“Instagram made me do it!”

: understanding purchase intentions of beauty and cosmetic services after the lockdown

Abstract

Cosmetic/beauty services offer a hedonic experience, that individuals indulge in, and use as acoping mechanism for stress release. During the lockdown, their closure led to psychologicaldistress and higher body dissatisfaction rates since they lost their usual coping mechanisms intimes of increased pandemic-related stress.After the lockdown, the world witnessed an increase of purchase intentions of beauty/cosmeticservices similar to a “Revenge consumption” phenomenon, serving as an overcompensatingmechanism to cope with the perceived pandemic severity repercussions.This paper explores purchase intentions of beauty/cosmetic services after the lockdown. To doso, three predictors were selected: perceived loss of control, dysmorphic concern, social mediaexposure (appearance-based platforms).Findings revealed that the post-pandemic situational context triggers higher purchase intentionsfor individuals (with a HDC), when their perceived loss of control is low.Individuals with BDD were found to be the primary consumers of appearance-based onlineplatforms and showed the highest interest in non-invasive cosmetic treatments after thelockdown.Social media was proved to have a positive impact on purchase intentions of beauty/cosmeticservices after lockdown, for individuals with a HDC, who preferred non-invasive cosmetictreatments rather than conventional services after the lockdown, as opposed to those with LDC.

Date of Award	21 Oct 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Niza Braga (Supervisor)