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CMV - Skin care customization is mostly just marketing hype
While I’m a bit more skeptical than the average formulator, my opinions are also easily swayed by good evidence/arguments. For this reason I thought I’d start a new type of discussion here.
Change My View - Give reasons / evidence that might change the original poster’s opinion.
I read this story about L’Oreal offering customized skin care products.
https://www.cosmeticsbusiness.com/news/article_page/LOreal_and_SkinCeuticals_unveil_personalised_skin_care_service/140510/cn6487Although I believe we can scientifically quantify some skin differences, the science in this area is still weak plus there is scant evidence that any specific treatment works better for some skin types versus others. Therefore, I think customized skin products are just marketing hype.
Change my view.
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16 Replies
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I have been approached by small start-ups who have tried to endorse this Business model as the next best thing and their plan to conquer the Cosmetics Market.
My concerns have been;-How to overcome the financial issues of purchasing issues of stocking the wide array of actives that they “propose” stocking.
-The lack of any real plan to validate or execute the “Science” at the level of credibility they propose and communicate to the customer base. In many cases, there is little Science and more hooey.
-Lastly the documentation. I have asked the FDA and gotten mixed answers. My question is, “Since we are delivering a unique product to a client and manufacturing at the final market point, what are the obligations regarding manufacturing documentation (batch records), testing and facility standards?” If you take the strictest interpretation, you are creating unique products with new stability and preservation challenges, with an obligation to follow cGMP and to be in a compliant facility. Take Florida for example, they strictly limit the manufacturing site and would likely regulate this Business model to a point where it would be legally prohibited. -
These are all excellent points about the business model.
But what do you think of the general premise that it would now be possible to create a customized product based on the analysis of someone’s skin to provide superior results?
I find the whole premise is flawed.
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I believe you can make formulas that work for 99% of people, and the last 1% are best helped by visiting dermatologists in person as the etiology of their skin problem could be complex, e.g. psoriasis caused by small intestinal overgrowth - yes that’s a common thing!
There’re different levels of customization
1. At the simplest level it’s stocking a few pre-made formulas, and based on questionnaires giving people the ones with the traits they desire/or are most likely to work for them. E.g. if you haven’t had luck with Benzoyl Peroxide for acne, try a salicylic acid formula. For example curology, bonus is that you get a derm to look at photos of your skin.
Age based customization, older people need more retinol (frequent) to keep their collagen synthesis up for instance.
2. Another level is customizing your own formula, this has been automated for vitamins, not cheap, but it works. Very small market still due to lack of knowledge and cost. L’oreal is doing this with some included or perhaps optional advice. Prosumers could adapt this is prices came down.
3. Customization based on empirical metrics such as skin microbiome - science isn’t there yet, could work in the future.
1 and 2 are not really necessary IMO if you offer products with the best synergies of functionals that already work for 99%.
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@Perry I agree entirely that the Science is not able to support the premise that we could go in, analyze the skin and produce an effective customized product. We see these limitations daily even when it comes to collecting objective data about single finished goods, much less using the testing as a diagnostic tool. Also, I think at some point you could find yourself encroaching on diagnosis. I know of some Dermatologists who did this in the past, but as Clinicians and using compounded Pharmaceuticals. However, in years past I have seen them move more towards using existing products.
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Is it legal?. I mean, it seems like a coffee machine for cosmetics and OTC. There are so many things that could go wrong…
IMO they are pushing automatization and robotics on fields that shouldn’t be automated.
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@DAS - Since it’s L’Oreal I would guess that their lawyers have said it was legal. Although it may be in some grey area and they are pushing the boundaries.
Let’s say it is perfectly legal. Do you think this could actually work? That is, do you think someone could analyze a customer’s skin and create a customized formula that would work best for their skin?
I just don’t see any evidence that cosmetic formulations or skin analyses are that sophisticated.
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What are you asking exactly Perry? Yes it can clearly work if emulating the same questionnaire a dermatologist would. E.g. you reacted poorly to salicylic acid in the past, don’t add that to the formula.
Do you have greasy skin, don’t use a lot of oils, dry skin? More oils.
Are you over 30 and don’t want wrinkles? Add retinol. This is what L’oreal is doing and it works.But It doesn’t work much better than a well formulated multi functional formula, and there’s a lot more friction in the transaction than clicking BUY NOW so I don’t see a huge market there yet.
If you’re asking if they can analyze the molecular structure of the skin somehow and use that to tailor a formula the answer seems to be no, but in the future you could imagine being able to measure more stuff more easily opening up for more accurate skincare protocols and tracking your skin thickness, collagen, tewl etc more closely in response to functionals or applying functionals based on a molecular fingerprint of your skin. Still it wouldn’t be a mass market thing.
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@Zink - do you think someone could analyze a customer’s skin with the tools we have available now and create a customized formula that would work best specifically for their skin?
I’m talking about working better than standard products that are designed for dry skin, oily skin, etc.
In your example, a person over 30 and doesn’t want wrinkles. That isn’t really customized to the person. It is customized to the group of people like them.
I’m talking specifically about customizing a product to a specific person based on some analysis of their skin. I guess in your final paragraph you agree with me that the technology isn’t quite available now.
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Seems to be a marketing gimmick to me. I think that they probably just have 30 or so different formulas and they pick the best one based on their skin assessment. It would probably give you a better result than just using one product based on one parameter (such as dry or oily) but I think it is more about the person feeling special because they have a customised formula.
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To me it seems more trouble than a solution. Maybe for specific treatments (prescription), in that cases could be useful.
I don’t see it economically viable. Besides the cost of the machine the maintainance would be too expensive.
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@ozgirl - yes, that reflects my opinion about the technology too. A marketing gimmick that makes people feel special.
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L’oreal isn’t making customized to the person products as much as customized to groups of people, that’s why I wanted clarification.
IMO It doesn’t make sense to make any blanket conclusions about customized skincare, there are too many ways to go about it - you need to critique are the specific approaches, what data is gathered and how it’s used to customize a formula.
Like you I haven’t seen anything I’m convinced work better than picking the right standard product, but not ruling out it could work, I think it’s fairly easy to hypothesize how it could work on a deeper level than questionnaires. E.g:1. It’s discovered that one strain of p.acnes is a causative agent in acne, you could send in a skin swab and have it analyzed, then get a treatment targeting that strain should you be positive of it, or just the best bet generic treatment if not.
2. It’s proven that people accumulate different levels or ratios of damaged molecules in the skin as they age, e.g. glycated collagen vs reduced fibroblast spreading. A non-invasive spectroscopy method is developed to measure this and you could designe mixture of actives is optimized to fit that persons skin aging profile, maximizing efficacy whilst minimizing side-effects.
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not as stupid, as you first think; and not as difficult, either.
whether or not its marketable, at a premium….
now thats the trick question, isn’t it?
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Well, marketing is more enough to start a new product but in this case, I think there are a few couples of interesting things.
- I agree that most of the standard products are enough if they are well addressed but this is the problem, they only address the most common group of people. For example, most of the antiaging products are for dry skin. What about oily skin mature people? They may have some alternatives but most of the formulas will not be a good fit, even fewer chances if a person of oily skin would like to have specific actives ingredients.
- What about individual differences? This argument was told before about acne but this also applicable to skin care actives. What if a person is intolerant to glycolic acid but not to salicylic? To look for the same formula (combination of active ingredients/treatment, texture, skin type) with only a different exfoliant could be almost impossible… and so on.
Well, my contribution to the forum after a while
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I agree with Perry. It’s another marketing.
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@Perry I agree with @Microformulation, and with regards to colour cosmetics, can you imagine all the shades of lipstick that you would have to make? Its a very expensive task
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