JEnnifer Aniston first told us, “There’s a bit of science in there…concentrates,” when she was selling her shampoo in the late 1990s. But with everything from medical-grade serums to gut-boosting yogurt hitting the shelves, “bits of science” are truly coming into their own.
But experts warn that more regulation is needed in the beauty and health industry to ensure consumers are aware of truly innovative products compared to those selling false claims.
Analysts at Kantar say the rise in popularity of science-backed beauty and wellness products is due to people’s increased access to information through social media. As a result, they say, awareness of the benefits of certain ingredients has increased.
Dionne Officer, research analyst at Mintel, said 67% of British adults want beauty brands to provide more scientific validation. Additionally, 36% of all products he claimed to have scientific backing over the past five years were launched within the past 12 months, Mintel data shows.
The value of the gut health industry alone is expected to increase from £41bn to £70bn by 2030. The Zoe Nutrition Plan, co-founded by epidemiologist and gut health expert Dr. Tim Spector, has had more than 130,000 registrations since its launch. In 2022.
Lyma, a skincare brand that is undergoing physician-led clinical trials, had a waiting list of thousands of people when it launched last year. The company this week launched a £4,995 medical-grade home laser in collaboration with a board-certified plastic surgeon.
Jonathan Jarry, a science communicator at McGill University, said consumers “quickly believe that if something is new and cutting-edge, it’s good for them.” “Consumers may have tried a product containing yesterday’s molecule and been disappointed with the results, but just like dieting, consumers always try new products with the promise that it will work this time,” he said. You can try things out.”
Lucy Goff, founder of Lyma, is proud that her company’s products are based on scientifically backed breakthroughs, and says that people’s interest in longevity has been around since Greek mythology and has recently said innovations could help improve the way the body works.
Furthermore, she added: “The problem is that so many companies and brands are jumping on the tech bandwagon, whether it’s a marketing strategy or a marketing strategy that allows consumers to know what they’re buying. This is where governments need to be more responsible and introduce consumer benchmarking so that consumers can be educated about what is reliable science and what is marketing hype. ”
The UK government department responsible for cosmetics law is the Product Safety and Standards Agency. These laws are enforced by trading standards. However, there are no specific claims or rules regarding what can be said to be scientifically effective.
Goff gave the example of the sunscreen market, which has “consumer benchmarks” on the back of the bottle to “show how effective the product is”, which other creams and supplements do not have. said. “The benchmark should be the peer-reviewed science that backs it up, not what the company is telling you…consumers are uneducated in this area and brands are manipulating it. I have to.”
Timothy Caulfield, research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, uses the word science project to describe how brands can borrow language from emerging fields of science to bring unproven products to market. I coined the term “tation”.
He cites the recent increased interest in “gut health” as an example. Microbiome and gut health are interesting and emerging fields, but it will take years of research to explore what works and what doesn’t, he says.
Dr James Kinross, senior lecturer in colorectal surgery and consultant surgeon at Imperial College London, says: “Most supplements that claim to target the microbiome don’t.” He added: “That said, there is a lot of good evidence on pro-, pre-, and synbiotics, but the challenge is accessing this information to make useful decisions.”
“The real problem is that most of these products don’t do what we really need, which is to optimize the microbiome for health to prevent disease,” Kinross said. Ta. He advises that the easiest way to help your colon microbiome is to eat 30 grams more fiber per day.
He further added: “Consumers are often asked to spend a lot of money on these products, sometimes as part of a subscription model, sometimes as part of a platform that charges a fee for the pleasure of handing over all your data to Silicon Valley. Please be very careful with these products.”
Kinross invests in “products with reproducible science, cost-effective, and ethical data policies.”
Caulfield said consumers should be skeptical of brands even if they are guided by a scientist or professor, as “many academics are under pressure to overhype their research”. said. He gives the example of stem cell genomics and the microbiome. “These are exciting scientific fields, but think about how little clinical application there is,” he said.
Caulfield said customers will increasingly distinguish between good and bad products because there is “too much noise” and people can find things on the internet that “justify” false claims. He said it was becoming difficult.
His advice is to look for claims that aren’t clearly explained to avoid products that don’t perform as promised. After all, times may have changed, but L’Oréal’s old adage still stands, and as Aniston says, “Because you’re worth it.”
