We are so full of vanity. I mean, why do we want to ruin a perfectly good face by trying to make it better?
Beauty lies in our personality, not in our face. It’s the emotions that come out from within that make us beautiful or ‘ugghhly’. Yet we spend a fortune, and a lifetime trying ways and means to look outwardly beautiful. This obsession of trying to keep our face clean and beautiful is understandable if we are diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. Otherwise, where is the need to be so finicky?
I have had this problem for years trying to convince my family that Dove is not a Godsent. They tend to find their panacea for their dull and lifeless skin in Dove. At least, that is what most women, beautiful or not, are inclined towards. They dread even a mosquito bite as if it’s the plague. A boil here, a pimple there and all hell breaks loose.
After all, we are fallible humans and easily fall for temptations. Giving in to some of those temptations is easy when you have a ‘beauty’ soap like Dove around.
What is basically the requirement of a good face soap? Obviously, the ability to wash the dirt and grease of your face. Most soaps in the market, that are much cheaper, do the job sparing us the snobbish taglines. Now, if you have used Dove, have you observed that you are actually applying more grease to remove grease?
Most people think the ¼ moisturizing cream is milk cream, it is not. It’s just a sticky, greasy synthetic substance created out of a clever mix of chemicals that feels in your hands like a good wholesome bar of cream. Most users seldom understand the chemical composition of Dove or, for that matter, any soap. They just go by the feel the soap offers, on their face, and join the queue of exuberant converts out to recommend the soap to everyone, but their enemies. As it turns out, the enemies are the lucky ones.
It is better to be more smart and educated on the subject of facial hygiene, and not get carried away by clever marketing. In a land with perennial water shortage problems, you need the equivalent of a whole bucket of water just to wash your face off the grease that Dove soap has to offer. Have you ever stopped and realised how it is derailing the national water conservation initiatives?
Let us analyse the claims by the soap manufacturer, Unilever, a multi-billion dollar behemoth:
“Dove White Beauty Bar combines a gentle cleansing formula with Dove’s signature 1/4 moisturizing cream to give you softer, smoother, more radiant looking skin vs. ordinary soap. The mild cleansers help your skin to retain its natural moisture rather than stripping it away. This Dove bar even helps to replenish nutrients that are lost during the cleansing process - where a regular soap bar might leave your skin feeling dry and tight. It’s not a soap - it’s a beauty bar.”
“Dove is committed to helping women and girls build positive self-esteem, develop a healthy relationship with beauty, and reach their full potential.”
I am certain you would be impressed by the manufacturer’s claims. But, do they clarify what nutrients are lost and how the soap replenishes those nutrients? More importantly, does the soap really have nutrients in it? The wording is so vague it escapes the average user. The users only tend to believe the soap is going to perform wonders on their skin.
However, equate their lofty claims with the chemicals that go into making a Dove soap.
Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Lauric Acid, Sodium Tallowate or Sodium Palmitate, Water( Aqua) , Sodium Isethionate, Sodium Stearate, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Sodium Cocoate or Sodium Palm Kernelate, Fragrance( Parfum) , Sodium Chloride, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Titanium Dioxide( CI 77891) .
No wonder, it is said “advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission”.
If it was left to the manufacturers, they would have done their utmost to hide these ingredients from your eyes. Unfortunately, for them as per law, they are required to mention all the ingredients on the package. So, they do it by displaying the ingredients in the smallest font and their tag lines in large, colourful, eye catching fonts. Marketing is just a tool to fool the gullible people, and believe me, there is no dearth of such a lot.
Health magazines and journals place the pH value of healthy skin at 5 or thereabouts. The lesser soaps have a pH value of 9 and Dove has a value of 7. Therefore, in spite of all the chest thumping, it is still not good enough for your skin.
Again, my point is, though it appears to soften the skin in the short run, it does greater damage in the long run by clogging the pores due to its greasy base allowing pimples and acne to flourish. Where is the beauty you are looking for in a beauty bar, as the manufacturers are fond of calling it? Well, you gain some, you lose some.
When the services of top celebrities are used to market the product, and when they tell you how great the product is you are likely to believe everything that is claimed. Before you fall hook, line, and sinker; consider this. When you are spending on a Dove beauty bar, which is substantially more expensive than a normal soap you expect it to match the manufacturers claims. Granted, it does soften the skin to a certain extent, but have you bargained for clogged pores, greasy skin, acne, and a large bucket of water?
In case you want to use it as a bath soap; you will be needing a tankful of water to wash off the greasiness to conserve your skin, forget water conservation.
Needless to say, my folks have since discarded the ’beauty bar’ for a less snobbish and more effective substitute.
mbfarookh ©