Overview
One of the first things you’ll notice when you get to their website is that they have this separated by the decade that you are currently in, either your 20s, 30s, 40s, or 50 and up. This is something you don’t see at other skin care sites, and can either be viewed as a gimmick, or their unique selling feature that makes them preferable over other products. It’s all about bringing new features to an already saturated marketplace, so let’s evaluate whether they’ve cracked the code here or not.
The Claim
Stages of Beauty claims that because they’ve sorted their products by age, they’re more effective at treating the different problems that arise at the different stages of life. They claim that in your 20s free radicals and environmental damage is what should be most concerned with, in your 30s you need to watch for dullness discoloration, in your 40s dryness of redness becomes your major concern, and after 50 you need to worry about your skin’s community as well as it’s degradation.
The Hype
They’ve been criticized for using advertising that was likely meant to startle people into clicking, but has offended some people because they use lines like “stop being ugly” with pictures of people that are supposed to live up to the term. They’ve also been around for over a year now, and are still doing a healthy business, so they’ve proven they have some staying power.
The Cost
The free trial is what is getting most people riled up, and it states that you have 18 days to call and cancel before the next part of the process occurs. When the 18 days expires they’ll send you a month’s supply and bill you $70 plus shipping for your next month’s supply. They calculated that out as a 14 day trial with 4 days for the product to get to you. They use the term “negative option” which just means that you have to tell them to stop or they’ll keep going, which is a reversal of how a sales transaction typically works.
If you decide to circumvent the free
trial mumbo jumbo altogether you can just buy the products outright and here are a few price examples. You can get a bottle of cleanser out of their Harmony line for those in their 30s for $30. The prices are the same for the different age levels, which is good because they wouldn’t want to discriminate based on age. The same cleanser for the Grace line for those in their 50s is also $30. The prices seem to be on the higher side, and what you’d expect from some of the premium and higher end lines of skin care.The Commitment
When treating the skin it’s important to establish a daily regimen. It doesn’t respond to a lot of action done all at once, in fact this often leads to irritation and breakouts and blemishes. The better strategy is to take smaller steps and continue on for a long period of time, allowing your skin to benefit from the daily nutrients you are feeding it. This is one nice feature about their product line, they have items that cover all the bases, including cleansing, moisturizing, and the skin from the daily toxins, stresses, and weather conditions it must endure.
Evaluation
When you cut through all of the ordering complaints and get down to whether or not the product is effective, you start to see that those that try it like it, their biggest gripe is with the auto-shipment and auto-charges. It’s a valid gripe, because it seems to obligate you into using the product every single day and to stay on with it for multiple months. But since you can call and cancel it’s just a way to make sure you don’t run out if you actually are using it daily. We suggest just buying it directly since you can then order it when you’re about to run out and you don’t feel pressured to use it.
Ordering Problems
There have been a large number of claims filed against Stages of Beauty ranging from receiving more product than what was ordered, being charged charges were not authorized, and the chart before trial period had expired. In many of these instances the terms and conditions will state how long you have tried the product, and what happens if you do not call and cancel before the time specified. But when there is this number of complaints is obviously something going on, and it’s a shame that it is interfering with a seemingly decent product.
Stages of Beauty is getting our Thumbs Up rating, with the recommendation to avoid their free trial and just buy the product or products that sound the best to you directly. That way you circumvent all the problems that people are having the ordering process, and keep things cut and dry. After sifting through the complaints we noticed a trend: even though people were upset because they were charged this or that for the products and didn’t want to receive them quite yet, they did like what they received and would order again but wanted to do so on their terms.
Our Recommendation
It’s essential to establish good skincare habits, regardless of how old you are. Of course just like investing your money it is better to get started early, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start giving your skin when it needs well into your 50s and beyond. Stages might be guilty of a few business practices that not everyone agrees with, but they are providing a product that holds up under scrutiny and you shouldn’t let a few complaints stop you from benefiting from it.
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Some of these companies are obviously making quality products, but it's so baffling why they continue to use such scammy billing method. It's as if they're afraid that people will not like their products and that doesn't speak well of their confidence in their products. In case of stages of beauty though it is clear that it works very well for many people, so they should really stop with their auto ship nonsense and start doing business like a legit company.