OT: An Ugly Truth About Cosmetics

[Guest guest]

Aching to erase the telltale signs of age, they're flocking to high-end

department stores like Bloomingdale's to grab 6-oz. tubes of StriVectin at $135

a pop, making it one of hottest launches ever of a wrinkle cream.

 

Holy mackerel! And here I have been feeling weird

about Camu C serum for $55, which is bringing in

all these wild but real testimonials....

 

Once my freebie for being a regular runs out

this is one item I will not spend money on again.

 

I find it is tightening my jawline, but my upper

eyelids are still wrinkled. Just too much skin there.

Time to either have surgery or get old with grace.

I think I'll opt for the latter.

 

I'd rather be 61 than 16 any time!

 

Ien in the Kootenays

I can finish my sentences again!

muddled

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

An Ugly Truth About Cosmetics

By Pallavi Gogoi

 

Beauty-seekers beware: Largely unregulated ads for skin creams and

wrinkle removers often have dubious claims backed by spurious science.

 

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SPECIAL REPORT COSMECEUTICALS

• The Changing Face of Skin Care

• Despite the Hype, No Elixirs of Youth

• An Ugly Truth About Cosmetics

• Slide Show: A Guide to Cosmeceuticals

 

" Better than Botox? " This StriVectin-SD ad splashed across magazines and

newspapers all over the nation has attracted women in droves. Aching to

erase the telltale signs of age, they're flocking to high-end department

stores like Bloomingdale's to grab 6-oz. tubes of StriVectin at $135 a

pop, making it one of hottest launches ever of a wrinkle cream.

 

According to market-research firm NPD Beauty, StriVectin rang in $30

million in the first five months of this year, a feat that even the most

successful new skin-care products have needed 12 months to match.

StriVectin sales are expected to top $100 million by yearend.

 

Little do these buyers know that the government is investigating

StriVectin's maker, Klein-Becker, and exclusive distributor, Basic

Research, for making " false claims " on other products it sells. The U.S.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has charged them with making

unsubstantiated claims in infomercials and ads in magazines such as

Cosmopolitan, Redbook, and Muscle and Fitness, and on several products,

including Pedialean, a weight-loss supplement for children.

 

The investigation raises questions about StriVectin's boasts of an

anti-wrinkle breakthrough. In an e-mail to BusinessWeek Online, Basic

Research says its claims are backed by clinical trials that document a

significant reduction in wrinkles.

 

CONJURING NAMES. StriVectin certainly isn't alone in using high-tech

claims to attract customers. In fact, more and more ads for skin care

are highlighting the " science " and " technologies " behind products. Take

Bo-Hylurox in Avon's Anew Clinical Deep Crease Concentrate, or the

Mela-NO complex and dermo-smoothing complex D-Contraxol in Lancome's

anti-age serums, or the Triplesphere Refinishing system in Estee

Lauder's " micro-dermabrasion scrub. "

 

Most of these names don't really exist in cosmetic science. " It's an

incredible statement to the consumer that you don't need to get injected

when there's all this science to rid you of wrinkles, " says Paula

Begoun, author of Don't Go To the Cosmetics Counter Without Me. Most of

these terms were conjured up in company labs by zealous chemists or

marketers, points out Begoun. When asked about the claims and the

technologies, none of these companies commented by deadline.

 

Problem is, it's also hard to challenge the claims for these products,

since they've been tested only internally, and cosmetic creams don't

need to go through any regulatory clearance before being launched.

 

" Wrinkle-reducing creams are expensive, but to litigate against

companies is even more expensive, and at the end of the day the harm to

people is mostly economic, " says Scott Bass, a partner in charge of

international food and drug practice at law firm Sidley Austin Brown & Wood.

 

BORDER LINES. Since the cosmetic industry is largely left to monitor

itself and the Food & Drug Administration gets involved only when

products have adverse reactions or change the structure of the body,

consumers are left to their own devices to monitor such claims. " A lot

of this might be worded to sound scientific, but people need to realize

that wrinkles don't just disappear as claimed, " says Allen Halper,

senior compliance officer in the Office of Cosmetics & Colors at the FDA.

 

The FTC, which monitors advertising for unfair or deceptive claims,

isn't that aggressive on the cosmetics industry either. " Our priority is

to ensure that if a product is claiming a health benefit that there are

enough trials to back that. If there are general appearance-enhancement

claims, those are not high in our prosecution list, " says Heather

Hippsley, assistant director for the FTC's advertising-practices division.

 

However, the inclusion of certain drug-like ingredients and chemicals in

the creams places them in an area termed " cosmeceuticals, " a category

that straddles the cosmetic and medical sectors. Cosmeceuticals are one

of the personal-care industry's fastest growing segments, but they

aren't regulated by the FDA either. According to consumer research

publisher Packaged Facts, U.S. retail sales of cosmeceutical skin care

are estimated to climb 7.3%, to $6.4 billion, from 2003 to 2004. That

would be up 22% from 2000. " Aging baby boomers looking for ways to stay

young and cosmeceutical manufacturers capitalizing on their concerns

[are] fueling the growth, " says Timothy Dowd, senior writer and analyst

at Packaged Facts.

 

DOCTOR WHO? Adding to the allure is the fact that most of these

cosmeceuticals are endorsed by physicians, though sometimes their

qualifications are dubious. For instance StriVectin-SD is endorsed in

ads by a Dr. Daniel B. Mowrey, director of scientific affairs at

manufacturer Klein-Becker, and Dr. Nathalie Chevreau, director of

women's health at Basic Research. But neither Mowrey or Chevreau is a

medical doctor, and the government is challenging Mowrey's credentials.

 

In the e-mail to BusinessWeek Online, Basic Research said: " Dr. Nathalie

Chevreau holds a PhD in inorganic chemistry as well as an RD [registered

dietician] license. Dr. Mowrey holds a PhD in experimental psychology. "

The company says its ads don't claim or imply that Dr. Mowrey is

anything more or less than a research scientist and that in other

advertisements he's referred to as Dr. Mowery, Phd. But the Web site

that markets StriVectin didn't say he's a Phd as of the story deadline.

 

Meanwhile, FTC counsel Laureen Kapin says the commission is now waiting

for answers from the companies in connection with the investigation. If

they're found guilty at trial, that wouldn't preclude the government

from looking at the companies' other products. " If we prevail, Basic

Research could receive a broad order [legally referred to as

" fencing-in " ] barring the firm from making false and deceptive claims

and selling any of its products, " says Kapin.

 

BRING IN THE FEDS. The future of StriVectin, a cream originally

marketed as a stretch-mark-reducing emulsion containing an ingredient

called oligo-peptide, might be tied to the FTC's investigation. But

millions of consumers continue to be hoodwinked by the cosmetics

industry's ingenious marketing. The FDA and the FTC might not consider

this a priority, since cosmetics makers figure low in the agencies'

ranking of companies to go after. However, if people are being deceived,

regulators ought to take a closer look.

 

The creams may not be taking people's lives or inflicting blindness, but

the FDA needs to assure that people aren't duped by false claims. The

Office of Cosmetics & Colors needs to regulate cosmeceuticals and check

out the various supplements and ingredients that go into changing

people's appearances.

 

" If a product's claims have reached a point where they're no longer

puffery and are deep-penetrating treatments, where the cosmetics are

almost thinly disguised drugs, they have to comply with drug

provisions, " says Halper from the FDA's Office of Cosmetics & Color. But

he adds that the agency prioritizes issues on health and safety, and it

doesn't have the resources to examine all the claims out there. So it

mostly relies on the cosmetics industry to monitor claims appropriate

for the marketplace.

 

BIG CLAIMS. The FTC says it tries to discern between readily

ascertainable claims vs. others. For instance, in 2000 it filed suit

against Rexall Sundown for marketing a product that claimed to eliminate

cellulite. For topical creams, the FTC's Hippsley says most reputable

companies honor their satisfaction guarantees no matter how inflated

their marketing claims. " Consumers can see for themselves if the creams

work or not, and if they aren't satisfied, they can either return the

product or not buy the brand again, " she says.

 

Given this cavalier attitude, cosmetics companies certainly seem to have

almost free rein when it comes to claims. Avon says " Look stunning, Not

stunned, " in one of its ads for a product that contains its " exclusive

multipatent-pending Bo-Hylurox technology. " Avon didn't comment on the

genesis of the name, but Begoun says it might be a concoction of Botox

and hyaluronic acid, the main ingredient in Restylane -- a gel that's

injected into the skin to fill in creases and is approved by the FDA.

 

Avon claims that its product smooths creases with an ingredient called

portulaca, which relaxes the skin, whereas hyaluronic acid has a filling

effect.

 

Obviously, when examined closely, what looks like a harmless cream might

actually be a drug or medical product that's readily available to the

masses. With aggressive marketing, such products can also become very

popular, as in the case of StriVectin. Cosmetics companies shouldn't be

left to their own devices just because they're playing with people's vanity.

 

Gogoi is a reporter for BusinessWeek Online in New York

Edited by Patricia O'Connell