Beware: Big Beauty's Complexity
The beauty industry just loves to over-complicate things.
It promotes “single-focus” products meant to be used in a specific order—your “routine”—to target one issue after another.
The problem? They treat each issue with such intensity that they create more problems.
For example, you’re treating redness with a highly concentrated serum. Sure, the redness fades, but suddenly, your skin feels dry and flaky. Now you need a heavy-duty cream, which makes your skin oily and prone to breakouts. It’s a vicious cycle.
You might fix one issue temporarily, but you end up creating another, leaving you constantly juggling products and never fully satisfied with the results.
The thing is...these products are not designed to work together.
They’re quick fixes for isolated problems, disrupting your body’s natural rhythm and forcing you to add more to your routine. It’s a never-ending quest for balance.
We’re constantly misled and manipulated, driven to over-consume products that do little but keep us dependent.
And it is EXTREMELY costly. Financially, ethically, environmentally, physically, psychologically, economically, and socially, it drains you.
What is the true cost of this kind of complexity? It's staggering.
Here's a by-no-means exhaustive list:
It Costs You Money
Overconsumption. Big Beauty's endless product push clutters cabinets and drains wallets, fueling the constant chase for the next miracle cure.
Unnecessary Products. All those “must-haves”? Chances are the only thing you “did have” was more frustration and less money.
It Costs You Time
Keeping Up. Tired of trying to maintain those time-consuming, complex routines that over promise and under deliver? Us too.
Opportunity Costs. Every minute and dollar wasted on those elaborate routines robs you of precious time and resources that could be spent elsewhere.
It Costs You Physically
Harmful Ingredients. Many beauty products sneak in harmful, even toxic chemicals that can wreak havoc on your body, causing irritation, allergies, and long-term risks.
Misleading Claims. Overnight miracles and instant results? More like exaggerated promises, disappointment and overlooked health risks.
It Costs Your Trust
Ingredient Transparency. Vague, or worse - incomplete ingredient lists, leaving you in the dark and at risk of using harmful substances without even knowing it.
Regulatory Loopholes. Weak regulations allow dangerous chemicals in beauty products. You're a guinea pig for untested, unsafe ingredients.
It Costs Your Sanity
Unrealistic Ideals. Flawless models and impossible standards. Constant comparison crushing your self-esteem, making you feel like your natural beauty is never enough.
It Costs Your Integrity
It Costs The Future
Habitat Destruction. The moral dilemma you’ve never considered. Those fancy plant extracts? Deforestation, habitat destruction, and pollution.
Packaging Production. Forget recycling, the emissions generated in the packaging production of glass, plastic and aluminum is outright staggering.
It Costs Innovation
Market Monopoly. Estee Lauder and L'Oreal strangle the industry, killing competition and change. They own the farmlands, labs, production, packaging, AND distribution.
Lack Of Diversity. The industry ignores diversity, leaving millions with unique skin tones without effective solutions. They're left struggling with products that can’t work.
Shall I go on? Believe me, I could. But this is just blog post, and they've been getting a little long lately.
So I'll just leave you with that to think about. Not to scold or scare you, but to ask you to think beyond the pretty packaging, the celebrity endorsements and sweeping presence of these brands and their products.
Because if you're not paying attention, you're paying much more.
Thanks for your time.