Because women want to use a little lipstick to brighten themselves up even when times are hard. It’s the feel-good factor at work, I guess. Men are the same. Even though they may scrap plans for another car or a villa in the country, they will continue to buy smaller luxury items such as an electric shaver, a Rolex wristwatch or an IPod player.

　　According to this very Telegraph article, “The theory was first identified in the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1933 industrial production in the US halved but sales of cosmetics rose.”

　　Here’s a rule of thumb when it comes to addressing Western expressions to which we don’t have lipstick shaver ready equivalent in Chinese: Translate them into Chinese verbatim and then explain and elaborate.