Think of your skincare products like a fancy bottle of wine. Handling and temperature control, which comes in the form of transportation in trucks and storage in facilities, is critical to a wine’s taste and composition. You don’t want to buy a $100+ bottle of wine from the gas station with the windows open in the summer.
Your skincare products (which nowadays can be as expensive as a fine bottle of wine) are just as delicate. When you buy from a place that is unauthorized (ahem, third party sellers on sites like Amazon), you don’t know what you are buying. You have to assume worst case scenario… cases of serum could be sitting in a stale hot warehouse somewhere (possibly for years!) waiting to be unloaded!
Here are the top 7 reasons to not buy your skincare products from a non trusted internet site.
1. Risk of subpar or rancid products.
The quality of the product cannot be guaranteed from an unauthorized retailer. We don’t just mean that it won’t work, or isn’t as “good.” We mean that the quality could be bad, rotten, harmful. When antioxidants are not stored properly, they get oxidized. Putting an oxidized product on your skin can be worse than putting on nothing.
2. Products could be past their expiration.
There are no regulations! Many products don’t even have an expiration date on them.
3. If the price looks too good to be true…. it is.
Just like the fake designer clothing and handbag market exists, the fake skincare product market now also exists (especially now that products can be so expensive). Counterfeit products are a reality in our marketplace, so much so, that the major companies have invested a lot of money in a losing battle to find and stop all counterfeit sales. Unfortunately it is too easy for the criminals to hide under the safety of anonymous sales of the internet. If your serum is usually $200 and you see it on sale for $80, it is a fake, there is no doubt about it. Good quality skin care rarely goes on sale, and typically the sales are no more than 20%.
4. Dangerous ingredients in counterfeit products.
Not only do the counterfeit products show no benefit, but they could also potentially harm your skin. In one report, some of the bleaching creams that were analyzed from other countries were found to contain mercury. Others contain steroids, which can cause irreparable damage to the skin.
5. Difficult returns.
You lose the safety of being able to return or exchange your product when purchased from the internet. Our Apothecary @ Skin Associates will accept returns for any reasons (i.e. if you have a bad reaction, feel it wasn’t beneficial for your skin, etc). You don’t get that type of customer service from online retailers.
6. The best skincare recommendations come from your dermatologist.
Online reviews and descriptions can’t come close to finding you the perfect product. Rely on your friendly dermatologist to give you recommendations suitable for your skin type and your goals. We can decipher the fluff and marketing claims from the true gems. The internet and the 20-year-old sales associate at Sephora can’t come close to our understanding of the science of the skin and the hundreds of ingredients available.
7. No Testers.
If purchasing on the internet, you can’t test out the smell and feel of the product before committing. Some may like a light serum while others prefer a thick cream. Some fragrances can be off-putting. Without testing it live, you don’t know what you are committing to. We have heard people complain of top-notch serums smelling like hot dogs, and they can’t bear to put it on their face, no matter how great the product is. Others complain of a popular serum feeling tacky. It bothers some, but not others. How will you know before you buy online? These are the little things that can affect if you will use a product consistently. A product doesn’t work if it sits on your bathroom counter.
Just like you wouldn’t buy fruit or other perishables online, don’t buy other precious and “perishable” products from the internet. If you are going to bother to take the time to use them and spend the money on skincare products, you should know exactly what you are getting. Skincare products should be treated with care as if they were precious fruit or an expensive bottle of wine.
Our Apothecary @ Skin Associates offers top of the line medical-grade products sold only to doctor’s offices, properly cared for and bought directly from the distributors. Check us out in-person or on social media!
