Why?

Why is nothing in this world constant? Earthquakes, revolutions, and now the news that the lipstick effect isn't working any more. What? You mean you don't follow the lipstick index? Leonard Lauder will be horrified.

The idea of the lipstick index was conceived by Lauder, from that rather famous family, after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The theory is simple - in times of economic and political uncertainty, people don't spend up big on clothes and accessories, but still want to splurge on a little something for that feel-good factor.

Hence lipstick sales go through the roof while other retailers are hurting. This has been correlated from data during the Great Depression as well as early this century.

The problem is, in our current climate of financial and natural disasters, the lipstick slope seems to be stuck at the bottom, and is refusing to rise.