It is sobering to know that doctors are the second leading channel for distribution of skin-care products. More than 10,000 physicians sell skin-care products through their offices. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, now that doctors are in the mainstream of cosmetic sales their objectivity has gone in the same direction as the rest of the cosmetics industry. That is extremely distressing because while most women would never assume a physician would mislead them, I see it all the time. Products sold at a physician’s office are not automatically better and are often more overpriced than the rest of the industry. You often get the same sales pressure from a physician that you do at the cosmetics counter or from infomercials. Notably, several doctors are famous because of their presence on infomercials or in advertisements. However, do not mistake salesmanship with medical information; they are not the same.
For example, take the invention of “cosmeceuticals,” a term physicians created to describe the products they sell. Cosmeceuticals are loosely defined as products that combine the benefits of a cosmetic and a pharmaceutical. The term is used to give the impression that these products have more effective or more active ingredients than just ordinary cosmetics.
As more and more doctors get into selling or endorsing skin-care products, you will hear more and more about cosmeceuticals. Dr. Tina Alster is the spokesperson for Lancome; Dr. Karyn Grossman is the spokesperson for Prescriptives; Dr. Patricia Wexler’s namesake products, Patricia Wexler M. D. Dermatology, launched as the next best way to seeing Wex – ler herself, at least if you shop at Bath & Body Works; Skin Effects by Dr. Jeffrey Dover is at CVS; Dr. Sheldon Pinnell’s SkinCeuticals line has been purchased by L’Oreal; and, of course, there’s Dr. N. V. Perricone, Dr. Murad, and Dr. Howard Sobel, with his DDF line that’s now owned by Procter & Gamble.
Despite all this display of medical pedigree, the term cosmeceutical is not in any way regulated or controlled, and anyone can slap that label on their products to promote them as being more “medical.”
Do cosmeceuticals really differ from any other cosmetics? The answer is no, because no matter how a product is labeled and marketed many skin-care treatments contain ingredients that affect the function of skin. Effectiveness isn’t reserved just for cosmeceuticals, it is completely within the realm of any well-formulated product.
Regardless of the name—cosmeceutical or otherwise—a skin-care product is only as good as what it contains and the ability of those ingredients to help your skin function better; or, in the vernacular, to act younger. In fact, moisturizers, just like any other skin-care product claiming to have an effect on wrinkles or sagging skin, should absolutely contain an elegant mix of antioxidants, cell-communicating ingredients, and intercellular substances, because they help skin keep a normal level of hydration, build collagen, reduce skin discolorations, and prevent cellular damage.
(Sources: Packaged Facts, U. S. Cosmeceuticals to 2008, www. the-infoshop. com; SKINmed, July-August, pages 214-220; Dermatologic Surgery, July 2005, pages 873-880; Photochemistry and Photobiology, January-February 2005, pages 38-45; Archives of Dermatological Research, April 2005, pages 473-481; Business Week Online, “An Ugly Truth About Cosmetics,” November 30, 2004; Biological & Pharmaceutical Bulletin, April 2004, pages 510-514; Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry, December 2003, pages 5345-5352; and American Journal of Clinical Dermatology, March-April 2000, pages 81-88, and September – October 2000, pages 261-268.)