18 Reasons Why the Skincare Industry is Worse Now
These are 18 reasons the skincare industry has suffered at the hands of social media- which are things I believe but can’t prove.
The skincare industry has expanded rapidly over the last few years, which has invited an influx of different opinions from a large variety of fields – everything from regular people, true skin experts, and supposed experts.
In many ways, the influx of opinions has led to more confusion, and potentially even more pressure to achieve perfect looking skin and perfect features.
Some of this pressure is also coming from unexpected places, like Dermatologists, Plastic Surgeons, and Esties (Estheticians).
With concerning trends continuing to grow, industry insiders, typically in the marketing space, have often chosen to create marketing plans based on misinformation and sensationalism.
Disinformation is further boosted by the influencer community and wellness space, both acting in a way that benefits engagement above real people.
Before we jump in- I’d highly recommend The Science of Beauty by Dr. Michelle Wong and The Eco Well Podcast by Jen Novakovich for two easily digestible and consumer-friendly sources of real science communication.
These are 18 reasons the skincare industry has suffered at the hands of social media.
1. How Aesthetic Clinics Are Shaping an Unrealistic Beauty Standard
Plastic Surgeons, Dermatologists and even Estheticians, with a focus on textbook aesthetics, have altered the perception of beauty and encourage a distorted reality.
We are hit with talk about Botox, fillers, needling, lasers, and chemical peels like its commonplace, with little regard for conveying the real-world risks and legitimate ongoing costs.
This has been a notable shift away from skin health as the focus, into an almost dystopian reality of correcting everything that is deemed to be a “flaw”.
The ethics of medical professionals engaging in this type of glamorisation of procedures is highly questionable, and it has become apparent that the business of aesthetics is far more important to a large subset of practitioners than engaging in medicine.
Society will not benefit from the degradation of medicine and genuine patient or client care into real world examples of photoshop.
Video: Content creator Sarah of @horriblemeanbadwoman shares of her experience of the lines of medical care and cosmetic care being blurred at her local practise.
2. Fear-Based Marketing Is Replacing Balanced Skincare Advice
Unhealthy is when you worry too much about what you’re using and consuming.
Healthy is understanding that nearly anything is ok in moderation and the risk of using something is already calculated for you.
The general public has fallen prey to a wide variety of faux experts who wouldn’t know how to describe the concept of toxicity even in simple terms.
They are often incompetent and predatory, looking to sell their own alternative products as their primary focus and goal.
Fear sells, and this incentivises ill intentioned people to hold back factual information.
The global wellness economy reached a new peak in 2023 of $6.3 Trillion, and is forecast to hit $9 trillion by 2028, according to the Global Wellness Institute.
3. Clinical Settings Are Becoming Sales Floors, Not Science Hubs
Laser companies and injectable brands hold “medical conferences” that are really just sales pitches for physicians and estheticians.
They get sold to on the next best new device, the same way we see ads for skincare products, and that often comes along with financial bias to promote, use, and stock the device in clinical settings.
Tons of treatments we see are often:
Not that clinically relevant,
Have limited and very short-term outcomes
Very expensive with ongoing costs.
But we are told they are remarkable inventions simply because they’re conducted in a clinical setting.
The fact is: This is just another business.
Our faces are being used as playgrounds, often not vetted well enough for genuine results, or not even vetted with regard to proper handling and training.
4. When Doctors Act Like Influencers, Trust Erodes
Doctors have ruined their own reputation by acting like influencers.
Fiction over fact is how far too many of them operate now and they care more about engagement and clickbait than actual real science communication.
The examples of this include some talking about rosemary oil for hair, how hyaluronic acid is bad, and how chemical sunscreen is questionable.
It’s often all done for clicks. Doctors especially should not be randomly sharing bits and pieces of unverified information.
5. Influencers Are Now Just Salespeople, Not Reviewers
Influencers have ruined their own reputation by acting like spokespeople instead of individuals.
When the whole concept of an influencer started, it was real people hopping online giving genuine reviews- kind of like checks and balances of what is worthwhile and holding the beauty industry to account.
That has now shifted to most influencers just selling any and every product that comes along their inbox.
This practise has reduced organic discovery of more niche products, as brands do huge send outs of products to flood coverage in the skincare space.
This results in what feels like everyone talking about the exact same launches.
The actual process of slow discovery and organic popularity has almost disappeared.
6. The Clean Beauty Movement Is Built on Misinformation
Most of what wellness influencers say is all bull.
The appeal to nature, fearing synthetics, fearing certain ingredients or classes of ingredients.
Even the creation of “clean beauty” as a whole - It’s all mostly thoroughly wrong and made up for their own illogical and marketing benefit.
Most people have noticed how expiry dates keep reducing, and that product stability appears to be getting worse- have you?
This seems to be in direct result of the demonisation of ingredients that work to round out formulations both in texture and efficacy.
7. Has Skincare Become Too Clinical and Boring?
Sometimes it feels like skincare is getting boring with a lot of repetition.
Maybe it’s because the industry has been stripped of the fun things due to the swing towards a clinical approach.
Elements like fragrances and colours are super significant in creating a point of difference and association with a brand, alongside giving people a sensorial experience when using skincare.
Often, skincare now smells like nothing or like play-dough, with textures all starting to resemble each other.
8. Why Waterless Skincare Doesn’t Work for Everyone
Nobody wants waterless skincare. This trend tried to take off, often seen in solid serums and oil-serums.
The common problem is, when you’re not using water- you’re using oil.
Many skincare ingredients are specifically water soluble.
This in turn means the waterless approach not only limits what people can use, but also means textures start to feel slimy and heavy.
9. The Problem with Skincare Refill Systems
Refill systems – They’re often clunky, chunky, and large.
With so much extra material and extra space, I can’t see how this is a logical evolution of product design.
Why not make the base component smaller and lighter and forget excess and bulky packaging to accommodate refills.
Plus, it is generally known that a person needs to buy many refills to have meaningful carbon reduction which I doubt happens at the rate brands suggest it does.
There aren’t that many super popular products that have dedicated followings that would warrant refills in the context of serum and moisturiser casing specifically.
Refills maybe make sense for high volume things like cleansers and body washes where they come in a pouch.
Interested in learning more? Check out Cosmetic Packaging Sales Director Allison Turquoise on Instagram.
10. Why Alcohol in Skincare Isn’t the Villain You Think
Denatured alcohol is an amazing skincare ingredient.
There is no need for it to be demonized as an inherently bad or automatically drying thing.
Like with most ingredients it’s part of a bigger picture and looking at things in isolation is almost never useful.
Alcohol allows for very specific textures that other ingredients can’t achieve.
It allows for more efficient dry down. Allows for better ingredient penetration.
And I think we have worse products now than when alcohol was used more commonly.
11. Ingredient Blame Culture Is Oversimplifying Skincare
Most people arbitrarily blame certain skincare ingredients for causing them an issue.
The truth is ingredients come in different formats, including:
Grades
Molecular weights
Inherit functionality
Even if something reads the same on an INCI list it’s likely not the same ingredient across the board.
Video: Saul from @Skinterest.lab on Instagram “We recreated that idea in the lab with two moisturisers that share an identical INCI list - but thanks to changes in supplier, grade, ingredient format, usage %, and process, they look, feel and perform nothing alike!”
This is especially true for things like silicones, humectants, thickeners, preservatives.
Narrowing down a list of problem ingredients is often useless and just because someone dislikes or reacts to one product, doesn’t mean that whole class of ingredients is bad.
Correlation doesn’t equal causation.
12. Evidence-Based Skincare Has Lost Meaning
Having an evidence-based skincare routine means nothing.
You can pretty much find evidence for anything.
There is no inherently best skincare routine or best skincare product.
It’s very individual and a million factors impact people differently that the only way to know if something will work for you is to try it.
This of course doesn’t apply to a prescribed product from a medical professional.
In the context of general skincare, from the cosmetic industry, nearly anything goes.
13. Global Brands Need to Synchronise Product Launches
If a brand operates globally, they should make it a priority to align release dates across all markets.
Social media has created a global vantage point for nearly everything.
I can’t see how trying to isolate regionally makes sense these days.
It’s often a business decision to delay international due to increased costs.
And sometimes there are logistical reasons related to various registrations and regulations.
But, ultimately brands decide when they want to release products.
And maybe forcing themselves to slow down and be ready for a wide release would also benefit product shelf life and overall stability.
This point is more aimed at established brands that have little excuse.
14. Retailers Must Be More Transparent With Their Product Selection
Retailers need to do a better job of vetting brands.
The fact that retailers stock brands which are allegedly a white label brand is distasteful.
I have no interest in spending luxury money on brands that can’t be bothered to create original products- It shows a level of disrespect for customers and their hard earned money.
Brands aren’t required to disclose this information, but retailers should know- and they do- but it seems they don’t care.
15. High Prices and Dupes Are Both Missing the Point
Really high prices are not a flex. Dupes are also not a flex.
Original formulations with reasonable pricing is the goal but the fact is I would rather buy something that is developed from scratch with specialised sourcing or new technology than whatever dupe brands are trying to pass off as legitimate.
Having said that, there are examples of brands like Dr Barabara Sturm charging disproportionate amounts of money ($515.00 to be exact) for basic hyaluronic acid serums.
Low effort, but high cost is just as disappointing.
16. TikTok Trends Are Turning Skincare Into Fast Fashion
Pandering to TikTok is a short-sighted endeavour, good for brands in the immediate future to gain sales, but it will (and it has) shifted the perception of value and the desire for quality to an irreparable level.
The skincare industry has become a fast fashion industry because of TikTok, and we have far less originality.
This has led to brand loyalty being eroded entirely.
17. Brands Are Losing Their Identity Chasing Trends
Brands have lost a desire to cultivate loyalty and no longer care about establishing a brand identity.
They seem to just copy each other, use the same ingredients, try to copy the same textures- even packaging design.
There is no conviction in philosophy, just trend chasing.
This means we have far less innovation, and they have far less incentive to do so.
When trends rule, nobody is willing to risk trying something else.
18. What Skincare Can Actually Do (and What It Can’t)
You can’t view the skincare industry as entirely functional or entirely useless- it sits somewhere in between.
Skincare probably excels at preventing, delaying, and mitigating skin issues rather than outright correcting or reversing damage.
I’ve seen some people imply that nothing works, which is certainly not true- but also, skincare products are not as miraculous as brands make it seem.
And unfortunately, grand claims are easy to achieve.
The reality is even small improvements are a win as both intrinsic and extrinsic things are really to get us.
Final Thoughts
This article began discussing how the idea of skin health has been eroded for perfected looking skin and photoshopped features.
My goal is to encourage people to have more reasonable expectations.
Worry less about details and gain the understanding that wellness is a meaningless pursuit unless you have total clarity as to what needs fixing from real world medical advice.
We need healthier relationships with ourselves in the mirror and calmer minds that have not been bogged down by fabricated concerns.
Skincare is not toxic. But social media certainly is. Please take care out there.
Watch Sam’s YouTube Video Below:
Important you know: This piece is published as part of our Opinion category.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of White Rabbit Social.
