Historically, the success of beauty products was built on costly branding exercises backed by marketing claims about efficacy that had scant scientific validation. This legacy model is beginning to look fragile, however, as the technical difficulties of measuring what skin and hair products actually deliver to the consumer are being resolved by new technology such as complex systems analysis.

Beauty consumers seek hard science

Innovation in skincare and haircare is key to delivering new markets and consolidating existing ones. Modern consumers want to be told in scientific terms what benefits a product delivers, and how it is done, before parting with their money. They also want information on how products compare in terms of efficacy and sustainability.

In an increasingly crowded online marketplace full of new products that make competing claims, the lack of credible scientific assays in skincare and haircare is creating confusion about what ingredients actually work. This breeds scepticism among younger consumers, threatening to undermine growth.

Standard trials lack scientific credibility

Existing tests of efficacy, which were designed by brands for brands, lack common standards and metrics. The majority of existing marketing claims in skincare and haircare are based on the observations of volunteers in studies. Volunteers share their opinion of whether a product delivered on its claims after a defined period of the use of the final formulation. The ‘appearance of wrinkles’ is a classic example. 

This is not a scientific measure; it provides no information about any benefits in terms of the biology, and it is highly subjective. The volunteer’s judgment may be skewed by their desire for the product to work, their failure to properly benchmark their status before and after, and the perks – financial or otherwise – that they often receive as payment for their involvement in a trial. 

Measuring efficacy isn’t simple

Scientific assays do already exist that can provide metrics for how products impact on skin and hair, both in terms of aesthetic outcomes and underlying health. But even for brands that are not afraid of transparency, the technical challenges of measuring efficacy are significant and come at a cost. The biological complexity of skin and hair, along with a multitude of environmental factors such as UV exposure, pollution, stress and nutrition, make it hard to identify what outcomes can be attributed to the use of a particular beauty product, and whether those benefits can be replicated for other individuals in different circumstances. 

Creating a beauty ingredient that delivers measurable benefits faces the same fundamental problem as testing: skin and hair is extremely biologically complex. As most consumers already know, human skin does not always respond to the chemicals in a product in predictable ways, nor can the mechanisms of action be easily deciphered.

Risks and opportunities of transparency

This presents a dilemma for businesses that seek scientifically validated claims for their products based on new or existing ingredients, either through internal R&D or in-licensing / purchase of new technologies. On one hand, accurate, quantitative benchmarks for different aspects of skincare and haircare will enable genuinely efficacious products to shine, even if they don’t have the marketing budgets of established competitors. On the other hand, some valuable brands might not survive serious scientific scrutiny without the addition of genuinely efficacious ingredients. 

Assays for a new age

Change is coming to beauty regardless. New technologies are available that provide a far more robust measurement of defined aspects of the skin or hair both before, during and after use of a product. These assays can be carried out either in relevant in-vitro models or in human volunteer studies. The results can be used to compare the effects of a distinct product or technology, and also to undertake comparative studies to measure the performance of multiple products in a given area. 

Phenodynamics is a vertically integrated platform that takes a synergistic approach to interpreting the biological complexity of skin and hair, enabling it to devise scientifically robust assays and create new ingredients that are scientifically proven to work. All assays are fully explained and in the public domain. Many have been published in peer reviewed scientific literature.

Conclusion

The beauty industry is moving into a new era with advances in science offering the prospect of exciting new products. To realize this value and avoid both vendors and consumers being swamped in a confusing avalanche of products with claims and counter-claims, this scientific rigor needs to expand into the way in which product is evaluated.

Scientific peer reviewed assays will aid consumers in selection of product and allow beauty companies to assign resources where it counts. It will also aid marketing, gain and maintaining market share, safety, compliance and create a greater meritocracy as to which products have the impact they claim.

This is a considerable challenge but the journey has already begun for example in the area of skin glycation. Phenodynamics has a platform technology to address the underlying biological complexity and intend to use this to bring much needed transparency and scientific rigor to the field.

Photo credit: Jo.Sephine / photocase.com