The Real Cost of Natural Skincare — and Why the Formula Should Always Come First
One of the things I really love about myself is how well I handle criticism. When it is constructive, it’s a whole new ball game; the opportunity to grow is always incredible. But when there is a sting, that's when it gets tricky. I've had to learn to realise when the sting isn't mine. I actually have a great mantra for it: “Thanks, that's not mine, I am returning it.” (Huge shout-out to Human Design reframer Emma Dunwoody for that one).
Recently, I went on a full rant about greenwashing in the natural skincare and beauty industry branding. My colleague on the receiving end pointed out, not so gently, that she was a graphic designer and that I, as the founder of AYA Natural Skin, was actively building a brand. A seed-to-skin ingredient brand. Hmmm. I had to sit with that one.
Here's the reframe: branding isn't the racket. Branding at the expense of ingredients is. When marketing costs more than what's actually in the formula, that's not premium beauty - that's “smoke and mirrors,” and it touches on my pet peeve in the branded natural skin care industry: greenwashing! As someone who obsesses over every ingredient in AYA Balm, I think consumers deserve to know exactly where their money goes. So yes, branding is the biggest racket - but only when it comes at the expense of ingredient integrity and real value.
The Real Cost of a Beauty Product - Smoke, Mirrors, and Markups: What's Actually Inside the Bottle.
When I was still cooking up balm in my kitchen and wondering whether I was really just playing and dreaming or if it was actually possible to create a healthy, viable entrepreneurial family business out of this, I was always astounded by the variation in ingredient costs. There was something so off about the actual numbers in the beauty industry when you look at the actual cost of raw materials.
Follow the money.
Essential oils are a perfect example - and to be clear, not all essential oils are created equally. Citrus Essential oils like sweet orange, lemon, and eucalyptus (which you will find in AYA Balm) are incredibly cheap to produce. They are either cold-pressed from the byproduct rinds of the juice industry or, in the case of eucalyptus, derived from a plant that grows prolifically and has a huge leaf yield. Regardless of source, none are expensive items. And this is exactly where the beauty industry markup becomes smelly.
In South Africa, eucalyptus is classified as a Category 1b or 2 invasive plant, and gum trees are officially listed as an invasive species. As a natural skincare company, you have to insist on ethical sourcing in your products. “Where did it come from, and how was it produced?" Insisting on 100% pure, steam-distilled eucalyptus oil from an ethical source is where the legitimate cost comes in. That's the version worth paying for. That's the version we look for in AYA Balm.
Now compare that to raw fermented papaya, a labour-intensive, time-sensitive process that simply costs more to produce ethically. Not only does the fermentation process itself take time, but our source ingredients need to be cultivated and harvested accordingly. The enzymatic activity that makes it so effective, the papain, the proteolytic action, and the bio-active compounds depend entirely on how carefully it's handled during the entire process. That cost difference should show up in the product's price. The problem is, in most beauty products, it doesn't. Marketing does.
That's the real smoke and mirrors. Not that branding exists, but that in too many cases, it costs more than what's actually inside the bottle. INCI transparency, while essential, only tells part of the story; the same ingredient can appear on two labels and represent completely different sourcing, ethics, and real-world cost. In the end, it always comes down to us as consumers practising intentional skincare shopping, consistently and with curiosity.
The Ingredient Budget vs The Marketing Budget
Okay, let me break this down. I, being of the Gen X persuasion and more than having a little mild issue with authority, saw a post highlighting anti-branding and jumped feet-first onto that bandwagon. I got all irate, and only after a chat with a whole dose of criticism, was I able to break it down for myself. For me, it comes down to a number of issues; firstly, greenwashing in skincare just makes my blood boil. Secondly, the ease with which a big corporate brand will label a product as part of clean beauty, and the even greater ease with which they charge an astronomical premium. Caring about ingredient integrity means just that, and it's not always just trusting the certification reality. Sometimes a brand just paid for an intricate eco-stamp on their box, but when you look at the raw supply chain, it tells a different story. That's not clean beauty. That's clean marketing.
How the Industry Built the Grand Illusion of Premium
We can’t always just blame social media and the influencers, because the reality is that it's far too simple an explanation, and the backstory is much more complex. We didn’t just get to face creams and eco-stamped greenwashing costing between R4,000 and R7,500 for a 60ml container; this was a long process.
It’s not just Skincare we are buying - it’s an Identity
You can go back as far as the late 1800s with brand pioneers like Helena Rubinstein, who began selling more than just a cream; they sold the idea of transformation, and the cream itself became secondary. Look at this slogan from Helena Rubinstein, c.1910 “The woman who doesn't use beauty preparations is a woman who doesn't care - and that is unforgivable." I mean no judgment there! The implication behind this was that what you put on your face could change not just your skin but your social standing, your desirability, your worth. As we can see, not much has changed since then; the message has just become more implicit and sophisticated.
"All of the above initial branding mechanisms went into high gear during the Hollywood glamour era and the rise of department store beauty counters. It was all about beautiful packaging, prestige pricing, and creating a carefully constructed persona to aspire to. The more branding moved in this direction, the less the price point was determined by the actual ingredients. The desire to glow has always been human - the commercialisation of it is a very modern invention.
The "Natural" Label That Isn't
Next up was the lab era, where it was all about replacing natural ingredients with synthetic ones and using terms like 'Dermatologist-tested' to justify higher price points and entrench consumer trust within the brand.
Then came the shift when in the 1990’s consumers started to question what was actually in their skincare. Unfortunately, this didn’t have the desired effect on the beauty industry. Rather than cleaning up and choosing pure natural ingredients, they chose to double down on branding with terms like "Natural." "Pure." "Gentle." This is a huge peeve of mine; What Does Natural Mean? Where the words and terms used are misleading claims that carry no actual regulatory weight and are essentially unenforceable.
The challenge is obvious. Eco-stamped greenwashing, certification stamps, recycled packaging, and seed-to-skin language are being deployed by big brands whose ingredients and formulas haven't fundamentally changed; it's branding used as subterfuge. And the numbers back this up. Perry Romanowski from Chemists Corner, an independent cosmetic chemist, openly admits that the physical formula inside the bottle rarely accounts for more than 10–15% of total manufacturing cost. The lion's share of your money is going toward the custom glass dropper, the 50% retail middleman markup, and the massive advertising budget. It confirms what conscious beauty advocates have argued for years: the marketing budget has always been the priority, not the formula.
Knowing what to look for on a label and learning to read INCI transparency is our most powerful tool. If you've ever stood in a pharmacy aisle turning a product over and feeling completely lost, you're not alone - and it's not an accident. Learning how to read a skincare label is one of the most empowering things you can do as a consumer.
When we learn to spot ingredients like silicones and petrolatum, and understand why petroleum-free skincare and silicone-free formulas matter, the label stops being overwhelming and starts telling you exactly what you need to know. I broke this down practically in The Invisible Plastic in Your Skincare and The Unregulated Truth About Natural Beauty, both worth bookmarking. We as consumers need to commit to a more holistic beauty approach, ask harder questions, and choose intentionally. Because unless we do, nothing will change.
What Should Drive the Cost of a Skincare Product?
For us at AYA Natural Skin, this is an absolute no-brainer: ingredients, ingredients, and ingredients. Every skincare product starts with its ingredients, and a brand's choice of ingredients speaks directly to their values, ethics, and commitment to the end consumer.
When Ingredients are the Investment
The ingredient that sits at the heart of everything we make is raw fermented papaya. Choosing papaya as our active and learning to ferment it is a whole story in itself - the fermentation story - but the magic is that it actually works, and the science behind why it works is genuinely extraordinary.
Our fermentation and extraction process is entirely in-house. It’s a time-consuming and labour-intensive process. We can only start our fermentation process at precisely the right moment of ripeness, because the concentration of active compounds changes as the fruit matures. What fermentation does is unlock and amplify the papain enzyme benefits that raw papaya already contains. Papain is a proteolytic enzyme that breaks down proteins, and when it comes to our skin, that translates to gentle, effective cellular renewal without the aggression of acids or harsh synthetic chemical exfoliants.
The bioactive compounds produced through fermentation support the skin's natural repair process, calm inflammation, and work with our skin's natural biology. This is the magic of a raw fermented papaya balm, as it's not sitting on the surface doing a cosmetic job, but rather the proteolytic enzymes are actively working to support our skin's natural health
This is why messing with molecules isn't something to be done lightly. A lab can recreate a single synthetic vitamin, but it cannot replicate the complex matrix of cofactors and trace minerals found in raw, natural ingredients. You can't build nature's synergy in a test tube and call it the same thing.
The skincare benefits of true fermentation cannot be faked by a cheap synthetic alternative at a fraction of the cost. You simply cannot mimic the living, enzymatic activity of raw, fermented papaya. A laboratory cannot manufacture true bioavailability and expect the skin to respond the same way
This is what true ingredient investment looks like, and it's exactly what goes into AYA Balm, our enzymatic healing balm, from the very first fermentation to the moment it reaches you. Raw fermented papaya acts as a prebiotic skincare ingredient, supporting your skin barrier protection and working in harmony with your skin microbiome.
Branding is not the enemy. For us, the formula always comes first; that's simply our philosophy. At AYA Natural Skin, we are a proudly ingredient-first natural skincare brand rooted in South Africa, and for us, clean beauty in South Africa has always meant one thing: what's actually inside the tin.