Episode 10: Are You Buying Skincare Or Buying The Marketing?

Cute packaging. Big promises. A suspiciously expensive serum. The Season 1 finale separates the science from the theatre: what a high price actually pays for, why "clean" isn't a scientific term, how to read the back of the bottle, and why the fix for a damaged barrier is usually doing less.

Show notes

A higher price mostly pays for packaging, fragrance, celebrity licensing and marketing — the base of most serums (water, glycerin, emulsifiers) is much the same at R200 or R2,000
"Clean" is a marketing term, not a scientific classification, and food-grade isn't the same as effective: many botanical molecules are too large (above roughly 500 daltons) to get through the skin barrier
Retinol, retinaldehyde and tretinoin are all vitamin A, but each needs a different number of conversion steps to become retinoic acid — which is why their strength, speed and irritation differ
If your routine stings, peels or flares, the fix is subtraction: stop the actives and go back to a gentle cleanser, a basic moisturiser and sunscreen