I was out the other day shopping for some hand and nail cream. My nails have been getting rather brittle lately. The sales assistant at the store introduced me to what she called the latest product in nail care – Kervans – not something you apply on your hands and nails as for conventional products, but something to be taken almost as like medication.
Indeed, when I started looking around the shops, and noticing the advertisements in the papers, I couldn’t help but see this new trend – if you have blemished or aging skin, don’t’ try creams or facial products – try capsules! Many women seem to have been caught up with this latest breakthrough in skincare. Progene, Imeeden, Collagen… and the choices are increasing! What’s happened to the old faithful routine of cleansing, toning and moisturizing? That is now starting to be replaced by an easier pill-popping routine. If you have split ends, forget about looking for that perfect vitamin-enriched shampoo or conditioner. Try Efamol.
It does seem that beauty care has now taken a step inwards through the forms of pills and capsules. Well, we all know that for decades many beauty specialists have been harping on the need to have a good diet as good skin ‘started from within’, but is this the way to go about it? Of course, we also do know about doctors who prescribe tetracycline to acned teenagers, but what do we know of these products which can easily be bought off the shelves without any guidance besides the pamphlets that come with them?
A number of my friends have spent fortunes each month on such products, taking them religiously as they do their medication. These products, they feel, have given their skin, hair, nails, a new lease of life. I wonder how long they will keep up their enthusiasm. Till the next breakthrough?
A few years ago, they were buying up what was then the latest products in healthcare: products touting names and ingredients I never knew existed – Evening Primrose oil, Starflower oil, Squaline capsules, salmon oil capsules, all of which were riding on the success of the Royal Jelly. Today, healthcare products seem to have multiplied tremendously all claiming to be fast and efficient and somewhat miraculous stress-busters, memory enhancers, well-being pills for women? Well, at least they do not make any beauty claims.
Then there are other products that appeared on the market with highly scientific names and technology to match liposomes, AHA acids… but these are at least true to their name. They are cosmetics to be applied, not ingested.
I am not saying that all these products are not effective. In fact, I am sure many women will boast the success of the new pills and capsules. What I’m saying is that more should be made known about these products that are ingested and could alter the chemical make-up of a person. I do know of beauticians who prescribe these to clients who take them diligently. They are being packaged as medication and are supposed to work from within, but their ends are ultimately superficial.
I remember reading an article some months back in the papers mentioning that the increase in the number of health and beauty care supplements is targeted at the baby-boom generation resisting the effects of age. This is obvious by the way any new breakthroughs are snapped up. There is nothing wrong in being young and beautiful or wanting to be so. However, let’s not be excessively obsessive about it. I wouldn’t want the young today growing old thinking that skin is all. Beauty care is not necessarily healthcare, and too much focusing on the ‘body beautiful’ is not healthy. Beneficial as these products may be, they may simply be giving an ironic new twist to the old adage ‘beauty is skin deep’, and making us forget its true meaning.
