Boots No7 is launching a 'breakthrough' in skincare - but is the science up to it?
Boots No7's latest range, Future Renew, launched this week to much fanfare, not just a new face cream, but a "world's first breakthrough in skincare research." skin".
Since 2007, when a Horizon documentary on the science behind its Protect & Perfect range caused an unprecedented rush among consumers, the team de Boots No7 took "this is the science" to the next level. Its latest collection of creams and serums was preceded by a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatologists (ADD) in New Orleans, and the launch took place, not in an exclusive hotel, but at the Science Museum in London.
As a public relations strategy, science has done its job without equal. Shining coverage suggested the serum is so revolutionary it could replace Botox or even pave the way for new treatments to heal scars and burns, and 88,000 people have signed up to a waiting list to buy the product. But just how miraculous is the cream?
"The products are backed by a lot of fundamental science to really understand the skin in depth…to help the skin to help itself," said Dr Mike Bell, Scientific Research Manager for No7 at Boots, citing a 15-year collaboration with the University of Manchester.
The key ingredients in Future Renew are two "super peptides" that have been shown to stimulate the skin's natural repair process. springs that give skin its elasticity and smoothness - break down over time by UV rays, pollution and various other types of damage Peptides are small pieces of the protein that are cleaved off and signal cells to skin that self-repair is needed.
The University of Manchester team, along with Bell, used an AI approach to identify which peptides, among the thousands existing, are the most common in the skin, which could be synthesized and which could eventually penetrate the epidermis to the deep layers of the skin where the repair takes place. A process of elimination identified two peptides that showed particular promise and were shown in cells in a box to help stimulate skin's self-repair activity.
When the peptides were placed under a patch on the arms of eight volunteers, a biopsy after 12 days showed that their skin had increased levels of fibrillin elastic proteins which are believed to make the skin more elastic, according to the results presented at the ADD conference, although the study did not show whether the skin actually looked younger.
"The data presented is encouraging but j would love to see the effect on all aspects of skin aging," said Claire Higgins, professor of bioengineering at Imperial College London.
Aging skin has other components, for example, such as DNA damage that reduce the ability of cells to self-repair, regardless of the amount of peptide is about. Higgins sees the breakthrough as "more progressive discovery" than revolution, but doesn't disparage either.
"New to this work is the approach of computational analysis that they used," she said. "Coupling different disciplines as they have done is a powerful tool that is likely to generate the most interest in the scientific community."
The company also conducted a clinical trial with 44 female volunteers in which they used the Future Renew formulation on one half of their face and just a simple SPF cream on the other. trial, both sides of the women's faces were evaluated by experts using various clinical criteria such as the Griffiths Wrinkle Scale, and appeared to have benefited. According to Bell, the serum produced "five years of 'wrinkle reversal'. "If you take a 55-year-old man after six months, it would take him back to the wrinkles of a 50-year-old man," he said.
However, there is something of an evidence gap between basic scientific research and this consumer-focused trial, which tested the finished formulation that includes other potentially beneficial ingredients. "There's still a leap to go – does what happens inside the skin translate to what consumers see?" he said. "It's getting harder to pinpoint exactly what peptides do."
Bell is also downplaying any potential future medical applications. "There have been headlines around the scars...
Boots No7's latest range, Future Renew, launched this week to much fanfare, not just a new face cream, but a "world's first breakthrough in skincare research." skin".
Since 2007, when a Horizon documentary on the science behind its Protect & Perfect range caused an unprecedented rush among consumers, the team de Boots No7 took "this is the science" to the next level. Its latest collection of creams and serums was preceded by a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatologists (ADD) in New Orleans, and the launch took place, not in an exclusive hotel, but at the Science Museum in London.
As a public relations strategy, science has done its job without equal. Shining coverage suggested the serum is so revolutionary it could replace Botox or even pave the way for new treatments to heal scars and burns, and 88,000 people have signed up to a waiting list to buy the product. But just how miraculous is the cream?
"The products are backed by a lot of fundamental science to really understand the skin in depth…to help the skin to help itself," said Dr Mike Bell, Scientific Research Manager for No7 at Boots, citing a 15-year collaboration with the University of Manchester.
The key ingredients in Future Renew are two "super peptides" that have been shown to stimulate the skin's natural repair process. springs that give skin its elasticity and smoothness - break down over time by UV rays, pollution and various other types of damage Peptides are small pieces of the protein that are cleaved off and signal cells to skin that self-repair is needed.
The University of Manchester team, along with Bell, used an AI approach to identify which peptides, among the thousands existing, are the most common in the skin, which could be synthesized and which could eventually penetrate the epidermis to the deep layers of the skin where the repair takes place. A process of elimination identified two peptides that showed particular promise and were shown in cells in a box to help stimulate skin's self-repair activity.
When the peptides were placed under a patch on the arms of eight volunteers, a biopsy after 12 days showed that their skin had increased levels of fibrillin elastic proteins which are believed to make the skin more elastic, according to the results presented at the ADD conference, although the study did not show whether the skin actually looked younger.
"The data presented is encouraging but j would love to see the effect on all aspects of skin aging," said Claire Higgins, professor of bioengineering at Imperial College London.
Aging skin has other components, for example, such as DNA damage that reduce the ability of cells to self-repair, regardless of the amount of peptide is about. Higgins sees the breakthrough as "more progressive discovery" than revolution, but doesn't disparage either.
"New to this work is the approach of computational analysis that they used," she said. "Coupling different disciplines as they have done is a powerful tool that is likely to generate the most interest in the scientific community."
The company also conducted a clinical trial with 44 female volunteers in which they used the Future Renew formulation on one half of their face and just a simple SPF cream on the other. trial, both sides of the women's faces were evaluated by experts using various clinical criteria such as the Griffiths Wrinkle Scale, and appeared to have benefited. According to Bell, the serum produced "five years of 'wrinkle reversal'. "If you take a 55-year-old man after six months, it would take him back to the wrinkles of a 50-year-old man," he said.
However, there is something of an evidence gap between basic scientific research and this consumer-focused trial, which tested the finished formulation that includes other potentially beneficial ingredients. "There's still a leap to go – does what happens inside the skin translate to what consumers see?" he said. "It's getting harder to pinpoint exactly what peptides do."
Bell is also downplaying any potential future medical applications. "There have been headlines around the scars...
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