Learn how to avoid easy marketing traps
In today’s stimuli-driven consumer world, it’s very tempting to buy skin care products for their fancy packaging, great advertisement, convincing sales rep or big celebrity endorsement (“Jenifer Aniston uses this product, I love Jenifer Aniston!”). Here are common traps to avoid.
Drugstore Skin Care Products
The mass-merchandised brands sold at drugstores are created to work for hundreds of thousands of users, so these lines play it safe with low concentrations of active ingredients and a lot of added “fluff” —fillers, synthetics, sulfates and parabens, which are designed to keep costs low and extend the shelf life. Often times these added chemicals, fillers and preservatives actually make the skin worse by clogging the pores and increasing skin sensitivity. While these options may be less expensive than alternatives, just remember: you get what you pay for.
Expensive Department Store Skin Care Products
The products sold at department stores have one goal in mind: selling. Since these companies are in fierce competition with one another, the consumer’s satisfaction isn’t always the top priority. With that in mind, they focus on fancy packaging and marketing materials. After all, these companies know they have to catch your eye when you walk through the department store aisles. Also, these companies know that people will open and smell the products, so they use a lot of perfume additives because they know that smell sells. But beware, because fragrance (along with harsh chemical preservatives) is the number one cause of reactions from skin care products. In fact, many people who believe they have sensitive skin are in fact just sensitive to added fragrances and chemicals!
Private Label Skin Care Products
Here’s a big secret in the skin care industry — most “professional skin care lines” are actually private label products. Private label products are generically manufactured product lines that individuals or spas can contract to sell with their name and label – often with a huge mark up. When a spa uses a private label product, they are not involved in the product formulations, ingredients or quality of the products and these products are typically no better than inexpensive drug store brands, just with fancier packaging and a higher price. We can tell a private label product from a mile away, but many consumers can’t. Here’s what to look for — if a skin care line does not tell you that they formulate and make their own products then they are likely a private label brand. Also, you can look up the lab where the product is made (typically listed on the label) to determine if it’s outsourced. The most common private label products are found in spas and by celebrities that have their own skin care lines.
We hope you enjoyed our guide — becoming an educated skin care consumer you will get more bang (and results) for your buck. Unfortunately, skin care is too often about fancy packaging and good marketing then about high quality products that actually work.
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Learn more about Vasseur Skincare’s professional strength, 100% healthy & freshly made products here.
