How to Choose the Best Skin Care Products

In this article I am going to give you some guidelines on how to choose the best skincare products.

I've been a formulator for the past 10 years. I've formulated all the skincare products you can think of, both for my brands and other brands. In my professional experience, what makes a product work is a combination of three factors : the ingredients, the amount of these ingredients, and how the ingredients are put together (the formula or delivery system). You need all three. And just because a product is expensive doesn't mean it has these 3 necessary components.

Key takeaways

• A product works only when three factors combine: the ingredients, their amounts, and how they're put together (the formula). If one is missing, performance is not guaranteed.
• Expensive ≠ better: high-end brands charge for positioning, advertising, and the sensorial experience- not superior results. 
• Ingredients are listed in descending order; if the "active" is near the end of the list, it's not doing much. Yes, there are exceptions like peptides that work at very low amounts. Let's take the famous "Miracle Broth" ...it is at 0.001%, an amount you wouldn't notice if it wasn't there.
  
• Steer away from super-long ingredient lists and cheap-ingredient formulas sold at luxury prices (water + glycerin + silicones is not a $70 moisturizer).
• There's no such thing as "best products" ... there's the product that works best for you.

How I learned this (the Manuela story)

When I was 23, I didn't know much about skincare except that it's something women do. I was chubby, and had some acne issues. I didn't feel good about myself, but I was too ashamed to ask for help. Help came without me asking. I was doing my internship in a pharmacy and there was this lady, Manuela.

She worked at the skincare aisle. Manuela is a very direct person. She told me that I was pretty except for …my skin! It didn't feel good but it also gave the motivation to change. Manuela suggested that I start using some skincare products, and she sold me a bunch of them. My acne didn't improve much with those products. I didn't understand why. But I kept using the products.

Fast forward a few years I moved to the US and started to work for a cosmetic company based in Los Angeles. That's when I got my answer. Some cosmetic companies exist with the ONLY purpose of selling you more and more products - whether you need them or not. Most of the times these products are formulated to let the company make the most profit while leaving you with below average and overpriced items: diluted formulas, cheap fillers, ingredients at minuscule amounts.

Skincare is not a quick fix. It complements a healthy lifestyle. My acne finally improved when, besides using quality skincare products, I started to eat well and solved the hormonal unbalance. When I started Luisa True Skincare my goal was to bring transparency to the beauty industry: formulations should promise AND deliver results.

Does expensive mean better? No.

When buying cosmetics you're not only paying for the product itself (ingredients, packaging, manufacturing, etc.). You're also paying for the advertising, distributors, retail locations, research and so on. High end brands use celebrities to endorse their products and place their stores in fancy metropolitan areas. They charge more because of brand positioning - not because their products are actually better!

Does this mean you shouldn't buy expensive products?  I'm not against luxury items, I do enjoy nice things. I just don't believe they're inherently better. High-end products give you a remarkable sensorial experience, but don't think that because they feel so nice they're giving you better results. Luckily, your superpower is learning how to differentiate a high quality product from a bad one. This is crucial if you want to stop wasting time and money. Working in the industry, I've seen some formulations contain more than 90% water ... they won't make any difference for your skin.

What makes products work (hint: it's not the fancy packaging)

What makes a product work is a combination of three factors: the ingredients, the amount of these ingredients, and how the ingredients are put together, i.e. the formula. You need all 3 elements for the product to work. If one is missing, there would be a substantial decrease in the performance.

1. The ingredients

The first thing you want to do when selecting a product is to analyze the ingredients list. Remember that ingredients are listed in descending order. Ask yourself: what are the "active" ingredients? Have these ingredients been researched?

With "active ingredients" I mean ingredients that have a proven record of being able to address a particular skin concern — for example hyaluronic acid, vitamin C, niacinamide and retinol among others. We know because they're backed by science. Some other ingredients, like for example watermelon extract, sound very nice on paper but don't have any kind of support for their action. Yes, it's just marketing.

If you can't identify any active ingredient, there are 2 scenarios: the product is of very poor quality, composed of water and natural extracts (fancy name for water) — or the product does not address a particular skin concern and is just meant to preserve skin already in good condition, like basic moisturizers that lock in pre-existing moisture.

Position in the list. Are the actives towards the beginning or the end? Near the end is not a good sign. The worst sign is reading "water, glycerin, dimethicone, etc." (in this order). Glycerin is an excellent humectant, but it's also tacky and very cheap ; if a product with that composition costs a lot, it's not worth the money.

How many ingredients are there? As a general rule, the more ingredients, the lower their relative %, the lower the benefits. Steer away from super-long ingredients lists.

2. The amount of these ingredients

Opt for products that state the concentration of the active ingredient. For example, a serum that contains 10% niacinamide is better than one that doesn't say anything (especially if you see niacinamide towards the end of the list…).

3. How the ingredients are put together, i.e. the formula

Formulation affects the quality and the performance of a product. Unfortunately, consumers have no way of knowing how a product has been formulated, and this is kind of a big deal. The presence of active ingredients alone is not enough: some ingredients are active only within a certain pH level ; get pH wrong and the active won't work. This is why I always suggest to avoid purchasing from DIYers. You want someone with a strong chemistry background AND years of experience formulating cosmetics. Certain skills cannot (and should not) be improvised.

Guidelines to help you choose the best products as a chemist

• Opt for products that state the concentration of the active ingredient (e.g. a 10% vitamin C serum beats one that doesn't say anything about the amount.
  
  
• Consider that smaller companies have higher prices because their costs are higher. A $70 moisturizer is overpriced for a large corporation BUT a similar product from a very small company might not be — huge corporations buy in bulk, thus paying less for ingredients and components.
  
  
• If you have sensitive skin, avoid colorants (on the ingredients list as CI followed by a number) and fragrances.

There's no such thing as "BEST PRODUCTS". There's the product that works best for you, which is a completely different concept. Take my advice as a starting point, ask yourself questions, make your own research. Try different products and see what works the best FOR YOU. We as consumers have the power and we can decide to stop supporting businesses that don't add any value to our skin.

Luisa's pick: Want a shortcut built on these exact principles? Start with the Skincare Bundle.  Every product you see in my store has been formulated by me and I choose to state  actives and concentrations, no 90%-water fillers. And if you'd like help choosing for your skin, book a 1:1 Skincare Consultation.

FAQ

Why is expensive skincare not necessarily better? When you buy cosmetics you're paying for the product plus advertising, distributors, retail locations, and celebrity endorsements — high-end brands charge more for brand positioning, not superior results. Think McDonald's coffee ($1) vs Blue Bottle coffee: you're paying for the overall experience, not a proportionally better product. Same applies to skincare.

What are the 3 things that make a product work? The ingredients, the amount of these ingredients, and how they're put together (the formula). You need all three ! If one is missing, there's a substantial decrease in performance. For instance, some ingredients are only active within a certain pH range or they cancel each other.

How do I read an INCI (ingredients) list? Ingredients are listed in descending order, so check where the actives sit: near the end is a bad sign. "Water, glycerin, dimethicone…" on an expensive product means you're overpaying for cheap ingredients. And the longer the list, the lower each ingredient's percentage and the lower the benefits.

As always, I am here to help if you need anything