You learn a lot when you become a beauty journalist. You learn that sometimes, products that claim to be based on science actually are. You learn that people at parties treat you like a doctor, but the conversation is less about passing blood than it is about crow’s feet. And sadly, you learn that Rip-Off Ireland is alive and well when it comes to gouging into our wallets.

Oh, it’s subtle: three euro here, maybe five euro there. I do a lot of price checking, both here and for my column for the Evening Herald. Sometimes I don’t get prices, so I have to search for them. Most often, the prices are in sterling, and I have to run the number through my currency conversion widget. So I do.

Then, sometimes, I find the euro price after all, and lo and behold! The item that sold in London for £19.50, which I converted to roughly €23.50, is actually selling for €27.50 in Dublin.

Really, manufacturers? Or brand managers? Or shop keepers?

Who’s to blame?

I don’t think it’s fair. It’s the same feeling of being taken advantage of that we all get when we go over to the continent and pay so much less for food and drink. Sheesh. What’s to be done?

Well, the thing that spurred this vent is news from Blue Sky products, who distribute REN in Ireland, are going to ‘significantly reduce the RRP {of REN products} so that they directly correlate with the £/sterling price of each product.’ Here’s a good example of how that’s going to work:

To give you an example, all REN Cleansers (150ml) will now be priced at €20.00, previously €25.00. Moisturisers (50ml) will now be priced at €30.00, previously €38.00. The RRP in £Stg for these items are £17 and £25 respectively. You can see that these now directly correlate with our new euro RRPs.

Fair play to both Blue Sky and REN, and let’s hope we see more following this lead.