Misleading Claims in Beauty Advertising (And What to Keep in Mind)

For all the fun aspects it brings us, the beauty industry is a business. It's easy to forget this when searching for a remedy to a particular concern or for new and exciting item to add to our collections. But because they are businesses, cosmetics companies sometimes inflate the claims made about a product, making it seem like it will be the very thing we need to refresh our collections or to be the miracle that solves all our beauty woes. Often, these claims have some truth, just not to the degree that they are saying. Others, unfortunately, are entirely bogus. These are a some of the deceptive claims I've seen time and time again.

Spot Treatments that Promise to Eradicate Pimples Completely Overnight: This is becoming a less frequently used claim, but it does still show up in ads and reviews. This is nearly always an untrue statement, although it does depend on the size of pimple you are treating and how far it may be already in the healing process on its own. On average, any blemish is about two weeks old by the time it surfaces on your skin. Within that time, the blemish has amassed a hearty number of dead skin cells, bacteria and a generous amount of sebum. If you consider this fact and, therefore, what even the most potent blend of ingredients or must work through to zap the spot at its source, it sadly is very unlikely that the blemish (especially one that has just popped up) will be gone overnight.

24-hour-wear Foundations and Concealers: The 24-hour-wear claim gives us an immediate idea that this is a type of product that is going to be steadfast come rain, shine, sweat, tears, work, and play. Too often, though, this claim is given to products that have lasted partially up to 24 hours in a scientific study. . It does not mean the full face of foundation necessarily has to be there and intact.

Regardless of where you land on the oily vs. dry spectrum of skin types, the skin will naturally release oils throughout the day. These oils will break apart foundation and suck it into your pores and off the surface of the skin. The breakthrough of oil occurs more in some parts of the face more than others, however, and this is what creates the patchy and uneven wear of base makeup throughout the day. Any foundation worn for as long of a time as 24 hours is going to be significantly patchy by the end of that timeframe if not almost completely worn away.

"Hypoallergenic" as a Term: It may seem like a sensitive-skinned person’s safety net, a product made with little to no amounts of known allergens. But truly, the term hypoallergenic means next to nothing. Any person can be allergic to anything, and doctors and skincare formulators are adding new ingredients to their lists of possible allergens every day, Even without a list, a person may still react to something entirely different from what’s on the list and just as easily not react to something that is on the list. In short, hypoallergenic products are good things to test out in , especially if you have sensitive skin, but they should be trialed as any other,understanding that no two people will have identical experiences with any product.

"Noncomedogenic/Nonacneogenic" as Terms:This is a label given to a product in which the ingredients have been shown to have a lower likelihood of clogging the pores (comedogency) or causing acne (acneogenic) . Like products labeled as being hypoallergenic, though, we run into the issue of that which causes or exacerbates acne or clogged pores goes beyond ingredients. Some skin is just naturally more acne-prone no matter what, and other skins will react more extremely with certain ingredients versus others. Virtually anything applied to the skin has some potential to clog pores and/or cause an inflammatory response that could lead to the formation of acne. Again, trial and error and listening to your skin's own signals is the only way to know for sure how a product will or will not affect you. A label like "noncomedogenic" may offer a great starting point, but it is never a guarantee.

The Word "Nourishing": "Nourishing" is a word used frequently in the labeling of facial and body moisturizers, lip products, and in haircare. The word itself sounds luscious and comforting, and it is true that products that have that word attached to them often do provide comforting and restorative effects to our appearance. Yet despite that, the claim is a bit deceiving. Our skin is a living organ, so therefore, the only way to actually “nourish”-- or in essence, feed or restructure it-- it is through the food we eat. The same is also true of our scalp (and therefore our hair). The vast majority of cosmetic products that we use to beautify what we see on the surface by making our lips smooth and even, moisturizing our skin, or conditioning our hair can only fortifying and rebalancing those surfaces and keeping them healthy to retain the goodness being fed up to it from our body. This is a critical step and shouldn’t be discounted, but to say that our topical beauty products nourish us externally and, therefore, give the impression that we can reconstitute the health of our skin, and hair through topicals alone is just not true.

We all want the products we buy to perform exactly as the claim and be just the thing we are looking for to solve our beauty concerns. Indeed, there are countless great products out there to help with every problem, even among the ones that may use these or other misleading terms in their advertising. We as the buyers, just need to make sure we adjust our expectations going in.