Winning question: There are more and more beauty products touting their natural ingredients. This is wonderful, but why are these products so expensive? I have seen bottles of hand lotion that virtuously proclaim the fact that they are mostly coconut oil and shea butter. But these two ingredients are incredibly cheap. If I can mix it up myself at home for a few pennies (relatively speaking), how can the makers of the hand lotion justify charging twenty quid?
Ava Scott

The trouble with the market today is that the customer has to evaluate for themselves what is a good product and what is not. You have to learn to read the labels and work out how much potency there is in the components.

You mention shea butter, which is a great constituent for softening and moisturising. But ingredients such as shea butter, coconut and many others are graded by quality - like wine or olive oil. And, like olives and grapes, these ingredients are also subject to good years and bad years so companies rely on the expertise of their sourcing to know which to buy and when. Not surprisingly the better the quality, the higher the price. And you will pay even more for Fair Trade ingredients.

I can understand the temptation to make something up yourself, but shea butter and coconut, as raw ingredients, whatever the quality, are solid, waxy, oily and unstable. Coconut will separate; shea butter can be very hard. Without expertise of formulation and preservative systems, they may work to moisturise your skin but will they be sticky, hard to rub in, unpleasant smelling and prone to go rancid if not kept in the fridge. There's nothing wrong with pure coconut oil for moisturising if you like the texture and know how to prevent it from becoming contaminated.

I have spent the past 15 years testing and evaluating so that I can learn which are the best and pass on my opinions. Not that easy. Some products are geared to sell at a low price and so the quality suffers. Some have high price tags but indifferent ingredients. If you make it yourself, you do cut overheads; however, if you wanted a handcream that tackled sun damage or brown spots as well as being a good moisturiser, then you would need a more complicated scientific formula.

L'Occitane market their Shea Butter Hand Cream (150ml, £15.50, loccitane.com) as containing 20% shea butter. This is a very high percentage in a market where some are formulated with less than one per cent. But how can you tell which is which? You can't - only whether the product delivers.

I am sympathetic. It's a minefield out there. But put aside your British scepticism and believe me, that there is some excellent research into skincare being turned into products that really do perform.

Q I am 39 and have pale but very sensitive skin that burns easily. I have old acne scarring on my chin that I am very self-conscious about. My facial skin is highly coloured and I have been advised to use a Fraxel laser. Will it get rid of my old scarring and reduce the high colouring?
L Kelly

Acne scarring is one of the most difficult changes in the skin to improve because the scarring passes through the surface layers of the skin (epidermis) and into the deeper layer (dermis). Superficial treatments such as glycolic-acid peels and microdermabrasion may make the skin look smoother and fresher but do not always result in a permanent or significant improvement. The Fraxel laser is the first of several laser systems designed to go deeper into the skin and repairs quickly, although the skin is often red and slightly swollen for three days. After a series of repeat treatments, many patients have shown permanent improvement in their acne scarring, to the extent where some practitioners now view this approach as the best current treatment.

Dr Andrew Markey, a laser specialist at the Lister Hospital in London, says that your high colour may be due to a variety of causes. 'For many people,' he says, 'a series of treatments with an intense pulsed light (IPL) can be performed at the same time as a Fraxel treatment elsewhere on the face, allowing the ability to treat colour issues and scarring at the same time.'

If you decide to proceed with this treatment, please, please, go to a proper specialist, ie a reputable dermatologist or plastic surgeon. They usually have a wide range of devices to choose from rather than just one machine so they can prescribe exactly what you and your skin needs - which may be a combination of lasers.

Read the small print about specialists on bad.org.uk/public/what/

Kathy's hot products of the month

An example of Japanese ingenuity, Suqqu Clear Veil Powder (£65) creates a natural look without altering the colour of your foundation. It's applied with a brush and fixed by Suqqu Whitening Mist (£30), which moisturises and contains SPF (both exclusively at Selfridges, selfridges.co.uk). And Max Factor's Miracle Touch is a sophisticated foundation at a budget price (£11.95, stockists nationwide).

· Kathy Phillips, beauty director of Condé Nast Asia, has her own award-winning aromatherapy range, This Works.

If you have a beauty question, email observer.woman@observer.co.uk. The best one receives a product from This Works (thisworks.com). For t&c, see www.observer.co.uk/woman