Ask yourself: Why should you be loyal to a cosmetics company if the cosmetics company isn’t even loyal to itself? For example:
• Estee Lauder owns Aramis, Aveda, Clinique, Bobbi Brown, Prescriptives, M. A.C., Origins, Jo Malone, La Mer, Tommy Hilfiger fragrances, Bumble and Bumble, American Beauty, Flirt, Good Skin, Grassroots, Michael Kors Beauty, Darphin, Ojon, and Donna Karan Cosmetics.
• L’Oreal owns Maybelline New York, Garnier, Lancome, Helena Rubinstein, BioMedic, Vichy, Biotherm, Shu Uemura, Kiehl’s, Soft Sheen-Carson, Redken, Matrix, Kerastase, Giorgio Armani, Inneov, Sanoflore, CCB Paris, Dermablend, The Body Shop, Skinceuticals, Ralph Lauren, and La Roche-Posay.
• Procter & Gamble owns Cover Girl, Max Factor, Olay, DDF, Aussie, Camay, Clairol, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Ivory, Fredric Fekkai, Noxzema, Pan – tene, SK-II, and Zest.
• Johnson & Johnson owns Neutrogena, Aveeno, Clean & Clear, RoC, Rogaine, Lubriderm, Purpose, and Ambi.
Brand-name loyalty just does not make any sense. Clinique makes great mascaras, some great foundations, and some great moisturizers, but several of their toners contain alcohol, which is too irritating and drying for all skin types. Clinique also has several moisturizers packaged in jars that won’t keep the important ingredients stable. Lancome has some excellent blushes and mascaras but their foundations with sunscreen typically don’t contain UVA-protecting ingredients, while their moisturizers are overly fragranced and most all of them lack state-of-the-art ingredients many other lines include. Neutrogena offers some wonderful makeup products and sunscreens but most of their cleansers are extremely drying and irritating, and some of their sunscreens don’t contain UVA-protecting ingredients. Revlon has some great foundations, good mascaras, and terrific lip pencils, but they have failed repeatedly at eyeshadows and their attempts at mineral makeup. Staying with one line, in any price range, is usually a disservice to your skin and budget.
Even our own experience tells us that all the products within one product line aren’t great. Haven’t we all purchased expensive (and inexpensive) products that didn’t work or that we didn’t like? Yet the success of the major product lines in establishing brand-name loyalty is astonishing. It is particularly apparent in the way a woman responds to questions about what brand of makeup she is currently using. A customer usually whispers or acts embarrassed when she admits to using a drugstore brand, but if she’s using an expensive brand you can hear her across the room. The reality is that the cost of a cosmetic has nothing to do with whether it will work for you. We have all used both inexpensive and expensive makeup that worked beautifully for skin, as well as inexpensive and expensive makeup that looked awful and was bad for skin.