With the rise of brands such as The Ordinary and The Inky List, skincare with active ingredients has become more available at every price point, and more popular. But is budget friendly skincare as effective as luxury skincare?
The answer to this question is not as simple as yes or no. At both price points you will find skincare that will not work for your skin, either because of poor formulations that do not agree with your skin, or basic ingredients lists that do not contain powerful active ingredients. On the budget end of the scale there is Clean and Clear. In my opinion the formulations of this brand are too harsh and too stripping to have any long term benefits, for my skin at least. On the Luxury end of the scale there are brands like La Mer. I have tried and enjoyed using La Mer in the past. However, when I have looked at the ingredients I have been underwhelmed as the formulations contain basic hydrating ingredients. Obviously from all price points there are brands that in my opinion have very poor formulations that can even damage the skin.
Luxury skincare can be marketed to the luxury experience. This can include more elaborate packaging and formulations that are designed to smell nice and feel nice on the skin. Products that fall into this category of luxury skincare may not necessarily be good for the skin. Over use of fragrant ingredients that are used to give a sensorial experience from using the product can cause irritation and sensitize the skin, and are not necessary in a skincare product. The main aims of formulating the product may be to create a product that is a nice experience to apply and give an instant temporary effect to the appearance of the skin. These products tend not to focus too heavily on active ingredients, and focus more on formulating a product that feels like a luxury experience to use. While they may not be harmful for the skin, they may not contain any active ingredients that will have any lasting benefits for the skin.
With the emergence of The Ordinary, and subsequently The Inky List, skincare with effective active ingredients became more available at all price points and more people became aware of active ingredients. These more budget friendly brands tend to have quite simple one active ingredient formulas with the rest of the formula supporting the delivery of that active ingredient. This does not mean that these products are not effective with the formulations being simple, however it does mean that multiple products are required to address multiple skin concerns when a more expensive product may be formulated to include multiple active ingredients. Additionally, when combining different active ingredients from different products, you need to be more aware of which ingredients work together and which may interact with each other. When these active ingredients have been formulated together in the same product, they have been formulated to work together. One example of this is StriVectin Super-C Retinol Brighten & Correct Vitamin C Serum. This serum combines retinol and vitamin c, which when formulated in two separate products should not be used at the same time but in this product have been formulated to support each other rather than interact with each other. Complicated formulations like this cost more to produce and may not be available or effective at lower price points.
So, is more expensive skincare more effective than budget friendly options? Not always. More expensive skincare can have a bigger budget to create more complex formulations using multiple active ingredients. But in some cases the bigger budget can be used to focus on creating a product that creates the luxury experience that may not actually benefit the skin. On the other hand, budget friendly skincare can include more simple ingredients that focus on one or two active ingredients that can benefit the skin and have been formulated to address one skin concern. However, there are also budget options that focus on a sensorial experience and may contain harmful or non-effective ingredients that have no benefit to the skin. In short, both budget and luxury skincare can be as effective as each other for the skin when you look at the ingredients lists and the active ingredients.
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