Are Beauty Brands Making Less Or Is Social Media Selling It Out Fast?

I have a really serious question! Is limited-edition suddenly really limited-edition again? Are beauty brands making less limited-edition items or is social media just selling them out super fast? Back in July, Victoria’s Secret released their Pink Fall 2024 Collection that had some really cool gourmands available. One of them was a scent called Very Vanilla. It had notes of crumb cake, cinnamon sugar, and vanilla drizzle. It didn’t smell like crumb cake but it is a warm, cozy vanilla fragrance that I really liked. I wandered on over to Pink yesterday since they were having a sell and it’s gone. Disappeared! Flippers on Mercari are selling it for triple the retail price at the moment and I’m kind of hurt I can’t grab another bottle.

So, is it that beauty brands are just making less or is social media just selling it out fast?

I think it’s social media. Fragrance is HUGE right now on Tiktok. It’s really having a moment in the sun and brands are absolutely taking advantage of that by producing more and more new fragrances. However, certain fragrance tend to sell out! For example, Bianco Latte was the It Girl of the season for a while and she was difficult to get your hands on for a few months.

And even more budget-friendly body mists are impossible to find lately too! Anything that Victoria’s Secret or Pink releases that involves vanilla almost immediately becomes unavailable! As soon as these scents dropped they are all over Tiktok being promoted as the newest must have scent. Flippers immediately take note and buy up as much stock as possible and proceed to list it across sites like Ebay and Mercari at a huge markup.

I think a lot factors into products that sell out fast lately. One is the huge social media presence certain items get. Secondly, resellers are grabbing up what they can and making a profit on markups. And third, I think brands are likely producing a little less than they did years ago. I think they finally realized they have tons of backstock that they end up adding to clearance at the end of the season and to avoid this they might be producing a lot less.

I know one thing and that’s buying certain things sure can be frustrating lately. From Trader Joe’s seasonal items to beauty picks and even certain clothing and accessories everything seems to sell out super duper fast lately.

What’s your hot take on this? Is it social media? Flippers? Or are brands just releasing a lot less?