Have you ever bought makeup or skincare in the hopes that it will have a specific effect on top of its primary purpose? Lip glosses claim to plump your lips, face moisturisers can rewind the clock with its anti-aging properties, and eye masks make up for one's lack-of-sleep by de-puffing and lightening eye bags.
The real question is: do these products really produce the results that they promise?
More often than not, they are simply regular products with the effect we want or believe them to have. We are all victims of the placebo effect, whether we know it or not.
What exactly is the placebo effect?
The placebo effect is commonly associated with the medical and pharmaceutical industries. It refers to the influence of consumers’ beliefs and expectations on the actual product or service. An example of this is giving a patient a drug that they perceive to have medical benefits and seeing improvements in their conditions, when in reality, it contains no such beneficial ingredients.
How is this related to the cosmetics industry?
The cosmetics industry uses the placebo effect not in the ingredients however, but rather, in the marketing of its products. This is seen mainly in the form of pricing and advertising.
The distinction between drugs and cosmetics are fundamentally based on the intended use of the product. If a product does not declare itself to treat disease or ‘affect the structure or function of the body’ it is deemed a cosmetic and not a drug. In this sense, cosmetic companies have no obligation to scientifically prove the efficacy of their products.
Pricing
Products that are priced higher tend to be perceived as more effective. Take a hydrating overnight face mask for example. 111skin’s Meso infusion leave on overnight mask is 75ml and costs $248, while Mecca Max’s night duty hydrating overnight jelly mask is 50 ml and costs $22. That’s $330.67 and $44 per 100ml respectively.
Some reviews from the 111skin mask:
"I have been using this product for the past few weeks and OMG I don’t think, in all my time as a Beauty Junkie I have found anything quite like this."
"Pricy but worth the money!!! Wake up with the softest skin. Would def recommend"
Some reviews from the Mecca Max mask:
"When you consider the price, it is outstanding and superior to many of the more expensive night masks."
"After using it for a few weeks, I'm really not convinced it has had any impact at all. I really wanted to love it - so cheap and cheerful but sadly I think it's a case of getting what you pay for..."
Despite the differences in product ingredients and production, they are both paraben-free and have the same essential purpose – hydration. So, why is there such a huge disparity in price?
People believe you ‘get what you pay for’, yet this is not always the case. Many brands simply price their products more expensively to increase consumers’ desire for it. This higher price point is also more likely to lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction upon obtaining the product. It’s funny to think that our brains work like that. Countless studies and experiments have been undertaken to try and understand the logic behind it, but there is still no explanation.
Advertising
Apart from pricing, the placebo effect is apparent in the packaging and advertising of cosmetics.
I myself have fallen for this marketing trick. After reading a review on the Dior lip maximiser, I decided to purchase one to see what the hype was all about. I thought it was magic the first few times I used it, then I realised it was all an illusion; my lips were not any plumper than they usually are. Turns out this lip gloss was not a quick fix, and I might still need a lip filler…just kidding. It is a pretty lip gloss that I love using, but I probably wouldn’t have gotten it if not for the special promise of a ‘lip maximiser’ that I wanted to try.
Brands advertise regular items with a special touch and fancy packaging like this all the time to set themselves apart and attract customers to that specific product. Go-to has done an amazing job at creating packaging that is both cute and convincing. The benefits of their skincare sometimes sound too good to be true:
Furthermore, when products are ‘dermatologically tested’, that could be another instance where brands are using the marketing placebo effect to draw you to make a purchase. We tend to trust in products that have been supported by a credible source. As highlighted earlier, due to the difference in regulation of ingredients in cosmetics as opposed to drugs, labels such as ‘clinically proven’ have no industry standard definition, so there is often no way to prove the method in which this label was attained. My dad has been religiously using an anti-aging cream that claims to ‘reduce the look of wrinkles’. It makes him feel young, but I guess we’ll never know the true effects of the product.
How do we tell if products are genuinely effective?
Ultimately, whether a product is effective (literally or psychologically) is up to the consumer to decide. All brands are trying to do is to find ways to create value for its customers, and the placebo effect is a fantastic tool marketers can use. It can have a different effect on everyone, and that is the beauty of it.
With the awareness of the placebo effect, we as consumers can make more well-informed choices about what products to purchase and which brands to support.
Written by Adrianna Chai
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