‘Breaking Beauty’: How Rachel Wiseman’s ‘Beauty Math’ Is Changing the Way We Shop

If you’ve ever left Sephora wondering how your basket of “just a few things” totaled $187, you—like many other people—need beauty math. Beauty shopping has evolved into its own kind of financial commitment, marked by price hikes, product downsizing, and endless “new launches” that promise miraculous results.

But Breaking Beauty hosts Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins sit down with Rachel Wiseman—the 23-year-old investment banker-turned-content creator who’s rewriting the rules of what it means to be a savvy beauty shopper—to break down the reality of beauty math, which blends finance with foundation, offering a spreadsheet-style breakdown of cost per milliliter, category medians, and even “anchor prices” to help consumers make smarter purchases.

Beauty Math Can Help You Save Money When You Shop

Beauty math is having a moment

Wiseman’s “Beauty Math” series hit a nerve because it answers the question every shopper asks but rarely knows how to solve: what’s actually “worth it”? By breaking down the per-ounce cost of every moisturizer, serum, and mascara at places like Sephora and Ulta, she’s created a transparent reference guide for real-world spending.

“The anchor price is the median price per unit of measurement,” she explains. “If you think of it like price per square foot of an apartment, you start to understand what the ‘going rate’ is for a product. Then you can ask yourself: if it costs more, is it actually giving me enough value to justify it?”

Wiseman’s spreadsheets—available for free through her LinkTree—categorize everything from skin tints to concealers, showing not only the median cost but also price comparisons across brands. “It’s not about right or wrong,” she says. “It’s just giving people the tools to shop smarter.”

The Sephora sale wake-up call

The timing of Wiseman’s rise couldn’t be better. The episode dropped just as Sephora’s annual Savings Event kicked off. The trio dove deep into one of the beauty industry’s biggest open secrets: how “sales” aren’t always the deal they seem to be.

Higgins points out that some brands raise prices before discount season—a phenomenon Wiseman confirms. “It’s kind of a gray area,” she explains. “Retailers can set their prices, but sometimes their annual increases are right before big events. So technically, it’s not illegal—but it’s not exactly transparent either.”

From there, the conversation turns to the sneaky twin trends of “shrinkflation” and “sneakflation”—terms Wiseman is familiar with from her finance days. “Shrinkflation is when the product size decreases but the price stays the same,” she says. “Sneakflation is when the formula changes instead, often swapping ingredients for cheaper ones.” Both, she adds, are reshaping the way brands manage costs and how consumers perceive value.

The skincare index and the rise of smart beauty

In true analyst fashion, Wiseman also updates the iconic “Lipstick Index,” the economic theory that small beauty luxuries thrive during recessions. “It’s still true,” she says, “but today it’s less about lipstick and more about skincare. People want products that feel like self-care and deliver results.”

She calls it the “Skincare Index,” and it reflects a larger shift toward hybrid formulas—think tinted serums and active-infused balms—that promise long-term benefits rather than short-term fixes. For Wiseman, this evolution makes the beauty market ripe for accountability. “If you know the numbers behind what you’re buying,” she explains, “you’re less likely to fall for the marketing.”

How to shop smarter, not harder

So, what’s Wiseman’s golden rule for surviving a Sephora run without feeling robbed? “Buy jumbo when you’re rebuying, minis when you’re trying,” she says. It’s about buying what you’ll actually finish, not what looks good in your bathroom cabinet.

Her followers have turned her spreadsheets into gospel—some even using them to budget their holiday spending. But Wiseman insists her mission is about transparency, not transactions. “I don’t want to put it behind a paywall,” she tells Dunn and Higgins. “The whole point is to make beauty shopping more transparent.”

With “beauty math,” Wiseman turns the chaos of consumerism into calm, transforming Sephora hauls into smart investments. And if her spreadsheets are any indication, the future of beauty might finally add up.

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