Are you a Victim of These Skin Care Lies? ABCs of Skin Care ~ G is for Gullible
Don’t listen to the empty promises and skin care lies! There are a lot of dishonest players in the skin care game, just waiting for a gullible victim to prey on, and they want your money.
Ok, I admit this probably sounds like it has little to do with skin care, but hear me out.
Gullible: a person who is easily deceived, tricked, cheated or fooled. A fool and his money are soon parted. This is especially true when it comes to skin care. Don’t let it be you.
When it comes to skin care there are billions of dollars to be made preying on innocent and gullible people.
Open up any fashion magazine or type #skincare in any search bar and thousands of hits will pop up. Much of the information you mine is helpful and accurate, but just as much will be full of inaccuracies, fearmongering, or blatant BS.
I despise BS.
That doesn’t mean Back Stabbing or Blue Screens either. It’s referring to male cow excrement, aka flat out lies.
Oh the lies…sometimes I need to put on my wellies before I wade into the depths of sh** when it comes to skin care promises:
“You need a peel!”
“Eliminates wrinkles”
“Banish pores forever!”
“This is the only product you will ever need!”
“All preservatives in skin care are toxic!”
UGH!!
Lets start with “You need a peel.” Umm, no you don’t.
Peels can be helpful for reducing lines and discoloration, and may give you an overall fresher appearance, but you don’t NEED a peel. In fact, if your skin is irritated, red or sensitive, a peel is probably the LAST thing you need.
By nature, any kind of peel will exfoliate and increase water loss temporarily. We call this TEWL or trans epidermal water loss. TEWL is a big reason why people with sensitive reactive skin feel uncomfortable to begin with. Their skin literally can’t hold on to water. Peeling it makes this WORSE not better.
“Eliminates wrinkles”
You can reduce lines and wrinkles, or temporarily plump them and improve the appearance of wrinkles, but you can’t eliminate them.
To be fair, there are more aggressive treatments that have a visible effect on lines such as nano-needling, micro needling and some forms of laser. You still won’t ~eliminate~ them permanently. Just keep living and they WILL come back. I like to think of lines as battle scars for a life well lived 🙂
“Cure your acne in just 3 days” Oh. Hell. No.
So, you may be able to reduce the visible redness in 3 days, but you are NOT curing anything.
Acne takes 3 -6 months to develop, and I guarantee you won’t even be touching the 4 main causes of acne that fast.
How about the practices that promise that a single $500 “acne peel” is all you need for perfectly clear skin. This is a big fat skin care lie. By the way, if you are struggling with acne, please give us a call at 401-632-4444.
“Banish pores forever!”
I understand we live in the age of Photoshop surrounded by impeccable images of porcelain clear skin, but none of that is realistic.
Pore size is genetic, and they may appear larger or smaller based on cleanliness, sun exposure, age, hormones and if you are using comedogenic ingredients. Your pores play a vital role in maintaining a healthy skin microbiome and keeping your skin lightly lubricated. NO ONE is looking at your skin that closely anyway. There is no way to actually banish pores, it’s just another skin care lie.
“This is the only product you will ever need!”
Seriously? I don’t know about you, but my skin is completely different than it was at 16. I had ACNE and was obsessed with keeping my face from getting shiny.
Now that I’m ahem, older, I’m looking to add back that glow! The Oxy10 and Sea Breeze I used to use would be a nightmare for my adult acne prone skin now. Promises like these are designed to make you a customer for life, not to actually take care of your skin.
“All preservatives in skin care are toxic!”
This is a good example of fear mongering. You are much better off having products with a tiny amount of preservative than smearing mold and bacteria ridden cream all over your face.
Preservatives are designed to inhibit the growth of microorganisms. That’s exactly how and why they work. If a product says preservative free, you really want to check the expiration date. I have seen skin care that is only good for 7 days after opening. Why would you want that? Some preservatives are safer than others, but that’s a whole other blog post.
How about the 20 year old blogger and her favorite coconut oil serum that makes her skin so glowy?
She’s glowy because SHE’S 20!!! It doesn’t have diddly squat to do with the serum she uses! She’s often paid to promote products. Yea, paid promotion is a thing. Don’t get me started on coconut oil.
I cringe inside when I see people buying all these “anti-aging” products, and then tanning or sunbathing. All because the girl at the tanning booth “said” it was safe for their skin. Seriously! I once had a client who JUST had laser surgery to remove precancerous lesions and came in red from the tanning booth!
The best ‘anti-aging’ product is SUNSCREEN!! Its not the only thing that will help, but it will definitely have the biggest impact overall. That’s a skin care promise. Please practice SAFE SUN.
One more and I will get off my soap box.
People who sell MLM skin care products and tell you what to use on your skin.
THESE PEOPLE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SKIN!!!
They know how to SELL you STUFF, and that’s about it. Well, except how to recruit you to sell their stuff too.
Do you have any idea how many clients I have seen over the years who sell those MLM products? Clients actually come to Viriditas for their skin care products and advice and then go out claiming to be skin care experts. For real.
The bottom line is there is no one cream, no one treatment or single routine that will make your skin “perfect”. There is no “perfect”! Skin is a wonderful record of all the smiles and tears, laughter and love that you have experienced in your life. Wrinkles are a badge of achievement.
Ultimately its not a sin to have wrinkles and its not a sin to be gullible.
I hope you’ve found all this talk about skin care lies helpful. If you prefer the truth about skin care, please visit Viriditas Beautiful Skin in Providence Rhode Island. It’s a no BS zone.
