While it’s probably impossible for anyone younger than Gen Z to fathom, there was a time when beauty—particularly the pricey stuff, which was preciously displayed behind glass in ancient dwellings called department stores—literally never went on sale. It simply wasn’t done. Just ask industry veteran Karen Young, who logged decades at old-school biggies Estée Lauder and Lancôme. “In my long life in luxury / prestige beauty, ‘sales’ weren’t part of the drill,” Young recalls. “We all felt it brought down the brand image. Yes, we did GWPs, PWPs, and holiday sets, but those seemed in keeping with the brand.”Pop over to the Estée Lauder website today and it’s abundantly clear that any reluctance to openly discount is a quaint relic of the past.Alongside multiple extremely robust versions of the gift-with-purchase offerings Young mentioned—one promo alone featured nine full-size products plus two travel minis with any $90 spend—elsewhere there were straightforward markdowns. One such sale: Revitalizing Supreme+ Bright Moisturizer Power Soft Crème reduced from the regular price of $120 to $72.And while the other mega-brand Young toiled for back in the day—Lancôme—isn’t quite as blatant about markdowns, they’re happening on the French beauty giant’s website as well. Absolue The Serum + Refill Duo, for example, which regularly goes for $510, was recently marked down to $459.All of which begs the question: from the brand’s standpoint, is shaving off $40 or $50 here and there really worth it? Young certainly doesn’t think so.