A word about ‘key ingredients’ and incis.

I know I’ve touched on this subject numerous times before, but here we are in 2016 and some retailers and brands are still refusing/just not bothering to list the full ingredients of the products they sell on their websites.

Why? Who knows. I can tell you this though. I’m so over it. Ingredients are absolutely key as to whether I personally make a purchase or not. I made a stand about listing them in full in every review some time ago and the response from all of you was very positive. It seemed I was not alone. If you are expected to lay out your hard-earned cash for something, in a lot of cases, something very expensive, you want to know what is in it.

In the UK: Retailers including Selfridges, House of Fraser, Debenhams, Harvey Nichols, even you John Lewis, not an inci to be had on any skincare item I searched. Not one. I realise you all have one major thing in common, you’re high street first, web second. But still. Not good enough. Stop making us search.

There are notable exceptions, and some that do it brilliantly. The Body Shop, Marks & Spencer, Cult Beauty, Victoria Health and Content Beauty – all are outstanding for content and information, but the rest don’t fare much better. You can devote entire pages to your returns policy, but we have to search everywhere else outside of your site, notably on blogs and beautypedia.com in the hope that someone has taken it upon themselves to type up your ingredients for you.

And brands. You set the tone. Some of the biggest brands in the world still do not list their ingredients.

I searched for the bestselling items across every major brand and not one listed the ingredients on their own websites. Oh there’s some talk of ‘key ingredients’ and how the flowers are harvested by vestal virgins at dawn, but no actual ‘here is what is in this product that we would like you to buy‘.

If you think of the people that own the parent companies of these brands, I highly doubt that they put a cream on themselves without checking what’s in it. Why do they not get that their customers want to do the same thing?

Please stop relying on us to do your job for you.