Quantifying beauty with clinical claims leads to customer acceptance
In order to properly ‘quantify beauty’, the end claim must be decided early on in the product development process by choosing ingredients that have secondary marketing, efficacy, and clinical claims.
Susan Goldsberry, founder and president of Benchmark Cosmetic Laboratories, points out that “A client’s claims are very important and are considered at the very beginning of the formulation process.”
Source ingredients to address claim
“The first step in our formula design process is to source ingredients to address each claim. Before a chemist goes to the bench to begin preparing a formula sample, we determine the appropriate ingredients and use levels to meet each claim”.
However, even with the right ingredients and formulation developing a product that quantifies beauty is challenging as these claims are used for advertising, packaging, and marketing material and are subject to regulatory scrutiny.
The process for accurate claims is limited by the ability to accurately measure or quantify the results. Skin imaging and measurement devices are critical in clinical evaluation and creation of claims.
Clinical research labs use a variety of measurement devices to evaluate the skin and product developers are relying on the expertise of clinical research labs to guide them through this process.
Clinical testing example
International Research Services, Inc. (IRSI) utilizes the first-in-class skin imaging and bioinstrumentation, Clarity Pro, to assist cosmetic companies in differentiating their science for proper claim substantiation.
Francis Friscia, Head of Global Sales at IRSI states “Beauty will always be in the eye of the beholder, but from a clinical standpoint, it is invigorating when our recommended clinical testing design demonstrates corroboration of consumer perception data and visual grading scores with the bioinstrumentation.”
“This type of ‘emotional science’ helps scientists and marketing professionals successfully convey the story of their brand to the educated consumer”.
Advancements in the ability to measure skin attributes have given way to a plethora of claims and testing is needed to substantiate these claims. If it cannot be measured a claim cannot be made and this gives way to the limitation to quantifying beauty.
Consumers place a great deal of credence into these claims and good website reviews which are often indicators of best-selling products.
