Mancunians ranked as one of the UK's biggest beauty spenders

Whether it's beefing up your brows, slapping on the tan, or hitting the gym, we all have our go-to beauty rituals we can’t live without. And it seems that Manchester knows better than most when it comes to makeup matters. The city was recently ranked the third largest beauty city in the UK, thanks to the plethora of shopping outlets on the high street.

The research from TotallyMoney.com totted up the best beauty establishments and the highest spend on beauty across the UK. From tanning salons to clothes shops, nail bars to gyms – the survey considered all routes to beauty to find the best cities to satisfy your ego.  

Manchester scooped up third place to Liverpool and Leeds, with 1,908 clothing shops and over 200 make-up outlets. But despite more choice than you can shake your credit card at, Mancunians were a little less willing when it comes to splurging on beauty, with the average yearly spend of £5,559 leading the city to come in 5th. Top of the list for beauty spends was face products, racking up £861 per year, following by teeth whitening (£684) and clothes & footwear (£544). After all, Mancunians are well known for accessorising their trend-lead threads with pearly whites and baby soft skin...

Leeds trumped London for the top spending spot, with the city splurging a whopping £7K a year on beauty buys. As well as being the biggest spenders on teeth whitening services, Leeds inhabitants also had the highest spend per capita on dermatologists at £587 a year – meaning they’re likely to have clear skin and devilishly white teeth.  

But whilst Leeds puts more money into their appearance, Liverpool have the most beauty options per person. With 453 clothing shops to every 100,000 people, Liverpool beat the capital to the number one spot thanks to its impressive retail offering. Manchester came in second to Liverpool for the most number of make-up shops, making it one of the better locations for brand variety.

Whilst the survey revealed our favourite spending spots, it also revealed that when it comes to flashing your latest beauty haul, there’s a time and a place. Respondents proved 18% more likely to dress up to see their family than they would for work and nearly half said that they didn’t take pride in their appearance when it came to dressing themselves for the workplace. Over 25% of the survey respondents also said that they would judge someone who put in too little effort in their appearance for work, making showing up to your job looking dog rough was the most critiqued choice. This was closely followed by people who put in too much effort with their appearance at the gym – we all know you didn’t wake up immaculately contoured, love.