Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraqi women are cutting back sharply on cosmetics as rising prices, delayed salaries, and stagnant incomes squeeze household budgets. Dressing tables once filled with perfumes and makeup now hold only basic items, reflecting a broader shift toward necessity spending.

Inflation has pushed cosmetics from routine purchases to discretionary extras. Many women describe reprioritizing essentials as living costs climb. “Stretch your legs only as far as your blanket allows,” Ikhlas Salman, 29, told Shafaq News. Earning 800,000 dinars ($537) a month at a state ministry —a salary unchanged for seven years— she said prices have “completely transformed,” forcing her to opt for cheaper substitutes.

Delayed public-sector wages have intensified the strain, amplifying price hikes across markets, including beauty products. New government taxes and customs fees on telecom cards, internet services, and other goods, introduced to boost non-oil revenues, have added to costs. Low-income public employees appear most affected, burdened by water, electricity, internet, neighborhood generators, and basic family expenses.

Speaking to Shafaq News, Asmaa Khudair noted that a skin ointment she used more than doubled in price, prompting a switch to a cheaper alternative that proved ineffective. University student Mariam Karim, meanwhile, warned that counterfeit cosmetics are spreading as prices climb. Original cosmetics, she explained, are now prohibitively expensive, while imitation brands carry health risks.

For Thuraya Bassem, non-essentials have vanished as her vanity now holds only lipstick, eyeliner, and one perfume. “Repeated salary delays are pushing families into debt between pay cycles,” she added.

Lower-cost cosmetics shops and whitening mixtures have multiplied in popular neighborhoods, fueled by social media marketing. Beauty specialist Hiba Kamal told Shafaq News that demand for original products, such as hair dyes and shampoos, has dropped sharply. Salon hair-dye services in modest areas rose from about 40,000 dinars ($27) to over 60,000 ($40), she said, cautioning that higher prices are encouraging counterfeit or smuggled goods without medical oversight.

Economic analyst Khaled Al-Jaberi described the market as sliding into “slow economic fragmentation,” with the middle class absorbing most of the impact. Weak regulation, he argued, has allowed low-quality products to flood the market, driven by short-term profit behavior, poor enforcement, and falling incomes. Reliance on taxes and fees in a fragile economy, he added to Shafaq News, deepens pressure on livelihoods and expands the informal sector. “The issue isn’t trade,” he said, “but taxation without production and consumers left unprotected.”

Retailers cite higher shipping costs and recent tax decisions as immediate triggers for price increases. One shop owner, speaking anonymously to our agency, said some traders have paused imports while awaiting clearer guidance, pushing distributors to raise prices on existing stock. Bureaucratic delays, complex paperwork, and slow money transfers have also disrupted imports, risking spoilage, especially for heat-sensitive cosmetics.

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