So, you’ve been using a particular product & it’s been working great for you but you’ve seen a similar product, with the same active ingredient & you’re wondering if you should you buy the cheaper one. They have the same active ingredient & promise the same result, so it’ll be fine right?
Maybe…..
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Skincare products might have the same function & they may even have similar active ingredients but they will not give the same results and, therefore priced differently.
Most people think that this is due to brand names, marketing, fancy packaging, etc. Yes, that may be a part of it but what differentiates expensive products from cheaper products is more than that, it’s delivery systems, quality of ingredients, innovation & the science behind the products.
Delivery Systems
When I talk of delivery systems, I’m not talking about the transportation of the products from the warehouse to the stores, I’m talking about the transportation of active ingredients into your skin.
Your skin is part of your immune system and its main function is to make sure that nothing enters your body, it is a physical barrier between your body & the environment. This means that active ingredients should not be able to enter your skin.
A great way of making sure that active ingredients enter the skin & affect the desired changes in the skin is to include delivery systems in the skincare products. The delivery systems make sure that the active ingredient enters the skin & gets to where it’s supposed to get without being degraded.
Your skin contains immune cells & has an acidic pH. This can change or degrade the active ingredients as they’re going through the skin.
Let’s make an example…. let’s say that the active ingredients are ice cream & the delivery system is the ice cream truck. The ice cream truck must get the ice cream from point A to point B without the ice cream melting or spilling.
On the way to point B, there are speed humps, potholes, and reckless drivers so it might have to break hard every now & then, maybe there’s traffic that makes it take longer for the ice cream to get to point B.
The ice cream truck, as the delivery system, has to make sure that it has the right temperature so the ice cream doesn’t melt & that it’s fitted out in a way that’ll make sure the ice cream doesn’t move around & spill should the truck hit any potholes or break hard. It needs to get to point B in the same condition it left point A
For active ingredients to affect change in your skin, they need to be able to penetrate through the different layers of your skin to get to where they need to make a change. They also need to maintain their integrity & not change so that they can work effectively. Delivery systems allow for this to happen
There are different delivery systems, some more advanced than others, with a lot of technology & research behind them. You pay for delivery systems in more expensive products, especially cosmeceuticals.
Active Ingredients
Active ingredients are not created equal.
Let’s take hyaluronic acid for example…. a serum may contain hydrating hyaluronic acid, another serum may contain Dual Hyaluronic Acid & another one may contain cross-linked hyaluronic acid.
These 3 different hyaluronic acids behave differently & will determine the price of the serum.
Hyaluronic acid – Penetrates into the skin & plumps it up
Dual hyaluronic acid – Is 2 different hyaluronic acids with 2 different molecular weights. The one with the higher molecular weight penetrates the epidermis & hydrates it. The one with the lower molecular weight penetrates deeper into the dermis hydrating there.
Cross-linked hyaluronic acid – Penetrates into the skin & forms bonds with each other creating a net of hyaluronic acid preventing trans epidermal water loss
This is just an example showing how you can get different types of one ingredient & all behave differently making the different serums more expensive or cheaper
Sometimes what could make a product more expensive could be the fact that they’ve combined different active ingredients to make a beautiful blend that would work better & give you more benefits than a product that only has one ingredient.
Packaging
Packaging plays an important role in the effectiveness of active ingredients. Light & oxygen can make active ingredients less effective so a company might spend more money on airless & light-free packaging.
Airless packaging would be your pump bottles to prevent air from oxidising the active ingredients & light-free packaging will not allow any light to penetrate. It’s cheaper for companies to just use glass jars.
Packaging will increase or decrease the price of a product.
Concentration Of Ingredients
The concentration of the active ingredient itself differs from brand to brand.
The higher the concentration, the more expensive & effective the product will be. You could get two creams with the same active ingredient, the cheaper one will have a lower percentage of the active ingredients compared to the more expensive one
Make sure the active ingredients are at the top of the ingredient label list
When all is said & done, there are many good inexpensive products & many crappy inexpensive products. The most important thing is that you use your products regularly. Make sure that they are the correct ones for your skin type & condition.
Expensive products contain advanced delivery systems, a higher concentration of active ingredients & packaging that drives the price of the product up.
In the end, it’s better to moisturise with a cheap moisturiser than not to moisturise at all
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