“Cheap supermarket cream beats the big brand names!” is always a headline that will grab your attention. That’s because we all like to save a dollar (or 2) :)
We keep our ears to the ground when it comes to all things skincare, so we’ve heard it plenty of times - and it’s usually true - supermarket skincare productscan actually give you better results than more expensive department store products.
Ever wondered why?
We’ve got a little skincare industry secret to let you in on… The cheap supermarket brand usuallyis the big name brand, just with a different label.
For example, Garnier (a supermarket staple) and Lancome (a Hollywood star’s must-have) are both owned by Loreal. The budget-friendly Vaseline and the high(er)-end Dermalogica are both owned by Unilever.
So what’s the difference?
Erm… usually not all that much!
Usually just marketing and packaging.
Even though they’re different brands, you’re really comparing apples with apples. Actually – to be more accurate – you’re comparing plastic apples with plastic apples.
All of the products come from the same big pool of inexpensive, ready available, synthetic ingredients.
Synthetic fragrances, preservatives and mineral oil are examples of ingredients that are all drastically cheaper than their natural alternatives.
And how do they make a $5 cream?
It’s all about scale, friends. The more you can make, the cheaper it gets!
And when you’re using synthetic ingredients, it can get pretty gosh darn cheap.
A quick example is that 1kg of jojoba oil (which we LOVE) is about the same price as 20kg of mineral oil (which we do NOT love!). For one of our natural preservatives, what we pay for 500g could buy 20kg of its synthetic alternative.
Being enormous, billion dollar brands means that an ingredient that we think is inexpensive is dirt cheap to them. Buying an ingredient by the tonne could be 1000% (or more) cheaper than buying it by the 20kg or the 1kg. And this applies to all parts of their manufacturing.
So they use cheap ingredients, and a LOT of them.
We aren’t plastic apples (our ingredients are natural!)
It’s tough to compare brands like us (and the many amazing Aussie skincare brands out there) with the supermarket brands, or with the big brands either. Because you’re comparing natural products to synthetic products.
We’re real apples, fresh from the tree. Not plastic apples :)
We choose to be boutique, small scale manufacturers so that we can create natural products that truly nourish your skin. Not mass-produced products that just make your skin look good on the surface … for a short time anyway!
We’ll never be able to compete with the “big boys” (and girls) on price, as they have the scale. And the willingness to compromise on the quality of their ingredients.
The ingredients that we use in our creations aren’t even available on the kind of scale the big brands would need. They’re made on small farms by sustainable businesses. And that suits us to a T.
One thing the big brandscan’tcompete with us on is looking after our fantabulous and fiercely loyal happy customers.
There is more to a business than profit margins :)
Can you feel the love? xox
