Frugality • General

Would You Pay $122 For A Bottle Of Lotion?

We see overpriced items every day, but I came across one recently that was so ridiculous that I just had to tell you about it.

My wife was experiencing a little bit of  seasonal affective disorder (SAD) from the long and gloomy winter, and thought that taking advantage of our gym’s free tanning may be just the blast of vitamin D needed to brighten up her mood.  Knowing the dangers associated with tanning, she wanted to get a sunscreen / lotion product to help protect her skin.  My wife asked our niece, who is the manager of a tanning salon, to hook her up with a quality tanning product. My brother-in-law was driving through town a few days later and stopped in with the recommended tanning lotion. When we asked how much we owed, he giggled a little bit and said ” Well, you have two choices. You can pay retail, or you can pay how much my daughter paid.”

Apparently the retail price of this particular bottle of tanning lotion was $122!

I did a little internet searching to see what was so special about this particular bottle of tanning lotion. Here’s the description I found:

• Maximize results and boost dark color with Step 2 Cu02® and TRF2000®
• Build a faster, richer base tan by unlocking the proteins essential for the formation of melanin with D-Cypher Complex
• Help protect elastin and support collagen production with advanced skin-firming peptides
• Crack the code to younger-looking skin with double-acting Age Defense

From what I can tell, the D-Cypher Complex is supposed to help speed along the tanning process, but I couldn’t find one shred of evidence that would support this claim. There’s also no information as to just how much faster a person would tan using this tanning accelerator vs. not.

When it was all said and done, my wife didn’t even use the product.   As mentioned, she was looking for a sunscreen / lotion product to help protect her skin and prevent burning, not an accelerator.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we decided to pay the price that our niece did for the bottle of liquid gold – $0.  It was given to her as a promotional product.  Which is exactly how much I thought it was worth.

What’s the worst example of an overpriced item that you’ve ever seen?

Brought to you courtesy of Brock.

Brock Kernin

Brock is a software engineer by day and personal finance blogger at night. He is a fitness junkie and enjoys grilling and smoking meat. Married with two children,  Brock strives to improve his skills as a husband and father, and is always on the lookout to stretch his family’s budget as far as he can.