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Let's talk about cosmetics.

Cleopatra

Philosopher
C
Joined
Mar 15, 2003
Messages
9,079
A month ago I was out with my mother for shopping. She had forgotten her wallet so I gave her my credit card. Today I received the bill and I saw that she had spent on cosmetics 700$ :eek:

I called her to ask what she bought and she started narrating stories about caviar extracts, oxygen masks, vitamin c serums that can revitalize your skin and make you look 20 years younger.

My mother doesn't smoke, she runs a calm and healthy life, she doesn't stay under the sun and she looks like my sister BUT she believes that she owes her appearence to the cosmetics she uses.

I am skeptical as to the things those beauty creams promise.

What's the deal with that?
 
several billion euros of advertising telss your mother that it is the cosmetics.
 
I have a rule of the thumb that the efficacy of a beauty product can be measured by the inverse proportion of the expense of the packaging and presentation.

A simple plastic bottle of moisturing cream ususally does what it says.

An elaborately designed (small) jar of a clear jelly like substance containing fleks or streaks of iredescent colour, packagied in an expensive gold embossed box usually doesn't make wrinkles go away.
 
At the moment there's an ad on the TV for a cream which 'improves the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles'

My, those are some good looking wrinkles you've got there!
 
Like Drooper says, a simple rehydrating lotion is probably sufficient, especially if your mother lives healthy and doesn't walk in the sun too much.

BTW, she looks like your sister :eek: ? How old is your sister?
 
I began to suspect things when they started offering "oil free" Oil of Olay....

It's true. Thumb through the ads in a typical women's magazine and you'll see more psuedoscientific crap than in the average health-food catalogue.
 
Diprobase, is recomended by the Guardian's Bad Science writer

I prostrate myself before you and admit defeat. I've been writing this column for nearly two years, and I still haven't managed to stiff a single multinational cosmetics firm: they're just too good at constructing legally defensible pseudoscience. I'm picturing huge laboratories and rows of scientists writing incomprehensible but legally sound babble onto their clipboards......
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Full Article
 
My question is why you dismiss cosmetics as pseudo science? They claim that they make research and things like that and that they use natural products.

It's true that if your eyes are tired and you place on them two slices of cucumber soon they will feel better.

If your skin seems tired and you place a mask made of an egg white along with two drops of lemon juice your skin will look brighter.

If you want to make the skin of your hands shine all you have to do is rub them with a slice of lemon.

If you have long hair use a mask of olive oil along with an egg yolk( this is what I do when I have time) and if you want a good body scrun mix some salt with olive oil.

What does this mean? That cosmetology has a base. Now what if they use natural ingredients indeed ? I do not think that they lie about the laboratories and the research stuff.

Exarch I meant that my mom looks as if she were my sister, she doesn't show her age.
 
Cleopatra said:
My question is why you dismiss cosmetics as pseudo science? They claim that they make research and things like that and that they use natural products.
Click to expand...


So do homeopaths

It's true that if your eyes are tired and you place on them two slices of cucumber soon they will feel better.
Click to expand...

No pubmed listed paper supports this claim
If your skin seems tired and you place a mask made of an egg white along with two drops of lemon juice your skin will look brighter.
Click to expand...

No pubmed listed paper supports this claim
If you want to make the skin of your hands shine all you have to do is rub them with a slice of lemon.
Click to expand...

only one vagly relivant paper exists on this claim

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=10713866


What does this mean? That cosmetology has a base. Now what if they use natural ingredients indeed ? I do not think that they lie about the laboratories and the research stuff.
Click to expand...

It means you can produce some anidotal evidence. Lie no. Have a slighly strange reltionship with the truth probably.
 
A lot of these things are rather subjective as well, and may be conditioned by culture.
I do not recall, at any time in the last 58 years, my skin feeling tired.
 
The technobabble is fantastic in these products and people just think "Oh great! It's got microvesicles! It must be good."
Aren't microvesicles just small particles of stuff?

Natural lipids!
Wouldn't butter conform to this definition?

And then there's Oil of Olay:
"Regenerist Eye Lifting Serum’s amino-peptide complex helps to regenerate cells in the skin’s outer layer for dramatic skin improvement."

Please, is there a biologist in the house to help explain the plausibility of this?

Or this page about Oil of Olay anti-ageing product?

It explains:
"Intensive Restoration Treatment contains the unique Olay vitamin complex - VitaNiacin, which effectively strengthens skin's moisture barrier - actively improving texture and tone, combined with the highest concentration of Pro-Retinol available*. "

What is Pro_Retinol and why do I want large concentrations of it? Bythe way the asterisk isn't referenced on the mentioned page.
Bizzarely Pro-Retinol isn't mentioned on the link to ingredients.

What is going on here?
 
Truthfully the best way to prevent wrinkles and aging, or to just treat your skin well is to use sunscreen, and wash with mild soap (like "Dove").

My only real indulgence is to buy nice soaps that have glycerin and olive oil, though the MOST I would ever pay is about $5.00 per bar... but I usually have more than I need since I get them as gifts on Mother's Day and my birthday.

I am low maintenance... and my middle-age skin is just fine.
 
The following is true.

I'm 49 past. Since 1978 , I have worked with materials like diesel oil, caustic soda, other alkalis, industrial acids and all sorts of noxious stuff. Of course I take precautions, but my hands are regulary covered in nasty chemicals.

Yet several women have commented (as recently as this year) about how soft my hands are.

My point is that the overriding factor in skin tone and appearance is genetics. You either have soft smooth skin, or you don't. All young people have, so we see smooth skin as a characteristic of youth and , by extension, beauty. Some women and men keep it longer than others.

Personally, I find most young women rather bland. Laugh lines and wrinkles lend a woman character.

Good diet, health, mild soap and water. All else is salad dressing.

(Or it's the nasties that do the job- in which case I can sell you them by the ton at a great saving).
 
You should change your screen name to "Grimy Sam" :D
 
Originally posted by Cleopatra
Exarch I meant that my mom looks as if she were my sister, she doesn't show her age.
Click to expand...
I know what you meant. I guess you also figured out what I meant to find out :D
 
Minoxidal (Rogaine) results can be summarized this way:

In randomized, double-blinded studies, the men in those studies self-reported as follows:

20% of men receiving placebo grew back hair
33% of men receiving minoxidal grew back hair.


Now, minoxidal really works. We know that. But what's up with those 1 in 5 men who grew back hair by (unknowingly) rubbing in alcohol? They were balding. They participated in studies of hair regrowth treatments. Ergo, they reported hair regrowth.

Now translate that to a woman at a cosmetics counter being offered a $100 beauty cream product. It must be good if they're charging $100 for it, right?

1 in 5 men. In placebo we trust.
 
I've used cosmetics from so many different cosmetic lines over the years. The only ones I use exclusively now are Clinique Mild Soap and Estee Lauder Skin Perfecting Cream. I use the cream at night only because I don't really like it as as a base under my make-up. It isn't irritating to my skin at all. It doesn't sting when you put it on--it just seems to have a very calming effect on the skin. I've used it for over 20 years. It comes in a lotion form as well but I don't like the lotion. The cream comes in a jar. I like Dove soap for showering but I prefer the Clinique Mild Soap on my face. I used to like Monteil Paris Soft Cover Liquid Foundation. I used it for years but this line is no longer available. It was formerly known as Germaine Monteil and the name was later changed to Monteil Paris. I have never been able to find another foundation that I liked as well as this one and, believe me, I've tried too many to count. Lancome appealed to me simply because Isabella Rosselini was the model representing the line for fourteen years.
 
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