Should we stop betting on our beauty?

Every night, I do my skincare routine. I lather on tiny creams, squeeze serum pipettes, and rub lotions on my face. I feel like a scientist in a lab or a pickle being preserved in a pickle factory. Then I scroll through Instagram, which as though ridiculing me, tells me I need a new eye cream and that it is about time to add retinol to the mix. The thing about chasing coveted glass skin is that, like all glass, no matter what, it eventually shatters. My thoughts often wander to a statement I’ve heard a lot growing up—“Beauty is a depreciating asset.” I’m not sure where I heard it first, but it was always said to make me understand that the pursuit of beauty can be a frivolous one. For me, however, it has not been so easy to digest. Beauty has been a big part of my world, and I think it’s finally time for me to unpack that loaded thought.

So as an attempt to deconstruct it, let’s ignore that beauty is subjective, let’s ignore the media trends and the cultural aspects of what is considered beautiful. From the lens of “physical beauty”, in its most superficial and universally conventional form, the answer is quite simple—of course beauty will fade as we age. Much like a shiny new Mercedes parked in the driveway, the value of it will forever depreciate; no matter how much you invest in it, you know you’re only going to get to enjoy it for a few years.

So, if you’re profiting off youth, and conventional beauty, yes it can simply be cast aside as “a depreciating asset” that loses its value with time. This thought leaves me unsettled, and so I asked a few women I consider beautiful across different ages to help me out.

Vasudha Rai, beauty journalist and bestselling author (Glow), interestingly brings up the 1996 Barbara Streisand movie, The Mirror Has Two Faces, where Streisand gets a makeover to become “conventionally beautiful”, and the conversations that the transformation sparks. “There is a powerful dialogue in the movie, when her sister says to Streisand, ‘Now you spend an extra hour in front of the mirror every morning and every night. And now you’ll be the one to walk into a room and scan it for who looks better than you and who doesn’t. And as the years go by, the numbers change. One day you’ll walk into a room and you’re the last woman any man notices.’”

A poignant point. Beauty, in this regard, will always seem empty and unfulfilling. As physical beauty inescapably diminishes over time, with it so does your self-worth. Though the entire universe tries to fight to restore beauty in its external form, and billions are spent on it daily, ageing is inevitable and beauty, in this sense, will always fade.

Rai draws a comparison between health and beauty. “Health, too, is a depreciating asset—but as humans, we are engrossed in appearances. As long as we look beautiful, it doesn’t really matter how healthy we are.” In the beauty industry, even health is skewed towards preservation. Why else would we willingly inject neurotoxins into our system to look young? If health was as important as beauty, we would not be doing Botox. How else do you explain the increased use of Ozempic? I think it is safe to say that the world is geared towards making people, especially women, feel like we are not beautiful enough. Not thin enough, not young enough, not curvy enough. Just not enough.

On ageing, Rai edifyingly claims, “When you are in your 20s, you don’t think your body will change, you don’t think your metabolism would slow down, but the fact is that you do see sagging and wrinkles. This is the fallacy of youth.” On the other hand, robust discussions with my friends and family on beauty always circle back to the fact that they find it rather problematic to think of beauty as an “asset”—one that you can use to draw profits, an asset that you can trade and use as a commodity. Problematic as it may be, it is naive to assume it isn’t. But how we define beauty is subjective, how we nurture it is key to any discussion about it.

“Feeling beautiful is beauty, and it has so little to do with how you look. That’s the irony of beauty. For me, beauty is grace and beauty is the ability to try and be better, and that’s all there is,” says Ayesha Chenoy (46), poet, author, and entrepreneur (RepIndia).

If we think of beauty as personality traits and characteristics, such as confidence, grace, wit, and humour, then one can argue that beauty, in fact, is an appreciating asset. These character traits definitely do change the way I perceive physical beauty. I often look at laugh lines and twinkling eyes and think of the jokes that have deepened them. I see women rocking grey hair with such grace and confidence, and find it wildly attractive.

Sanya Dawar (33), who leads brand communications and marketing at Forest Essentials, defines beauty as “Embracing every part of yourself—every scar, every mole, every grey strand of hair and the stories they tell.” Sanya has decided not to colour her grey hair, because she doesn’t want to adhere to an ageist standard of beauty.

I do believe (cringe as it may sound) that if you are beautiful on the inside, you radiate on the outside. I think there is peace in knowing that and embracing your unique beauty at all ages and stages of life. Something that should come so naturally that it feels like an act of rebellion.

To add to that thought, Aryana Dalal (26), a popular Internet personality and Youtuber, says, “Beauty as a depreciating asset? What a crazy thought! Beauty, to me, is all about confidence and being the truest version of you, and that only gets better with time! So no, true beauty is not a depreciating asset. It only appreciates in time for people who know its true worth.”

I think what all these conversations tell me is that viewing beauty as an asset tied to depreciation or appreciation might not do justice to its complexity. The effect beauty has on humankind is of course undeniable, but how we perceive that beauty, and the traits attached to it are so subjective.

To add to the discussion, or rather end it, Bindu Manchanda (63), also known as mum, adds, “If beauty is a depreciating asset, then how do you explain Zeenat Aman, Sharmila Tagore, Meryl Streep, and so many others who just keep getting more beautiful?”

I can go around in circles about beauty, such is the effect on me, but when it comes to purely thinking of it as a depreciating or appreciating asset in economic terms, I will say that, perhaps, I do get a “higher ROI” if I swap the time I spend examining my face in the mirror with activities that bring me true joy in moments that feel undeniably beautiful. I’ve come to learn that beauty means different things to different people. And through long (expensive but much-needed) therapy sessions, I’ve come to the understanding that for me there is only that much happiness, joy, and fun superficial beauty can bring. Though a large part of my content creation is aesthetic, what really brings me joy about my work is being able to create and communicate with a community, to be able to creatively put a look together, to be able to write this article and articulate my thoughts. Something wells up in my chest (I don’t mean the desire for a boob job) that tells me there is a new level of beauty that is unlocked every year. I’ve decided to not give so much importance to beauty that wilts away, not be so afraid of time—a little birdie tells me that it’s the biggest healer.

This article originally appeared in the January-February 2025 print edition of Cosmopolitan India.

All images are credited to Tarini Manchanda 

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