A load of Boswelox: The Checkout slams skincare brands

By Lucy Clark | 20 June 2014
 
Zoe Norton Lodge and Kirsten Drysdale on The Checkout

L'Oreal, Nivea, Garnier and Olay were among skincare brands to get a hammering on The Checkout last night for their spurious scientific miracle claims.

Spoofing Grease's Beauty School Dropout scene, the ABC program's segment called Skincare Made Simple picked on skincare product ingredients like collagen and pro-retinol.

Throwing the spotlight on L'Oreal Paris Revitalift Laser X3 face cream, host Kirsten Drysdale said words like “Pro-Xylane”, “Pro-Retinol” and “Stimulift” are “nonsense words”.

And on L'Oreal Paris Men Expert Erase Wrinkes, which contains an ingredient called Boswelox, Drysdale said: “If an ingredient has a 'TM' after it, like Boswelox, it probably is a load of Boswelox.”

Collagen, in products such as L'Oreal Collagen Replumper Day Cream was also criticised.

“The beauty industry would love you to think that you can get the same effect by rubbing collagen on your face as you can by injecting it,” said Drysdale. “But that's not the way it works. Generally, collagen molecules are too big to penetrate the skin and, even if they're not, when collagen is kept at room temperature, like on a shop shelf, it becomes ineffective.”

She also outlined claims as to how the beauty industry comes up with scientific ingredients: “They take a medical grade product that actually works, like Retinoic Acid, then milder versions appear in off-the-shelf products, like Retinol, which can be effective if it's strong enough and stored correctly. Then another version comes out with a similar name, like Pro-Retinol, which does basically nothing.”

L'Oreal Paris has not yet responded to request for comment.

Watch the segment here:

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