The beauty industry is everywhere. It is thrown at us from Instagram to our grandmas setting their hair in rollers. It is the inescapable daily routine which makes us look alive in the mornings. I enjoy having the option to paint my nails or to put on makeup if I want, but I still have problems with it. However, I will explain my issues specifically with the marketing and product side of the beauty industry.

First, one of my obsessions is painting my nails. I have tried everything from the cheapest nail polish at a dollar store to name-brand polishes. They all chip away too fast. The bottles are filled with lies. These companies promise long-lasting wear, but they do not deliver.

I have seen reviews where some people say the purchase was worth it, and the product was amazing. Of course, it helps if you have perfectly shaped, strong nails, never wash your hands and just never use your hands in general. If the nail polish works best under these conditions and with a base coat, topcoat and some casual soul-selling, then companies should not market them as being the best quality polish in the world. 

Naturally, I understand this is how you sell a product, and I am one of the thousands of women who has fallen for this gimmick. I am just desperate for a nail polish which can withstand the tests of time and last the two weeks of color promised on the over-priced packaging because I am too cheap to go to a salon on a monthly basis just to have pretty fingers. 

According to Susanna Kim with ABC News, studies were done to prove whether price mattered in the durability of different brands of nail polish, and though one would expect Chanel would have the better nail polish, Kim reports the drug store nail polish won. 

As for prices in the beauty industry, products are priced like a car. When you look at cars, you expect the most expensive car must be the nicest, fastest and overall best of the best. Yet, that is not always the case, maybe even most of the time. The higher prices on makeup does not mean the brand is the best. I am a firm believer in drug store makeup brands. You can pay a fraction of the price for basically the same product. These companies should not jack up the prices and claim their products as the best. 

Tynan Sinks with The New York Times makes the argument for drug store brands and includes a detailed inventory of the best products for the cheapest. Sinks also believes the prices of makeup and beauty products can be too out-of-reach, especially when one is on a budget, so one solution is turning to drug store brands whose quality surprises many. 

Of course, Sinks adds, “Let’s begin with a disclaimer. Saying any beauty product is the best, foundations especially, is asking for trouble. Everyone has a different skin type and preference for what is wanted out of a foundation.” Like any makeup product, you have to find what works best for your skin, and if this means paying high dollars, I am truly sorry. If our world expects women to be held to a Barbie standard of beauty, then makeup should be easier to match and easier on the pocketbook.

All I ask is products from nail polish to makeup will do what we are told they will do and the companies behind these schemes realize they are over-charging. It is all for the label and packaging, and these things pull us in to trying product after product for results. It is a spiral down a rabbit hole. Can these companies make the marketing more truthful? Do not promise your foundation will make a person look ten years younger when all the product will do is sink into the wrinkles. 

It is also our fault for always connecting money with quality, but we should question why we do not question the beauty companies which sell to us. How do we know a product is “dermatologist approved” or any of the “facts” on the label? 

According to Amy Kraft with CBS News, “The Food and Drug Administration only regulates cosmetics for their physical safety, not the truth or exaggeration of their advertising claims. The researchers say that deception undermines credibility of advertising as a whole by making consumers defensive and distrustful of such claims.” 

The beauty industry has a mixed group of consumers. There are those who trust the labels on the products, and there are those who do not. Of course, it makes sense not to trust them if women spend forever and a fortune trying to chase after lost hopes of mislabeled products. 

This claim might be a stretch, but I am a frustrated woman when it comes to nail polish and makeup. It may be superficial. It might be unnecessary. Nevertheless, if I am to be programmed to use these products on a regular basis, then make them work. Make them affordable, and make the lies stop.