Ink spots a question…I’d like to know your opinion about Green Cream, which is a topical retinol treatment. Up to now I have used Avene Diacneal, but Green Cream claims it is better packaged so that the retinol doesn’t lose its potency. The claims seem to be not-too-outlandish (at least in comparison), which is somewhat novel, but what do you think about them? Do you think switching to Green Cream makes sense?

The Right Brain responds: 

As you noted, Green Cream is topical retinol product.  (We’ve blogged before about retinol as a wrinkle fighter.)  You can read  FutureDerm’s review of Green Cream for more details on the product line, but there are two key differences about this brand: it uses a higher concentation of retinol than other brands and it’s packaging is designed to stabilize the retinol by preventing contact with oxygen. 

Is retinol stability really a problem?

Retinol is unstable because it is sensitive to oxygen, light and heat, and that is a real problem. According to this study researchers found that retinol creams maintain less than 50% of their activity over time. They also found ways to to reduce that instability by putting the retinol in the inner oil phase and by adding antioxidants (like tert-butylhydroxytoluene, sodium ascorbate, and EDTA). These formulating tricks keep the activity at nearly 80% (after 50°C after 4 weeks.) So while the packaging can protect the retinol from the air, you also have to protect the retinol from the formula itself.  

Is Green Cream a dream come true?

So it looks like Green Cream got the packaging part right, but what about the formula? Our friends over at the Cosmeticscop.com reviewed Green Cream and raised some concerns based on its alcohol content. Paula Begoun’s point of view is that the alcohol may make the product more irritating than it needs to be. Apparently that unleashed a bit of feud with the owner of Green Cream. You can read the whole sordid story on Paula’s blog. At the end of it all, we’re not sure WHAT to think! 

The Beauty Brains bottom line

We can see both sides of the story – Green Cream has the right approach by using packaging to stabilize the formula. But , as Paula suggests, what good is that if the formula itself if more prone to irritating your skin? We can’t tell you how your skin will react to Green Cream but now at least you know both sides of the story. 

What your favorite retinol product? Leave a comment and share your thoughts with the rest of the Beauty Brains community.

Dee Dee says…Alright, just tell us flat out, what are the best anti-aging products for the skin?

Left Brain gets coy:
Dee Dee, if we knew the best anti-aging product for everyone, we could make millions. Unfortunately, there is no formula that works best for all people. But there is one thing we can say, the price of an anti-aging skin care product is NOT related to it’s effectiveness.

price of an anti-aging skin care product is NOT related to it’s effectiveness

This was a conclusion drawn by Consumer Reports, a BBC documentary, and recently by a French consumer test. This supposedly comprehensive study (I didn’t see the exact report so I don’t know for sure) looked at the performance of 12 popular anti-aging skin care products in France. They found that the least expensive product, Nivea Visage DNAge, was the second most effective. The most effective was Roc RetinOx-Jour.

Top 5 Tested Anti-Aging Products

The study design sounded reasonable enough.  It was small so the results are not definitive, but it was a double blind study.  In it, 22 women tried each product for 28 days.  The products were then awarded points based on effectiveness and other in-use categories.  Here’s their top 5. (20 points was the best score possible)

1.  Roc Retinol- 15 points
2.  Nivea Visage DNAge- 14.5 points
3.  VICHY Myokine- 14 points
4.  Givenchy No Surgetics - 13 points
5.  Nuxe Creme Merveillance - 13 points

Beauty Brains bottom line:

We are not saying that these are the best products for anti-aging.  But in this small, controlled study, these 5 products scored the best.  They would be an excellent place for you to start.  Only by trying products yourself will you be able to see which one is the best.  Just remember, High Price does not equal Highly Beneficial.

Be sure to see these 10 Tips for Caring for Aging Skin from the American Academy of Dermatology

Jocelyn wonders…Can your review Lifecell skin care? I’ve been looking around the Internet and this keeps popping up. I can’t tell if all the Internet “review” sites giving info on this product are fake and are actual sellers of the product. They make great claims based on user reviews. Love to hear what you have to say about it!

Left Brain Lambastes the Long Sales Page: Ho boy.  Get ready folks, this one will get bumpy!  This product is a perfect demonstration of classic Internet, high pressure marketing.  But first, a disclaimer.

Disclaimer

First, I have not personally tried Lifecell Skin Care products so can not vouch for their quality. Most likely they were created by an earnest cosmetic chemist who tried very hard to make the best products they possibly could.  It’s also likely that they are made by a fine contract manufacturer who follows good manufacturing procedures and produces only high quality, safe products. If you choose to buy Lifecell Skin Care, you may be getting a perfectly fine product. But…

You’re spending way more than you should.

Let me explain.

Skincare Products Work

The truth is that almost ALL skin care products work. Even the least expensive ones will have the immediate effect of reducing the appearance of wrinkles, alleviating dry, red, itchy skin, moisturizing, etc.   There are some products that feel less greasy, or some that work better for different skin types or some that might have longer lasting effects. But if you use a daily moisturizer, like the ones you can find at a grocery store, your skin will look better than if you use nothing.

Nearly all skin moisturizing products work!

This is good for consumers, but bad for marketers. Those marketers are left with few options as to how to get consumers (you) to buy their product instead of their competitors. Big companies with big advertising budgets buy commercials plus magazine & Internet ads. They sponsor TV shows, sporting events and even blogs just to remind you about them and convince you to buy their products. Little companies can’t afford these expenses and rely on Guerrilla Marketing tactics to get customers.  Clearly, Lifecell Skin Care is one such company.

Internet Marketing Trickery

The website for Lifecell Skin Care is a textbook example of what Internet Marketers call the Long Sales Page. They use this tactic because it has proven time and time again to be effective in motivating people to buy products. Many legitimate companies use this approach (e.g. We have a page like this to get people to buy the Beauty Brains book.) But it is also the same tactic that online scammers use to get you to sign up for a monthly expense and make it near impossible to stop the service.  I can’t tell which category Lifecell Skin Care falls into, but some claims in their website makes me skiddish.

20 Website Watchouts

Here are 20 characteristics of websites that should make you nervous about spending your money.

1. Big red headline at the beginning. Red headline text throughout

-If there is a huge red text headline taking up most of the page, you know you’ve found an Internet Long Sales Page. This headline makes unbelievable claims and is designed to get you to keep reading. The words are tested and retested until they are optimized to get the most clicks possible.

2. Highlighted text

-Another characteristic of these websites is highlighted and bolded text throughout the page. These have been proven to catch your eye and make you more compelled to buy. Savvy technique but it has nothing to do with the quality of the product.

3. Signature

-Personal signatures in websites make them look more legitimate. They are there only to manipulate you and get you to buy a product. It is simple to put a signature on a website so you do not give much meaning to it. It’s another online tactic that has proven to get people to buy more product.

4. PS, PPS, PPPS

-You know a site is made by a professional Internet Marketing company when it has a PS or a PPS at the end. People are more likely to read this end making it an excellent way to end a long sales page. It’s indicative of good marketing but not of good product.

5. 100% Free trial

-Free trials are a classic marketing tactic that works. But sometimes, a free trial isn’t really free. In the case of Lifecell you have to sign-up, get your free sample and then cancel your subscription. They make it complicated to stop because they know many people will just forget and pay for the free sample. If a company is really going to give you a free sample, they would just send you the sample with no obligation. Taking your credit card information and making you cancel before a certain time to get your money back is a marketing “trick”, it’s not a free sample. Be skeptical of these kinds of offers.

6. Full money back guarantee

-This goes hand in hand with the 100% free trial. If you don’t like the product you’re supposed to be able to return it for your money back. Legitimate marketers know almost no one will do this. It’s the same as with coupons and rebates. Most people buy the product but forget to get the refund. Even fewer people will jump through the hoops to get their refund. Plus, some scammer companies, make it near impossible to get a refund causing many consumers to just give up.

7. Incredible promises

-You know the old adage, if it’s too good to be true, it’s too good to be true? That true. NO SKIN CARE PRODUCT will work as well as cosmetic surgery. There haven’t been any “breakthroughs” in the cosmetic industry in years and nothing in recent publications promises to change that. The last “breakthrough” was AHAs and the jury is still out as to whether they are really useful with longterm use.  Dithiolane-3-Pentanoic Acid, ubiquinone, Vitamin C, Deanol, and Acetyl Hexapeptide-3 are NOT breakthrough ingredients.  And Lifecell Skin Care is not any more breakthrough than other skin care products.

8. Celebrity / Dermatologist endorsements

-Names of celebrities are peppered throughout the Life Cell skin care website. Of course, they never say here that these people use the product, just that they belong to PETA who has certified that the product is 100% cruelty free. Big deal. So is almost everyone else’s products. Celebrities don’t know much about what skin care products work. Their inclusion on a website or in a commercial doesn’t prove much except that they were paid to say they like something. The same is true of dermatologist. Some doctors will take money to endorse any product. Don’t they make enough money being doctors?

9. Pictures of people’s faces throughout the site

-Seeing people’s faces throughout a website has proven to make the sight seem more friendly and legitimate. It doesn’t have anything to do with how good the products are, but it makes people more likely to buy them.

10. Before and after photos

-These are so simple to fabricate that they should never be used to make any judgements about whether something works. If you look at the before and after pictures on Lifecell Skin Care they often don’t even look like the same person. They might not be! But you’ll also see that the lighting is way off. It is not proof of anything!

11. Lots of testimonials (with faces)

-Typically, these faces are attached to testimonials to make them more believable. But it’s simple to write-up a fake testimonial or higher someone to say they used a product and thought it was great. You should disregard testimonials as proof of anything. First, there is no way you can prove they are real. And second, just because a person thinks a product worked for them doesn’t mean it did. People often ascribe cause and effect at inappropriate times. Only double-blind studies can show whether something really works or not.  There were no double-blind study data published on the Lifecell skincare website.

12. Video testimonials

-Nowadays savvy marketers use video testimonials because they are even more compelling. Again, it is a simple matter to pay someone with cash or free product to get them to say whatever you want. These elements of a sales pitch are dubious at best.

13. Long….sales page

-Early on in the direct marketing world people learned that the more words you write, the more product you sell. The Lifecell website with nearly 25,000 words is equivallent to a 100 page book. That’s just for one skin care product! It’s incredible.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean the product is worth buying.

14. Anti-authority authority

-The Lifecell site features a classic “anti-authority” who is supposed to be just like you. She accidentally stumbles on some secret being held by a scientist and turns it into a product. This is complete and total NONSENSE.   A manipulative fairy tale designed to motivate you to buy the product.

15. Information being suppressed by evil corporations

-As is often proven in political elections, one way to get people to pay attention to you is to point out the flaws in your competition. A common story by little companies is that big “evil” corporations are suppressing information from you. They want to sell you cheap products instead of ones that really fix the problem. This is complete BS! Companies that claim this are lying. Big skin care companies use top notch research and development people to create the best products available anywhere. They undergo the MOST RIGOROUS TESTING of any skin products anywhere.

16. Evil corporations are poisoning you

-Another common theme is that big corporations use toxic chemicals because they are more profitable. This is COMPLETE NONSENSE! Cosmetic chemists are concerned with making safe, high quality products. They don’t try to poison the population.

Some little companies can’t compete on quality so they make up stories to undercut their competition.

17. Lots of media mentions

-Another classic marketing ploy is to show all the places that you are mentioned. Legitimate news organizations make a product seem more legitimate. Unfortunately, there is nothing to stop a company from putting up a logo and saying they were featured on NBC or CBS or wherever. Unless you see a real video, you should be skeptical. Additionally, being featured in the media means that they have a good publicist, not a good product.

Being featured in the media means that they have a good publicist, not necessarily a good product.

18. Free additional give aways

-Did you ever wonder why a company could give away hundreds of dollars of product for free? You should. Either the products aren’t worth the hundreds of dollars they say they are worth or you are overpaying for the product you are buying.

19. Pay for a monthly “subscription”

-If a skin care product line requires you “subscribe” to them don’t buy it. You should buy product when you need it. Lifecell uses this “subscription” model so you should be cautious about buying it. Think about this. If their product worked as well as they say, wouldn’t you have better skin over time and need to use less product?  That they continue to send you the same amount of product on the same schedule is suspicious.

20. Big money given to affiliates

-Finally, the biggest red flag of any Internet Marketing company is an excellent affiliate program kickbacks that they give. Lifecell Skin Care gives their affiliates 100% of the first sale. Since the first sale is $189 that’s how much they pay any Internet publisher who converts a sale.  If the Beauty Brains were part of their affiliate program (which certainly won’t happen after this post) we would be paid $189 when anyone came to our website and was convinced by us to buy Lifecell skin care.   With a payout like that, some people will say ANYTHING to get you to buy. Therefore, you can’t trust any positive things being written about Lifecell.  That means blog posts, blog comments, websites, and forum comments.  The Internet is practically unregulated and people can say anything they want to convince you to buy.  Don’t fall for it.

Beauty Brains Bottom Line

As I said in the begining Lifecell Skin Care products are probably fine products. But NO SKINCARE product in the world is worth $189 for a 40 day supply. Save money, go to your local grocery store and try a product like Dove or Olay. These will work as well or better and you won’t get roped into a subscription scheme.

PS.  Incidentally, some people have questioned the business practices of the company that makes Lifecell Skin Care.

Do you have experience with Lifecell Skin Care? Is it worth the cost? Leave a comment and let the rest of the Beauty Brains community know what you think.

Left Brain Reflects…

Last week, the Beauty Brains published a piece about Imedeen and whether a food supplement could actually improve your skin’s condition.

Our conclusion…maybe it helps a little, but it hardly seems worth the cost.

Then Kai, one of our Beauty Brains community members, asked us about a study that was published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. She asks, what we think of this data.

Imedeen Clinical Study

The study Kai references is interesting. In it, post-menopausal women were given Imedeen Prime Renewal or a placebo over a 6-month period. Their skin was graded at various times by professional evaluators. The most significant part of the study design was that it was a double-blinded, placebo controlled study. Double-blinded just means that neither the people getting the treatment, nor the people evaluating the participants knew who got the placebo or who got the Imedeen.

This double-blinded nature of the studies is typically missing in similar studies like this.

The study was conducted by Stephens and Associates, a respected, independent testing company for the cosmetic and medical industries.

Imedeen Study Results

In this study, 38 women were given the Imedeen while 42 were given the placebo. 20 women had to drop out of the study for various reasons so their data is not included. According to the data, people taking the Imedeen were shown to have significantly improved skin (compared to the placebo) with less facial wrinkles, less sagging skin, less under eye dark circles, improved skin on the hands and a variety of other measures.

Impressively, objective data taken through ultrasound measurements even showed significant differences.

The authors conclude that after 6 months of taking 4 Imedeen Prime Renewal pills each day, skin in post-menopausal women is improved.

Imedeen Theory.

No matter what the data from a study shows, I always like to see what the authors think is the scientific rationale behind why something works. They say that Imedeen could work by modulating the balance of lipid inflammatory mediators. They site previous studies on some plant and fish oils that have also had this effect. The key elements of the Imedeen include

• a. Soy Extract
• b. Fish polysaccharides
• c. White tea extract
• d. Grape seed extract
• e. Tomato extract
• f. Vitamin C
• g. Vitamin E
• h. Zinc

The reason Imedeen is supposed to work better on post-menopausal women is that the soy isoflavones in it may mimic the effects of estrogen in skin. If true, that sounds a little scary. Other things like tomato, grape seed, and white tea extract are supposed to work as anti-oxidants.

Some Skepticism

While this Imedeen study is good and gives some interesting results, consider the following concerns.

1. Small study: A study of 80 people is small and would not be used to make definitive claims. A pharmaceutical company would require a much larger group (300 – 3000 or more).

2. Publication bias: There’s a reason that sponsored research almost always produces positive results. If they have a bad result, they just don’t publish the results. I wonder, how many clinical studies did Imedeen do before publishing this one? And why didn’t they do a study on ALL women? (hint: they probably did).

3. No comparison: While the study was a double-blinded one, it didn’t compare the Imedeen treatment to topical treatments. Maybe those work better for less money. This is what people really want to know!

Is Imedeen worth it?

That last point is the biggest remaining question. Will Imedeen supplements work better than daily use of a good skin moisturizing treatment?  While I have no data, I suspect the answer is no. Daily skin moisturizing treatments are proven to work and do so much quicker than the 6-months required for Imedeen to work.

Beauty Brains Bottom Line

While I was extremely skeptical about Imedeen having any benefit, their work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition is a legitimate study, done by legitimate researchers, published in a legitimate journal. Kudos to the folks at Imedeen for their thoroughness. They’ve done much more than any food supplement company I’ve ever seen.

However, I remain skeptical that $500 for a 6-month supply is worth the money. And I’m still concerned that the food supplement industry is not regulated so they can sell you anything they want and call it Imedeen.

But you might find these results compelling. Feel free to try Imedeen Prime Renewal for a little while and let us know your results.

Rebecca’s request: I’ve been introduced to Prevage by my beauty consultant as being a great product to prevent environmental damage to skin and even reversing some of the already existing. This product is a little pricey, so I’d like to know how true are the claims on their web page. Please advise.

The Right Brain proselytizes about Prevage:
Prevage is originally from a company called Allergan who markets the full-strength 1% active version (formally known as Prevage-MD). Elizabeth Arden’s version contains 0.5% (or half as much active ingredient). Arden has launched a line of idebenone-based products including an anti-aging face treatment for 1.7 fl. oz. for $150 as well as a similarly priced night cream and an eye treatment.

Prevage’s claim to fame is that its active ingredient is an antioxidant known as idebenone. Long time readers may remember that we blogged about this “miracle ingredient” before. But in case you missed our first post, here’s a quick recap.

What is Idebenone

Idebenone came out of research in the ’70 and ‘80s that showed a material known as Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) could improve heart failure, reduce free radical damage and slow down certain neurological conditions. CoQ10 is a vitamin-like material that not only helps control cellular energy production but is also a powerful antioxidant. The researchers modified the CoQ10 molecule to enhance its properties and one of modifications became idebenone. Today, several companies , including Elizabeth Arden and Priori Skin Care market idebenone-based products as next generation antioxidants.

Does Prevage work?

According to Arden’s website, they claim that idebenone is “ currently the most effective antioxidant for addressing the visible signs of aging, including fine lines, wrinkles, roughness and discoloration.” Interestingly, they qualify that claim with an “*” the reveals the comparison is to alpha lipoic acid, kinetin, vitamin C, vitamin E, and coenzyme Q10. There’s not mention of other powerful antioxidants like flavinoids and polyphenols found in natural materials like tea leaves and grape seeds. So it’s really hard to tell how idebenone stacks up against these competing technologies.

Furthermore, Arden boasts their clinical tests “show a significant decrease in the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and an improvement in the look of firmness, tone, texture, and radiance.” But frankly, those are not particularly impressive claims – many products that are much cheaper are said to perform similarly.

According to one of our favorite sources, Smartskincare.com, there have not been “head to head” studies to determine if idebenone is better than CoQ10 for fighting wrinkles. They also say that if you are using proven anti-wrinkle agents (like retinoids) with good results, you may want to hold off on idebenone until more studies are conducted. They sum it up nicely by saying: “trying idebenone is a question of willingness to spend time and money on a treatment that could work in theory but is not yet backed by hard evidence.”

The Beauty Brains bottom line

Prevage appears to be another high-priced skin care line that promises youth-in-a-bottle without much proof.

Reference: Smart Skin Care