'AITA for asking my friend to pay me back for breaking an expensive skincare product?' 'The bottle is made of glass.'

"AITA for asking my friend to pay me back for breaking an expensive skincare product?"

A few days ago, I (F24) hosted a sleepover with two of my friends, both also 24. At the end of the night, while we were all taking off our makeup, I told them they could use any of the skincare products in my bathroom cabinet. I'm really into skincare and have a variety of products, ranging from drugstore to high-end.

A few moments later, one of my friends, Jane, told me she accidentally dropped and broke one of my skincare products. It was the SK II Pitera Essence, which retails for about about $134. The bottle is made of glass, so it's quite fragile. It was about 80% full since I had just bought it a couple of weeks earlier.

She apologized and said she felt really bad. I told her it was fine, but when I mentioned the cost, she was shocked. I then asked if it would be possible for her to pay me back, not the full price but at least part of it. She seemed uncomfortable and said she didn't think she should have to pay since it was an accident and I had offered for her to use the products in the first place.

Since then it's been awkward between us and we haven't spoken. Our other friend who was there isn't taking sides and is staying neutral about the whole situation. AITA for asking her to help cover the cost of the broken product?

EDIT:

I wanted to thank everybody for their input. I didn't expect this story to get that much attention. I've been reading the responses you guys left, and just to clarify some things: I didn't tell my friends about the price beforehand because it would be kinda awkward to say "Hey, you can use my stuff but be careful, it's really expensive."

I trusted my friends to use my products responsibly. I keep all my skincare in the same cabinet regardless of cost, because I use them on a daily basis so it's just more practical. Jane is not wealthy, but she is financially stable.

She admitted that she knew it was an expensive product (she's heard of the brand before) but didn't realize it was THAT expensive. This isn't a hill I wanna die on, so I'm not going to press the issue further with Jane. I texted her to let her know she doesn't have to reimburse me. Thank you again for all the perspectives.

Here's what top commenters had to say about this one:

Squiggles567 said:

NAH. It’s awkward. She probably had no idea she was risking losing that kind of money by taking you up on your offer. You want to be compensated for out-of-ordinary breakage. In a perfect world, she would offer to pay or you would not want her to pay because when you let people use fragile things, you take a risk. Neither of you is an AH. Don’t let something like this ruin a friendship.

Kittenn1412 said:

I'm going to say YTA. You offered for your friends to use any product they wanted knowing the price or the products in your cabinet, without informing them the price of the products in your cabinet and that one was in a glass container.

Imagine you were at your friend's house and they offer you a glass of water. They hand over a particularly nice glass, so you can tell at a glance it's their "good" dinnerware but you don't know the price. You trip and fall and drop it. Turns out a single glass is $140 to replace.

Who do you think carries the burden of paying for it-- the person who tripped and broke it, or the person who handed over their $140 glass to drink water out of without even asking their friend to be careful? Pretty clear who should carry that expense, right?

Now do you think it changes anything if the $140 glass was in the regular dishware cupboard with the $5 glasses, you asked for water and the friend said "feel free, the glasses are in the cupboard over the sink, use whatever you want," and you selected it on your own, still not knowing the price?

BenedictineBaby said:

NTA How embarrassing for your friend to not understand basic manners. Offering to replace what she broke is the correct response. Anything else is tacky.

TrekReader93 said:

YTA. Sorry, but in the same chance you would have dropped the bottle, she did. That’s the price you pay when you tell people to do whatever they want with something you own. It was not intentional, you know it was not intentional, you bear the cost of sharing it openly. Not because anyone is wrong, but just because that’s how the bottle shattered.

ShoelessHodor said:

You weren't exactly oozing grace. ESH. You shouldn't have asked, and she should have offered.

Internal-Athlete7978 said:

YTA. Don’t loan things if you are not comfortable with something unexpected happening to them.

UnCertainAge said:

NTA. This is basic: you break something, you replace it. Her logic is absurd and self-serving. Shame on her!