Ielts writing - cosmetic industry

Question: Large companies with massive marketing budgets often portray an artificial and unrealistic view of life. Health and beauty products such as slimming pills are sold to users who believe they can quickly lose weight. The consequences, though, can be fatal. Should health and beauty products be ban or more strictly regulated? Support your view.

Answer:

It is true that there is too much variety of health and beauty products in consumer market today. A number of manufacturers by the efforts to maximize profits have done deviate the true values of these products, even though they provide detrimental products to consumers. Therefore, some people suggest that governments should ban such products. However, I believe that authorities should only manage more strictly because of following reasons.

Admittedly, a huge number of health and beauty products have certain detriments to users. It is indisputable that harmful chemicals still be used despite warnings about health problems since they work quickly to beauty or lose weight. Many skin whitening products, for example, are believed to be responsible for allergies, even skin cancers. Furthermore, cosmetic companies often over-advertise about the ability of their products. Consequently, consumers easily be abused these products with the hope to improve health and beauty quickly instead of good habits such as diet and exercise.

Despite the negatives mentioned above, governments should not prohibit these products because of some reasons. Firstly, not all cosmetic products are detrimental to users. Actually, there are numerous products that help people improve their health and beauty. For instance, some formulations of cucumber may make the skin smoother and brighter. Secondly, people have rights to choose how manners to make beauty whether that can cause harms to their own health. To illustrate, some people even accept pain and physical deformation to undergo cosmetic surgery just for beauty. Finally, the cosmetic industry has huge profits and contributes greatly to the national budget. If the government bans all cosmetic products, it will not only eliminate an industry that creates jobs and profits but also lead to cosmetic smuggling that is more difficult to control.

In conclusion, although numerous cosmetic products contain detrimental compounds to health, I believe that the prohibition of these products is impractical. Instead, governments can impose some policies to control the production and consumption as well as organize campaigns to enhance knowledge of the people about the true features of the cosmetic products.