A friend advised me: 'Never buy women's razors, men's are much cheaper - and who wants to pay a premium for a pastel colour?'
A quick check in Boots showed she was absolutely right. A pack of ten Wilkinson Sword Extra 2 Beauty Disposable Razors costs £4.39, while over in the men's toiletries aisle, the male equivalent, Wilkinson Sword Extra 2 Disposable Razors, were just £3.65 for a pack of the same size.
Both versions boast two blades, an aloe vera strip and a handle with extra grip, so you have to conclude that you're paying a 74p - or 20 per cent - premium just because the wom en's razors are pink.
I realised this wasn't an isolated case - from deodorant and shaving foam to face scrubs, moisturisers, eye cream and even eau de toilette, we women seem to be paying over the odds almost every time.
So what - apart from the fact that men's products tend to come in steel grey packaging and smell of pine, while women's are pastel and floral fragranced - accounts for the difference?
'Generally speaking, the needs of men's skin are much the same as those of women's,' says Harley Street cosmetic dermatologist, Dr Sam Bunting. 'But men's skin is thicker and oilier, which means you can be more aggressive when using active ingredients.'
Colin Sanders, a cosmetic scientist who was behind the Simple range of products, agrees. 'There are differences, but they aren't that great. The biggest difference is that there is more hair in men's skin so pores aren't as open as in women's. Practically, you might be tempted to risk a higher level of fragrance in a men's aftershave than you would in a female product,' he explains.
You might imagine that financially speaking, this would favour females.
But no. From Ralph Lauren's Big Pony Eau De Toilette (£26.50 per 50ml for the men's, £35 for 50ml for the women's) to Issey Miyake's L'Eau D'Issey Eau De Toilette (£44.80 per 100ml for the pour homme version, £71 for 100ml for you, madame), in every instance the women's version costs more than the men's.
Shockingly, even when the scent is identical, women are expected to pay more for it. Fragrance house, Annick Goutal, sells unisex fragrances that are packaged in rounded glass bottles for women, and in rectangular glass bottles for men.
The product is the same, and you get the same amount, but opt for the female version, and you'll pay £100 instead of £95.80 - an extra £4.20. How do they explain it?
They say: 'The design of the female bottle is more sophisticated and more expensive to produce.'
So, should we women all be shopping for toiletries in the men's aisle? To find out, we decided to compare pairs of products from the same brand. Here's what we discovered …
