Do women buy more lipstick when economy gets sour?

Last month, Betsy Stein made a beeline for Bloomingdale's to buy a shirt, but the Nanette Lepore top she found was $280. Stein, 33, a business manager for a classical music composer in Manhattan, told herself that in the current economic climate, she shouldn't charge it.

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"With the scare of the downturn," she said, "I decided to cut back on my shopaholic problem and exercise some restraint."

But the next day at Sephora, she made a substitute purchase. "I could buy one or two lipsticks for about $40," she said. "That's far less than $280."

Stein's rationale for buying lipstick echoes a theory once proposed by Leonard Lauder, the chairman of Estee Lauder Cos.

(Editor's note: This story is no longer available on seattlepi.com because of contractual obligations. See the original at NYTimes.com.)