Have you often wondered what is the price of the composition of the product, which is in a shiny jar on the shelf of cosmetic stores? Could you imagine that the ingredients of the cream for 10 thousand are cheaper than the composition of the product for 350 rubles? Woman’s Day, together with a specialist in the field of the cosmetic industry, analyzed the composition of six popular moisturizers in different price categories and found out what we pay for.
Ekaterina Gudkova is an expert in the field of cosmetic chemistry, she maintains the blog “My Ideal Cream”. He writes for those who want to understand how modern cosmetics are arranged, which ingredients in them are really useful, and which are just a marketing ploy. A chemistry education and 15 years of experience in the cosmetics industry help her with this. Especially for Wday, Ekaterina tested and reviewed six moisturizers and the results were amazing!
Make: Payot, My PAYOT day
Price: 3150 rubles
Positioning: Manufacturers promise that the product instantly transforms the skin, giving it radiance and hydration. It is recommended to apply the product immediately upon waking up to hide signs of fatigue and persistence.
Appearance: cream of pleasant peach color in a beautiful glass jar. Fragrance fruit, fancy – absolutely no smell of raw materials.
Now about its composition: at first glance I liked him. There are no fat screaming minuses, but I did not find any big pluses for myself either.
In the composition: emulsifierthat stabilizes all this beauty. Used very simple and cheap – glyceryl stearate and PEG-100 stearate. But effective, you don’t have to worry that the cream will exfoliate during storage and use. I am calm about the content of parabens, and the manufacturers of the cream did not declare that the product is “natural” in any sense of the word.
The texture is weightless – this ease during application and subsequent absorption is provided to us emollient oils… The lightest silicone is used here – cyclomethicone, there is also hydrogenated polyisobutene and isodecyl isononoate – emollient oils, pleasant in all respects.
Then the cherries on the cake have already gone – active ingredients that will give us a radiant complexion. Modified vitamin C – sodium ascorbyl phosphate, vitamin E – tocopheryl acetate, vitamin A – retinyl palmitate, niacinamide – vitamin B3. U each has its own effect on the skin, and all are only positive. Judging by the way the products are arranged in the composition, it looks like the manufacturer is using a ready-made vitamin kit.
Another interesting thing I found alphaglucan oligosaccharide Is a natural product that helps to protect the skin microflora, it is made from natural sugars (sucrose and maltose). In general, a good protector that protects the skin.
Well, about superfruits. Here we have Lycium barbarium in stock – it is goji berry extract, there is still Euterpe Oleracea – this is acai, those same superberries that help from everything in the world.
And the biggest plus is ethylhexylglycerol as a preservative. A very mild product, suitable even for the most demanding allergy sufferers.
General verdict: My PAYOT jour is a very good tool for its price.
Make: “Black Pearl”, expert day and night cream for face 36+
Price: 250 rubles
Positioning: The product adapts to the needs of the skin on every part of your face, practically adapting to any skin needs, anticipating or correcting age-related changes. The product contains a complex of adaptive cellular rejuvenation to combat age-related changes, taking into account the needs of the skin of women over 36 years old.
I am a fan of the talent of people who develop creams for this company and manage to squeeze out the maximum effect with a minimum of opportunities. Blindly tested, their creams often beat even luxury rivals!
It’s another matter that the company’s marketers write on the label: here, wrinkles will decrease in 10 days, and deeply moisturizes the skin, suitable for any age and skin type.
Appearance: the product is very light and pleasant to apply. The fragrance is quite bright, fancy, but after five minutes it disappears from the skin, which is an undoubted plus. I was also pleased – there are both day and night care at once.
But I bet this cream is for everyone. My skin is dry: at first there were no changes, but after five days of application, the T-zone began to shine. As a trained person, I understand that this is simply not my tool, but at the same time I want the manufacturer to also understand that the product cannot be suitable for absolutely everyone.
Now about its composition: there is nothing intimidating the mass buyer in it. The recipe is based on emulsifier glyceryl stearate citrate и thickener polyacrylamide, C13-14 isoparaffin and laureth-7 – these pairing mates give such a pleasant light cream-gel texture.
Oil set good and justified for a cream in this price range. These are dimethicone, ethylhexyl stearate, jojoba oil, isopropyl isostearate, peach oil, almond oil, dimethiconol. Here they mixed both natural oils and silicones for pleasant sensations, and very good emollient oils, light on the skin. Together, the combination gives a very gentle, velvety effect on the skin.
About the active ingredients. There is a whole set of them here. Aquavital Is plankton extract – a stimulating and revitalizing algae-based skin cocktail. Verbena extract – here I do not have a ready-made answer on how it activates proteins, I also did not find anything on this topic on the manufacturer’s website. There is also a good moisturizing ingredient in the composition – hydroxyethyl urea.
General verdict: in general, this is a very good product for the money. You just need to know and understand that active ingredients are expensive and, no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to invest in a cream for 250 rubles.
Make: SISLEY PARIS, MOISTURIZING CREAM
Price: 11 000 rubles
Positioning: The manufacturers claim that the silky, non-greasy cream simultaneously brings a feeling of comfort and freshness, and also revitalizes the properties of cucumber, which is rich in amino acids and minerals. It restores vitality to the skin, makes the epidermis soft and elastic.
Appearance: In fairness, it should be noted that the manufacturer himself does not promise any miracles from this cream. Quite pleasant, positioned as day or night, can be used under makeup.
Now about the composition: light cosmetic oil (the cheapest emollient isopropyl myristate), manufacturers of the most budgetary cosmetics try to avoid it, as it is believed that it clogs the skin. AND paraffinic (or mineral) butter… Also an inexpensive oil that is made from petroleum, it improves the distribution of cosmetic formulations, but often gives an unwanted shine on the skin, plus it can interfere with the skin’s breathing.
Propylene glycol as a moisturizing ingredient in second place after water, it is well absorbed by the skin. But there has long been a debate about how much it is needed in cosmetics: it is believed that it is able to partially dissolve the intercellular cement on the surface of the skin, and this can lead to increased moisture loss.
Basic emulsifiers the cream is also common – glyceryl stearate with oleyl alcohol and cetyl phosphate. This composition is thickened with us carbomeris also a very inexpensive and effective thickener.
The assets here are very interesting – cucumber extract и wheat protein… Wheat protein is able to provide good hydration, and maybe they used some kind of scientific cucumber here. A classic preservative is used – methylparaben.
General verdict: if they showed me this composition without a face label, I would have decided that this is a cream recipe from the late 80s. The price for the contents of this jar is very low. But the jar itself is beautiful.
Make: H20, PLUS Oasis hydrating treatment
Price: 3400 rubles
Positioning: The manufacturers promise that the multivitamin complex will help increase skin elasticity and repair cell damage, while the moisturizing marine blend will optimize the skin’s moisture balance.
Appearance: to begin with, it is a gel product. Usually moisturizing gels are made for oily / combination skin, but here such a universal product is for everyone. This is a non-standard move.
The texture is very light, though slimy: I tried several times to fetch the cream out of the jar, but it “crawled” away from me.
A striking statement on the label is ambiguous enough – a product without oils! It really does not contain oil, but I don’t know if this is a plus or minus for a moisturizer designed for normal to dry skin.
Now about its composition: the manufacturer has tried, in the composition of a huge amount of moisturizing ingredients. This fact has always suggested to me how they all get along together and whether they are not fighting among themselves. Now there is a trend in cosmetics – the fewer ingredients, the better. This makes it clearer what and how it affects the skin. And here is the mix.
This product also contains many different extracts, plus vitamins E (tocopherol) and A (retinyl palmitate), a huge amount of preservatives, the composition looks very overloaded.
I understand that according to the requirements of American and European legislation, it is necessary to put on the label not only the preservative that is used to preserve this gel, but also all those that are included in the ingredient. As a result, the list turned out to be very frightening – imidazolidinyl urea, potassium sorbate, methyl chloroisothiazolinone, methylisothiazolinone, diazolidinyl urea, phenoxyethanol, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, isobutylparaben. Phew …
If we add to this the fact that methylchloroisothiazoline is banned in Europe as part of indelible products, then in general it turns out somehow ugly.
General verdict: very controversial gel for moisturizing the skin.
Make: Jeanne Piaubert, SKIN BREAKFEST, essential daily face care
Price: 5100 rubles
Positioning: In addition to moisturizing and radiant, the product manufacturers promise that SKIN BREAKFEST will protect the skin from external factors, as well as prevent the first signs of skin aging.
Appearance: It looks like thick butter, but it can be easily removed from the jar and it is just fantastically pleasant to apply to the face. You can immediately see that the texture has been worked on here!
Looking at the composition, I understood how this was achieved: in this tool there is a whole cascade of silicones, each of which is responsible for all these pleasant sensations during the application process.
Now about its composition: Here we see a hybrid system of thickeners and emulsifiers that keeps this cream in such a thick form. This is polymer thickener-emulsifier Acrylates / C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer – gives a rather pleasant cream-gel texture, there is also a classic emulsifier cetyl potassium phosphate и silicone comrade PEG / PPG-18/18 dimeticone. There are a lot of structure-forming products, and I have not listed all of them yet.
But there is nothing special to say about the active ingredients. The composition clearly contains a large number of sesame seed oilknown for its moisturizing and antioxidant properties. I also found complex of many salts – pyrrolidone-carboxylic acid, and sodium salt, and zinc, and magnesium, and manganese, in short, one continuous moisturizing, there is also Serine – moisturizing amino acidPyridoxine HCL is a form of vitamin B6, which here acts as a skin conditioning agent.
In general, the tool is remarkable in terms of its sensing. As for the effectiveness, the question is controversial – there is no system for delivering components to the skin, and how all this will actually work is not clear in advance.
General verdict: a classic story with expensive creams – a pleasant texture in the first place, and everything else – how it goes. Just because the product is beautiful and pleasant, it is worth trying – for a start, for example, take a sample in the store.
Make: Bilka upgrape TIMECODE – regenerating face cream
Price: 300 rubles
Positioning: The manufacturers promise that the product contains effective natural ingredients that slow down the aging process, visibly reduce wrinkles and restore the structure of the facial skin.
Appearance: the entire label of the cream literally screams that the product has a claim to naturalness. Bio Certified is written in capital letters – however, upon careful study, it turned out that not the product itself was certified, but only one of the components – grape seed extract. The packaging was immediately misleading.
Now about its composition: product from the series “cheap and cheerful”. I’ve noticed: the cheaper the product, the more miracles it promises to use. This one promises to be fantastic – reduce wrinkles by 42% in 35 days! About the only certified grape seed extract marketers have written a whole legend too.
In their opinion, the product contains a natural UV filter, while it contains synthetic and ordinary ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate… One filter in such a small amount is not enough to talk about any kind of sun protection.
The texture of the cream is very light, it is absorbed instantly, and in a minute a rather serious feeling of dryness begins to visit. For some reason, a cream with a claim to be natural contains quite a lot propylene glycol as a solvent and humectant, which can be replaced with inexpensive glycerin; as the main structure-forming component, a mixture of polyacrylamide, C13-14 isoparaffin and laureth-7, which is also quite far from the topic of naturalness.
But the emulsifier is natural – a mixture of cetearyl alcohol and cetearyl glucoside, here do not find fault.
There is only one active ingredient – Timecode -Palmitoyl glycine. The product is said to fight aging at the genetic level. This is such a strong statement that one wants to get more information about the research, and not just the inscription on the packaging.
But the most important thing I wanted to say about this cream is that it smells like a very strong grape flavor. The smell is very intrusive: I put it on my hand in a trace amount and felt it all day. I have no idea what would have happened to me if I had applied the cream to my face.
General verdict: for dry skin is definitely not suitable, despite the presence of rather saturated shea butter and grape seed oil. Yes, there are no parabens, silicones and dyes in the product, as it is written in big red letters on the box, but it also does not pull on a natural remedy.