Winter in Beijing is very dry. I, a rough guy who used to be too lazy to use facial cleanser, have recently been urged by my wife to apply facial mask.

I refused at first, but after the struggle failed, I shamefully found that I also fell in love with the refreshing moment...

For many women and their families, their face is a bottomless pit of money.

China’s cosmetics retail sales are increasing year by year. National cosmetics retail sales are expected to reach 373.7 billion yuan in 2018, nearly 20 billion yuan more than in 2017.

Someone calculated that the money a woman spends on her face in her lifetime is enough to buy a house.

But are all those extremely expensive cosmetics really useful?

Over the weekend, I, a straight man, watched a BBC documentary "The Truth About Beauty" alone, and then I realized that most people have no idea about beauty and skin care. My understanding is wrong and all the money spent is wasted.

After reading this article, remember to forward it to your best friend or wife (girlfriend). It should be noted that this article does not contain any brand advertising.

About moisturizing

Three-quarters of women and half of men use moisturizing creams and think that moisturizing creams can keep their skin moisturized. Skin is left hydrated and youthful.

In "The Truth about Beauty", 25 volunteers tested three facial creams with different price points but high sales. The brands were classified as low-end, mid-range, and high-end according to price. Category three (to avoid suspicion of advertising, I will not mention the name of the brand in the text).

The researchers divided the volunteers into three groups: A, B, and C. They put the three products into bottles with the same packaging and distributed them to the three groups. Group testers.

The experiment lasted for three weeks. Each tester used it twice a day, only applying it on one side of the face, and nothing on the other side. After three weeks, the skin quality data before and after the experiment were compared. contrast.

Three weeks later, the test results surprised the testers. Only two products could increase the moisture content of the skin, namely low-priced and mid-priced. The most expensive one has the worst hydrating effect.

The two products with the best results are because the product ingredients contain a large amount of moisturizers. Moisturizers are chemical agents that can lock in moisture for the skin.

Among these moisturizers, the most common is glycerin. The higher the position in the ingredient list, the greater the content of this ingredient.

In addition to glycerin, which is cheap and effective, commonly used moisturizers include triethylene glycol, propylene glycol, sorbitol, urea, etc.

Can long-term use of moisturizer help the skin resist dryness and keep it moisturized?

The answer is, impossible.

After the tester applied the cream continuously for three weeks, there was no change at all in the health, complexion, and texture of the skin. Those considerable hydrating effects are temporary.

Truth 1: Using moisturizer for a long time is basically useless. The more expensive the moisturizer is, the better. It depends on the glycerin content. The higher it is in the ingredient list, the greater the content.

About wrinkle removal

What are women most afraid of seeing when they look in the mirror?

Of course, wrinkles.

Usually we think that as we age, the wrinkles on our face will become more and more obvious. "Ageless goddesses" like Zhao Yazhi, who is in her 60s, are embarrassing.

But "The Truth about Beauty" tells you that the formation of wrinkles is largely due to sunlight exposure.

Sunlight’s ultraviolet rays are divided into short-wave ultraviolet rays (UVB) and long-wave ultraviolet rays (UVA).

Short-wave ultraviolet rays can cause sunburn, while long-wave ultraviolet rays can penetrate glass and are the main cause of skin aging.

Tester Gill has driven a long-distance bus for many years. Using instruments, dermatologist Chris discovered that Jill's wrinkles were mainly concentrated around the eyes, and that there were more crow's feet on the right side of her face and a wider range.

Although it is indoors, the right side of Jill’s face is more exposed to the sun than the left side and is attacked by long-wave ultraviolet rays.

Why does sun exposure cause wrinkles?

Chris’ colleague Professor Rachel Watson gave an explanation: the dermal tissue in the skin provides strength and elasticity to the skin, and there is a fibril between the epidermis and the dermis Egg whites, which act like tent pegs, support the skin and keep it stretched.

Professor Chris said that about three-quarters of wrinkles are caused by sunlight, and external factors such as smoking and pollution play a role in skin aging. Only a very small part.

If a person has never been exposed to the sun, he may not notice the aging of his skin until he is eighty years old.

Therefore, anti-aging requires sun protection all year round. SPF3 or ??above and UVA protection of four stars or above are the basics.

But for wrinkles and spots that have already occurred, simply relying on moisturizing skin care methods is definitely useless.

As we all know, Botox injections can indeed smooth out fine lines, but you don’t have to use such an extreme method to remove wrinkles.

One method is to use a prescription product, such as tretinoin. Because of its strong potency, it may cause redness and irritation the first few times, and may also cause stinging. and burning sensation.

Due to its relatively strong side effects, vitamin A acid, as a prescription drug, can only be prescribed from regular skin clinics.

Of course, there is a substitute - vitamin A. Although the effect is weaker than vitamin A acid, it is safer and will still be effective if used for a long time.

Fact 2: To prevent and solve skin aging problems, the key is: sunscreen and vitamin A.

About makeup

After talking about skin care, let’s talk about beauty.

Many girls spend a lot of money on lipstick, foundation, and eyeshadow. My eldest cousin has given his wife a lot of lipstick, eyeshadow, and various bottles and jars, which are very expensive. But it is a gift that straight men can never choose wrong.

But are these cosmetics really worth that much money?

The program team invited famous beauty experts to conduct several sets of makeup experiments on volunteers, starting from foundation - eye shadow - lip gloss - mascara, in order based on the experience of use. Blind test.

The results showed that all volunteers chose cheap foundation and lip gloss, and expensive eye shadow and mascara.

Even makeup experts find it difficult to tell the big difference between lip glosses.

Therefore, you can buy expensive products with strong visual effects such as eye shadow and lipstick, and the effect will be better. If you are not pursuing impactful visual effects, then products such as lip gloss and contouring are cheap and useful.

Truth 3: Buy cheap foundation and lipstick, and save the money to buy expensive eye shadow and mascara.

Advertising slogans about cosmetics

“Contains active ingredients”

“Clinical trials have proven that it can remove wrinkles”

"It will make your skin bright and new"

········

Many cosmetics advertisements promote its effects The description makes people confused. In the film, a beauty chemistry expert points out that businesses are not allowed to make false advertisements, but if no one complains, the authoritative agency will not strictly require that product promotions are accurate to the actual results.

As a result, many merchants began to play around with the edges, and there were some rhetoric on the packaging that looked professional but was actually misleading.

For example, the slogan "skin tested" can actually be written on the packaging as long as "tested by one person".

For example, "clinically proven to be able to remove wrinkles" means that it has been experimentally proven to reduce wrinkles by 10%, but it can only be seen under a magnifying glass and may not be visible to the naked eye. Effect.

The word "active ingredient" is even more confusing: merchants only need to pass a simple "in vitro test" to use this term.

In addition, slogans such as "makes skin look great and radiant" are even more exaggerated and difficult to prove through merchant experiments.

About consumer psychology

This film also studies people’s consumer psychology and the sales routines developed by businesses for this purpose .

A doctor of psychology conducted another experiment: the exact same product was initially packaged and sold in a simplified version, and the shopping guide wore casual clothes.

Then the packaging and product names were changed to something fancy, and the shopping guide also wore a white coat, looking very professional.

As a result, within 2 hours, only 3 people bought the simple version, but 8 people bought the new packaging.

The experiment also asked each customer to prepare a questionnaire. It seemed to be soliciting opinions on new products, but in fact it was to examine the customer's self-esteem.

The results show that people with higher self-esteem tend to choose products with simple and practical packaging when shopping. People with lower self-esteem will choose products that look high-end.

A doctor of psychology explained that this comes from a person’s “compensation psychology”: When you see luxury goods, your self-esteem will Reduce, subconsciously need to increase your self-esteem by purchasing this product.

Another theory is the "self-difference theory": everyone has a real self and an ideal self. When there is a difference between the two, we create an ideal thing to reduce the difference, and luxury goods are a good choice.

Merchants have captured this psychology of consumers and used their differences in self-perception to position their own products and sales strategies .

Of course, if you are like my eldest cousin and just want to buy expensive things to please your wife, then that is a different story.

Truth 4: Don’t believe that “you get what you pay for”, the one that suits you is the best.

About attractiveness

In the age of looking at faces, beauty has become a competitive force. Beauty cameras, beauty bloggers, Internet celebrity faces, handsome young men, and everything related to good looks on live broadcast platforms are filled with our lives.

Many girls are addicted to photo editing software, trying to make themselves look more in line with their ideal appearance.

The last truth revealed in "The Truth about Beauty" is that others may see you more beautiful than you see yourself.

Society Psychologist Viren Swamy invited a group of people who did not know each other to come to the laboratory.

The first step is to let them chat face to face to deepen their understanding.

The scientists sorted out seven photos of each person. Only one of the photos was the original photo, and the other photos were refined to a certain extent to make them more attractive. There has been an increase or decrease.

In the second step, let everyone look at their seven photos and choose an original photo.

In the third step, let everyone look at the seven photos of the person you are chatting with and choose an original photo.

As a result, 70% of people chose a photo that was more beautiful than the original when choosing someone else’s photo, but when choosing their own photo, they chose a photo that was not as good as the original. Take nice photos.

In other words, we are often not confident about our appearance. But for strangers, their humorous conversation, accommodating values, and gentle and considerate personality may make us feel that they are beautiful.

Why is this? Because we focus on our flaws all the time. When it comes to others, we not only look at what they look like, but also think about what kind of person they are.

Regarding appearance, being strict with oneself and being lenient towards others explains the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and the scientific nature of eye contact. , and why some people who are already very good-looking still spend money on beauty treatments.

But the misunderstanding of beauty makes us lose more than we gain. The definition of "beauty" is too narrow, as if it only has an awl face and long legs.

"The Truth about Beauty" reveals that your knowledge, cultivation, and personality are the nourishment of "beauty". To use a somewhat vulgar saying, it is: good-looking skins are all the same. Interesting souls are rare.

Beauty begins with accepting one’s own imperfections. Before you buy a lot of cosmetics, tell yourself that you are more attractive than you think.