Dear Woman: The real reasons why some skin care and anti-aging products are all ‘hype’ and no results.

Tracy Blatter of Raisin Face did me the honor of sharing this valuable information about skin care and anti-aging products on my blog. Some of the information I got from her piece are quite revealing. Women spend a lot of money on cosmetics and most times, we are clueless about what we are buying. Now you can at least, know what you are paying for.

Here is her piece…

Skincare is a multi-billion dollar business.  There are thousands of companies producing tens of thousands of products so it’s no surprise that women are undecided regarding what to buy.  The larger companies work to entice you through expensive ad campaigns also known as 'hype'.These campaigns often use airbrushed pictures of supermodels in their late 20’s to sell anti-wrinkle creams to women in their late 30’s and 40’s

However, a list of ingredients is the first thing you should look for in a product if you plan on applying it to your face.  If a list is not available, there’s a reason why it’s missing.  Usually, it means the manufacturer doesn’t want you to see what goes into the product.  Be a wise consumer and put the item back on the shelf.  If the next product has a list of ingredients, note the order in which they are listed.  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires that ingredients be listed in descending order. The component which weighs the most is listed first, and the ingredient weighing the least is listed last. Therefore, nine times out of ten, water will be number one on the list and a healthy antioxidant or peptide will be close to last.  Although this is helpful, note that the  percentage of the ingredient being used is NOT required.  This is unfortunate, because some very expensive creams contain more than 50 percent water and just a few drops of “something beneficial”.