Style Theory: Skincare is a SCAM?!

Hello theoretical. Have you been looking in the mirror and liked what you see? Have you found yourself saying, "I look pretty good?", or maybe even thinking, "I don't feel the need to dress up at all." Wait, wait, do you have it? Oh my goodness, that's an emergency in the fashion industry! Don't panic! We can fix this! I have just what will solve the problem. Skin care. Hello Internet! Welcome to Style Theory, the new addition to the Theorist family that's creating new wrinkles on your brain. Today we talk about skin care. In an episode I've been meaning to tackle since before the channel even had a little glint in my eye,

skincare

through washes, toners, creams and serums is a big part of the

style

pie, so I'm grabbing a lot. and help him before my time as the channel's presenter ends.

Plus, let's be real, I should probably get into

skincare

right now. I have lived the last ten years on a lot of fast food and very little sleep. It's really not the best recipe for a radiant, wrinkle-free complexion. But I'm sure that if I look at a few brands and see what they have to offer, I'll be able to get by in no time. Wait, why are there so many options? This apparently prevents dark spots. Does this defend against pollution? This one apparently has something called banana powder inspired pigments. Apparently that just means I'm going to turn yellow.

This protects against oxidative damage, but also has oxygenating ginseng. Should my face be hydrated, oxygenated, glowing, illuminated, protected from the city streets or simply have fewer wrinkles? Maybe I just give up everything, put on this mask, and apparently become what appears to be an android. How am I supposed to navigate all of this? How is anyone supposed to navigate all of this? Well, that's the thing, folks. We're not really supposed to know. If there's one thing the skincare market is great at, it's selling and not telling. It's a $181 billion industry and expected to reach $210 billion by 2028, and the vast majority of that money will come from thousands of face and body products ready to add to your next routine. 14 step skin care.

You'll be hydrating, plumping, brightening, smoothing, toning, rejuvenating, and firming, all because an ad, an influencer, or maybe even just your mom told you that's what you should do. My mother tells me that there is never too much moisturizer. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Yes, you have to take care of yourself. We think skin care products will help us stay young forever, but at the end of the day, most of those pretty little bottles are filled with nothing but empty promises. This skincare industry is able to remain so massive and successful not because it makes everyone's face perfect, but because of its incredibly strategic marketing tactics that use our hopes, dreams, and fears against us every time we look at ourselves. mirror.

How are they doing this? How do they make these products seem so personal, so compelling, and so necessary to all of us? I mean, this industry has us doing 20-step skincare routines, rubbing chemicals we can't pronounce all over our faces, and pushing youthful skin on people who aren't even old enough to vote. To overcome the literal skincare marketing gauntlet thrown at you every day, you'll need to amass a wealth of knowledge. But don't worry, by the time this episode is over, you'll be armed with all the advertising secrets so you can become a wallet warrior. To start, if you feel like you've bought into the skincare industry right now, the first thing you should do is take some time.

Skincare overkill is far from a new problem. The beginning of people's obsession with skin care dates back a long time. Heh, before that. Ho-ho, long before that too. In fact, until the year 3000 BC. C., to the influential originals, the ancient Egyptians. That's right, according to the records we have, the pharaohs were the first official creators of beauty. Smear skin cream to preserve your baby's soft skin. They used natural moisturizers like olive oil and herbs. They mixed sand and honey to make scrubs. Cleopatra was even known to bathe in sour milk, which apparently acts as a natural chemical exfoliant.

Honestly, if any of those methods showed up on TikTok here in 2024, we'd all be like, Oh my god, that's so cool! And then everyone would leave the milk in the sun so they could pour it on their faces a couple of hours later. All my props to Cleopatra, she definitely started a trend, but it raises a pretty important question: why? Any idea why the ancient Egyptians tried so hard to look Instagram-ready 5,000 years before Instagram? Where the hell did we collectively get this idea that younger skin is a must? And while we're at it, have you ever thought it's weird that we don't even define what youthful skin really is?

I mean, there's a lot of talk about making your skin look youthful, about taking years off your face, about turning back time, but have you ever noticed that no one mentions the actual age you're looking for? How young are you supposed to look here? What is the ideal? From where I'm sitting, 25? That's pretty young. When I'm 50, 35 will be young. For some of you, you're probably 26, so 18 is young. What defines youthful skin and why have people tried to preserve it for the last 5,000 years? Well, it turns out that, historically speaking, the definition of young skin is actually uncomfortably young.

He's certainly too young to be used in a commercial here in 2024. Looking back at Cleopatra's time, people had an average life expectancy of 33 years for men and just 29 years for women. What about that? You're finally old enough to rent a car and you just fall apart. Ancient civilizations focused on two things, and two things only: surviving and having children. They usually didn't do that first long enough to get wrinkled skin. But because of the short life expectancy, people were actually considered adults at incredibly young ages. Around 16 years old for boys and only 13 for girls. Which was the age at which they normally got married and had babies.

That meant that the people who made it in the world were teenage mothers. So, what does the ideal woman look like these days? Well, for starters, she's certainly too young to drive. For some concrete examples of this in history, look at Persephone. Considered one of the most beautiful Greek goddesses. Described in the Odyssey as young. 15 when she meets Hades. Helen of Troy, known as the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Also 15 at the time of the Greek myth she is in. The Virgin Mary. She has great skin. And also approximately 16 at the birth of Jesus. On the other hand, she looks at her.

She is literally glowing. This type of art, which shows virtuous goddesses and saints with great skin, also establishes the historical idea that smooth skin reflects morality as a person. There is a long history dating back hundreds of years surrounding the myth that a good person on the inside equals good skin on the outside. For hundreds of years in the Middle Ages, diseases such as rashes and acne were associated with immorality. Appearing in people who were sinners or even witches. One type of evidence used during the Salem Witch Trials to convict women of witchcraft was finding a devil's mark on their skin.

Which could be any type of rash, pimple or scar. If your face was stained, well, then so was your soul. Since the beginning of history, the standard of female beauty has not revolved around women. It basically revolves around extremely virtuous girls. Those aren't hashtag life goals, fam. Fast forward to today. By leaving the idea of ​​youthful skin as this nebulous floating goal that isn't really defined, the skincare industry is leaving us to imagine what youth means to us personally. And that's why we always wonder if our skin is going to be good enough. When historically juvenile actually referred to children.

Coming to the present day, you can see that this leaves skincare in this strange headspace. The idea of ​​having good skin relates to our morality, our economic status, our literal survival as a human race. Hey, if you're feeling sensitive about the topic, it's not you. It is literally an evolutionary battle that you are fighting within your own body. But hey, you don't have to lose that battle for your hard-earned money every time you watch a commercial. Let's look at how skincare marketing is designed to intentionally trigger your insecurities about these areas using these thousands of years of social pressure.

Won't it be fun? Be. The commercials are really embarrassing and funny. Today's skin care companies rely on marketing principles to make you want to buy every cream, lotion, and serum on the shelves. Mass-produced skincare has been around for over a hundred years. So they've had a while to perfect all of these strategies. Whereas you just walk in totally unprepared. Skin care marketing started off relatively gently with Vaseline. First marketed in 1870 in print advertisements. It could be used as a makeup remover, rash guard, baseball glove oil, hair cream, furniture polish and lip balm all in one. During the 1940s, it was marketed to both men and women as a practical staple to have around the home.

Who needs fancy creams? Baby skin, lips, hands too. Vaseline Vaseline. He is doing it all! Because who doesn't want to take care of their face with the same substance that he uses to grease the rusty wheel of his cart? But then things started to heat up when a new wave of products hit the market. The skin care giant of the 1950s, cold cream. Cold Cream used the number one major marketing tactic: problem-agitation solution marketing. Now a well-known advertising tactic. Step number one: Tell the customer they have a problem they didn't know existed. Step number two, make that problem seem really annoying.

Something that will bother her all day. Step number three: Tell them how your product will solve their problem and improve their entire life in the process. If you've seen any made-for-TV ads, this is probably the most extreme version of this type of tactic. Do you struggle and struggle to reach high places behind the couch or in small, confined spaces? Well not yet. In the past, cold creams were sold by telling women that their face is much dirtier than they think. Two, that having dirty skin was bad and that soap did not solve the problem. And three, that cold cream can fix your skin and improve your life.

This is one of the first shots of this from the '50s. Busy. Think about the amount of dust and dirt that settles on your skin. That's why your face needs a deep cleanse every day. Once skin care companies started using this tactic, they saw that it worked well to scare women into buying cold creams. So they continued doing it. Let's see how the setup goes in the 60s. If you're a soap and water girl, remember that soap removes natural oils and doesn't reach deep dirt. A couple of decades later, well into the 80s. This mirror reveals the whole truth.

This woman has just washed herself with soap. See the dirty soap and makeup sheets? Actually, I don't see that. But now I will constantly wonder if my invisible dirt is ruining my life. Let's jump back to the '90s, when women were empowered members of the workplace and should not be fooled by some scare tactics. Have you been ignoring your skin, Pat? Well, look at the dirt that was lost on your soap. Oh. In each and every case, cold cream is the magic solution to that horrible invisible skin dirt problem, apparently. That's why Salon Cold Cream is especially recommended for young skin.

Ha, there's that thing about being young again. Once a day, really cleanse with Pond's Cold Cream. Now your skin looks radiant and clear. That's why, as a skin consultant, I recommend Pond's Cold Cream, which removes the makeup and dirt left behind by soap, see? Wait, what is a skin advisor? Pond's deeply cleanses pores. Mmmm, looks great. So soft. Same tactic, same message for almost 50 years. It works because it makes you think there's something wrong with what you're doing, when what you're doing is probably totally fine for your skin. To make matters worse, this problem-stirring solution marketing fits right into marketing tactic number two, FOMO.

Look, if you're presented with a problem and then an ad tells you it's going to solve it, all of a sudden, if you don'tyou buy the product, then you are missing out. To add to all that pressure, we live in a time where there are thousands of online beauty influencers constantly receiving products, just hundreds of new products sent to them in the mail. Many of them swear by these products when shown in a video, although they may have gotten them for free in a PR package. They may have been sponsored by the brand or, you know, they may have tried them just once.

Like problem-stirring solution marketing, FOMO taps into the most powerful emotion you have: fear. Instead of inspiring you to buy something, it makes you feel bad not buying something. So how do you spot these tactics? Well, it's literally every skincare video on TikTok. Love, love, love this, absolutely get it. Okay y'all, here's how you'll get glass skin by 2024. Use a gauze towel to dry your face. If you use a regular towel, I swear to God, it will make you burst. Use panoxyl once a week. I swear by panoxyl. And finally, you can never have enough hyaluronic acid in your skincare.

I personally love this TikTok, where it's literally just tagged: Skincare Tips That Will Save Your Life. And here people accuse me of clickbaiting. SkinTok trends like glass skin, bubble cleanser, that weird green mask stick from a couple of years ago, all fueled by FOMO. The smartest thing you can do in the face of all this fear-based marketing is to simply walk away. Think about what you really need. Unfortunately, the skincare industry is very well equipped to make you feel stupid and blur the lines. One of skincare's favorite tactics to continue blurring that line is to tell yourself that you're buying something because it's science.

A quick reality check, folks. Skin care products fall into the category of cosmetics, not medications. Therefore, they have no testing or approval requirements from agencies like the FDA. The best they can do is unofficial tests. Like here in this commercial from the 50s where they made people's faces radioactive to test the cold cream. Probably the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. Cleaning tests were performed by an independent testing laboratory. This same type of dirt became radioactive enough to register on a Geiger counter. Despite not being real medical products and having no scientific requirements, isn't it funny how many of them still use these big scientific words?

A hygienic bottle containing two ingredients recommended by the dermis. Retinol plus niacinamide tablets in a deep hydrating night cream. This is great. If you have sensitive skin and are looking for an AHA, mendelic acid is for you. Microepidermal Hyaluronic Acid. 50 times smaller to penetrate deeper. Microepidermal mendelic acid, the diagram of the literal bottle that looks like a spaceship, are all classic examples of scientism, which is a term that has started to appear a lot more on health and wellness blogs lately. Scientism is the tactic of infusing scientific and technical language into products to make them appear more effective, even when there is no actual science involved.

The big words of caution with using this tactic are when skincare brands say their product has been clinically tested or clinically shown to do something. If they're also emphasizing that this uses ingredients you can't pronounce or don't understand, know that they know you don't understand. You're not supposed to understand those words, you're just supposed to think, scientific cream works well, and hand over that credit card information. It sounds cool and scientific to say that something has been clinically tested, but unfortunately, that doesn't say much of anything. Remember, there are no regulations here. No one pays attention to who is trying any of these creams and serums.

How many people were in the test? What was your age group? What ethnic origins do they represent? Do we literally know anything about this test? As soon as you start asking questions on many of these science tests, they fall apart faster than a Girl Scout cookie. For example, take one of the hottest products to put on your face right now: vitamin C-based serums. You can't walk into a skincare aisle right now without stumbling across 10 of these. stuff, all in pretty little bottles, ready to probably do nothing to your face. Honestly, I was a big fan of the idea of ​​having vitamin C on your face until I bothered to look at the evidence, or should I say the decided lack of evidence.

Here is the claim of almost all of these serums. Brightens like a serum, hydrates like a cream, for even more luminous skin. Even bright and luminous skin? Amazing! In just one hour, the skin is plump again. This bottle also likes four things, all of which sound amazing and involve this drop of serum traveling through another dimension. But then again, where is the data to back it up? And if you're looking to keep your data hidden from prying eyes, you'll love today's episode sponsor, NordVPN. Whenever you browse the Internet, you and your data are vulnerable to unwanted prying eyes.

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to get a big discount on your two-year plan, plus four extra months free. Thanks again to NordVPN for sponsoring this episode and happy birthday guys. Now, back to the episode. Well, some products that simply have no data. Many pharmacies or smaller brands are like this, so if you use them, you are simply taking them at their word. However, some high-end brands claim to have tested their products and might even include the results on their website, like this Estee Lauder vitamin C serum.

They say 86% of the unknown testers, I guess, said her skin tone looked more even. 88% said their skin felt firmer. That sounds pretty good, right? Those are numbers. Those are data. Well, it's certainly nothing, but dig a little deeper and I'll let you decide if the numbers are still compelling. The fine print on the website lets us know that they had less than 100 people in their clinical trial. It's not cool anymore. Fewer people than you had at your bat mitzvah. There is no information on how old they were, their ethnicity or skin type, whether they could use other products, what the general parameters of all this were.

You get the idea. Actually, there are many things related to scientific experiments that are not found here. And remember, we're talking about a 3.4 ounce bottle of cream which is less than a travel size for a hundred bucks. But hey, let's go back to what they do have. This data is based on them using the cream for six weeks straight. The instructions say to use it twice a day, so there are 84 applications, and it is ideal, in their words, after using another product. But we don't know if that was related to the experiment. On top of all that, some of the biggest claims, like the fact that it will reduce acne scars and dark spots, minimize pores, have no evidence at all.

Not even a footnote here. I don't know about you, but seeing this, it didn't seem like enough to me. Is there anything else we can do as customers to try to get more information? Well, I tried. I did an internet search for Estee Lauder studies that would be published if they were public and found nothing. I don't blame the company for this. It could be that I just missed them. It may be that they have not published the data publicly. I'm not trying to shame them or anything, but I wish they had linked to the actual study somewhere on the site.

The message this sends to me is that they want me to feel like I have the science I need to shell out $100 for a small vial of serum, but they don't actually want me to have access to the full list of numbers, lest I find something that does not live up to the promises they so want to promote. Since I couldn't find information on this specific Estee Lauder study, I decided to broaden my search to look for clinical studies done on vitamin C serum, to see what is available to the public. For such a well-known product, there was much less than I expected.

While there were a couple, and I mean two or three, studies in middle-aged patients that showed that vitamin C reduced sun damage, the broader results were disappointing and often nothing at all. The most comprehensive clinical review I found in September 2023 listed seven clinical studies that have been done with topical vitamin C since 2010. Most of the studies involved fewer than 60 people total, some were under 30. The average age of The patients were 48 years old and 77% of the studies did not even record the skin type of the patients who participated. Most studies required patients to use the product for 12 weeks to see a result.

Some of them were totally subjective in the data they were collecting, and many of them used multiple products, or even gave patients vitamin C laser facials. All of this left me pretty unconvinced that a random bottle of vitamin C The serum will make a huge difference on my face, and I'm not the only one, my friends. The results of actual clinical testing of these serums have been so bad that the New York Times published an article specifically pointing out the fact that this is not a proven ingredient to solve facial problems. But the thing is, it took me almost an hour to do that research, and I'm good at finding and reading scientific articles.

Skin care companies know that most people can't or won't do that kind of thing, so they just show a model with great skin applying some cream and hope you believe that. It's science. . The bottom line here is that science is not science when it comes to skin care products. All those scientific words are there to help you justify huge prices, and no one regulates whether they will do something to your face or not. Speaking of huge prices, there's another big category of marketing we have to talk about here, and it's one you'll know well if you've spent time on YouTube.

Aspirational advertising. The idea of ​​aspirational advertising is to show you a better, amazing version of yourself that seems out of reach. But do you know what could put it within your reach? Buying this product! This began as early as the 1950s, when the use of skin care promoted the dream of getting a husband. I'm marrying Mervin! Whisk twice each night with Pond's Cold Cream. Once to remove makeup and dirt. On the other hand, that is the secret. Mervin! I never dreamed you'd want to marry me! And she is not the only one who puts cream on her face to fulfill her dreams.

I have been applying cream to my face twice a day for seven days. Wow, Pond's Seven Day Beauty Plan really works! Then, of course, there are those people who aspire to seduce the boss while they are at work. What's wrong with me? My skin is so dull. I slathered my face twice with Pond's Cold Cream. Pond's Seven Day Beauty Plan Really Works! Yes, it's a beautiful day. Over time, beauty brands caught on to the idea that women aspire to do more than just date. So aspirational beauty content was about doing it all. I live with time.

I discovered Plenitude Advanced Wrinkle Defense Cream byThe real. Today, aspirational beauty content focuses on online influencers. You know, exactly what I'm talking about. The 'Grammers and 'Tokers who have perfect skin, always follow their 47-step skin care routine, always dress well, eat well, and live in a beautiful house. Everything you want to be, if you knew its secret. Celebrity skincare routines from Paris Hilton, Ariana Grande, Kendall Jenner. They're all great examples of these aspirational skincare moments that make us believe we, too, can look like Kendall as long as we shell out $300 for her night cream. We could recognize in our thoughtful little brains that these people have had professional procedures.

Plastic surgery, camera magic applied to them. But there is still a part of us that wants to be closer to the beautiful club by buying the same products they have. This marketing also does a great job of applying a dollar value to how much we care about ourselves. How much does it cost you to look like Kim Kardashian? Is a $50 retinol cream worth it? A $200 mask? A skincare regimen that will cost you $600 for 12 products at Sephora? This type of marketing constantly forces you to ask yourself: am I worth that much? Oh wait, that sounds like a familiar phrase.

Because we are worth it. There you have your answer, right? If you're wondering if you're worth it, you have skin care companies there to tell you that yes, yes, you are worth it. As a marketing phrase, L'Oreal started using because I'm worth it during the women's liberation movement. In the 1970s, the women's rights movement took to the streets, but advertising had not yet given them a voice. Their husbands spoke for them. A 23-year-old advertiser came up with this slogan, because I'm worth it, and it revolutionized the rules of advertising for an entire era. There is no doubt that empowering women to speak for themselves and demand what they want is a good thing.

But as a marketing idea, well, it starts to work both ways. You're worth it, both serve to tell women that their health, beauty and self-esteem are worth investing in, a good message in itself from friends. But it's a very different story when you recognize that it's coming from a money-hungry company saying those words to help you swallow the $100 bill. Oh, it's a hundred dollars for a very small bottle? Yes, I'm worth it. And if I don't buy it, then I'm not valuing myself enough. I'm not worth $100. So after all that marketing that makes you feel sad, jealous, stupid, old and not glamorous enough, they are finally here to tell you: you know what, customer?

Go ahead and buy another face cream. You are simply worth it. When it comes to skincare, there's a reason why many of us are so confused. It's because it's designed for it. That's how it's supposed to work. So what do you do with all this? How do you defend yourself? Well, first of all, look for these tactics. The next time a beauty influencer appears on TikTok, identify the emotions you feel when they tell you to try the trend right now or that you have to get a product they use. The truth is that you don't have to do anything.

You really don't. You don't have to buy anything. Buying or not buying face cream will not change your life at all. The only thing that will change is your credit card bill at the end of the month. Does that mean you shouldn't have any skin care products? Of course not. If there's something you choose, not because of some scare tactic, but because you enjoy using it for whatever reason, that's great. Do that. You don't have to feel guilty about not having 20 skin care products. You're free to put on some sunscreen and be on your way. Because SPF, sun protection factor, yes, it's the only thing in any of these lotions that is universally proven with real science to be great for your skin.

Protect your face from the sun, friends. This is all you need to know. And with that information, you now have the knowledge you need to keep yourself, your wallet, and your skin safe from the skincare aisle. Good luck out there. And as always, remember, it's just a theory. A theory of style. Still looking good. Transcribed by https://otter.ai