Hi Hyla!
Thanks for writing in!
Thanks for writing in! We are always striving to look for ways on how we can improve: we find your comment very helpful and are thankful for it!
We are happy to hear that you find the product to be working well but apologize that you find it heavy when applied. Armada Indoor Outdoor Skin Cover 30 is the lightest cream of the collection, as well as Armada Sport 50+!
Please note that we want to ensure complete satisfaction from our customers. If you are not happy with the product, we do accept returns for refunds. (http://help.vmvhypoallergenics.com/customer/en/portal/topics/630996-returns-faqs/articles).
Here are some things that you should know about the return process.
Shipping Fees:
We will be sending you a pre-paid return shipping label via a separate email that will allow you to return the product for free. That email will also include full instructions on how to go about the product return.
Used products cannot be returned:
Unfortunately and without exception, we cannot accept any returns on products that are more than 20% consumed (studies show that should a negative reaction occur with proper use and storage, it often manifests within 72 hours and well within the first 15% of a product's use).
When items are purchased as a kit, we can only accept returns and exchanges of complete kits, not individual items. All refunds are credited to the original pay method. No cash refunds.
Also, in order to help explain a little about what we must consider when we create products, please allow us to share some information with you: As always, we are very concerned about the value of our products to our customers. This is one of the reasons why our products are not more expensive than they are.
Almost all our raw materials are imported from the most reputable purveyors in the USA and Europe, as we have very specific requirements (in terms of purity, concentrations, the ingredient itself, etc.) that are quite difficult to meet. In fact, some of our ingredients are used by only a handful of companies in the world (at times, we're the only company in Asia) and are difficult to hunt down. As such, many of these ingredients are inherently more costly than equivalent ingredients from other suppliers. But our formulations require highly specific ingredients not just for quality but for hypoallergenicity, efficacy and compatibility with our products which contain very few ingredients and have no preservatives.
We are one of the only brands in the world that does clinical testing for all our products. Clinical testing is an extremely costly endeavor yet we subject all our products to patch tests with multiple subjects, as well as randomized, double-blind evidence-based studies (done almost exclusively by pharmaceutical companies only for drugs because of the prohibitive costs) to confirm our active claims.
We are committed to providing only the best-proven formulations and products that are as hypoallergenic as possible. Therefore, when new ingredients come out that are proven to be more effective, we often reformulate or create new products so as to make use of them. When the North American Contact Dermatitis Group and European Surveillance System on Contact Allergies publish new lists of allergens, we reformulate all our products that contain ingredients that make the new lists. These frequent reformulations are costly as well: some ingredients are common to almost all of our 300 products, and for each reformulation, we must source a highly specific (often rare) ingredient that is an acceptably safe, effective and hypoallergenic alternative. We must then subject the new ingredient to our barrage of tests, before even trying it in working formulations which are then themselves also subjected to tests to substantiate all our claims.
Finally, packaging selection and design for our products is admittedly an arduous process. Because of the active ingredients that we use, we cannot consider certain materials that could react with them. As well, we cannot use packaging materials that contain allergens as they could be problematic for certain customers when touching them or these allergens could leak into the formulations. The pouches of our makeup products have very little impact on the overall price (they were included to provide extra protection against impact, as we cannot use traditional ingredients that make powders less vulnerable to cracking): the raw materials and clinical studies make up the bulk of the cost of these products.
Years ago we were faced with the possibility of settling for less: ordering raw materials of lower standards (acceptable for many brands but not for our founding dermatologist-dermatopathologist), foregoing ingredients that were highly effective but expensive, or foregoing many of the tests that we do. It is, however, VMV's mission to provide the most proven hypoallergenic and effective (which require legitimate studies) formulations to our clients: settling for less tests or less effective (although more inexpensive) ingredients, at the moment, is inconsistent with this mission.
What you can be assured of is that our products are proven via evidence-based studies (the most respected scientific protocol) to do what they say they do, often more accurately or effectively than some products in the market that cost significantly more than our formulations (we refuse to overprice a product simply because we can).
We understand very much the circumstances that the current economy has put many of us in, and that many of our clients not only love using VMV but physically, medically need it. To help, we do outreach and charity programs for communities in need and support dermatology clinics that have charity patients with the most difficult skin conditions. As well, our rewards program was created to help loyal customers earn free products over time. And we have greatly expanded our alert network (SMS, Facebook, Twitter, emails) to help our customers around the world find out about specials as quickly and as frequently as possible.
That said, we recognize that we are all individuals and would like to make sure we understand your particular needs so that we can help with more specific recommendations and care.
We hope to hear back from you!
Skincerely,
VMV HYPOALLERGENICSå¨
