Hello everybody.
Welcome back to my channel where
skincare is all about progression over
perfection because perfection doesn't exist.
Yes, I have a new backdrop.
I know people are going to be like, I miss
the old one, but it happens every three years.
You'll be fine.
Today I want to talk about something that is
kind of like really just like... ugh. I think I've
said this at the beginning of every video.
I've not been feeling great the last week, and
I'm really just in the mood to complain.
And I feel like complaining is good for us
sometimes, it's great to be like, oh, happy
everything and everything is great.
But sometimes it's nice just to have a little moan.
This channel is definitely a safe space to complain.
I feel like there are certain things within
the skincare community, definitely just online across all
apps, where there's unnecessary discourse for no reason.
Things where I personally feel like, you know, we've
been there, we've talked about this.
Why are we still discussing this?
Why is this still an issue?
I'm just like, oh my God, can we move on now, please?
I thought we'd done that.
I thought we sorted that.
Of course learning something new every day is important.
Not everyone learns everything at the same time, right?
But these are things that I feel like we've
all learned about before, yet we're still kind of
being like, well... when we don't really need to be.
And also a mix of just like
comments that kind of annoy me. Sorry.
Every time I do these videos, I'm like, this is
so f*cking petty, but let's just get on to it.
This is something that I hate talking about because
I thought we stopped talking about this, yet it's
still something that comes up all the time with
every new launch, every kind of product review.
And that's fragrance, the fragrance debate, which
shouldn't even be a debate anymore.
For example, if someone launches a product
and it's like, with fragrance? Yuck, no
thank you, I don't need that.
Fragrance serves no purpose.
The usual, the usual, the usual.
Why are we still debating this when
we know what the science says?
I get at the beginning when it was
a first, like, flag to all of us I guess,
that fragrance may irritate some people.
We're like, oh sh*t, like, I didn't know that.
I had no idea about that.
And I was using so many things
with fragrance in. As someone with rosacea.
But I've never had an issue with it until I
thought I did because I was told I do.
We now know every experts take
on fragrance within skincare and cosmetics.
But fragrance seems to be one of the
only things within the skincare community that people
are okay ignoring the science about.
A lot of people are very much into
their skincare science, you know, creators and viewers, consumers.
Yet for some reason, when it comes to fragrance, we're
like, hmm, ignore the science let's err on the side of caution.
It's one of the only things that
people are like, I'd rather not.
Like why are we ignoring the science here? I don't get it.
Why is this the one topic
that we're very anti-science about?
Because you can potentially develop an allergy to it.
So what? So what?
You can with most things and then a lot of
people are like, but it doesn't serve a purpose.
Well, it does.
Aromatherapy in cosmetics is a purpose.
Just because it's not your preferred purpose
doesn't mean it's not a purpose.
Just because it doesn't have
benefits directly to the skin.
Actually, some fragrances do play a huge part in formulation,
but just because it doesn't have that kind of benefit
doesn't mean it's not a benefit or a purpose, you know?
And there's some confirmation bias at play
here as well, because you've heard a
Dermatologist, Aesthetician or whatever say that fragrance
is bad, whilst not delving into nuances.
There's so many different nuances around fragrance,
within cosmetics. Purely that it's bad,
it can cause irritation if not now,
later down the line. Very cutthroat, very black
and white, when we know nothing within science
or skincare is black and white.
And this, to me, does verge on the edge of
fear mongering. I think, putting something so blase and saying,
oh, it's fragrance, it's going to cause an irritation.
It's very fear mongering to me.
And to me, fragrance is slowly, slowly
becoming up there with paraben-free.
It's verging on the side of Clean Beauty.
It's verging on the no nasties, you know,
clickbait, EWG style, no fragrance.
You know, soon we're going to start seeing EWG, paraben-free,
fragrance-free, because it's verging on that side where
people are ignoring the science behind it so much and
just listening to the negatives that we're going to
get there with fragrance one day.
It's up there with Clean Beauty for me.
But the issue is, is that people listen
to one side of the argument.
Well, it's not an argument because
we know what the science is. There's no debate here.
There's no argument. But we'll listen to one side
of, I guess, expert experience and then roll with
that instead of listening to people who create these
fragrances, people who actually regulate these fragrant ingredients, people
whose job it is to regulate the health and
safety, the irritation aspects, you know, all that kind of regulatory
stuff that goes behind fragrance.
And yes, fragrances are highly regulated.
I think it was...
Who was it? Two great posts over on Instagram by Sam By
The Counter, and also the cosmetic regulator, to kind
of put it into my own words.
So sorry if I misquote them in
any way, but fragrances are highly regulated
by the International Fragrance Association, the IFRA.
They basically set the standards, the criteria for
the use of fragrance and cosmetics, and also
two to three years every so often they'll
kind of like revisit this and often ban
fragrant components and fragrant ingredients as well.
So people aren't just tossing fragrant ingredients
into a skincare product, mixing it up and
being like, good luck with that, you know?
They are regulated.
And yes, fragrance, parfum, whatever you want
to call it, can be the brands secret recipe.
We're not always going to know
100% what those fragrant components are.
It's different in the US to the EU.
There are certain fragrant ingredients that they
have to list. But what that doesn't
do is exempt them from any kind
of, like, rigorous regulations and toxicity studies.
So they're not just putting fragrances
in and getting away with it.
These things are still held to
the same kind of standards.
Basically there's no debate here.
Does your skin react to fragrance?
If it does, don't use it.
If not, which is the majority of us, it's
not going to cause you any kind of irritation.
Carry on using it.
It's not when my skin reacts to it, it's
does it react to it or does it not? That's it.
That's it.
We're not all supposed to be living in fear
that one day, potentially, we might develop, the
very small percentage of us might develop this,
allergy, you know? Of course, there's personal preference
but that's not part of the debate.
You know, whether you like fragrance or not it's down to you.
Whether you're irritated to it or not is
an important part of the debate.
But erring on the side of caution doesn't make sense
unless you do that with everything in life that can
potentially cause you any kind of damage in any way.
I'm so bored of it.
And there will always be people again who
say that there's not enough fragrance-free options.
It would be nice just to have the option.
I agree.
But also, this isn't a pandemic.
It's not that common.
There's not like a whole, you know, huge amount of people
suffering enough for it to make sense to businesses
to spend money on fragrance-free kind of option.
And whilst I do think it is important for people to
have the option, it just doesn't make business sense too.
But there are also a lot of very,
very popular, naturally fragrant-free products and brands
overall that don't even class themselves or advertise
themselves as being fragrance-free.
The Ordinary, The Inkey List, CeraVe, just to
name a few, because they are some
of the most popular and readily available.
I would say don't waste your time just
avoiding things in life just because one day
they might damage you or hurt you.
There are plenty of things in life that
serve no purpose other than to bring us
joy, which is a purpose within itself.
Skincare, food, drinking, entertainment.
That's what life is about.
Companies do not make these products and spend millions just
to put product out there that they think is going
to irritate the vast majority of people who will then
never spend money on their brand ever again.
And yes, some people react
to fragrance because that's life.
Everyone reacts to something.
Here's a difficult one.
And this is something that I personally struggle
with still, really, and that is trying not
to be problematic with brands, and trying to
pick brands that someone doesn't see as problematic.
Which I have to say, whilst I've been doing
my When Beauty Turns Ugly series, and researching many
different brands that I've not even posted videos about,
and looking into the history of brands that I've
not posted videos about yet.
It's next to impossible to not support a brand with
your money or use a product from a brand that
is not in some way considered problematic to someone somewhere.
You have to be in a very privileged position to
be able to fine-tune any kind of lifestyle, skincare
cleaning products, whatever, to be so selective about the brands
that you spend your money on based on your morals
and preferences, because it is impossible.
You have to be very privileged to have
that much access to that many brands.
Does that mean we should all go, oh well, who cares? Like, you know?
And just use everything and support whoever for anything.
Absolutely not.
I 100% have my limits on brands.
For example, when CEOs have been openly racist, homophobic,
any IC or IST, I will not support them.
I won't support them because
that's my personal preference.
I hope it's others personal preference as well.
When there's that clean cut and clear as day.
For example, I canceled a job with DHC
Cleansing Oil, a product that's really popular in
the skincare kind of community, but not alot of
people know that their CEO, who is still
their CEO, was very openly racist towards Koreans.
That's a problem.
That's an issue for me.
So I dropped out of the sponsorship.
I won't use DHC again.
Nivea I don't use because the people who are
in charge still and will benefit from me buying
their products very openly said to an advertising agency
that they don't do gay at their company.
Me, as a gay man, I personally
choose not to use their products.
There are brands that you use every day that
I can guarantee you can trace back to something
problematic, especially as they're, you know, in such a huge conglomerate.
Etude House, for example, is
one that always shocks people.
Broke the law a while back selling products
in Thailand illegally that they shouldn't of, problematic.
Some people might be able to look past it.
It's not the biggest thing for me.
I'd be like, okay, they broke the law, fine.
I will still use an Etude House product, you know.
That's my personal preference.
I don't mind. Vaseline just itself, as the
actual main product is a huge, hugely popular
in the skincare community right now.
Skincare whitening, not lightning, whitening, adverts all
throughout the world, even to this day.
People may have an issue with that, people may not.
You know, it's problematic.
And of course, there are some
cases that are worse than others.
But I've had people in my DMs slamming influencers in
their product launches and the ways that they were launched,
then right under that DM, they're asking me to review
Jeffree Star skincare because they love Jeffree Star.
To me, that's an issue.
To me, I would rather review
that influencer brand over Jeffree Star.
And I don't think I have to explain why.
If you care more about bad-mouthing an influencer than
you do racism, then I guess that's your prerogative.
But I guess what I'm saying is be consistent.
But it's also very hard to. As I said, there
are different degrees to what I think is very obviously
wrong, to what some people might be okay with.
And that's what I mean by feel what does right to you.
I'm definitely not going to support a
big racist brand or anyone who supports
a huge racist brand, for example.
But I feel like a lot of people nowadays
kind of do look at any kind of issue,
slightest issue, and call that brand problematic, then people
get slammed for using that brand.
What I would say is, do your research into these
brands, into the CEOs, into the people behind this brand.
I do think it's important to vote with
your money, but I'm not going to judge
if you want to use something, use it.
I do think it's important, however,
to still hold brands accountable.
And I will call out brands if I think
something's wrong and listen to other groups who feel
like they have been discriminated against by this brand.
But if there's an apology, that's mine to accept, and if
I accept it, I will have no problem using that brand for example.
It is difficult to balance out, you know, where... what
level degree do we, do we...
are we like, okay, that's fine.
That's something I can look past.
I think it's tough, and as I
said, it's still something I struggle with.
I definitely do have my morals and my standards.
But yeah, it's a tough one, I think, but
also not really, but also kind of.
Here's a point that comes up again with every celebrity launch,
every influencer launch, every brand launch in general.
And this, I'm kind of going to merge two in one.
This is that expert,
skincare experts should only be trusted as default
and that only Dermatologists can launch brand products.
I think people with these titles take advantage of the
fact that not everyone is clued up as to what
that particular title actually means and what their studies consist
of and what their experience consists of.
We've all seen a sh*t doctor, right?
We've all seen a doctor who sends you
home with like 100 paracetamol when really what
you need is your appendix removed.
That's kind of how it is throughout all
expertise, not just in skincare, but throughout life.
You know, you get your good, you get your bad.
Doesn't matter how long they've been
studying for, what title they have.
You get your sh*t and you get your good.
We've seen holistic doctors online, for example, still
talking about how bad parabens are for you.
This is a Dermatologist who should know better.
We've seen doctors saying that people with
darker skin can't use AHAs and they
should use their own products instead.
We see Aestheticians pushing clay masks and making up
product claims over on TikTok for a product to
go viral, rather than telling the truth behind a
product just so that they can push that product.
And then you realize that they have
an affiliate link with that brand, you know?
It's just because someone has a title,
it doesn't mean they are to be trusted.
One person I always talk about is Michelle
from Lab Muffin Beauty Science on this channel.
She always does a great job
at debunking experts over on TikTok.
But also, why do I trust Michelle? She's an expert.
Why is she basically one of
my default experts to go for?
Well, it's because even though I'm not an expert, I know how
to do my research, I know how to, you know, follow... we all do.
We all do.
Especially if you've been to university or whatever,
had to write a dissertation of any kind,
you know how to do research.
I mentioned this before, but I followed...
I used to follow so many experts, so many experts.
And during the years I've whittled them down to people
who I feel don't just lead by their own opinion
and their own bias, can see and point to both
sides of the argument, kind of come to their own
conclusion, even if it goes against what they truly believe, you know?
Experts who update their findings, who correct
themselves if they got something wrong or
if new evidence has been found.
For me, when someone is so black and white about
a topic, it's difficult to kind of trust that they're
not just leading by their own thoughts on what they
think is the right thing to do, you know?
It's very tough, but it's a minefield out there.
It's kind of like 50/50 in the sense that
we are so lucky to live in a time where
we have so many experts giving out so much free
advice online, but it's also difficult because there's so much
free advice online by so many different experts.
But it is really, really tough.
So what I'm saying there is like, just because someone has
a title at the beginning of their name doesn't mean
they can't be called out on their sh*t.
Now, that kind of leads me on
to only Dermatologists should launch skincare lines.
And this happens every time I talk about a new launch.
It's that, you know, well they're not a Dermatologist,
I'm not going to buy their product.
They're not skincare expert, I'm not
going to buy their product. A celebrity.
They're not a Dermatologist.
Why should I buy their product?
What I think this shows again is kind of our
lack of understanding of what particular titles actually mean.
And a lot of people, I feel, because they are
popular online, feel that Dermatologists are the default of
the skincare world and voice. The only voice of authority
and reason when it comes to skincare.
They're a great voice of authority, but they're one voice
of authority in a huge big team and world.
If only Dermatologists launched skincare lines then we wouldn't
have skincare lines like Pixie, Glossier, Tan Luxe, Glow
Recipe, the newest one, BYOMA, The Ordinary.
All these brands come from makeup
artists, entrepreneurs, even a computer scientist.
So even some of the best brands
have nothing to do with Dermatologists.
In fact, I would go as far to say
as most brands are created without a Dermatologist involved.
What I personally feel is important is
the vision, the understanding of the market.
Is there anything new to create and then
working with the right people to create that.
Do I think everyone should be launching skincare lines here
and there just because they should and they could?
No, absolutely not.
I think there's too much going on, we all know that.
But I do think we have to deal with the
fact that when there's money to be made, there's going
to be products launching and there's going to be some
really awful launches, but there's also going to be some
very, very good little launches here and there.
You know, you have to look at these celebrities, these
people, whoever they are, and think, who are
you and why are you doing this?
Does it make sense?
You know, and kind of going back to like, who is this person?
Back to people with title being the voice of reason.
When it comes to product launches, let's look at who
they are, how involved in the industry are they?
Let's analyze their content.
You know, what does this person have to gain from
pushing these products or creating this brand, you know?
We can do our own research.
Unfortunately, the internet isn't like that, and
I include myself in this, that the
internet makes us very, very lazy.
And unfortunately, it's only getting worse
with, you know, 15 second TikToks.
15 second TikToks, in my opinion,
allow for no nuance at all.
They are the equivalent of looking at a newspaper
headline and not the article itself and just getting
all the information you want from the headline, you know?
It's kind of like to pull you in
and grab your attention without actually giving you
all the details and all the information.
So we go away with an
idea that isn't actually 100% accurate. So it's tough.
I feel like... I'm including myself in all this
by the way, it's kind of like a minefield right now.
It's very difficult to navigate.
Sorry, I'm still sick and I'm running out of
breath now, so I'm going to end it there.
I hope you enjoy complaining with me today.
Let me know if you feel the same about
any of this and your opinions down below.
You can watch some more product reviews
here and some general light entertainment here,
and I'll see you over there.