Really Sciency

Visit my other blog 'Really Sciency' looking at Climate Science and its portrayal, misrepresentation and denial in the media.

Friday 18 February 2011

This Blog is all natural and Fragrance-free!


Pay more for these meaningless words and phrases!

 
"Consumers often pay more for products advertised as "all-natural," "hypoallergenic," or with other words and phrases that sound good but can mean whatever the seller wants."

The list of undefined or meaningless words that should be considered sceptically and for context include, New, Now 28% better!, Hypoallergenic, Fragrance-free, All natural, Never tested on animals, Best-of-breed, Organic, Superfood, Nontoxic, and a favourite of mine not mentioned in the article, Chemical free.
 
I wonder how you can contact the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) to tell them of your Nobel-winning discovery of the worldsfirst chemical-free product, and claim their million pound prize.

 And then we have the meaningless statistics quoted by cosmetics companies. So, 97% (or whatever) say that bog-brush mascara makes their lashes look longer and fuller - compared to what, no mascara? Given the point of mascara, its difficult to see that any product, short of acid, that you could actually apply with a brush to lashes would make them look shorter. 

If the comparison was without versus our product, who are the 3%? Those who couldn't open the product, those who poked themselves in the eye, or those who couldn't understand the question? Or perhaps this is the three per cent that admitted causing a collision when distracted by applying cosmetics?

If you can ever manage to track down the actual research or find the small print, you'll probably find it was such a small sample that it would be statistically insignificant anyway.  

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