The skin care marketplace is one of artificially inflated choice.
Despite the huge number of products on the market, for most people the potential for effective skin therapy is as limited as ever.
Consumers need to choose products carefully, or not at all, if they want to avoid being duped.
If you're interested in seeing measurable improvements in your skin and "anti-aging" that goes beyond the words on a jar, its worth taking some time to understand some of the reasons why so many products and brands can exist in the face of such poor results and such high prices:
- Large skin care companies, particularly those tied to luxury brands, have more influence over the marketplace than consumers or dermatologists. How do you know the latest cream at the department store/beauty salon is currently the most effective at achieving a particular outcome?
The bottom line: you don't. There's too many products, too much double-talk, and too much pressure to purchase.
- Countless old, overpriced or otherwise inferior products remain on the market because they're already ubiquitous. Interest in these products is primarily driven by mass media advertisement. They've never been trialled in medical journals or integrated in professional dermatological practice for good reasons, nor will they ever be.
The bottom line: most people never get to experience skin treatment with measurable effects. They're left in the dark.
The solution, not surprisingly, is to arm yourself with knowledge and to go the route of accountable channels.
Above all else, avoid any retailer that sells anything and everything they can get their hands on, particularly if they're selling products with very different "brand philosophies."
Pleasantly, there's an upside to the cosmetics manufacturer/cosmetics buyer power imbalance: cost.
Superior products are generally cheaper due to their comparatively miniscule marketing costs.
The downside: a lot of people have already been defrauded by dishonest manufacturers and retailers.
Once bitten, twice shy, they're either unlikely to risk any further experimentation, or continue to willfully waste their skin's future by indulging in gimmicks like oxygen skin care, Paula Begoun, face bras and chirality.
Melbourne Dermatology aims to assist people in avoiding the dreck of skin care.