RSS4 WRONG WAYS TO CHOOSE SKIN CREAM AND 1 WAY THAT WORKS
April 19, 2008
A good friend suggested recently that I try a cream from the Boots No. 7 line. She had tried it and found it to feel very nice. Much as I like my friend, how nice a cream feels is probably the least important factor in determining whether or not I will buy the product.
Why? Because how it looks, how it smells (especially if it has a smell, which is a deterrent), and how it feels do nothing to help your skin. Absolutely nothing. How it feels and what it does are not linked. Don’t connect them.
How skin cream is like pet food
I have a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and yet I cannot look at a bag of dog food and tell you if it’s any good. You know why not ? Because they tell you percentages. This tells you the manufacturer is adhering to a government-set minimum standard for the lifestage of the dog. So it’s 22% protein by chemical analysis. Well, beaks and feathers are protein too but they don’t provide protein a body can use.
What about the ingredient list? Let’s take chicken. There are 12 or more grades of chicken used to make pet foods. There’s the lowest grade all the way up to human grade. Which went into the bag? I have no idea. The ingredients just say chicken by-products. This is true for almost every ingredient.
And I haven’t even started on preservatives, coloring agents, flavor enhancers, and all the things that are done to pet food to make them more appealing to the pet owners.
A matter of trust
Your purchase decision comes down to this: how much do you trust that the company that made the pet food is using the best of ingredients and doing the testing to prove it? Or, how much do you confidence do you place in the guy telling you the food is worth buying?
So why the rant about pet food? Because skin cream is no different! Unless you understand the ingredients and the quantities in the formulation, you have no idea what that cream will do for you. Just because the Shiseido girl says something does not make it so. No way. I do not believe for a second that the majority of salespeople know the chemical makeup of their creams, or those of other manufactureres, beyond what the company has told them. They may trust their company on faith, but should you?
If you can’t tell from the feel/smell/look of a cream if it’s any good, and the salespeople, sincere and well-meaning though they are, are giving you the company’s party line, what have you got left??
4 Ways (that don’t work) to choose a good skin cream
You could see if the cream irritates your skin. Yes, some women have more sensitive skin but at the very least, even boring, behind-the-times formulations should not irritate, even if they are not specifically useful.
You could see if the cream lifts the wrinkles or reduces the lines. Does any of us really expect that? Don’t get your hopes up unless the lines are the tiny superficial ones caused by dryness.
You could use the cream for 6 months and see if your skin seems better. Of course, you may find that you just spent $90 on some cream that did nothing, and move on to the next waste of money. Not.
What’s left? Buy from a company you trust. Do you really trust and believe that L’Oreal has your best interest at heart? They’re moving product off shelves! Do you believe that dermatologist-lines must mean that every product is top-of-the-line and yet not overpriced? I don’t. This is business and nothing else. We’re being taken for an expensive ride.
1 Way that does work
This is what I do : I get informed from someone I trust. I trust Paula Begoun.
Searching for the truth
As you may have noticed, I have a fire in my blood about truth in advertising. So I don’t trust Paula because she seems sincere or speaks intelligently. The folks at Aveda and Mary Kay probably do too. I don’t know her personally. No money is changing hands when I write this. The woman is simply looking at the stardust-sprinkled cosmetics industry and speaking words that make sense.
It’s not because she’s passionate about her line of products. Chat with the folks at a Bobbi Brown counter. They’re moving through passion on the way to indoctrination.
I am pleased that she reserves her opinion about new “cures” till some independent research is done to substantiate the claims made by the manufacturer. This is very important in scientific literature. I discussed it more in the articles Don’t Go To The Cosmetics Counter Part 1 and Part 2. The journals she cites to back up her opinions are highly respected and reviewed publications. In fact, her argument is the only one I’ve heard that is scientifically sound.
But the biggest thing is this : I would imagine that the cosmetics companies are very vigilant in watching everything she says about them and about her own line of products. If she goes a step wrong, they would love nothing better than to expose that. I expect that her lawyers do not look for things to fill their days.
She has to be more careful and more honest than anyone. She has the cosmetics industry waiting for her to mislead consumers so they can point it out to us all. That industry knows what to watch for, more so than I do, but they never find it. If they can’t find the deceit, it’s not there. I don’t need to worry. She’s the one player in this game that cannot put a foot out of line.
There are no lies, no claims of having cracked the previously hidden code of aging. Her line of products is state-of-the-art and affordable. You will not find much not to like. 6 months from now, you will find your skin looks fine. And, yes, they do feel good.
Comments
4 Responses to “4 WRONG WAYS TO CHOOSE SKIN CREAM AND 1 WAY THAT WORKS”
Got something to say? I hope so.
-
A Greener Tea
Web Maintenence by Rick Beckman
Up until perhaps two months ago, I too was a cosmetic junkie. Or perhaps I should say… I was a naively-accepting and somewhat desperate 55-year old who needed the reassurance of the big cosmetic companies that I could DO something about my aging skin, and it only took an outlay of two hundred bucks on their latest miracle formulation to do it!
Not any more.
I decided to go with Paula’s Choice products. I’ve been reading her website and following her very logical, rational and scientific recommendations for some time but had never taken the plunge because… well, let’s face it… the glamorous advertising usually wins out!
Since I’ve been using Paula’s formulations… the cleanser, the toner, the beta-hydroxy compounds, the anti-oxidants and the mattifying moisturizer… my skin (I can truthfully say) has never looked better. I’ve been plagued with bad skin since my eleventh birthday… and that’s a long time to experiment with disappointing products and unhelpful results.
I don’t even glance at the skin care aisles in the department stores or drugstores anymore. I don’t need that reassurance anymore.
This has truly been a revelation to me. I’m very pleased to see you affirming that, too, on this lovely site!
Yours sincerely
Catriona Blain
Your blog on skin creams caught my eye, for I am always searching for the “miracle cream” that will return me to the face I had when I was twenty. As I was reading I caught site of Paula’s name and her website. My sister told me about her 15 years ago, she sent me every news letter Paula would print out and I slowly started changing my mind on how expensive the skin line has to be to be good for your skin. What I will say about all her articles and now her wonderful website which I am a member of, she really tells it like it is, she doesn’t tell you to purchase the most expensive or on the other hand the least expensive. I followed her advice and bought some things from the drugstore and others from department stores. But all the different ones were frustrating to me, I like a skin care system that has it all, and that I trust and she likes. Well I hit my dreaded forties and along with that came perimenopause, who knew there was such a thing before menopause? Well my hormones have gone crazy for 6 years now and I’m still a few years away from full menopause. With this delightful phase comes daily cramps, dry hair, dry skin etc…to make a long story short I happened upon a Doctor who dealt with my problems and then I saw that Paula had brought her own line of skin care and makeup! I was elated I emailed them and told them of my situation, they recommended what line to use and what to expect, not only in just a matter of 2 months my skin came around and changed from being dry and pigmented, to glowing and having back the elasticity I had when I was younger. I ventured further and bought her makeup line, it’s wonderful, great colors, texture which is really important but also the great idea of the century, miniature sample you can order for under a dollar and see if you like the product first. So I guess after reading this long hopefully not too boring blog is that I am a devoted Paula’s customer. She rates her products up there but also rates other lines also, she doesn’t push her skin care line on to a customer. Anyway any of you out there going thru what I am, please give her products a try, I know that they personally helped my skin and believe me, I am a extremely picky person and I do not like to be talked down to at cosmetic counter from some young thing of 18, who knows all there is to know about my skin and the universe:)). Thanks again for just putting her name out there, and letting people know, that her products are good, well priced and do the job there suppose to do.
Aloha, a loyal fan in Hawaii
@ Catriona ,
I think you speak for many women in your comment.
Is it not liberating to be able to walk past those counters and know with certainty that there is nothing there you don’t have ? And women who don’t want to learn about the science of skin care don’t have to because Paula does all the legwork.
It is so empowering to be able to choose with accuracy those products that will truly improve the skin. I also appreciate that Paula’s focus is not only the appearance of the skin, but also and more importantly, its health.
@ Robin,
Terrific comment. Like Catriona, I know that you speak for thousands of women.
I understand the hesitation women have with Paula’s Choice in that it is a mail-order company and they may not have friends who know the product, and those are things to get used to. What mystifies me, and you describe it above, is why there is so much resistance in letting go of the cosmetic giants. I think it’s because women cannot believe they could be so blatantly misled.
Loved the mental picture your 18 yr. old salesgirl brought to mind. People who know everything about the Universe are wonderful. That was me once. Yet another beauty of aging, and I truly believe there are many, is that I have abandoned that notion along the way. The release has allowed a fair amount of growth.