Shock, horror - beauty products that ACTUALLY work!

Nip+Fab Frown Fix currently has an 8,000 strong waiting list at Boots

Today the Daily Mail reported on the latest ‘miracle’ beauty product causing a stir, as the new Nip+Fab Frown Fix sold out within 24 hours of launching in the UK and now has an 8,000-strong waiting list at Boots. (It really made me laugh that the Daily Mail said “The Only Way Is Essex's salon-owner Amy Childs swears by the product” – she’s only 20 year’s old, for goodness sake - what frown lines does she have to fill?!)

I remember the last time this happened with Boots No7 Protect and Perfect Serum, when women went crazy in the aisles trying to get their hands on the anti-wrinkle hope-in-a-jar after BBC programme Horizon reported that the product ‘actually worked’.

When these 'miracle' beauty products come along, they tend to relate to skincare, specifically anti-ageing, or beauty problems such as cellulite or stretch marks, where a visible result is required in the reduction of wrinkles, cellulite, or whatever. The hype becomes immense because the thought that these kind of physical imperfections might just possibly be cured by a jar of cream is too good to pass up on.

While I’m all for beauty products being hailed for doing their job properly, I do think the fact that people go so crazy about a beauty product that ‘actually works’ highlights a problem in the beauty industry.

What about the millions of beauty products that make up the rest of the lucrative beauty market, which had sales of $36.5 billion in 2010 in the US alone (according to Kline Market Research)?  Are you telling me that none of these ‘actually work’? And if not, then why does everyone continue to buy them?

Well of course, many beauty products do their job properly - just take a look around you and see people's freshly washed, glossy looking tresses, or the enhancements that a few deft swipes of concealer and mascara can provide.

But when so many beauty products make such wild promises about the results they can provide (‘instantly makes you look 10 years younger!’ Really??), it’s not hard to see why people are often disillusioned with the (lack of) results they get from their beauty stash.

I think a bout of honesty would go a long way in beauty – if consumers have realistic expectations about the results they can achieve from a beauty product, then they won’t be left disappointed and every beauty product would ‘actually work’ because it is doing the job it promised it would do.

And don’t even get me started on using lash inserts and post production enhancement in mascara adverts.

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