INTERNATIONAL. On 16 August 2009 Leila Obeid, the famous Lebanese beauty guru, TV presenter and Pond's Brand Council member was interviewed on CNN during the Marketplace Middle East show (MME).

Leila Obeid appeared on MME during a feature titles "Borrowing for Beauty" to give her opinion about the effects of the recession on the beauty and cosmetics sectors in the region.

Leila Obeid said:"I found that my beauty salon was affected by the recession during the first quarter but what we noticed is that women continued to spend money cosmetics but the quantity of people spending was a bit less." 

 Obeid adds: "Lebanese ladies have developed a trend of always looking beautiful and young. This is who we are; therefore I don�t believe that women will compromise on looking beautiful. They will keep on spending on cosmetics in order to look their best even in difficult recession times."