Key findings
- 41% typical price gap. The median product costs 41% more at the dearest store than the cheapest (average: 46%).
- 2 in 5 products have a gap of 50% or more. 39.8% of products cost at least 1.5× more at the dearest store. One in ten (10.2%) costs double or more.
- Sunscreen has the widest gap of any category: 64%. That’s well ahead of serums (43%), toners (43%), cleansers (41%) and moisturisers (39%), and it’s the product Australians are about to buy most of this summer.
- Department stores are rarely the cheap option. Myer was the most expensive in-stock store for 85% of the products it stocks, charging a median 43% more than the cheapest store. David Jones was the dearest for 64% of its products.
- Chemist Warehouse is usually cheapest, but not always. It was the cheapest store for 55% of the products it stocks, and the dearest for just 8%.
- K-beauty markups at department stores are the most extreme. VT Cosmetics Reedle Shot 700 (30ml) was $119 at Myer and $42.95 at Colorcity, almost 3× the price for the same product.
Price gap by category
| Category | Products analysed | Typical gap |
|---|---|---|
| Sunscreen | 291 | +64% |
| Essence | 82 | +51% |
| Serum | 679 | +43% |
| Toner | 216 | +43% |
| Eye care | 177 | +43% |
| Cleanser | 554 | +41% |
| Moisturiser | 1,089 | +39% |
| Mask | 333 | +35% |
| Exfoliant | 182 | +34% |
| Lip care | 113 | +34% |
| Face mist | 59 | +19% |
Typical gap is the median, across products in the category, of the dearest in-stock price divided by the cheapest.
How often each store is cheapest or dearest
Selected stores with at least 150 qualifying products.
| Store | Products | Cheapest for | Dearest for | Median premium |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemist Warehouse | 675 | 55% | 8% | +0% |
| Lila Beauty | 1,341 | 41% | 5% | +3% |
| Direct Chemist Outlet | 1,116 | 32% | 12% | +14% |
| David Jones | 676 | 16% | 64% | +25% |
| Nudie Glow | 963 | 6% | 26% | +31% |
| Priceline | 672 | 7% | 50% | +43% |
| Myer | 664 | 11% | 85% | +43% |
Median premium is how much more the store charged than the cheapest in-stock store, for the median product it stocks. Where several stores share the lowest or highest price, each counts as cheapest or dearest.
What this means for shoppers
Never assume the store you’re in is the cheapest. For a typical product you’ll pay $8 more at the dearest store; for 13% of products the gap is $20 or more.
Check before you buy sunscreen. It’s the category with the widest gaps, and the one most people buy repeatedly through summer.
Buying K-beauty? Skip the department store. Specialist K-beauty stores and discount chemists consistently undercut department stores on Korean brands.
Shipping matters. The cheapest store isn’t always cheapest once delivery is added. The haul tool works out the cheapest combination of stores for a whole basket, including shipping.
Methodology
- Data
- Dewbirdy’s price index, which refreshes prices from Australian retailers nightly. Snapshot taken 1 November 2026.
- Scope
- 7,877 products were in stock at two or more Australian stores, and 4,687 at three or more.
- Like-for-like
- Prices are compared for the same product in the same size. To guard against mismatched listings, we excluded 265 products where the cheapest price was under half the median price or the dearest was more than double it, leaving 4,422 products.
- Prices
- Listed in-stock prices in AUD, excluding shipping, promo codes and membership pricing. Overseas stores are left out.
- Limitations
- Prices change daily, and stores run frequent promotions. This is a point-in-time snapshot, not a ranking of overall store value.
How we match products and handle sizes is covered in the methodology.
Using this data
Journalists, bloggers and researchers are welcome to use these findings. Please credit Dewbirdy and link to this page. For the full dataset, specific products, or a comment, email [email protected].
Dewbirdy is an independent Australian skincare price-comparison site covering about 30,000 products across 41 Australian stores.
Common questions
- How much do skincare prices differ between Australian stores?
- For the median product, the dearest in-stock store charges 41% more than the cheapest. Two in five products differ by 50% or more, and one in ten costs double or more at the dearest store.
- Which skincare category has the biggest price differences?
- Sunscreen. The typical sunscreen costs 64% more at the dearest store than the cheapest, ahead of essences (51%) and serums, toners and eye care (43% each).
- Is Chemist Warehouse always the cheapest?
- No. It was the cheapest store for 55% of the products it stocks, and the dearest for 8%. For the rest, another store was cheaper.