“In order for the products to achieve dramatic results you must use all of them; the skin must be properly conditioned to accept all the products in the line in order for any of the products to work.”

This is one of my all-time favorites because its purpose is to convince you to buy all the products from one line. It is a classic sales technique. In essence, what you are being told is that the line’s wrinkle cream won’t work unless all the other products are used first, so don’t bother buying the wrinkle cream unless you are going to buy everything. In my years of reviewing skin-care routines, I have never seen a cosmetics line with products so unique that you couldn’t substitute a dozen other products for them, if not many that would work better. Further, every cosmetics line has products you should avoid because they contain irritating ingredients, or inadequate amounts of sunscreen, or moisturizers that oversaturate the skin. The term to note here is “dramatic results.” What the cosmetics company considers dramatic results may be dramatically different from what you would really like to see the products do—even if you do use all of them.

“Vitamin C is not an antioxidant, but it contains amino acids.”

This statement was from a saleswoman who was trying to explain the differences between vitamin E and vitamin C skin-care products. Her comment is nothing less than silly. Vitamin C in any form is not an amino acid. There are only 20 amino acids, all protein-building substances, of which 10 are called “essential” for humans to consume in their diets, since the body cannot manufacture them on its own (Source: Oxford Dictionary of Chemistry, Third Edition, 1996, pages 30–32). In its natural form, vitamin C is ascorbic acid, and is most definitely and notably an antioxidant, not a protein (Sources: Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 2002, number 505, pages 113–122; and Journal of Investigative Dermatology, February 2002, pages 372–379). Vitamin C is a worthy ingredient to look for in leave-on skin-care products such as moisturizers and toners because, when used in its stable form (watch for ingredients like magnesium ascorbyl phosphate and tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate), it can reduce the effects of free-radical damage (Source: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, June 2003, pages 866–874). I suspect the saleswoman I spoke with may have been confusing ascorbic acid with aspartic acid, which is a nonessential amino acid.