Skin Essentials by Mariga

I have been reading a little about the history of the cosmetics and skincare industry recently and a little gem of a quote caught my attention. It goes to show that human nature never changes, no matter how sophisticated or clever we think we have become! Interestingly, I found this quote just after writing my previous post on the price of skincare products.

It is from a Victorian gentleman named Peter McEwan who was the author of a prominent book at the time called Pharmaceutical Formulas (1898). At that time if you wanted a preparation made for your skin you went to your pharmacist who made something up for you. Cold creams, lip salves and pomades were popular. Each pharmacist would have his own recipes and would custom make a product for each customer and also for the then fledgling cosmetics business.

McEwan said of toiletries ‘they appeal to the tastes of the refined and the rich – to the beautiful and those who wish to be..’ but he goes on to caution the pharmacist against taking advantage of the naïve customer when he says:

..’The public expect too much from the class of specialities called ‘beautifiers’. It frequently happens that the higher priced an article is, and the more highly it is vaunted, the better its success. This applied particularly to the class of articles we are now dealing with [cosmetic preparations], and is a source of danger to the compounder’s self-respect.’*

It seems to me that much remains the same. While we have made enormous progress in respect of what our modern day ‘beautifiers’ can achieve, it seems that there are still consumers who buy based on the belief that more expensive means better, and many companies are very willing to exploit that. Some skincare formulators would do well to read McEwan’s caution about self-respect.

For my advice on price vs. quality read an earlier post here.

*Source: The Victorian Pharmacy by Jane Eastoe