Beware the brand that disrespects others…

If you are a brand owner just ask yourself this:

What have you done to prove what you say about your products is true?

How do you know your products are better than anyone elses?

After eighteen years in the cosmetic industry I’ve worked on hundreds of projects for tens, if not hundreds of brands and only on a handful of occasions have these projects involved any real efficacy work.  So, I know that you don’t really know, that it is likely that at best you’ve got some customer testimonials and some blurb from an ingredient supplier.

I get really annoyed when I read comments from brand owners that basically disrespect other brands in order to push their barrow.  Often this centres around the formula with statements along these lines – I have made these up but you get my drift:

‘unlike other brands we use activated floral water rather instead of cheap tap water because tap water just isn’t hydrating’

OR

‘Our products are made with natural preservatives/ emulsifiers/ solubilisers unlike other brands that are still using dirty and outdated chemicals’….

OR

‘some brands stack their products with fillers and these can clog the skin’

OR

‘Our chemist advises that actives are useless in wash-off products because they don’t have time to penetrate’.

The list goes on.

If you have seen this or do this with your brand let me just encourage you to go back to the start of my rant and answer those questions.

Let me also draw your attention to the fact that you probably don’t know the reasons why other brands do what they do, what magical insights they have that you actually don’t, what testing they might have done.

My take home point is this.  I don’t feel it necessary that every cosmetic product be thoroughly efficacy tested – testing that can easily cost upwards of $10,000 even for the basics. However, I do feel that if you are going to attempt to profit from your high horse you should have at least paid for it.

So, if you have paid for it please stick to what you do know and leave the rest.

And if you haven’t then why not save your label inches for talking about YOU and why you did what you did rather than focusing on everyone else.

So there.

Amanda x