What’s the real cost?

Many of my clients will be aware that on July 22nd, my 52nd birthday, I was fortunate enough to give myself the greatest gift – I settled on a recent property purchase. This significant purchase bought me feelings of great elation and I was on cloud nine that day and for days to follow.  However, these feelings started to dissipate with the realisation of the mammoth task ahead of me, not so much the moving into my beautiful new home but moving out of the rental property I have been living in for four years.

As most of you are no doubt aware, the securing of a rental property requires a bond to be paid and for most people (including me!) it’s especially important to get the full amount back!  So, I took a decision not to hire a cleaner, feeling that I would have the greatest chance of getting all my money back if I undertook the work myself!

It would be fair to say, this decision took its toll on me in many ways, mostly physically but also mentally in trying to manage my business and the decision I had taken with the realisation of the level of time this task was going to take me to complete.  I ended up extending the lease twice for a total of two weeks!

I’m a reflective learner and reflection is key to learning from experience.  So, what did I learn from this experience? I learned this was a poor choice and the opportunity cost of doing the cleaning myself was greater than paying a professional cleaner, even if this would have cost $1000!

Why? My focus was completely taken away from my business, from attracting new clients, from marketing and most importantly continuing to grow revenue, together with other personal administrative deadlines that were not met.  In life our inclination is to focus on the explicit costs present at the time of decision-making rather than the implicit alternatives which are often unseen.  

So how does this relate to skin I hear you say? On the Blog I’ve written a number of articles (Why Should I Care? Keeping It Simple and What’s Serving You Well) about skin care products, which I’m very passionate about helping people make the right choices.  So many times, when I ask people what products they are using for their skin health or why they are using it, they often don’t know, bought it because it worked from someone else or simply the cost of the product was cheaper at the time.  

It’s also true that it’s not always the most expensive products that are the most scientifically proven to be effective – expensive also does not always mean better.

What’s important in a product is the level of active ingredients – those that are scientifically proven to have a beneficial and biological change to the skin.  The main thing that contributes to the price of skin care products it the concentration of certain ingredients in the formula. Over the counter products (regardless of whether they are expensive or inexpensive) have a lower concentration of active ingredients as opposed to those available and prescribed by a professional skin care clinic. The latter are usually safer for all skin types and don’t contain added fragrances that can cause allergic reactions for some. You could use the analogy of a tea bag – the first cup is the strongest but if you keep using the same tea bag it will lose its potency with every cup.  Less expensive moisturizers have less potent ingredients that can be by-products or leftovers.

So, it’s important to keep in mind, that many over the counter products will have the same effective active ingredients as those sold in a skin care clinic —they just won’t contain as much of those effective ingredients. In my blog “What’s in a Label?” you can learn how to read the ingredients list. Importantly, in Australia, cosmetic ingredients are listed in order of their concentrations, that is, the ingredients in order of percentage with the highest first. There are two exceptions to this, the first being any ingredient that makes up less than 1% of the formula can be listed in any order the manufacturer likes and the other is colorants, which must come last.

So, the bottom line is you need to work out the opportunity cost of buying over the counter products that are either more or less expensive versus buy from a professional skin clinic that can prescribe the right products for your skin.  If you are buying a product because it is inexpensive, it may be a waste of money as it has no benefit to your skin health. Likewise, you may be able to save money by purchasing a less expensive product as opposed to a luxury brand.  The price you pay does not necessarily equal its value in terms of how useful it is.

Not sure? I’m more than happy to help decipher your ingredients list to see whether your product is right for you.  No two faces are alike – let’s focus on yours!