Cosmeceuticals: Blending Beauty and Science

Nov. 1, 2002 -- The cosmetics industry is getting an education from pharmaceutical companies — merging the pursuit of youthful skin with scientific technology.

No longer are women willing to take anti-aging products and beauty advice at face value.

"It's the dawning of the age of the cosmeceutical — where lab meets lipstick and science meets beauty," says Dr. Nancy Snyderman. "Baby boomers, who've changed everything they touch, now see their skin wrinkling, their smile lines turning to frowns...and they are willing to pay to fix it."

The Food and Drug Administration does not even recognize the term cosmeceutical. It has no legal meaning. But cosmetics that make medical claims are exploding in popularity worldwide.

"Cosmeceuticals are a $1.9 billion industry and by 2006, $3.9 billion, which is about a 70 percent increase," says Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure magazine.

And according to some, it is the populace, the marketplace, that is going to drive the science.

"There's a few things that we know about this generation, which I think are gonna create a huge consumer demand, which is going to fuse with this enormous new medical scientific capability to create dozens of amazing products and trillions of dollars being spent," says Ken Dychtwald, author of ten books on aging-related issues.

From Wound Healing to Skin Plumping

Many of the newer products that show some promise have taken their lead from the science behind wound healing.

"Wound healing is complex, probably the most complex subject in all of biology," says Dr. Peter Elias, a dermatologist at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center. "It takes a whole range of different approaches, both prescription and non-prescription, to impact on these different wound healing situations."

Copper is one example of an approach to treating wounds that has been harnessed for firming aging skin.

"Copper is a mineral that has been used in wound care for the past 10 or 15 years," said Francine Porter, co-founder and president of Osmotics, a Boulder, Colo.-based cosmeceutical company. "We found the technology from a biotech company and we realized that everything that it does and the effects it has on the skin are exactly the types of things you want to address when dealing with aging skin."

Another product, developed by rocket scientists in Australia, is designed to get into your skin to enhance your own collagen using a milk protein and other natural enzymes.

Other cosmeceuticals weren't found through research, but were pleasant surprises, like one discovered accidentally by looking at the workers in a Japanese sake brewery.

"All the old men, no matter how old and wrinkly they were, had the hands of young boys," says John Gustafson, a London-based beauty consultant who scours the world for new products not available in the United States. "They found that one of the enzymes in the yeasting fermenting process was giving you almost a reversal of the aging process dealing with cellular renewal."

Better Beauty or Just Hype?

Scientists paid to develop these products claim they have research that proves cosmeceuticals work. But some doctors are not convinced.

Even Elias, who consults for well-known companies, was skeptical of most of the so-called antioxidants on the market.

"Most antioxidants are in products at concentrations only sufficient to protect the product, not sufficient to actually give any extra impact to the skin," he says.

Some say that there is good research being done in the area, but it isn't always easy to separate out the good from the bad.

"There are some Nobel laureates working on them and there are some charlatans and I'm not really sure where the line is," says Dr. Garry S. Brody, professor of clinical plastic surgery at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

For that reason, physicians would like that consumers greet new products with a fair degree of skepticism of their own before believing every beauty claim.

"People are so into looking better and wanting to improve this or that that they will try something in hopes it will perform a miracle," says Dr. Suzanne W. Yee, medical director of the Laser and Cosmetic Surgery Center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. "Many of the products make the skin feel better, and that in turn, makes people feel something is really changing their skin."

Here to Stay

Whether hype or help, experts say that cosmeceuticals and this science-based approach to beauty are here to stay.

"I think it is time to take the leap and take the skin seriously, not just treat it as a trivial external surface. The science should be allowed to be applied to the skin just like it applies to the heart and the lungs and the brain," says Elias.

Adds Porter, "I don't think, I am absolutely certain that this is an entirely new direction that is happening in the field of anti-aging skin care."

"I think the younger X and Y generations are really savvy about this as well. I think that's a good thing, because the more information you can find out and the more educated you are as a consumer you are going to make a more informed decision about what you ultimately use."

ABCNEWS' Sarah Adler, Alexa Pozniak and Melinda T. Willis contributed to this report.