The lipstick effect: Greeks discover need to pamper in crisis

Eva Vorlioti, a divorced mother of two, was forced to move back in with her parents to make ends meet during Greece's debt crisis. While she cannot change the past, she is trying to efface one of its reminders: Her wrinkles.

Wiping her face with a cotton pad after a Botox injection, the 49-year-old supermarket worker said she has cut down on petrol and entertainment to afford the treatments, which make the skin appear smoother by temporarily paralysing muscles.

"I want to look at myself in the mirror and feel good. I'm afraid of ageing," Vorlioti said. "Work, the crisis, they push you down and you want something uplifting."

She is not the only one seeking solace in beauty treatments amid a financial crisis that cut hundreds of thousands of jobs cut, slashed salaries and caused a sharp decline in life satisfaction among Greeks.

In fact, it seems Greece is...