Are Expensive Skn Care Products Better?

Skin are products run the gambit from dollar store moisturizers to ultra luxe department store serums. So, are the department store products that can cost upwards of $1,000 better or is it all just advertising hype?


The question isn't so simple for a couple of reasons. Some of the lower priced products may work better for some people because many times they are more simple products, products like the original Olay which is an emollient cream adored by many but does not include the latest buzz word anti aging ingredients.


On the other hand are the La Mer or Re Nutriv products by Estee Lauder. These products contain the latest peptides and ingredients thought to prevent or repair skin. For many people these high end, very expensive products are all they will use. They like the scent, the texture, the results. But do they moisturize skin any better than the lower priced products?


Packaging and fragrance can add substantially to the price of a product. So too can the research and development for new products. Each person is different and a lot of it depends on a person's personal preference. The higher end products tend to have a more luxurious texture and scent and frequently have the newest ingredients. Whether these new ingredients work is a whole other topic.


I am a fan of Estee Lauder advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex II which costs $62 for a one ounce bottle. I like the texture, the lack of scent, and the way it makes my skin feel. I also use Mastey de Paris Moiste Facial Moisturizer which sells for $28 for a 3.3 ounce tube. The Estee Lauder product has some of the latest ingredients and is quite expensive whereas the Mastey de Paris product is a more simple formula. As far as moisturizers go it is my favorite because it doesn't cause breakouts and doesn't contain the silicones and other fillers that irritate my sensitive skin.


So, it is really all about personal preference. What sort of products do you prefer?

Open Forum: Must Have Skin Care Item

What is the one skin care item you must have regardless of price? For instance, mine is Mastey de Paris Moiste Facial Moisturizer. What is your favorite product, why do you like it so much, and where do you purchase it. Leave your comments below.

Open Forum: How Important are Brand Names?

Would you rather use a well known brand name product such as Lancome or the less expensive but virtually identical L'Oreal brand? How important is brand name when choosing products? Leave your comments below.

Open Forum: Companies Not Responding to E-Mail

These days the most frequent way to communicate with a company is via e-mail. It is usually fast and to the point. So, it is quite frustrating when a company doesn't respond.

A good example is Mastey de Paris, they rarely, if ever, respond to e-mails. A recent e-mail was sent to them inquiring when their skin care line would again be available, specifically regarding Mastey Moiste Facial Moisturizer. No response. E-mail should be answered promptly, especially when there is so much competition for consumer interest.

An e-mail was sent to Alterna regarding a product they offer requesting further information. Again, no response. This e-mail was sent to them seeking information on how to use a product as a potential new customer and they didn't make the effort to respond.

Have you had similar difficulty get an e-mail answered? Did it deter you from doing business with them?

Open Forum: Fave New Products

What are some favorite new products? Is it a new fragrance, facial moisturizer, or a hair care product?

Open Forum: Winter Skin Care

With the colder weather, heated homes and cars, and the rush of the holiday season, our skin tends to become drier and need a little extra TLC. I find that packing on an emollient cream and letting it soak in for a while, prior to showering, helps reduce some of the dryness. A little extra moisturizer at night also seems to help. Overall, I try to do what I can to keep my skin hydrated.

What are your tips and hints for skin care during winter?

Open Forum: Cosmetic Sales Down

For obvious reasons the skin care market has not been as robust as it was prior to the recession. Various reports indicate that consumers are either not buying higher-end skin care products as often, if at all, or are instead choosing less expensive mass market products.

Keep in mind Estee Lauder manufactures Good Skin, Flirt, and Grassroots which are available only at Kohl's department stores in the US. These products have nearly identical counterparts to other Lauder brands such as La Mer, Clinique, Estee Lauder, Aveda, Origins, Ojon, etc. The various products I have tried from Kohl's are extremely well formulated products (as are most Estee Lauder manufactured products) and costs quite a bit less. The Good Skin All Firm Rebuilding Serum is a favorite ($26.00) as is the All Bright Moisturizing Sunscreen ($14.00). My absolute favorite Estee Lauder product, Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex, on the other hand is $47.50.

A similar situation exists for Lancome which is actually owned by L'Oreal. There are numerous L'Oreal products available at mass market drug and grocery stores that are very similar to the much more expensive Lancome products. L'Oreal owns brands such as Kiehl's, Biotherm, Redken, Armani, etc.

As anyone knows who reads this blog, Mastey de Paris is one of our absolute favorites. A small company, Mastey produces some great hair and skin care products at reasonable prices (although they have raised their shipping charges). Mastey de Paris Moiste Facial Moisturizer comes in a 3.38 ounce tube for $28.00 and the Mastey de Paris Velvetant Skin Renewal Complex with AHA comes in a 3.38 ounce tube for $18.00. They also have a more expensive skin care product Mastey de Paris Rejuvene Cellular Recovery which retails for $40.00 and comes in a two-ounce jar.

One of the main differences I have noticed between a company's expensive and less expensive products are scent. Even among Estee Lauder products, the Re-Nutriv line has a scent that just seems more luxurious than other Estee Lauder products. Re-Nutriv, of course, costs substantially more. Scent is a more expensive part of a product. Scent is something people seem passionate about, they either love strongly scented products or prefer a light or unscented formula. I don't mind scented products as long as it isn't overwhelming. I tend to prefer lightly or unscented products though.

Newer products or products reformulated with the newest, trendy, ingredients will tend to cost the most. Copmanies say this is because of the research and development costs for developing new products. Again, however, there are many lower cost products with the very same ingredients.

Lacura is a skin care line sold by Aldi grocery stores. The products are made in Germany and many sell for less than $10. The Lacura day cream won awards in England and the products seem to be quite popular. This only proves it is possible to make quality skin care products that actually work and do not cost a small fortune.

Whether you buy from a drug store or a fancy department store, there are many amazing products available at very reasonable price points. It isn't necessary to spend a fortune to get a great product. In this day and age of higher cost and recessions, cosmetic companies need to realize that in order to retain our business they must either start producing more affordable products, maintain their current prices or develop newer products at better price points.

Open Forum: Expensive Cosmetics - Are They Worth it?

According to an article in Forbes, some of the most expensive skin care products cost more than caviar but less than gold with an average price of $402 per ounce!(1) The question is, are they any better because of their sleek packaging and supposed state-of-the-art ingredients. Sales of prestige skincare products in U.S. department stores alone reached $2.1 billion in 2004, up 17% from 2000 (2), a staggering amount by anyone's comparison.

According to Dr. Gregory Brown, founder of RéVive, topical application of an epidermal growth factor accelerates the rate of healing of second-degree burns and partial-thickness skin wounds.(3) RéVive's most expensive product, Intensité Volumizing Serum, sells for $600 per ounce and uses a bioengineered molecule called keratinocyte growth factor. Brown justifies the expense by saying the reason his products cost so much is because they use growth factors obtained from recombinant-DNA technology. Celebrity beauties such as Madonna are said to use his products.

Estee Lauder sells a line of skin care under the Re-Nutriv moniker with a price range of $85 - $900.(4) Lauder owned Creme de La Mer is well over $100 per ounce.(5) I have tried numerous products from both the Re-Nutriv and La Mer lines and while they are extremely luxurious products, the formulations, at least that of the Re-Nutriv line, are very similar to other Estee Lauder products sold for much less. Are they worth it? It depends on what your take is on such things. The Re-Nutriv line contains some expensive ingredients such as gold and pearl. As an Estee Lauder fan, it is difficult for me to say the products are overpriced. However, I use Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Recovery Complex, $47.50/1 ounce, which I consider to be quite expensive. While there are far less expensive serums available, I have found this particular one works best for me so I continue to purchase it.

It must be kept in mind that part of the retail price for any product is the research, development, ingredients, packaging, marketing, etc., that goes into said product. Products containing the newest ingredients will usually cost more than previous products the company sells. When a new "it" ingredient starts getting press, many companies rush to develop a new product with it or update a previous product to include it.

Mastey de Paris, on the other hand, markets a number of skin and hair care products for less than $40 with mostly naturally derived ingredients. They avoid using the fluff and trendy ingredients found in so many product lines and instead stick to what is actually known to work. Mastey doesn't have the expenses associate with brands that are sold at department stores; this results in a line of products that work extremely well and at a reasonable price. I have used Mastey products for years and love them.

We all like the idea of some new magic ingredient that will do this or that. But the newest ingredients generally have little to no research backing up the claims. Many of the research studies done on new ingredients are done in-vitro and therefore their effects on skin are not fully known. Many of the studies are done by the company who manufactures the ingredient which is not as impartial as outside research studies.

So, how much is too much to pay? That all depends on your bank account and how important name brands are to you. There are many excellent products out there at all price points. It all comes down to how much are you able/willing to spend and whether or not a product works.

(1) Forbes http://www.forbes.com/2005/04/20/cx_vg_0420feat.html
(2) NPD Group
(3) July 1989 in the New England Journal Of Medicine
(4) Estee Lauder
(5) La Mer

Open Forum: Websites and Ingredients

When we go into a store to buy something we can read the ingredients list off the package and decide then if there is a particular ingredient we want to avoid. However, many times, when we shop online we do not have that option. Manufacturer's websites generally do not list the ingredients for the product and so we either must email them and ask, search online or in some cases call them. Why is it that all companies selling skin care products online are not required to give a complete list of ingredients for each product they sell?

The Estee Lauder company websites (Estee Lauder, Clinique, Prescriptives, Good Skin, American Beauty, Grassroots, La Mer, etc.) will highlight a particular ingredient but do not give a complete list. Lancome will only provide ingredient listings via snail mail yet their owner L'Oreal is now providing the ingredient listing for L'Oreal products on their website. Garnier, also owned by Lancome does not list ingredients on their website. Even Sephora, which list ingredients for most products does not provide them for Estee Lauder brands.

It would be really helpful to those of us with skin sensitivities if we could go to the website of the brand we want to buy something from and see what it contains so we don't have to return it or get stuck with something we can't use.

What do you think?

Open Forum: Do You Use a Facial Serum?

Do you use a facial serum as part of your routine? What do you use and why? Do you use it twice daily? Tell us the details.

Open Forum: Do You Prefer Chemical or Mineral Sunscreens?

As we all know sunscreen is one of the best things we can use to help protect our skin from aging. However, there are chemical sunscreens and mineral (physical) sunblocks. Chemical sunscreens must be applied a half hour or so before sun exposure while mineral sunblocks can pretty much be applied immediately before sun exposure. So, which do you use and why?

Open Forum: Favorite Hair Care Product

What is your absolute favorite hair care product and why? How long have you used it? What does it costs?

Open Forum: What are you newest beauty finds?

Tell us what your newest beauty finds are. Many companies come out with their new products in the spring.

Estee Lauder, Clinique, Good Skin, American Beauty, Lancome, L' Oreal, and Garnier are some of the companies that just recently launched new products.

What are you using? How do you like it? Where do you buy it and what does it cost? We want to know!

Open Forum: Sunscreen

Do you wear sunscreen daily? Mineral or chemical? What brands have you found to work best on your skin type? Where do you purchase it and what does it cost?

Open Forum: Brand Names

As a consumer, do you tend to navigate more toward high end products or mass market, drug store brands. Why?

Lancome and Loreal are corporate sisters and share may similar products with vastly different pricing. But is Lancome, at a higher price, a better product line?

Estee Lauder owns numerous prestige brands including La Mer, Prescriptives and Clinique, but are they better than Good Skin, American Beauty, Flirt or Grassroots which they manufacture exclusively for Kohl's?

What are your thoughts about brand name and quality?

Open Forum: What is your favorite scent?

What is your favorite fragrance? Is it something new and daring or classic and refined? Where do you buy it, what does it retail for and what does it smell like?

Open Forum: What is your single favorite facial moisturizer?

Tell us what your favorite facial moisturizer is, why it's your favorite, the price, where to buy it and anything else you want to say about it.