Skin care is a massive industry, and a competitive one at that. There are now thousands of different offerings from various different companies, many of which have side stepped the expensive start up costs by being based completely online. This has caused a few issues in terms of quality control however, as experts from Norway claim that around half of skin care products available on the net have negative effects on the skin.
A complete spectrum of around 450 products were tested, chosen at random from various Internet sites and spanning all sorts of costs, volumes and places or origin. There were both facial care and also hand care products sampled, and they were all tested extensively on various types of skin and measured on their effectiveness, ease of use and side effects. A control group were given a very basic cream that had no active ingredients.
The study gave some very interesting findings, which should act as warning to anyone buying skin care products online, of even off line for that matter. Firstly the study found that around 70% of the products did not give any benefits to the user, and what is more, over 50% of the products had negative side effects. Among the harmful effects were burning, dryness, acne, and even hair loss.
The second important finding from the study was that the products that had the most beneficial effects on the skin were those that were the most expensive. In actual fact, in term of price, those products that were in the top 25% showed only positive effects, with no negatives recorded. The overruling advice from this research has to be to do your research and only buy the highest quality skincare products you can. Also make sure you only buy from reputable companies you know. Skincare brands such as Dermalogica and Aesop for example are highly trusted brands. Secondly, if you are new to using a certain product make sure you test on it on small area of skin on the arm first to see how it reacts, before you apply to the face or on large areas of skin.