Friday, March 20, 2015

Too Many Choices

Once upon a time you could go shopping for what you wanted without having to make a lot of decisions. If you wanted clean hair, you bought shampoo. If you wanted a skin cream you bought a moisturizer. If you wanted an appliance, you just asked for one that did what you wanted it to do, and the salesman showed you the right model. Things have changed.  Now we are faced with entire walls of shampoos and skin creams and when it comes to appliances, well, it's too confusing for words.

There are not only a multitude of shampoo brands to pick from, you have to narrow it down to whether you want to build body, control frizz, repair damage, protect colour or even enhance grey. There are shampoos that are organic, sulphate free, offer thermal protection, are fortifying, nourishing, hydrating or clarifying.  There are shampoos for children, oily hair, thin hair and some that prevents hair fall. There are dandruff shampoos, dry shampoos, pet shampoos, and 2 in 1 shampoos that combine the conditioning with the cleaning power.

I'm thrilled when I get samples and find something I like without having to face that wall of decisions and take a chance on spending money on something not right for me.  I just have to locate the one I want next time I go to the store, though even that isn't always easy.

For face care there are cleansers, exfoliators, toners, serums, gels and  moisturizers.  There are day creams, night creams, eye creams, and throat creams. There are things called BB creams and CC creams. There are products that protect, nourish, clarify, lift, rejuvenate, brighten, illuminate, and erase blemishes and dark spots. Oh and let's not forget the ones that promise to prevent or diminish wrinkles.

A friend called recently to ask what I use on my face. She admitted that she was never one to use moisturizers and such, and had come to the conclusion that it was time to try to do something about what nature does to us all over time. I've been using moisturizers of one sort or another since way back when I even washed my face with Noxzema in my early teens. She said when she looked at the wall of products available, she had no idea of where to start.  I'm not sure any of us do. 

Really, I believe that more is not necessarily better, and that comes to choices too.  I can't tell you how many times I have considered trying a new brand of makeup and found that I couldn't decide on what to pick because there were too many brands, with too many different lines, and too many shades in each. I found this site where you could match the shade you currently use with others available on the market. It didn't work for me though as I've been using Yves Rocher products for years and that brand is not listed.

I'm not sure why any one brand would make so many different lines of things that do so many different things. Sure that would create something for everyone, but  I would think that would also cost them more in development, production, packaging and advertising than if they just created a few good products and put them where we all could find them. I'm sure that added cost gets passed on to us, the consumer.

Once again, I'm glad that so many samples are offered online these days. I've discovered some marvelous products over the past few years that I likely never would have purchased, or even known about otherwise.  Facing that wall of decisions every time I need to make a purchase has, on occasion caused me to walk away with nothing. I know I'm not the only one that has reacted that way. The companies can't make any money that way.

Keep it simple, I say. The population is aging, and there are days when we don't want to have to read a million labels just to buy some every day product.

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