Lipstick sales reportedly spike when the economy tanks

Estée Lauder chairman Leonard Lauder noticed his company's lipstick sales rose even as the wider economy slumped after 9/11, and again in the 2008 financial crisis, popularising the term 'lipstick index.' The theory: in hard times, people skip big-ticket luxuries but still crave small, affordable indulgences. It's an anecdotal pattern rather than a rigorously tested economic law — later recessions haven't consistently confirmed it — but retailers still watch it as an informal mood gauge.

— Wikipedia contributors, Lipstick effect — Popularised 2001