Price of Beauty products Vs Organic n’ synthetic! April 15, 2008

Although there is some truth to ‘you get what you pay for’, it can be taken too far. There’s not much proof that a skin care product costing 1250 Rs will do more for you than one that costs 120.50 Rs – if any clinical studies were done at all you would probably find evidence that they both worked, or didn’t. However, it is probably true that a bottle of lotion that costs 10 Rs may be less effective. How does cost affect the quality of skin care treatment products?

Some companies price their products higher simply because they can: They limit their sale to high end stores, they already have a reputation, or they have celebrity endorsements – something that will justify charging, and spending, more money, but does not necessarily guarantee the quality or efficacy of the product.

Other products use ingredients that are more expensive to produce and difficult to preserve. Natural skin care treatment products, for example, often contain ingredients you can’t simply make in a lab with chemicals. They contain aloe vera or other organic substances, organic (rather than synthesized) vitamins, herbal substances, and so on, that are more labour intensive to produce.

Also, because many manufacturers of natural products want to keep them as close to natural as possible, the products contain only minimal amounts of the preservatives and other chemicals that give them a longer shelf life and ensure integrity of texture. Under these circumstances, the products have to be manufactured in smaller batches since they’re not going to last on the shelves. This, of course, adds to the expense because the manufacturers can’t get the price break available if you buy in very large quantities.

That’s why many natural skin care treatment products – and other products – tend to be more expensive.

Source: Open Press NewsWire

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What Does Natural or Organic Actually Mean?
February 27th, 2008 Sales of natural/organic skincare, hair care and cosmetics items reached the $6 billion mark in 2006.

Are green cosmetics actually healthier than their synthetic counterparts?

For the most part, what’s going into today’s cosmetics is very similar to the past. Companies are linking the raw materials to the plant derivative. The labeling is different, but the actual ingredients are the same, or very similar. Previously, a product might have ‘ascorbic acid’ listed, now it will say ‘grapefruit rind.’

Dr. John Bailey, chief scientist at the Personal Care Products Council (http://www.personalcarecouncil.org/), a trade association for the cosmetics and personal care products industry, offers the following tips for consumers who are making the switch to green cosmetics:

“Natural products use some or all ingredients that are obtained from nature (usually botanical sources, but sometimes mineral). There is an effort to avoid the use of ingredients that are artificial or chemically manufactured.

Organic products take natural a step further by avoiding the use of things like chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The term “organic” implies additional steps to demonstrate the absence
Organic products take natural a step further by avoiding the use of things like chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The term “organic” implies additional steps to demonstrate the absence of specified substances, via a variety of private and government-certified programs.”

The term Natural or Organic does not mean chemical free, but it does mean that wherever possible the ingredients are obtained from natural as opposed to chemical sources. The balance of the ingredients may be different with higher quantities of naturally sourced materials and the use of chemically sourced material minimised.

Taken from an article that originally appeared on commercialappeal.com