The Role of Dopamine in Beauty Purchases

Implementing new skincare and wellness products into your daily routine can feel exciting and often leads to a sense of satisfaction. But sometimes these feelings of gratification begin much earlier –often at the checkout! Consider, have you ever felt a thrill of excitement when buying, for instance, a luxurious new moisturiser or serum? Just the very act of purchasing a beauty product can feel rewarding without even using it. Whilst this seems counterintuitive, these feelings are in fact real, and there is a biological basis behind them – the neurotransmitter dopamine. This article will explore dopamine’s role in anticipation and reward mechanisms and focus on how this relates to beauty purchases specifically.

In recent years, dopamine has been a buzz word in popular culture. It is often considered a happiness or reward molecule, with social media users participating in trends such as dopamine dressing or dopamine menus. Whilst the chemical is associated with pleasure and reward, social media’s take can be considered a little reductionist and oversimplified.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that has an essential role in nearly all cognitive functions, including motor control, learning, memory and attention (Costa & Schoenbaum, 2022). Most notably however, dopamine is known for its role in mediating motivation, pleasure and reward, serving as a crucial component of the brain’s reward system (Arias-Carrión et al., 2010).

The misconception arises when people assume that the “reward molecule” dopamine, is released in response to receiving a reward. When we receive a reward, our brains do release dopamine, which give us a sense of pleasure; however, we actually produce more dopamine in anticipation of a reward than actually receiving it (Sapolsky, 2004; Schultz, 2015). Dopamine is less about instant gratification from obtaining something desirable and more about the excitement to receive it. When you anticipate a reward, you may feel a burst of joy and satisfaction – this comes from the dopamine response.

The bottom line: when it comes to dopamine production, anticipation is the true driver – not the reward itself.

If dopamine is all about anticipation, what exactly are we anticipating when making beauty purchases? Well, there are several things that may trigger dopamine’s response when you buy a new cosmetic product…

Simply imagining owning a product and it being yours can be enough to trigger a dopamine rush. If you’re ordering a product online, just tracking the parcel and waiting for its arrival can spark feelings of excitement. A report entitled “Digital Dopamine”, showed that 72% of people in the UK were more excited for their online shopping orders to arrive than they were about buying things in-store (Razorfish, 2015).

Perhaps this is because there is a greater sense of anticipation to see the product physically and have it be in your possession. However, in-store shopping can be just as effective. For instance, even seeing an item in a shop window display, and picturing it sitting neatly on your bathroom shelf or dressing table, can activate the brain’s reward system.

Whilst anticipating owning a product may not be the biggest driver of dopamine in beauty purchases, it is certainly not one to overlook.

Selecting high-quality, reliable products is an important part of the customer decision-making process. However, sometimes it’s just as much about the experience a product can offer you. Consider, a rich, luxurious moisturiser; the very ritual of applying the product can create a sense of indulgence - feeling the cream glide across the skin, soothing any dryness or discomfort, and providing hydration and moisture.

The simple act of using the item can therefore be desirable, especially when incorporated into a holistic self-care ritual. For instance, doing your skin care routine whilst winding down at the end of the day, perhaps with scented candles and ambient music playing in the background. Here, the product becomes part of a wider experience. 

Anticipating these experiences and the positive emotions they could bring is enough to elicit a dopamine response. Consumer psychology supports this idea, with research showing that we often evaluate and select products for purchase by imagining using them (Bettiga & Lambeti., 2020). When browsing products or at the checkout, you may evoke future-oriented emotions—this refers to anticipating future emotional states when imagining product use (Chang, 2015). For instance, you might envision that using a product will make you feel happier in the future (Baumgartner et al., 2008).

Therefore, the anticipation of using the product, as well as the overall experience and emotions that come with using it, are powerful drivers of dopamine release.

We’ve discussed the instant gratification of applying a beauty product, but something equally or even more exciting is the potential health benefits that come with long-term product usage. For instance, after implementing a new skincare product you may expect visible changes such as acne scar healing, reduced blemishes or simply healthier, clearer looking skin.

Envisioning these improvements at the point of product purchase can be a very strong dopamine driver indeed. Remember, dopamine is more closely linked to the anticipation of rewards rather than the reward itself (Sapolsky, 2004; Schultz, 2015) so imagining these future benefits can create a powerful dopamine rush. 

Of course, cosmetic improvements are not guaranteed when buying a new skincare product. You don’t know how effective a product will be for your skin or whether there will be any improvements at all. Interestingly however, this unpredictability is actually said to increase anticipation and in turn, dopamine. Animal research by neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky supports this idea (Weinschenk, 2015).

In a series of experiments, monkeys learned that if they pressed a button ten times following a light signal, they would be given a food reward. The monkeys began to release dopamine as soon as the light signal appeared – in anticipation of their reward. Here's the interesting thing - in a second experiment, a food reward was only given 50% of the time, creating a sense of unpredictability. In this setup, monkeys released twice as much dopamine as previously. This suggests that when a reward is unpredictable or not guaranteed, even more dopamine is released.

Similar findings have been shown in humans, with Sapolsky (2004) highlighting that dopamine levels rise significantly when we anticipate potential rewards that are uncertain as well as far away in our futures. This aligns with anticipation in beauty product purchases, where the cosmetic outcomes are not guaranteed and improvements do not occur instantly.

Therefore, anticipating cosmetic improvements, even when they are not guaranteed, may perhaps be one of the most powerful dopamine triggers in beauty purchases.

You’re not imagining it – you may genuinely feel happier after buying a beauty product. Dopamine provides a biological explanation for these emotions, playing a key role in anticipation. This is why imagining owning, using, or seeing improvements from a beauty product can feel so exciting. Even uncertainty about the outcome can heighten this anticipation, making the act of buying almost as rewarding as the product itself!

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