Skin care is a massive industry, and a competitive one at that.
The Internet has spawned many opportunities for smaller businesses to sell their goods as they can avoid having to pay large costs for things like shop fronts and transportation to different areas of distribution.
The downside of this of course is that almost anyone can set up shop online and there is very little standard control, which goes some way to explain why Norwegian experts discovered that 50% of the online offering where actually bad for you.
A complete spectrum of around 450 products were tested, chosen at random from various Internet sites and spanning all sorts of costs, volumes and places or origin. There were both facial care and hand care products sampled, and they were all tested extensively on various types of skin and measured on their effectiveness, ease of use and side effects. A control group who were given basic moisturizer where also used in the study.
The results were a little alarming and should be an eye opener for anyone looking to buy this type of product. A staggering 7 out of 10 products had no positive effects on skin and even more alarming, 5 out of 10 products actually had harmful effects. There were many side-effects recorded in the study but some of the worst were skin peeling, spots, blistering, server itching and dryness.
One expected result that the study did show however was that the more expensive products had the most benefit to the skin. In fact the products that cost in the top 20% of the list all showed positive effects and had no side effects. The overruling advice from this research has to be to do your research and only buy the highest quality skin care products you can. Also make sure you only buy from reputable companies such as this London spa. On a final note, always patch-test new skin care products first on an area of skin that is not usually visible, not too sensitive and does not come into contact with other skin.
