Why Does One Moisturiser Cost $15 and Another $150?

Cheap vs Expensive Skincare: What’s Actually the Difference?

Walk into a chemist or beauty store and you can find a moisturiser for $15.

Keep looking and you can find another one for $50, $100 or even $150.

They all say they moisturise your skin.

So what is the difference?

And more importantly: Does paying more mean you are getting better skincare?

The simple answer is no, not always.

Here’s what you are actually paying for when you buy skincare.

1. The ingredients inside the jar

Ingredients can make a big difference to the price of skincare.

Some ingredients are cheap and easy to buy. Others cost much more.

A simple moisturiser might contain water, a basic oil, an emulsifier and a few other ingredients.

Another moisturiser might contain more expensive plant oils, butters, extracts or active ingredients.

The amount used matters too.

Seeing an expensive ingredient on the label does not always mean there is a lot of it in the product.

This is one reason I always recommend reading the ingredient list, rather than relying only on the claims on the front of the jar. Ingredients in skincare MUST be listed on the label in percentage order, so if the hero ingredient is towards the end of the ingredients list, there's probably not a large amount of it in your product. 

2. The packaging

Packaging costs money and is often a BIG justification for charging a lot for a product. 

A simple plastic jar or bottle may cost very little.

A heavy glass jar, fancy box, gold lid and printed insert can cost much more.

Beautiful packaging can be lovely. There is nothing wrong with paying for it if you enjoy it.

But it is worth remembering that expensive packaging does not make a moisturiser work better.

3. The brand name

Sometimes you are paying for the name on the jar.

Large beauty brands can spend huge amounts of money on advertising, influencers, celebrity campaigns, beautiful photography and displays in stores.

Those costs have to be paid for somewhere.

They are often included in the price of the product.

Again, that doesn't make expensive skincare bad.

It simply means that the price of a moisturiser isn't based only on what is inside it.

4. Where and how it is made

A huge company may make tens of thousands of moisturisers at once.

That can make each jar much cheaper to produce.

A small skincare company may make products in much smaller batches.

Australian-made products can also have different labour, ingredient and manufacturing costs compared with products made in countries where these costs are lower.

So a smaller brand may need to charge more than a supermarket brand, even without a huge advertising budget.

5. The formula itself

This part is easy to forget.

A skincare formula is more than a list of ingredients.

Someone has to work out which ingredients to use, how much to use and how to make them work well together.

The product also needs to feel nice on your skin, stay stable and remain safe to use.

A good formula takes knowledge and work.

But a higher price still doesn't automatically mean a better formula.

So, is a $150 moisturiser better than a $15 moisturiser?

Not necessarily.

There are some very good affordable skincare products.

There are also some beautiful expensive products.

And there are expensive products with ingredient lists that may surprise you.

Price alone is not a good way to judge skincare.

Instead, turn the bottle around.

Look at the ingredients.

Think about what your skin actually needs.

Ask yourself what you are paying for.

Is it the formula?

The ingredients?

The packaging?

The brand name?

Or a little bit of everything?

How much should you spend on a moisturiser?

There isn't one perfect price.

For most people, good skincare doesn't need to cost $150 a jar.

At the same time, the cheapest product isn't automatically the best value.

A moisturiser that costs a little more but works beautifully for your skin and lasts for months may actually be very good value.

The goal isn't to find the cheapest skincare.

And it isn't to find the most expensive.

The goal is to find skincare that works for your skin at a price you are comfortable paying.

That's the sweet spot.

The bottom line

A $15 moisturiser isn't automatically bad.

A $150 moisturiser isn't automatically amazing.

And a $40 moisturiser isn't automatically somewhere in between.

There is much more to skincare than the number on the price tag.

So next time you're comparing two products, don't just look at the price on the shelf.

Turn them around and look at what you're actually getting for your money.