Smoother for Cheaper : You don’t need to spend a month’s worth of lunch money to fight wrinkles. Fruit-acid products promising to do the trick for less are here.
Wrinkle-fighting creams with alpha hydroxy acids, the hot new thing in cosmetics, can have price tags as breathtak ing as the promises in their advertisements.
Estee Lauder’s Fruition Triple ReActivating Complex is $42.50 per ounce, and Chanel’s Day Lift Oil-Refining Complex costs even more. But these and other high-end products face growing competition. Dozens of lower-priced creams and gels containing the natural fruit acids known collectively as AHAs are getting prominent, if inelegant, displays on the shelves of grocery, drug and health-food stores.
The makers of these products, some one-fifth the price of their department-store cousins, want to convince age-conscious consumers that they don’t need to break the bank or resort to chemical peels to slow the clock.
Among the fruit-acid wrinkle-reducers available or expected soon in drugstores:
* Pond’s Age-Defying Complex, $10.99 for two ounces, out since February.
* Alpha Hydrox’s Enhanced Gel Complex, $9 for two ounces, to join the company’s lineup of six AHA products in May.
* L’Oreal’s Plenitude ExCELL-A3 label, also to roll out in May and include a Skin Revealing Lotion ($11.50 for two ounces) and Skin Revealing Cream ($11.50 for 1.4 ounces).
* Jason Natural Cosmetics’ In Harmony With Nature line, including day cream, night cream and other products, in health-food and drug stores. Its 10% AHA night cream is $25 for one ounce.
* Cosmania’s the Nature Club Skin Renewal System, launched in December with five products. The Daily Moisture Complex is $7.99 for four ounces.
The low-end AHA business is exploding, a cosmetician for a large San Fernando Valley drugstore says. She gets regular telephone inquiries about the availability of specific products and has trouble keeping the shelves stocked. Alerted by advance advertising, some customers call for an item that has yet to arrive.
Makers of these new, cheaper lines aim to bury what they call the “If it’s not expensive, it can’t work” myth. Why spend $40, they ask, when 10 bucks or less might do just fine?
There lies the rub, of course. Not everyone agrees that the cheaper formulas will do as good a job of diminishing facial lines and other date-of-birth clues. The lower-end formulas contain AHA concentrations of 4% to 10%, contrasted with 8% to 15% in more expensive ones. The latter also include ingredients essential to firming and toning, their proponents say, as well as a better “vehicle” to deliver the acids to the skin.
No wonder consumers struggle to decide: Which AHA product will best help me lie about my age? Those tempted to take the ostrich approach and wait for the next miracle potion should know that many experts echo the observation of Jeffrey Light, president of Jason Natural Cosmetics: “AHAs are a part of our lives, from now on.”
Although the beauty business always seems to have another miracle in the works, even manufacturers eyeing that next hush-hush line or ingredient say AHA sales will likely boom for quite some time. “At the rate it’s going, retail sales of AHA products could total a half-billion dollars this year,” says Allan Mottus, publisher of the Informationist, a New York-based industry newsletter. Other observers believe $300 million is closer to the mark.
Although their commercial popularity is recent, AHAs have been around since Cleopatra, who reportedly bathed in sour milk to reap the benefits of lactic acid, one of the acids commonly listed in AHA products. (Others include glycolic, malic, tartaric and citric acids.)
Fast-forward to 1992, when Avon introduced its Anew Perfecting Complex, which took in $70 million its first year. Prestige lines of AHAs soon began popping up in department stores. Today, AHAs seem to be everywhere and in everything: moisturizing face creams for day or night, face washes, gels, toner-astringents, and hand and body lotions. Next up will be cuticle treatments and shave creams containing fruit acids, experts say.
Although formulas vary, glycolic acid is the current darling of most manufacturers, especially for face products. “By and large, glycolic acid molecules are more active,” says Dr. Howard Murad, a UCLA assistant clinical professor of dermatology who produces his own line of AHA products.
The fruit acids work, experts speculate, by loosening the bonds among dead cells on the skin surface and speeding the natural shedding, or exfoliation, process. The shedding, in turn, exposes new skin, which feels softer and smoother and holds moisture better, Murad says.
“You start to see a smoother texture,” says Alex Znaiden, who helped develop Avon Anew and works for Chesebrough Ponds. Over time, AHAs can help soften the skin and reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, manufacturers say.
Better results can be had via the more concentrated fruit acids dispensed by aestheticians and dermatologists. For severe wrinkles, a chemical peel with up to a 70% acid concentration might be needed, says Dr. Robert Kotler, a Beverly Hills facial plastic surgeon who developed a buffered chemical peel. Such a procedure requires a general anesthesia, substantial recovery time and can cost about $5,000, he says.
Inexpensive products probably can’t hurt, Kotler says, and they might be a good starting point for some consumers.
The cosmetic industry uses the word cosmeceuticals to describe AHA products, implying a cosmetic-drug hybrid, but the Food and Drug Administration regards them strictly as cosmetics. The agency has looked into AHA products, spokesman Mike Shaffer says. “We’re not aware of any injuries,” he says.
If the right product for a specific skin type is applied faithfully, what can a consumer realistically expect?
“Almost everyone will have smoother, softer skin,” Murad says, adding: “The worse you look to start, the better you can expect to look.”
Some changes for the better may show up within two weeks of regular use, some manufacturers say, with the reduction in the appearance of fine lines occurring around the two-month mark.
Murad has compared “before” and “after” photos of patients using his products--ranging in AHA concentration from 8% to 15%--for at least two years. The appearance of new wrinkles in that time was virtually nil, he says. But he tells patients that AHAs are only part of the story--using sunscreens and taking care of the body, inside and out, are essential to minimizing the effects of aging.
Those wary of trying AHAs should consider a short trial run, experts say. “After three to six months, if you are not happy (with the results), seek a consultation with a health professional,” Kotler suggests.
And if fruit acids don’t make a difference, a consumer can always hope for the next miracle cream to close the gap between expectations and results. Although Pond’s Znaiden expects AHAs to be hot for a long time, he’s already tinkering with a new wrinkle remedy. The next buzz product? Phytic acid. Found in nuts and seeds, and a natural antioxidant, it’s “being investigated as the next generation of cosmeceutical,” he says.
AHA Products for $25 or Less
The following is a sampling of AHA products for the face, body and hands sold at drugstores and health food stores for $25 or less.
PRODUCT AHA TYPE/% COST/SIZE Alpha Hydrox Glycolic 1% $6.50/8 ounces Toner-Astringent Alpha Hydrox Extra Rich Glyolic 5.6% $8.50/6 ounces All-Body Lotion Alpha Hydrox Citric 1% $6.50/6 ounces Foaming Face Wash L’Oreal Plenitude Citric, Latic, $11.50/2 ounces Excell-A3 Skin Revealing Malic* Lotion L’Oreal Plenitude Citric, Lactic, $11.50/1.4 Excell-A3 Malic* ounces Skin Revealing Cream Nature Club Overnight Glycolic 8% $9/4 ounces Recovery Complex Nature Club Conditioning Glycolic 8% $9/4 ounces Cream Cleanser Nature Club Rejuvenating Glycolic 8% $9/4 ounces Firming Mask Pond’s Age-Defying Glycolic 8% $10.99/2 ounces Complex Jason New Cell Therapy Glycolic, $25/1 ounces Nighttime Moisturizer Lactic, Others 10% Jason Day-Time Glycolic, Lactic, $20/2 ounces Moisturizing Emulsion Others 6%
* Percentages not available
