I once wrote a post about how marketing in the cosmetics industry rips people off by selling them blatant crap.
The thing is, I've long wanted to create a line of cosmetics for problem skin. I know it's not exactly a man's game, but my entrepreneurial nature saw it as a good way to make money. 
Unfortunately, this ambition never materialized, but I learned a couple of things:
Most cosmetics on the market have no scientific basis to improve your skin or hair.
A lot of cosmetics are made through outsourcing. That is, people like me (who want to make cosmetics) go to factories, and they do everything from the ingredients to the packaging (many dietary supplements do this, too).
Even the technologists at these plants often lack a good education in chemistry and biochemistry. The technical infrastructure also often leaves much to be desired. I didn't understand this before, but now I understand it clearly.
Raw materials for cosmetic production are purchased in Asia, with China being the main supplier.
Very expensive cosmetics aren't always very useful . Quite the opposite, in fact. They're simple ingredients served up as something fancy. A prime example is Is Clinical cosmetics, which are sold in Ukraine by cosmetologists (and in turn by BMED)—completely useless, even ridiculous, ingredients for a huge price (for example, an acne serum for 5,500 UAH with alcohol and vitamins C and E 
—a sucker isn't a mammoth).
The question arises: what to apply if you really want to? Here,
you need to have a basic understanding of chemistry and biochemistry. Yes, there are indeed substances that are beneficial for the skin, but not all of these substances penetrate the skin. The skin is designed to create a reliable barrier against all kinds of antigens (although a poor barrier can also lead to allergies). It's important to understand that lipophilic substances with small molecular sizes penetrate the skin. To achieve this, the substances you want to inject into the skin need to be placed in liposomes. Roughly speaking, in bubbles. And these bubbles must be small, about 90-250 nm in size. The process of producing these bubbles is technologically complex. Not every outsourced manufacturer can do this for you, but it needs to be done for cosmetics to work.
Also, a few words about what we put in these bottles. In this regard, Asians have gone far ahead. I respect their cosmetics (not all of them, of course). They have found many plant substances that actually have an effect on the skin (synthesis of elastin, collagen, inhibition of MMP/hyaluronidase, etc.).
A prime example is Centella asiatica (Gotu Kola). Yes, it's featured in many Korean cosmetics, but you need one with liposomes (although even those sometimes don't specify the liposome size). Dr. Melaxin, for example, makes this (there are many counterfeits, so be careful). They also have a cream called Exosome Repair Cream. It has an excellent effect on skin elasticity (most likely by inhibiting hyaluronidase) and costs about $15 per tube.
The second example is from the Japanese (pictured).
They've gone even further and started incorporating human stem cell exosomes into cosmetics. These are the same ones that are being sold for big money in Ukraine as a super product. These exosomes are added to face masks and serums. You can even buy something similar here for about $25. However, these exosomes aren't suitable for everyone!
Basically, my point is that there's a lot of deception and marketing in this industry, and you need to think before you buy anything and apply it to your skin, especially with such regularity. And I haven't even mentioned the harmful ingredients used in cosmetics, and there are a lot of them.
