L’Oreal Reprimanded for Unsubstantiated Marketing Claims

We all know that cosmetics companies embellish the truth when it comes to marketing their products. In fact when researching my book, Toxic Beauty, I found that most of their claims are unfounded. Simply put, no cosmetic product banishes wrinkles, you’ll be lucky to even get a slight improvement.

Advertisements are accompanied by ludicrous claims that often make me simultaneously chuckle and cry, at the outlandishness and the deception.

With that in mind, I can’t help but feel glad that L’Oreal is being taken to the Market Court in Sweden for making claims about Lancome High Resolution and Vichy LiftActiv Pro products that the Consumer Ombudsman (KO) says Read more

Greenwashers may be subject to increasing litigation

Greenwashers beware. According to an article published in a legal journal greenwashing brands may increasingly face litigation. Lawyers Victoria Davis Lockard and Josh Becker from US firm Alston & Bird warn that eco-fraud is ‘the latest flavor of consumer product class litigation’ – lawsuits where multiple plaintiffs take action against a product that has failed to deliver on its advertising claims.

Lockard and Becker claim that not only may the courts be more sympathetic to an environmental cause than exaggerated efficacy claims, but the plaintiffs in eco-fraud cases will have powerful allies in the form of environmental Read more

Colipa Scientist Calls for ‘nanomaterial’ definition

Dr Gerald Renner from Colipa has called for a common definition of the term ‘nanomaterial’ at a conference in Brussels on regulation of nanotechnology.

Leading figures from industry, regulators and consumer groups gathered at the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) nanotechnology conference to discuss safety concerns, consumer attitudes and regulation.

Need for a definition

Talking at the conference about what regulatory moves remain to be taken, Colipa’s Director of Science and Research Dr Gerald Renner said a
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Will USDA Organic Standards Finally Include Cosmetics?

The boom in unofficial organic standards for cosmetic products is a huge source of confusion for consumers who don’t know which standards are the most stringent. I sometimes wonder if some members of the ‘organic’ industry enjoy the bewilderment because it makes it easier for them to market synthetic concoctions as ‘organic’ and ‘natural,’ without redress. 

It is often suggested in the media and by some cosmetic companies that there are no official certification standards that can be applied to cosmetic products, but this simply isn’t true. The United States Department for Agriculture (USDA) National Organic Program (NOP) has standards in
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