Who in Pakistan is buying Yves Saint Laurent?

The cheapest lipstick listed on the website of the Parisian luxury cosmetics brand YSL Beauty is $43. The most expensive lipstick in their arsenal is something called “The Slim Velvet Radical Matte” which retails for $4,800. 

Pakistani shoppers now have at least some of these products available to them at the YSL Beauty store which opened in Lahore’s Dolmen Mall last week. In a country of nearly 26 crore, the arrival of international luxury retail brands should not be a surprise. And Yves Saint Laurent (pronounced “eve san loron”) is about as luxury as it gets. In fact, some might count it as an indicator of an economy on the right track: international labels only come to a country if they feel it has the appetite to buy their products. But exactly who is buying $40 lipsticks in Pakistan?

Profit’s analysis of data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics shows there are currently about 1.52 crore Pakistanis who earn more than $300 a month — which comes out to around Rs 84,000. The remainder of the workforce earns less than that. Out of these 1.52 crore individuals, 60 lakh earn between $300-400. For them, buying a single lipstick from YSL Beauty in Dolmen Mall Lahore would indicate a purchase worth at least 10% of their monthly earnings. The most likely target audience for the store are individuals that earn at least $1,000 a month. According to Profit’s analysis of PBS data, there are only about 14 lakh individuals all over the country who earn that kind of money, about 1.3% of the labour force.