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Thu Mar 03, 2005 10:22 pm  |
Hi Everyone,
I was browsing some high-end department store web sites today looking at their skin care product offerings. Below is a list of products and prices. I am amazed! Has anyone used any of these products? What would justify a skin product being priced at $600.00! I love products and have a bathroom full of them to prove it, but were do you drew the line?
Just wondering your thoughts about price vs. quality vs. effectiveness. Can spending $500.00 on a facial product really make a difference? Just wondering? Joani
Awake
Skin Renovation Firm Advantage Cream
$220.00
Awake
Authority Age-Release Serum
$105.00
Chantecaille
Titanium Duo Set
$410.00
Chantecaille
Biodynamic Lifting Cream
$290.00
Darphin
Predermine Serum
$310.00
Erno Laszlo
Timeless Night Overnight Age Relief
$175.00
La Mer
Lifting Face Serum & Intensifier Set
$285.00
La Mer
The Concentrate
$325.00
Fresh
Creme Ancienne
$250.00
Guerlain
Intenserum
$190.00
Estee Lauder
Re-Nutriv Ultimate Lifting Creme
$250.00
La Prairie
Cellular Radiance Cream
$500.00
Natura Bisse
Inhibit-Dermafill
$385.00
Natura Bisse
Diamond Drops
$300.00
N.V. Perricone, M.D.
Neuropeptide Facial Contour
$240.00
N.V. Perricone, M.D.
Neuropeptide Facial Conformer
$570.00
Orlane
Serum Pure Jeunesse
$225.00
Orlane
Absolute Youth Concentrate Protective Oxytoning System
$325.00
Re Vive
Serum-Dipity
$350.00
Re Vive
Intensite Volumizing Serum
$600.00
Re Vive
Intensite Creme Lustre
$375.00
Sisley Paris All Day All Year Cream
$330.00
Sisley Paris Sisleya Elixir
$390.00
Yves Saint Laurent Beaute Temps Majeur Intense Supplement
$285.00
Tracie MartynFirming Serum
$175.00
Z. Bigatti Re-Storation Skin Treatment
$500.00 |
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Fri Mar 04, 2005 1:45 am |
Are we talking $CAD or $US here?
I've never purchased any of those items and I'd like to think that I never will. I couldn't justify spending over £100 on 1 product unless I had a load of proof that the product is going to have a miraculous affect on my skin.
It would be interesting to find out if anybody on the forum has used any of these products and if they think that they have had better results than with cheaper items.
I think with some of the products listed it is just a brand thing. You are paying for the name. Perfect for label snobs.  |
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Fri Mar 04, 2005 3:30 am |
Ridiculous prices - mind you in a high end store in the UK the ReVive creams you can simply change the $ to a £!!!! (so almost double!)  We get SOOOO ripped off over here!!!
The PTR Power K eye rescue is £84 here, I couldn't justify it, I managed to get some new and sealed off Ebay for £20!!! Don't get me wrong it workes but its not worth £84!!!!
I get 99.9% of my skincare on line as it's just so much better value even with postage and possibly getting zapped by customs charges!
I guess if you have loads of money though spending $600 on a face cream isn't such a big deal as it is to us mere mortals!!! 
Saying that I admit - if I had conclusive proof it would work (read - make me look like an airbrushed super model!)and could take it back if it didn't - I probably would buy it if I could afford it!! |
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Lucia, VERY fair (ghostly so!)redhead, combination skin prone to dehydration. |
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Fri Mar 04, 2005 9:48 am |
I had a sample of the Z Biagetti restoration and I tell you, if I was rich like Madonna, I'd bathe in the stuff, it was AMAZING and I got nearly 10 days from the sample sachet.
I figured, what the hell, I gotta have this, but then I saw the price ...even I can't justify my kids and dog starving so I can look 25! |
_________________
my new jewellery website:www.gentle-medusa.com |
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Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:35 pm |
| Just curious, if anyone knows, just what is in these creams/products that make them better? Some special ingredient we don't know about? More of the ones we do? Better quality? |
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Sat Mar 05, 2005 12:50 pm |
| I would spend $1000. If the product worked for everything that I need help with.. i've tried about half of the products that you listed they all seems the same. expect the La mer concentrate that stuff is amazing.. it's very healing and did see results over night. but i think for the rest it's just nice packaging and the stores themself. i don't think because a product cost $500 that it's better then a product that costs $50... |
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Sat Mar 05, 2005 1:47 pm |
Hi all. To answer the first question, these are US dollars. I can't figure out what if any "miricle" is in these creams. I agree with skinprofusion. I think it's packaging and a sense that "I'm buying something special, it's expensive, so it must work"...and I admit, I'm a sucker for nice packaging and all of that, but I have my limits! My heart says yes, ny head says "what are you crazy! you know these products can't possibly deliver what they claim!".
I am curious abou the La Mar concentrate though. I have been interested in these products since before they were bought by the Estee Lauder company. What did the concentrate do that made such a difference? I have some scars that I would love to make less noticible. joani |
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Sat Mar 05, 2005 8:39 pm |
| joani.sp wrote: |
Hi all. To answer the first question, these are US dollars. I can't figure out what if any "miricle" is in these creams. I agree with skinprofusion. I think it's packaging and a sense that "I'm buying something special, it's expensive, so it must work"...and I admit, I'm a sucker for nice packaging and all of that, but I have my limits! My heart says yes, ny head says "what are you crazy! you know these products can't possibly deliver what they claim!".
I am curious abou the La Mar concentrate though. I have been interested in these products since before they were bought by the Estee Lauder company. What did the concentrate do that made such a difference? I have some scars that I would love to make less noticible. joani |
I over did it with retin-A and obagi, where I took of to much skin. when i was shaving.. i took off even more... to the part where there was flesh. looked like a cut.. just red and tender. I put on the concentrate at night and the next morning it was gone. it's amazing.. now thats something that would take at least a week to heal. also.. i got real bad rashes from a face scrub. took that away.. it's amazing. |
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Sat Mar 05, 2005 9:21 pm |
| Thanks for the reply. I'm really tempted now. I have a birthday coming up and a Neiman Marcus credit card. There may be some concentrate in my future...joani |
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Sun Mar 06, 2005 7:23 am |
| guapagirl wrote: |
I had a sample of the Z Biagetti restoration and I tell you, if I was rich like Madonna, I'd bathe in the stuff, it was AMAZING and I got nearly 10 days from the sample sachet.
I figured, what the hell, I gotta have this, but then I saw the price ...even I can't justify my kids and dog starving so I can look 25! |
I too tried a sample of Z. Bigatti. The product I tried was called "Re-Storation Illluminate" and I thought it was amazing too. It's $175 US though for a 2 oz jar. Which particular product did you try? I went to the website and signed up on the newsletter so I keep getting reminded how good it was. I'm still really tempted. |
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Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:03 am |
| Wow!!! Those prices are way too high -- the most I remember spending on a single product is Dr Hauschka's Rejuvenating mask - which was about 45 dollars if I remember. I would only consider thoes prices if those products lasted for a very, very, very long time! |
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Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:13 am |
| Phredd. I can't remember, but it smelled of grapefruits and was really nice gel texture. I kept the empty sample sachet for ages and when I got a pooter and was on line I looked it up. When I saw the price (about $300) i chucked the sachet. Little did I know I would be spending close to that within the year! |
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my new jewellery website:www.gentle-medusa.com |
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Sun Mar 06, 2005 9:18 am |
I've always thought that you've gotta be a sucker to pay those kinda prices for 1 product.... but now I'm reading these posts and I'm starting to wonder whether there really is something to it.  maybe I should start playing the lottery... Until I do win the lottery though, I don't think I could ever justify paying more than about £50 for 1 product... 
Well, maybe I could.. Never say never  |
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Sun Mar 06, 2005 8:38 pm |
| When I saw that N.V. Perricone product at sephora for 570.00, I nearly wet myself I was laughing so hard. Sorry but I was not impressed with that line at all. |
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Sun Mar 06, 2005 10:54 pm |
| Hi Gypsy, I tried the Perricone line back in 2000 and was sooo underwhelmed, I sent every product back, and I had bought every item in the line at the time (the $570.00 product wasn't in the picture yet!). It wasn't even as good as items I have bought from the drugstore. I wonder if anyone has had good results with his products. I think he is a bit too much of a celebrity in his own mind! Joani |
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Sun Mar 27, 2005 11:25 pm |
I haven't tried the Concentrate, but I did buy the La Mer Face Serum and Lifting Intensifier set and I loved it. My skin looked amazing. In the reviews that I have read some people absolutely love it and others think it a complete waste of money. I had a lot of buyer's remorse about it and even had a thread on here asking for advice on another serum to buy when the time came. I decided on and purchased a Valmont serum that sounded similar. Not cheap either, but MUCH less expensive still. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold a candle to the La Mer. But now I have it and haven't bought a different serum La Mer or otherwise yet since I have the Valmont serum in the cabinet. Most of the time I don't even remember or bother to use it so eventually I'll have to get something.
I always feel that I should qualify my statements on products especially ones that come from companies like La Mer and Valmont that have some amazing products that this is just my opinion based on the results on my skin. If I have learned anything over the years, it is that you can never predict how products will react on different people. What makes me glow, someone else will think is crap and something I happily tossed in the trash, someone else will love enough to use on their wedding day. Skin differences are just plain bizarre. I'm not sure that the Lifting Intensifier part of the La Mer kit was my big love of the product. It is a spot treatment for lines and probably worked okay, but the actual serum is what gave me the glow, and is in a fairly large bottle. I think that they are going to sell them seperately for people who run out of one faster than the other I hear and the regular serum ran about 175.00 if I recall. Still A LOT of money, but I think when I am finally able to rationalize the purchase while still having the Valmont, I'm almost certainly going to get it. It works too well on me not to. Unless I go bankrupt of course.  I'll probably still have buyer's remorse, but if I just get the serum part, I save over a hundred bucks on the rationalization wagon. Better one good product at a somewhat high price than a cabinet full of cheaper ones that I never use that probably have added up to more in the end. Not to say that I don't buy and use much less expensive and drugstore brands of many things if they work well. Good results are good results and a lot of the so called high-end things that I have sampled over the years have been crap when used on my skin. Thankfully most were just samples. Unless my finances take a dramatic upswing, I can't see me adding a 500.0 facial moisturizer to my medicine cabinet in the future, but I do like the La Mer moisturizer also and it ain't cheap. Lasts a long time, but ain't cheap.
joani-sp If you decide that you are going to get any of the La Mer products, let me give you some great advice. The La Mer counter at stores like Saks and Neimans have events every few months where if you buy a roughly 90-100 dollar La Mer product-which I think is any of them-you get a free gift and their gifts are usually amazingly good. You get lots of great samples. Always a creme de la mer in the ones I have seen, probably a toner and cleanser, and then some assortment of other things. The last couple that I got had a nice trial size of the serum and lifting intensifier listed above included with the other samples, which considering its price is a pretty generous sample to get. You can also request their packets of their moisturizing lotion or oil absorbing moisturizing lotion if you prefer it to the regular and they aren't in the gift. Take a look at it and see if there is a product not included that you would like to try before you leave the store. I have found them to be remarkably generous with samples, expecially if you buy something and they have the sample. And at the price of the Concentrate you should have no problem anyway. It would be nice if you could sample the Concentrate, but I have never seen a sample of it either in or out of a gift and of course at these prices I suspect samples without purchase for other stuff vary on the store and who is manning the counter. I imagine that some department stores have salespeople at the La Mer counters that have "attitude", but I have had great people at both my local Saks and Neimans. My Saks lady will even mail me an order free and include the gift if I can't make it in personally during the gift time which she usually calls to tell me about. I always buy during these events. When you look at the price of the items if you were to buy them, getting a goody bag of samples is an amazing steal and a good way to try other things in the line. You might want to hold your breath and hope you hate everything though. It will be much cheaper. |
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Mon Mar 28, 2005 7:41 am |
| marella, thank you so much for sharing your experiences and your good advice. The next time I'm at the Neiman Marcus near me, I'm going to go check out the products, introduce myself, and get on the mailing list. I have been interested in La Mar products since the late 70's, but was always afraid the cream would not be a good fit for my oily/acne-prone skin. Now the line has so many more options. In the past, I have been intimidated by the attitude of some cosmetic counter salespeople, but I'm all grown up now and they can't "convince" me that I need every product in the line to make me perfect (well, most of the time, anyway!). Now I enjoy speaking with them. We share a mutual respect and a love of products! Thanks again, joani |
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Mon Mar 28, 2005 9:15 am |
Great post, Marella!! *so true* - there is no point in having a cabinet full of stuff you won't use - while you dream about having the product that gives you results! Just as an aside, I've received *outstanding* service from the LaMer counters at both the Ottawa and Toronto (Canada) Holt Renfrew counters! They are *very* generous samplers - if you have a little container, and they have the testers - you can take home a bit of whatever you like!
Pudoodles  |
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Mon Mar 28, 2005 10:53 am |
my bf's mom bought a valmont night cream for $650CAD.
her bill of the day came up to $36XX...
the amt of money i will never be able to spend (at once and on beauty products) in my entire life! |
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Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:19 pm |
that's 530.00 USD! oh, my...what would it be like to spend money on products (or anything!) and not have to think about it 
aprilha, I hope she shares  |
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Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:58 pm |
I agree Marella. I can't see myself spending that much money on cosmetics, I'm not saying never because who knows, when I'm in my 50's and suddenly feel insecure about myself, you bet I'll spend however much to make me look young again.
My mother is in her late 50's and people think she's my older sister when we're out together, her secret? Drink plenty of water, lot's of sleep,eat healty food and staying out of the sun. She's still living in Asia so her diet and lifestyle is different from mine, I just can't walk away from toblerone and In and Out burgers!! I just moved to FL from CA and I love love baking in the sun to get that nice tan, I am the complete opposite of my mother and I know that when I get to be her age, I will regret doing many things! But then again, I'm in my late 20's and a lot of people think I'm still in High School.
Bottomline is, if you can afford it, buy it. If you can't afford it, then start leading a joyful life, then there's always homemade products to play with. |
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Mon Mar 28, 2005 7:04 pm |
Bottomline is, if you can afford it, buy it. If you can't afford it, then start leading a joyful life, then there's always homemade products to play with.[/quote]
Ya...I agree with what you said, MsJam. If there is this fabolous product and I can afford it, I will definitely pay for it. I was sharing the product cost of Obagi with my mom and sis when I was using it, I would say that it's quite expensive for me. Now that I have stopped using it and looking for products that helps to even out my uneven skin tone. Ms Jam, do you have any homemade ingredients for evening out skin tone? |
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Tue Mar 29, 2005 6:38 am |
| Furry fish, all the homemade stuff that I know like the aspirin mask and egg white mask, all came from this group. For 14 yrs, I used lancome products, but they are not working on my skin as well anymore so I switch to products that are highly recommended here. |
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Fri Apr 15, 2005 7:03 pm |
| I am currently using the new Chantecaille BioDynamic Oil-Free fluid. Almost as expensive as the Lifting Cream, the oil-free fluid is $250. My skin is incredibly soft and it does not make me oily like other moisturizers, and the smell is divine. However, I believe it may be clogging pores on my forehead (oiliest part of my face). I've only been using it about a week and will continue to see if it's the lotion or just my oily skin acting up. I do have to say Chantecaille may use higher quality botanicals because I usually have allergic reactions to botanicals and with this I have no irritation. This formula is said to mattify, balance sebum production, smooth lines & wrinkles, renew & regenerate. |
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Sun Apr 17, 2005 1:46 pm |
| can you live without spam? |
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