It's Tenille v. Skincare marketing

Marketing is how businesses speak to you, the consumer. It’s how they tell you what they offer, why they’re useful, who their products are for, and why you should choose their products specifically. Branding, advertising, social media, super interesting blogs written by sometimes entertaining skincare coaches, that’s all marketing.

Skincare marketing, like all marketing, tells a story. It gives you a reason to choose one brand or product over another. If I had to retell the skincare marketing story I grew up with, it would go a little something like this, ‘Women should look 25-years-old for at least 30 years. Buy all the products, forever.’ Written by A. Man.

Patriarchy aside, skincare marketing can be a powerful consumer tool or a cruddy little fear machine, depending on how you’re reading it.

The yummy bits…

Skincare marketing can have a positive social impact. Brands that show different skin tones, ages, textures and conditions can make people feel represented and celebrated. In a country that centres whiteness, marketing materials that present a range of very real, very beautiful skin appearances, contributes to the social narrative that differences should be celebrated, not feared.

It can also be educational. An increasing number of consumers say knowing what’s in their products is important to them. This creates an opportunity for developers to explain their products in plain terms and build relationships with their customers (rather than just making sales). These relationships can help consumers learn more about what their skin needs, and allows them to provide direct feedback to brands which can influence product development, formulation and promotion.

Beyond the brand driven product promotion of yesteryear, skincare content has become a source of discovery and entertainment for many, especially me. Interest in skincare has become a global movement, with whole communities of connected skincare and beauty lovers sharing their knowledge and stories. It’s a beautiful thing.

The yucky bits…

Skincare marketing has a long history of centring pale, Eurocentric features as the standard for good skin and beauty. ‘Brighter’, ‘fairer’ and ‘porcelain’ skin often meant ‘lighter’ (read: whiter), and that’s not an accident. This is rooted in colonial beauty standards that still shape a lot of advertising in Australia today.

It also promotes an impossible (yes, impossible) standard of beauty. Terms like ‘anti-aging’, ‘flawless and ‘poreless’, still feature heavily in marketing, but they can’t actually be achieved. Nothing truly stops aging. Skin needs pores. And perfect skin does not exist. By defining and promoting unachievable skincare goals (like skin that doesn’t age) the skincare industry creates its own demand and consumers keep spending. The biproduct of that is people, particularly young girls, women and people of colour, feel like there’s something wrong with them. It’s pretty gross.

‘Free-from’ marketing is misleading you

Cosmetic ingredients in Australia are regulated by the Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme (AICIS). They set concentration limits based on safety data before an ingredient can be used. So, all the ingredients in your products have already passed safety checks for use in that category and that concentration. Tell you friends!

This makes ‘free from’ claims a bit sneaky. Some brands list products as ‘free from’ ingredients that don’t belong in that product type. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) is a great example of this.

You can see ‘free from SLS’ all over product pages for serums, moisturisers and oils. SLS is a strong surfactant, an ingredient that helps water and oil mix. It’s designed to rinse away, lifting oil and grease from the skin and hair. In a rinse-off cleanser or shampoo, that’s exactly what you want. But in a leave-on product, like moisturiser, it can strip the skin of natural oils, causing dryness, irritation and skin barrier damage over time. Which is why it doesn’t belong in leave-on products. Slapping ‘free from SLS’ on a moisturiser creates a fear that didn’t need to exist, then sells you relief from it. Eyeroll.

When I started my skincare journey (in the olden days), I thought ‘clean’, ‘natural’ and ‘free from’ meant ‘suitable for sensitive skin. When my skin reacted badly, I thought my skin was the problem, not the marketing.

‘Free from’ labels teach you to fear regulated ingredients when regulated often means safer. Botanical and ‘natural’ ingredients aren’t automatically gentle, and synthetic ingredients aren’t automatically unsafe. A regulated synthetic, used at a tested and approved concentration, may be safest choice for your skin.

A note on skin allergies and sensitivities: If you have skin allergies or sensitivities, what is or isn’t in a product will (and should) influence what you buy. Keep a record of the allergens, products or ingredients that cause an adverse reaction, and always check the label when purchasing skincare products.

So, where does that leave you?

Hopefully a little more sceptical and a little more informed. You don’t need to distrust brands or learn how to interpret ingredient lists but maintaining a critical lens can help you recognise skincare marketing for what it is, a buying prompt.

I encourage you to choose products based on what your skin needs, not because they’re ‘free from’ this and ‘free from’ that. If you’re not sure how to do that, stick around. I’ll (hopefully) be writing a simple guide to help you shop for the right skincare products for your skin in August.

Tenille Hellier is the founder of It’s Tenille, an online personalised skincare service based in Adelaide. A certified skincare coach, Tenille built her practice on the idea that skincare should be as simple as possible for consumers. Her personalised skincare programs and product recommendations are based on her rigorous product selection protocol because Tenille believes every product should earn its place in your routine. Book a free 15-minute skin chat with Tenille to figure out the right next step for your skin.

You can find Tenille on Instagram, Facebook and Substack. She’s not cool enough for TikTok.