! Thank you so much! It's more than I ever expected!

"Be the change you wish to see in the world."--Gandhi