Sonja Krivokapic

Importance of testing skincare products The simplest thing to start with is to state the basic fact - everything created by science has to be tested. Skincare products are products of science because they serve a certain purpose regarding your skin health and because they are meant to fulfill this purpose. Some skincare products are made for the purpose of reducing skin dryness, some are anti –aging skin creams, designed to make your skin younger, and some are made in order to reduce the excessive moisture of your skin as opposed to the dryness. If the aim of certain products is to provide collagen cream benefits, then scientists would have to check if the ingredients really enhance the production of collagen in a person's system. Hence the scientists making these skin products have to be sure that the desired effect of a certain skincare product will be realized, and they have to test and re- test, as all scientists do and should do across the board. One reason this is done is the to make sure that science is progressing. If we just randomly make skincare products and sell them on the market, we will be able to get certain feedback from the customers, but feedback alone isn't good enough to determine does a certain product fulfill its prescribed purpose. The other reason, which has a lot to do with the previous one, has to do with integrity. Integrity within a scientific community as well as the integrity of various businesses involved in buying and selling the skin care products in question. If the scientific community doesn't test and retest its findings, they are less likely to be trusted if it the products it created turn out to be ineffective or bad because of its lack of testing. At the same time, businesses on the market would also be affected by this, because they would sell unreliable products and eventually loose credibility as a seller in the eyes of consumers. But the biggest reason why the tests are done is people's health. Since there are a lot more so-called regular people than there are scientists and businesses that sell skin cream products, this large group of people cannot be ignored. There are different types of testings. Scientists usually test these products on animals, but because there are a lot of voices protesting these practices, there is a significant number of non- animal tests that are used today. The purpose is to see not just whether a certain skin product serves its purpose but to see if there is too little or too much of a certain ingredient that makes some sort of damage to your skin. These tests are uniform; they can't cater to every single individual's need and health condition, but they are sophisticated enough to claim what they do claim on their package, that is, that skin creams benefit will help a lot of people. Some businesses that sell skin care products recommend that you do another test, self – test at home. This is not a bad idea at all, as it's already said, testing and retesting is a scientific way and the most secure way to make sure a certain product is perfect for you. this type of testing is called skin patch testing, and people usually used to test if the product will cause any kind of inflammation. This should concern people with skin problems in particular, as it's not recommended that they should be trying out different skin products without testing them out first. The way a person does a skin patch testing is that they take just a little bit of a cream in question and apply it to a small part of your skin. It's important to remember that these test should be performed even if the cream has all natural ingredients because even natural ingredients can sometimes cause skin problems. Nothing that isn't tested should be taken seriously, whether that's a skin product or something else. When it comes to our health specifically, we should be very careful, because the purpose of the tests is to make sure the health products won't affect our health in a negative way. It's very important to have that in mind when it comes to skin, as it's a very complex organ that needs a lot of attention, so we have to make sure that we give it the attention it needs and deserves. Sources: http://www.lucideon.com/industries/healthcare/fmcg/consumer-goods-testing-analysis/skin-care-product-testing http://www.thedermreview.com/collagen-cream/ https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/scienceresearch/producttesting/ https://manukabiotic.co.nz/testing-skincare-products-important/ Pictures: Source: http://mysurvey123.com/75-paid-product-testing-new-skin-care-product/ Source: http://indopakgrocerystore.com/?product=product-testing Source: http://tyo.swanndvr.net/skin-cream.html