Looks are everything. People who say the opposite are lying.
Our consumer habits prove that.
Going through the beauty store isles and grocery store isles and specialty store isles and department store isles and yada yada yada, we can find hundreds of different beauty products all packaged in appealing, pretty ways. Well, why not? Truthfully, if someone put something that looked like mud in a tube and told you it will make you beautiful, would you believe it?
What I love about so many of these products is reading the “active ingredients” usually listed on the front of the products…you know, where it says things like “With the Soothing Power of Aloe” or “Skin Softening Olive Oil” or “Luxurious Milk and Honey.” Packaged in cute little containers with a hefty price tag, we purchase it hoping it will transform us into the air-brushed, heavily Photoshopped Hollywood beauties that promote these products.
So, if things like oatmeal, honey, milk, olive oil, baking soda, avocado oil, salt, lemon juice, and such yield such wonderful beauty results…why not just buy the oatmeal, honey, milk, olive oil, baking soda, avocado oil, salt, lemon juice, and such and skip the package, the chemical additives, and the increased price?
A few months ago I posted about my surprise visit to Hershey Spa, where I had a wonderful, invigorating body scrub. They sold the scrub to take home…a $29-plus-tax eight-ounce jar whose ingredients list stated “salt, olive oil, peppermint oil.” I’m sure they sell plenty of it…I was ready to buy it after my wonderful treatment. But $29-plus-tax for eight ounces of salt and a bit of olive oil and peppermint oil? I went home, found the recipe at Care2, and made a sixteen-ounce batch for $3, or $1.50 per eight ounces. The only thing missing is the cute little package, which, if I cared, I could also make myself.
I was plagued with acne as a teenager (actually, I’ve been plagued with acne for nineteen years…it would be nice if it would go away) and of course wanted to use anything to make it go away. I had very little money and remember being at a store and considering buying a large bottle of Bonne Bell’s Ten-O-Six astringent for $7. My mother told me to look at the ingredients on the back. They were water, rubbing alcohol, and FD&C color number something. It also said “Contains 56% alcohol.” For fifty cents I could get a bottle of rubbing alcohol and dilute it with water…which I did. Now we know that alcohol astringents are not great for our face, but back in the early 1980s Bonne Bell was the stuff to use. I just skipped paying an extra $6.50.
All clay masques are are ground clay mixed with water put into a pretty container. Did you know that some kitty litters are nothing more than purified 100% clay? Now, who wants to buy a bag of kitty litter and smear it on your face? No, we want it to come out of a tube with a fancy name. But, really, it is exactly the same thing…and you are paying a huge premium to have it disguised in a neat little package.
Lots of people are looking for new ways to save money in our current recession, and, certainly, skipping the premade packaged products can save plenty. However, I believe this really goes beyond saving money in a recession: I believe this is more about making smart choices. Even if you have the money for the packaging, is the package really worth that much? What else could you do with that “extra” money? Think of it this way: if you work a job that pays $15 an hour, you’d have to work two hours to pay for a jar of Hershey Spa scrub; if you make it yourself, you just gave yourself $28.50. Is that jar of Hershey Spa scrub really worth the difference?
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