Ali from the the Joie de Vivre blog (http://jdvbeautyhall.blogspot.com/) asked for my opinion of products based on gem elixirs, one range of which is being promoted rather effectively in the UK at the moment. I have to congratulate whichever PR firm they are using because they have done a good job of getting the story out there. I like to give credit where it is due.
But I am afraid that is about all the credit I can give them. I find the actual idea behind this range to be, oh I don’t know. Where do I even begin? First off gem elixirs are not some age old folk magic. I had never heard of them until last week. The comparison with Bach Flower remedies is at best imperfect. The Bach Flower remedies themselves are a load of baloney but they do at least have an actual history of use, even if they don’t have a history of effect. Elixirs made with gems are a new idea and a silly one. What skin benefits are likely to derive from gems?
The whole point of gems is that they are beautiful minerals that are nice to look at. They tend to have pretty stable chemical structures as well. That is why they last so long. This means that you will get precious little in the way of any elixer you extract from them.
So basically this is just a stupid marketing story. It just annoys me. Sometimes I find a marketing story mildly appealing. I might think that well I don’t think that will work, but it does sound plausible. Or it might be imaginative or emotionally appealing. Picking random minerals that happen to look nice and doing some kind of treatment to them and hoping it will make your skin look better just doesn’t tick any boxes for me.
The minerals used are diamonds, rubies, gold and crushed pearls. I can’t help thinking that you couldn’t select a more useless set of materials from a skin point of view. Diamonds are simply expensive fossil fuel – you could burn them in much the same way as coal if you had enough of them. I can’t think of any reason to believe that they are better for your skin than coal either. Rubies are made of aluminium oxide, and I wouldn’t expect them to do anything at all. Gold is famously inert, which was why it used to be used for fillings and the like. Crushed pearls likewise – what are they supposed to do?
Having said all that, I have not tried the products themselves. For all I know they might well be quite good, but it will be despite the gem elixirs not because of them.
Thank you for your input Colin. I’ve posted an excerpt of this article with a link back here to you. I was sceptical when I read about the product, but thought a scientific opinion was in order. You’ve expressed it beautifully.
So apparently the saying “all that glitters is not gold”, really is true.
Thanks again,
Ali
I always carry around a Bach Rescue Remedy spray for use on cuts etc but only because it is more convenient than carrying around a miniature of vodka and cotton wool and it looks better if required for my children/ grandchildren, especially in a park, play area or shop!
Hmm… maybe the gems provide some kind of exfoliation effect? Although using micro-particles of something else (say crushed walnut shells) rather than diamonds would probably be much cheaper.