by Jennifer Aniston first told us: “Here comes the science bit…focus” when selling shampoo in the late 1990s. But with everything from medical-grade serums to gut-boosting yogurt filling our shelves, the “science bit” has really taken over.
However, experts warn that more regulation is needed in the beauty and wellness industry to ensure consumers are aware of truly innovative products versus those selling false claims.
Analysts at Kantar said the popularity of science-backed beauty and wellness products is growing as people have greater access to information through social media. This has led to greater awareness of the benefits of specific ingredients, they say.
Officer Dionne, research analyst at Mintel, said 67% of UK adults wanted beauty brands to provide more scientific validation. In addition, 36% of all products that claimed to be scientifically backed in the last five years were launched in the last 12 months, Mintel data shows.
The value of the gut health industry alone is expected to rise from £41bn to £70bn by 2030. The Zoe nutrition plan, co-founded by epidemiologist and gut health expert Dr Tim Spector, has over 130,000 signatures since its launch . in the year 2022.
Skin care brand Lyma, which is putting its products through doctor-led trials, had a waiting list of thousands when it launched last year. This week, the company, co-founded by an accredited plastic surgeon, brings to market a £4,995 medical-grade at-home laser.
Jonathan Jarry, who is a science communicator for McGill University, said that consumers were “quick to believe that something is good for us if it is brand new and cutting edge”. He said: “Consumers may have tried a product with yesterday’s molecule and been disappointed with the results, but just like diets, there is always something new to try with the promise that it will work this time.”
Lyma founder Lucy Goff, whose company prides itself on its products being based on scientifically-backed developments, says there has been a lifelong fascination with Greek mythology and recent technological innovations. help improve how the body works.
She added: “The problem is that so many companies and brands have jumped on the good-tech bandwagon when it’s a marketing ploy and this is where the government needs to act more responsibly to benchmark consumers to implement so that consumers know what they are buying. in, empowering consumers to be educated on what is credible science and what is marketing hype.”
The Office for Product Safety and Standards is the UK government department responsible for cosmetics laws. Trading Standards enforce these laws. However, there is no standard for certain claims or rules for what can be said to work scientifically.
Goff gives the example of the sun cream market, saying that there is a “consumer benchmark” on the back of the bottle to show “how well a product will work”, but this does not exist for other creams and supplements. “The benchmark that the company is telling you is not just that peer-reviewed scientific backing … consumers are not being educated in this area and brands are manipulating that, and that’s what needs to stop.”
Timothy Caulfield, research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, coined the term “scienceploitation” to describe how brands borrow language from emerging fields of science to market unproven products.
He takes the example of a recent increase in interest in “gut health”. While microbiome and gut health is an exciting emerging field, he says, it takes years of research to explore what works and what doesn’t.
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: “Having said that, there is a lot of good evidence for pro, pre and synbiotics, the problem is accessing this information to make informed decisions.”
Kinross said 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.” He advises that the best and simplest way to help your colonic microbiome is to eat 30g more fiber a day.
He added: “The consumer is often asked to spend a lot of money on these products; sometimes as part of a subscription model or sometimes as part of a platform that charges you to hand over all your data to Silicon Valley. Be very careful with these products.”
Kinross invests “in products that have reproducible science, are cost-effective and those that have an ethical data policy.”
Caulfield said consumers should be skeptical of brands even if they are led by scientists or professors because “a lot of academics are under pressure to amplify their work”. It gives examples of stem cell genome and microbiome. “They are exciting areas of science but think about how few clinical applications we have,” he said.
Caulfield said it was becoming increasingly difficult for customers to distinguish between good and bad products because there was “so much noise” and you could find something on the internet that “legitimises” false claims.
His advice is to look for claims that aren’t clearly explained to avoid products that don’t deliver as much as they promise. After all, though L’Oréal’s adage may have always changed, and as Aniston would say, “for what you deserve.”
