Skin Care Stuff

fourteenwings

Ever since Saint Hudgens told me my skin would rot if I didn't bathe it in lots of weird Neutrogena Pink Grapefruit products about five to six years ago, I've depended on said range to keep my skin from exploding into some strange topographical map but with acne.

Anyways, it works well enough (but of course like acne happens and no amount of watching TV commercials can stop that apparently) and it smells really great (though I remember hating it at first so maybe I'm just too good a corporationbot) but recently Neutrogena started pushing a whole line of products that weren't based on Pink Grapefruits, and Saint Thorne was involved! So I bothered Googling the Pear & Green Tea stuff and bought some to test out because what else would I do with my precious limited time before I die?

Turns out they were... exactly the same. I mean, reading through the ingredients lists only turned up miniscule changes in color dyes and preservatives. It turns out Neutrogena actually does this every few years (there was a Peach line which I think died out) but of course since the color of skin care is pink the grapefruits are yet to be dethroned.

So... I think this thread is about how skin care (and beauty product companies in general) pretend to have new products to either trick you into trying them (and therefore probably buying more than necessary when you decide to go back to your old stuff) or lure in new customers. And the entire concept of my face wash having a flavor of the month instead of actually faking medicinal properties like a decent company would makes me uncomfortable.

Also did you guys know Neutrogena is owned by Johnson & Johnson? This is an even more stealthy corporate operation than the entire "Valpre Spring Water is owned by Coca Cola thing". I mean, I bet my Neutrogena face wash is the same as their normal stuff but with color and fruit smells and 8x more expensive (not that I'd ever switch though because my face would rot off clearly).

glennmagusharvey

My skin has been plagued with eczema every so often, where "every so often" means pretty much randomness, though it's overall gotten better lately as I've stopped using as much medication.

So I'm barely presentable in terms of not looking really horrible with like dry, cracking skin.

I use a few skin care products regularly, but pretty much just stick to them, and don't diffuse much.  They tend to be those moisturizers/soaps that get conflated with fewer bells-and-whistles such as scents and fragrances, which I generally avoid because, y'know, sensitive skin.  Thankfully, this means that those products tend to stick around.

(Also, I guess I'll delete the duplicate thread?)

fourteenwings

(Yes please do)

glennmagusharvey

Wow how did I say I was going to do that but forget to do it all day long.



Anyway, I do want to also add that I did once try a store-brand version of the standard Dove soap bar. I got it from CVS, and it was way different, and a lot less kind on the skin. Though it was also a lot more stiff so I eventually repurposed all of them as hand soaps for the kitchen -- their tendency to split open when dry notwithstanding.

fourteenwings

Dove soap sucks at maintaining physical shape because of all the moisturizer that's in it instead of actual soap bits.

As for other thread things, soaps and scrubs with microbeads in them can be good for your skin but are terrible for the environment (whoever decided to have them be undisolving microplastic bits really didn't think it through).

Apparently stuff with like... actual dirt in it is better (but like 7000% harder to sell because >dirt).

lrdgck

I can't say anything from my own experience (my skin generally doesn't cause me problems as long as I don't shave too diligently), so I'll just tell a story. Not long ago, there was some action by a British consumer rights agency. A woman smeared half her face with a fancy, sea-weed-and-shizzle, four hundred pounds cream, and the other half with frickin' Nivea from Tesco or some other retail cheapo. Turned out the fancy one actually performed worse.

fourteenwings

There was a show about that on TLC (possibly the only thing that has aired on TLC not involving dwarfism or being secretly pregnant in years).

fourteenwings

>Neutrogena Oil Control Astringent Program! Try it today!
>Only product is a single liquid
>Lazy+Oily skin is torture for trying to keep sunscreen on+New skincare products
>Saleslady is like "It's just like toner!"
>
>Product says use it only every other day for one week every month
>
>OH GODS IT BUUUUUUUUUUURNS
>is this normal?
>yes
>?_?

But it's only every other day for one week every month. And it really only burns for the first fifteen minutes or so.

glennmagusharvey

> it's just like toner

why would you have toner without ink

[/missing the point]