Are claims about beauty creams only skin deep?
Gold – not just for jewelry!
Green tea – not just for a caffeine buzz!
Caviar – not just for impressing dinner guests!
All three of those are ingredients in beauty products available to consumers willing to spend hundreds of dollars for an ounce of face cream that might keep their skin looking young.
“Ninety-eight percent of the ‘cosmeceutical’ industry is all about marketing,” says Eric Finzi, a dermatologic surgeon with offices in Maryland.
“If you buy a $1,000 cream, there’s no reason to expect that it’s better than the $50 cream. It might be worse. The answer is, ‘We don’t know.’ ”
These high-priced creams are considered cosmetics, not drugs, so they haven’t been through the rigorous clinical trials necessary to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Finzi has seen over-the-counter creams make a great difference in his patients’ skin, particularly creams that contain retinoids or alpha hydroxy acid.
Skinceuticals makes a retinol cream that costs about $50 per ounce; NeoStrata’s Ultra Daytime Smoothing Cream with sunscreen runs about $22 for 1.4 ounces.
Some skin care companies mooch off other research labs’ findings to produce products that are “extrapolations to the nth degree,” says Washington, D.C., dermatologist Tina Alster.
If the product is effective, it could be due to the marquee ingredient or just a good, hydrating base cream, says Alster, who serves as a consulting dermatologist for Lancome.
We asked the doctors to read the advertisements for these zany products and make some sense of them:
Cellular Treatment Gold Illusion Line Filler, La Prairie, $150 for 1 ounce
Contains: Gold
Company’s claim: “Performs a disappearing act on fine lines and pores for a flawless finish … has moisturizing and antibacterial effects and lowers stress on skin as it reduces free radicals.”
Doctor’s take: “Gold has been used as a drug to treat some autoimmune diseases, and it definitely has some effects on the immune system, but that tells you nothing about this cream,” Finzi says.
“We don’t know how much gold is in it, and we don’t have any data on it. There could be trace amounts, or there could be some in there and maybe it will do something. I have no idea.”
Cellular Serum Platinum Rare, La Prairie, $650 for 1 ounce
Contains: Platinum
Company’s claim: “Maintains skin’s electrical balance, which strengthens the skin’s buffer zone, keeping pollutants out and moisture in.”
Doctor’s take: “There has been research that elemental products balance the skin because there are negatively charged particles of platinum,” Alster says.
“They calm the skin, like so many other elements. Whether there’s enough mixed in, it’s hard to say.”
Le Soin Noir, Givenchy, $360 for 1.7 ounces
Contains: Black sea algae
Company’s claim: “Vital Black Algae Sap Concentrate is found in the depths of the ocean and reconstructs a catalyst in the skin to counteract the signs of aging.”
A Givenchy spokeswoman says the company’s clinical tests “speak for themselves.”
Doctor’s take: “Just because something is natural doesn’t make it great for you. St. John’s wort maybe will help your mood, but occasionally it causes a skin rash,” Finzi says.
The company’s tests, which Finzi reviewed, do not (among other weaknesses) compare Le Soin Noir with a control group of the same base cream, but lacking the algae.
Therefore, Finzi says, “there is no data to show how well this product stands up against the $4 moisturizer at Wal-Mart.”
Skin Caviar Crystalline Concentre, La Prairie, $375 for 1 ounce
Contains: Caviar
Company’s claim: “Skin becomes more elastic, uniform and radiant.”
Doctor’s take: “There’s no reason to think caviar eggs would help your skin,” Finzi says. “Caviar is a lovely thing to eat, but I don’t think there’s any data on that.”
“M” Cream, 3Lab, $250 for 2 ounces
Contains: “Stem cells from the rare Uttweiler Spatlauber Swiss apple, so rare that only three trees remain in existence.”
Company’s claim: “Works to increase resiliency and cellular turnover while giving the skin a naturally radiant glow from the inside out.”
A company spokeswoman says the apple extract “has been tested for activity and stability, and is both safe and effective to use.”
Doctor’s take: “Nonsense,” Finzi says. “Number one, no cell would stay alive in a cream. A cell is a very delicate living thing, and unless it’s in the right environment, when you take the apple off the tree, it’s starting to die.
“Number two, a plant’s stem cell is not going to do anything for human skin.”
Alster concurs: “You’re comparing apples and human skin … but I never say never. There could be something there.”
Replenix Serum CF, Topix, $63 for 1 ounce
Contains: Green tea
Company’s claim: “Potent antioxidant properties … assist in minimizing free-radical-induced skin damage. … One bottle is equivalent to approximately 500 cups of green tea.”
Doctor’s take: “Green tea has antioxidant, anti-cancer properties,” Finzi says. “However – big caveat – we have no idea what this is doing, because there have been no studies with this cream.
“A good thing to remember is that more of a good thing is not necessarily better. Too high a dose of anything is bad for you. Carrots are good for you, but if you eat 50 pounds of carrots a week, you’re going to turn orange.”