Long story short, I was shopping around for some treatment cream, and I was almost flabbergasted that the same product formulated without certain ingredients cost 60 cents more than the one formulated with those specific ingredients. It's not significantly more, but if you factor in how many people in this world have certain skin conditions or have skin sensitivities and need to purchase the same product, but with different formulations catered to their specific skin needs, that's a lot of extra money spent for the "premium" price.
Basically what I was shopping around for was a treatment cream that contained zinc oxide because I'm running out of my current on from Johnson&Johnson. Highly recommend. It's for "diaper rashes" but I use it to treat other inflammation that occurs just sporadically since it contains zinc oxide which is known to calm and reduce inflammation. Don't wanna go too much into detail.
I was looking for something "clean" that didn't have fragrance and parabens in it. At first, I was just going to repurchase the same cream that I was already using (except in a different packaging because companies LOVE doing that), but I decided to change it up a little bit and look for zinc treatments which then somehow led me to just diaper rash creams. I literally typed "zinc oxide treatment" while searching around on the Target website.
Then I stumbled upon The Honest Company Rapid Relief Diaper Rash Cream which was pretty clean according to CosDNA (If you don't know this, it will change the way you look at cosmetics and skincare), but it costed about $10. For less than a 3 oz (yes, I'm in the US - we are one of the three countries who still use the imperial system) tube! I know it's not crazy expensive but DAMN!
I was going to get this one but CosDNA says otherwise. I'm putting it on my body, so I tend to steer away from fragrances and parabens if possible.
So I tried looking at other options, and I saw a "butt rash paste" with a super cute packaging that had pretty clean ingredients as well for a much larger portion size (okay, that sounds weird - I'm not ordering food here, but you get the point) after browsing around a little bit.
Seriously, how cute is this though? This isn't the original one, but it's got some pretty good ingredients in it.
Although I'm not sure why both this and the maximum strength one cost the same, but the one that has no fragrance and added preservatives cost 60 cents extra.
Like oh, you want extra strength, sure we'll give it to you for free, but if you want specific ingredients you have to pay a "premium". Not sure what kind of backwards logic that is. It just baffles me how companies can charge extra just because they have to formulate something catered to specific people, in this case, people with sensitive skin or those who just don't want preservatives and fragrances in their products.
What shocked me even more is that the one formulated with preservatives actually came up worse ingredients-wise on CosDNA.
Here's what the original one (with no parabens and preservatives) looked like:
Full Ingredients:
Zinc Oxide (16.0%), Castor Oil, Mineral Oil, Paraffin, Peruvian Balsam, White Petrolatum
I'm a little iffy on the oil-based ingredients it has since depending on how it's refined, it could be comedogenic.
And here's the one with natural preservatives:
Full Ingredients:
Zinc Oxide (16%), Aloe Vera, Beeswax, Carnauba Wax, Castor Oil, Citric Acid, Hydrogenated Castor Oil, Peruvian Balsam Oil.
Okay sure, it contains wax, but if you look at the "natural" one above, it has paraffin, which is a natural form of wax.
Bottom line: Companies charge a little extra for specific formulations, which is sad and unfair if you think about how many people have to purchase products formulated for sensitive skin.
Similar situation happened when I was deciding between the unscented the scented version of the Purito Centella Sunscreen a couple weeks ago. The unscented version costed about a dollar or two more so I opted for the scented one. Sadly, now they're both the same price. Should've waited a week or two. Strangely, it doesn't really have a smell that I find overpowering but might not be the case for people with sensitive skin.
I just find it really sad and shocking that companies charge extra for ingredients specifically formulated for a certain group of people. I just wish they could be more transparent about their ingredients. Luckily, brands like The Ordinary and The Inkey List becoming more and more popular and being transparent and open about their ingredients and what they actually do instead of making false promises that don't deliver.
That was my little rant/spiel about the annoyances of certain formulations and fancy "premiums" companies like to charge in order for them to make a profit and look better.
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