BeautyBrains,
Browsing the Sephora website, I found a highish-end lipstick with this embossed on its box: “with resveratrol”. See:
Resveratrol, if I recall correctly, was identified as an antioxidant in red wine a few years ago, and caused a great stir that gave everyone an good excuse to go out and drink lots of red wine. But the facts showed you’d need to drink several gallons of wine a day (not recommended) to get the amount of resveratrol necessary to have an effect.
How much of this is hype, and how much is real? Since resveratrol is associated with red wine, it makes great marketing sense to include it in red lipstick. But is it present at significant levels? Is it any better than tocopherol/vitamin E as a naturally-occuring antioxidant? Is this the equivalent of including the antioxidant in blueberries in blue eye shadow?
Lastly, is there any real harm in making a big deal out of including resveratrol? In a world where most nutritional supplements don’t even contain what they say they do, is it really so bad to highlight inclusion of a known-active compound in the ingredients list? Ultimately, the consumer is getting a great product at a reasonable price regardless of the claim.
Thanks.