Cosmetics corporations are telling consumers that it’s good to feed your face. They’re promoting vitamins, as pills or in creams and lotions, to restore or improve the “health” of hair, nails and even skin.
Physicians and other health experts are skeptical. Much of the evidence is anecdotal and difficult to measure. Research outside of cosmetic companies’ own studies tends to focus on disease prevention, not soft skin or shiny hair.
In the past year, Revlon, Aveda, BeautiControl, Avon and others have designed vitamin supplements that purportedly boost the body’s ability to make hair shiny, nails stronger and skin firmer or even less oily. The industry term for such products is “nutraceuticals.”
Vitamins as topical beauty cures have been gaining in reputation since the late 1980s, when the acne drug Retin-A, a vitamin A derivative, was shown to have some wrinkle-reducing properties. The more recent debut of Cellex-C, a vitamin C skin product, was accompanied by testimonials from users touting its age-defying benefits.
Today, the newest vitamin lotions show just how creative marketing has become. Origins markets a vitamin-enriched moisture lotion in a brown-glass bottle and calls it Night-A-Mins. According to the Origins press release, the “invigorating vitamins in Night-A-Mins, including vitamins A, B, C, E, H and folic acid, help give skin the stamina to maintain a firm outlook in the face of adversity.”
Estee Lauder elevates the link between nutrition and beautiful skin in its newest skin-care product, Nutritious. The company describes the milk-protein-enhanced “nourisher” as a “delicious feeling `liquidcreme,’ overflowing with benefits from wholesome milk.”
But the validity of claims that magnify the connection between health and outward appearance has yet to be strongly established. Cosmetic corporations cite their in-house studies, but independent confirmation is meager.
In the meantime, here are some answers to common questions about vitamins’ role in beauty.
Q — If I don’t eat a healthy diet, can vitamin supplements help improve the look of my skin and hair?
A — “We’re not all getting the optimal amounts of vitamins and minerals. But there are no established links between vitamin deficiencies and beauty problems in this country,” says Bonnie Liebman, director of nutrition for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
“There is not very good evidence that any vitamins can improve hair, or skin or teeth or nails in a (well-fed) population like ours,” she says.
Q — Since you swallow vitamin pills, don’t they have to be regulated as a drug, not a cosmetic?
A — “That is a fuzzy area that we haven’t sorted out very well,” says Dr. John Bailey, director of the cosmetics and color division of the Food and Drug Administration. “It’s my read that these probably fall into the area of dietary supplements,” which the FDA no longer oversees.
Health-related claims can remain unsubstantiated as long as they don’t purport to cure a disease, Bailey says. As for claims about improving the look of the skin or the hair, he says, “They can pretty much say anything.”
Q — What do cosmetics companies say?
A — Companies now entering the vitamin supplement business say they are interested in beauty “from the inside out.”
BeautiControl, Revlon and Intelligent Nutrients, a direct sales company founded by Aveda, sell vitamins for general health, as well as supplements targeted toward improving hair, skin or nails.
David McClellan, a spokesman for Intelligent Nutrients, says Aveda founder Horst Rechelbacher wanted to enhance people’s lifestyles internally and externally.
“I think there is a growing trend to be more in tune with your body,” says McClellan. “A lot of people don’t understand nutrition. . . but they understand taking some kind of supplement.”
Q — Can topical products containing vitamins improve the skin?
A — “We think most vitamins are fairly large molecules and are not going to penetrate skin to a significant degree. There is very little information that topical application provides any benefit . . . in terms of being involved in biologic processes in the skin or anything else,” says the FDA’s Bailey.
Maria Corbiscello, vice president of product development for Origins, disagrees. “We find that certain minerals in certain carriers in certain sizes do absorb into the skin,” she says.
The makers of Cellex-C point to clinical trials conducted at the Duke University Medical Center by Dr. Sheldon Pinnell, chief of dermatology and the product’s developer. After topical application of his formula, vitamin C levels in skin increased at least fourfold and as much as 40 times the previous levels, according to a report on the study in the journal Skin Aging and Photoaging. Even if the vitamin C is absorbed, however, whether it can reverse or prevent sun damage, or stimulate collagen production in human skin, has yet to be demonstrated.
Q — Why are vitamins A, D and E in so many skin care products, such as lipstick and moisturizers?
A — “Their presence in moisturizing products is due mainly to their oiliness,” say authors Dr. Fredric Haberman and Margaret Danbrot in their book “The Doctor’s Beauty Hotline: Quick Fixes for Beauty Crises.”
“Because of the effectiveness of Retin-A, made with vitamin A acid (tretinoin), in reversing some types of sun-related skin damage, we’re seeing vitamin A featured more and more prominently as an ingredient in cosmetics and treatment products. However, vitamin A, by itself, is not a skin rejuvenator.”
Q — Have other vitamins have been studied for their effects on skin or hair?
A — “Nothing yet has had the rigorous scientific research that Retin-A has had,” says Dr. Alan Menter, chief of dermatology at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
“There are so many anecdotal reports. That’s how Retin-A started. When people were on it for acne, some of them realized their skin looked less aged.” He says oral vitamin supplements are beginning to produce some of the same anecdotal evidence.
“People say, `My skin, hair and nails feel so much better.’ But no one has completed the rigorous evaluations,” he says, although some studies are under way. “Physicians are skeptical until science shows us proof,” he says.
