Is Your Men's Facial Cleanser a Big Con? Two Tests to Find Out
Author: Ranae Pritchard
Source: articlesbase.com
You know the old phrase, a wolf in sheep’s clothing? It’s easy to watch out for those “wolves” in the midst of business deals and “free offers” on the Internet. But have you seriously looked at your men’s facial cleanser? 96% of the facial cleansers out there for men are, at best; useless…and at worst; harmful. Luckily…there’s still that 4%! And even luckier are 2 simple tests you can take to find out if your men’s facial cleanser is in the follow-the-crowd group of 96% or the rebel-with-a-cause group of 4% that actually work. Men’s Facial Cleanser Test #1: The Money Tree Is your cleanser endorsed by celebrities? Does it run a Super Bowl ad this year? There’s nothing wrong with marketing (heck, most of our jobs wouldn’t exist without marketing!). The problem isn’t marketing, per se. It’s the amount of marketing. If they are spending billions on getting you to pick up the product, are they spending trillions on researching to make sure that product is top-of-the-line and healthy for your body to use? In the pharmaceutical world, the majority of their expenses (outside labor) are focused around research and development. Should you expect anything less in the world of skin care? After all, your body absorbs those products just as though you were popping a pill. What you put on your face ends up in your bloodstream eventually. Should we not expect the same standard of research quality in your men’s facial cleanser than we do in pharmaceuticals? Most likely, if your product is popping up every 10 minutes in commercials or is on celebrity-endorsed posters all over the city, the company is spending more on getting you as a customer than they are on giving you (the customer) something worth buying. Instead, search for smaller skin care manufacturers. Ask around. Search on Google. The smaller manufacturer’s can’t afford to sell shoddy products. They don’t have the marketing machine to cover up crap. They have to make and sell stuff that works. Plus..supply and demand laws dictate they can’t charge you a lot more than the big-wigs, because then no one would buy! You win on both ends: quality and affordability. Personally, we’ve been happy customers of a little New Zealand skin care company for quite a while. (I don’t have space here to talk about our personal skin care choices and research, since that’s not my current topic, but feel free to visit my website below for our “adventures in skin care research,” if that interests you.) Still not convinced and ready to throw out the men’s facial cleanser in the bathroom? There’s two more rules to go! See how it does. Men’s Facial Cleanser Test #2: Effective Ingredients = Effective Products How tempting it is to fudge on the ingredients in our hurry for “results”. We pay the cheapo-deapo price for car, only to discover two weeks later it’s a lemon that needs a new engine. Dave Ramsey refers to those rushed and poor choices as “Stupid Tax”. Everyone on the planet has paid it (don’t ask, I’m not telling mine!). You make a foolish investment. You buy on the cheap and pay on the back-end in repairs. The slimmed-down lesson is this: junky old parts don’t make shiny new cars. You can buff, scrape, paint, and refinish, but at the end of the day the rusted engine is still a rusted engine. The same thing goes for your men’s facial cleanser. If the ingredients aren’t good, the product isn’t good. It may work on the short-term (like that lemon car), but eventually it’s going to plateau or even damage your skin. In the business world, margins are everything. Most skin care manufacturers (96% actually) use low-cost, low-grade ingredients to keep their production costs as low as possible. (After all, those celebrity endorsements don’t come cheap!) What are these low-cost, low grade ingredients? Chemical agents and by-products. Does your men’s facial cleanser have a scent? Dermatologists say that’s a no-no. Those scent chemicals, added during production have been widely blamed for causing a majority of the (skin related) allergic reactions they see every year. And that’s the least of your worries. Many of these ingredients have been proven to be organ toxins, endocrine system disruptors, neurotoxins, and cancer causing agents. For example, the popular ingredient dioxane was studied and then acknowledged by the State of California to cause cancer. (see California’s “Proposition 65″.) You need effective products that will let you live (and have good skin) well into your 90’s. That’s really not such an impossible task. (After all, at least 4% of the skin care manufacturers are managing to do it!) In a nutshell, you need products that use all-natural ingredients. These compounds will greatly enhance the health of your skin, because they contain properties that are very similar to the natural oil that your skin naturally produces. (Talk about deception! Your skin will be completely fooled into producing great results!) Plant-based emollients work the best. They are powerful antioxidants (fighting acne-causing bacteria) and add omega fatty acids to your skin (healthy glow). In particular, two of the best natural ingredients you can find in a men’s facial cleanser are Kaolin and Bentone gel. These are both extracts from special New Zealand clay. They work together to draw dirt and grime from deep within your skin. (What else can you expect from a men’s facial cleanser?) As an extra bonus, they also soak up any excess oil that can block pores and cause acne infections or rashes. Kaolin, in particular, is a strong disinfectant that heals blemishes and inflammation (those blotchy sections on your skin). There you have it. Two simple rules that will help you easily identify those “wolves” hiding in your skin care medicine cabinet. So are you being conned? Well, is your men’s facial cleanser being pushed on TV, magazines, billboards, etc. Does it seem excessive? Does it seem to keep up with medical advancements? Or is it essentially the same stuff of 10 years ago with a new package? (If so, alarms should be going off in your wallet.) Look at the ingredients. Do you need a medical dictionary handy to read them? Does the company have a commitment to all-natural ingredients (ALL-natural, not just 1% natural!). Your skin will absorb everything you put on it, in varying degrees. It will end up inside your body, just like your lunch. Think before you use! A long life with strong healthy skin is a little price to pay for finding and using effective scientifically-proven and constantly-researched skin care products. If you are at all interested to see where our journey into all-natural skin care (including men’s facial cleanser) took my husband and me, click on the website below. It’s a small site, but full of information. (I’m a “get to the point” kind of gal.) Otherwise, happy hunting!
Ranae Pritchard is passionate about balancing “effectiveness” and “good for you” in skin care products. She believes beauty is much more than just skin deep. What you put on your skin is just as important as what you put in your mouth.
On her website, Ranae shares the things she learned on her quest for beautiful, smooth, naturally perfect skin. You can follow her discoveries and mishaps on her website, http://www.Naturally-Perfect-Skin.com.
