how to tell which skin/hair products/treatments are evidence-based?

January 18, 2024 1:56 PM

I want to be a smarter consumer and know when something is a scam (aka based on pseudoscience and marketing rather than good data). I know this is tricky since the FDA's rules on cosmetics aren't as strict as they are for medicine.

Some examples in which I can't distinguish hype from evidence of effectiveness: Nuface and similar devices, gua sha tools and "face yoga," red light LED masks for collagen boosting, rosemary oil for hair thinning, "no poo"(non-lathering) shampoos, "active stem cell growth factor" ingredients in skincare

Is there a quick way to check besides sifting through dermatology journals? I also run into trouble when the science is nowhere to be found but there are tons of positive individual anecdotes about something all over the internet (not just on a single product website, but across forums, social media comments, etc - no idea if these are planted or not). I feel like it's getting harder to determine.

Note that I'm not as concerned about the potential dangers/harms of a given product (I know there are websites where I can search for that), but rather to what extent it does what it promises to do!

I used to check a site called beautypedia that would list if cosmetic products had reasons to be ineffective (the wrong ph or packaging for instance) but they stopped updating it a little while ago.

posted by CancerSucks to Shopping (8 answers total)

A thought: instead of starting with a particular product and asking "is this evidence-based at doing anything", it might be a better strategy to start with the problem you are trying to solve and then ask "what is the evidence-based solution to this?"

I say this because marketing often pushes solutions when people don't even have a problem to solve in the first place.
posted by splitpeasoup at 2:29 PM on January 18 [27 favorites]

The National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health has a wealth of information, and so does NIH. Just like splitpeasoup said, it makes more sense to look at what the main treatments for the condition are, not specific ingredients, and NCCIH (and NIH) is great for that.

Healthline.com is also pretty good; they will cite their evidence. However, I think Healthline overpraises-- they'll list something with 3 small studies with inconclusive results as "promising" and often those studies come from beauty-industry funded sources...so that's not great.
posted by blnkfrnk at 2:35 PM on January 18

To an excellent first approximation, all claims made by cosmetics manufacturers are lies.

Therefore, what splitpeasoup said.
posted by flabdablet at 3:41 PM on January 18 [13 favorites]

There's always wading through FDA's information - maybe start here?

Although it's not organized in the most user-friendly way, there's a ton of info...
posted by Tandem Affinity at 4:49 PM on January 18

I want to highlight the NCCIH guide to using PubMed. Abstracts for articles are typically pretty easy to understand and very informative!

I also wanted to note that a thing is only a sham or not with regard to a claim (which is another good reason to start by defining the problem you want to solve). For example, my nurse practitioner suggested gua sha stones as a way to massage my jaw muscles when I was grinding my teeth, it helped and I find it relaxing. Do I expect it to keep my skin firm as I age? That’s a different claim and harder to test.
posted by momus_window at 5:11 PM on January 18 [6 favorites]

I read and watch Labmuffin for this kind of information. She often references studies and explains the chemistry behind a product's formulation (for better or worse). Her YouTube channel is great.
posted by third word on a random page at 6:06 PM on January 18 [10 favorites]

The beauty brains podcast is 2 cosmetic chemists, who talk about this stuff. They will probably say that all of your examples are marketing stories, but try it and see if you like it.
posted by Valancy Rachel at 7:18 PM on January 18 [3 favorites]

CosDNA has similar info to beautypedia, you can check ingredients there
posted by tatiana wishbone at 6:24 AM on January 19 [2 favorites]