Luxury skincare products are considered to be "top of the line" in the beauty world. From brands like Chanel to Estee Lauder, these brands have positioned themselves as the best of the best-but are they really the best?

Does expensive luxury skincare mean that it is both good & effective skincare? The answer is NO.

So many people buy luxury skincare products thinking that the more expensive price means they're getting a better product. Consumers think that because the products are so much more expensive, the ingredients & formulation of the product has to be better than anything less expensive or that you'd find at a drugstore. While assuming this makes sense- it is not always true. What logical explanation could there be for skincare products costing hundreds of dollars beyond that it is magic in a bottle?

While a lot of these luxury skincare brands formulate their products with some high quality ingredients, you are mostly paying for the packaging & brand name on the label. These brands will often use high quality ingredients BUT beyond those select ingredients are the same base ingredients as other much less expensive products. While the luxury brand product may have one or two incredible ingredients, the others are very much so regular and average. What really is crazy is that the addition of these one or two amazing ingredients is all it takes to turn a drugstore product into a luxury brand product!

Most of these top-tier brands pay out crazy amounts of money for customized formulations.  Sometimes these custom formulations mean more research & higher quality products which would make the high price tag make sense. Unfortunately a lot of the time-this custom formulation they are paying for is nothing more than adding some filler ingredients to make the product feel more luxurious or smooth on the skin. While these unnecessary ingredients make your skin feel silky after application the results will not last & in turn you will use your product faster ensuring you buy another product soon. 

One of the most common examples of an unnecessary filler ingredient being added to a product to make it seem more luxurious is the addition of silicone. Silicones make products feel supple and soft on the skin, but they don't actually do anything for your skin. The silicone allows the product to glide onto your skin making it easier to apply and feel nice. Essentially when you purchase a "top tier" brand product that has added silicone to their product to make it feel luxurious you are paying for the filler ingredient..in this case SILICONE! 

Many of these high priced, custom formulations could be completely fake for all we know because they are not required to release their formulations. You read that right. They do not have to disclose their full list of ingredients! You might think you are applying a $300 custom luxurious & heavily researched product on your face but it is mostly water & some filler ingredients! 

There are some times that luxury brands will work to create a high quality product that is truly effective and might justify that $300 price tag-but it is very rare. 

So now that you know more times than none you're purchasing a product full of filler ingredients & water, what exactly are you paying that price for? The answer is really quite simple, you are paying for the pretty packaging, the brand on the the label, & the marketing they are using to make their products seem luxurious and better than the rest. These companies are well aware that the consumer already knows of their brand as it is well-known & considered to be only for the wealthy. These brands are a status symbol & essentially a lifestyle. By marketing their products to be a symbol of this top tier class they compel the consumer to buy their products & indulge. This false sense of a high class product is shown in the way they package their products. They use glass bottles with silver and gold accents to set themselves apart from the plain packaging of other companies. While Bay Harbor Beauty may not use different shaped glass bottles with silver and gold labels, we save you that cost & give you top quality products that are packed full of great ingredients. We don't think you should have to pay hundreds of dollars for products that actually work. 

Unless a product has been proven as new & revolutionary with extremely rare ingredients-a more expensive price tag does not mean that it is a better product. Instead of spending money on the brand name & packaging, let the ingredient list speak for itself! Select products that use higher concentrations of beneficial ingredients & skip the fillers.