The beauty industry has been bombarded: sunscreen spray causes white lungs, and hydrating products are all "IQ taxes"?
Image source: vision china
Blue whale financial reporter Wang Hanyi
"Sunscreen spray may lead to the risk of white lung. Can the relevant tips be implemented on every package?" "When will the hydration lie end?" "If there are problems with the test report and various lists, what can consumers believe?"
Recently, a video about "female R&D engineers after 1995 questioned experts at the skin care industry conference" attracted attention. At present, the specific identity of the woman in the video, the information of the industry conference she attended and who the industry experts she questioned are still unclear, but the three issues raised by the woman and some industry status reflected behind these issues are worth discussing.
Is it true that using sunscreen spray on the face causes pneumonia?
An emergency doctor who didn’t want to be named told Blue Whale Financial reporter that the ingredients in sunscreen spray are generally non-toxic to the body, but some sunscreen sprays do contain high-risk ingredients. "It is common for chemicals to cause skin allergies, and lung cancer is an example. If you hold your breath or cover your mouth and nose when using it, the spray will not have any adverse effects on your body."
In fact, some sunscreen sprays also have tips on how to use them correctly when selling. Blue Whale Financial reporter searched on the shopping platform with "sunscreen spray" as the key word, and randomly selected an adult spray and a child spray, both of which had relevant risk warnings or precautions such as "Do not inhale when using" and "Not recommended for people with respiratory diseases".
A research and development personnel in the front line of cosmetics production told Blue Whale Financial reporter: "At present, there is really no clear provision requiring sunscreen sprays to indicate the use method on the packaging, but many sunscreen sprays will be indicated on the details page or packaging."
Bai Yunhu, an expert in cosmetics industry management, said: "Whether it is necessary to mark some possible risk warnings on products, similar to the’ warning’ information marked on cigarettes by the tobacco industry, depends on industry norms and regulatory requirements. In most cases, CFDA (China Food and Drug Administration) has professional judgment, and if necessary, it will formulate relevant laws and regulations. For example, there are strict requirements for the identification of the sun protection index, and sun protection is also a special cosmetic, which needs to be filed separately. "
Adult sunscreen spray details page Image source: Cut from Taobao
Children’s sunscreen spray details page Image source: Cut from Taobao
In addition, the reporter of Blue Whale Finance also interviewed consumers who would buy such products every day. Everyone said that it is common sense to avoid inhaling sunscreen spray, just like "inhaling smog and dust may cause pneumoconiosis". In fact, it’s not just sunscreen spray, but also the prickly heat powder used by children is risky to inhale.
Bing Han, the initiator of rational skin care and a doctor of dermatology at Tongji University, also said in his popular science article that sunscreen spray itself is safe, but it is unsafe to inhale sunscreen spray in respiratory tract. "It is very easy to use sunscreen spray correctly and avoid risks. I hope that everyone will not understand it as’ sunscreen spray causes pneumonia and must not be used.’ This is one-sided and wrong. "
It is worth noting that the sunscreen ingredients added in the sunscreen spray may be solid particles like titanium dioxide, and other soluble sunscreen ingredients such as emulsifiers and solvents may also cause lung damage after being inhaled into the respiratory tract. "Therefore, for the sake of consumer safety, especially for some careless consumers who are not very informed about it, the industry should really print the risk warning more prominently." Ice cold is called.
Is "hydrating" a lie?
The above-mentioned doctor said: "The general hydrating skin care products really can’t achieve the function of hydrating the skin. At most, it is to repair the stratum corneum when the skin is dry in autumn and winter, and human skin can maintain the balance of water and oil."
Although hydrating products can’t "replenish" water directly, they have certain soothing and moisturizing effects, which can increase the moisture content of users’ skin epidermis in a short time and reduce water loss, which is actually "hydrating" in the eyes of ordinary consumers.
Some industry veterans said, "There is important information hidden in the video, only saying that’ so-and-so hydration is invalid’. If the conclusion that the hydrating product is invalid is taken out of context. "
In fact, "hydrating" is just a conventional name, not all water enters the skin. Take the hydrating mask as an example, the patch mask has a function called hydration. To put it simply, the mask is attached to the face, which will soften the cuticle of the skin, that is, the skin is hydrated. "Skin hydration can accelerate the absorption of nutrients, like a kind of infrastructure. Therefore, I don’t recognize that hydrating is an IQ tax. " The above R&D personnel said.
After using the hydrating products, the water will still evaporate, and more importantly, how to retain the water. The "hydrating spray" on the market, take a bottle with you and spray it when your face is dry; Trying to absorb water by slapping hard is actually a misunderstanding of skin care caused by not understanding the principle of skin care. A more effective way is to take advantage of the short hydration time of the stratum corneum and use moisturizing products to retain water. Retaining water is what everyone often says about moisturizing and locking water. Skin care is a systematic project, and it can’t be a single efficacy theory.
Is the sunscreen effect test reliable?
Blue whale financial reporter learned that the standard method for testing sunscreen is human body test. In the test of SPF value and PA value, it is necessary to manually interpret the erythema and melanosis of skin.
For the human testing method of sunscreen, national standards are different. China, Japan, the United States, Australia and the European Union use the human testing method of at least 10 subjects for SPF testing. Among them, the EU standard is ISO24444;; Japanese standard is JCIA; of Japan Cosmetics Industry Association; China is the Technical Specification for Cosmetic Safety in 2015. Even if these standards are generally consistent, changes in details will affect the final test results, such as reference substance, smear area, irradiation measurement and so on.
This leads to that even if the results are tested according to the requirements, they will change because of the skin quality, race, state and even seasons of the subjects. Therefore, even if the same sunscreen product has different results in two human tests, it is normal.
In this regard, Bing Han believes: "The testing institution of sunscreen products is a designated institution, and its management is relatively strict. It must have CMA certification. From the recruitment of subjects, experiments and data statistics to the issuance of the final report, it must follow the norms, and the laboratory must regularly re-examine and parallel reference. It is not easy to obtain the inspection qualification of sunscreen products. Falsification will not only ruin your job, but also ruin your reputation. If I were the leader of a sunscreen testing institution, I wouldn’t take this risk. "
For the above viewpoints, what do the post-95 formulators think of the "rights fighter" in the video? The Blue Whale financial reporter contacted the blogger of the "skin care industry documentary for Lingfei" account, but as of press time, he has not received a reply yet.
According to the data of 36Kr Research Institute, the market size of precision skin care in China will be 48.8 billion yuan in 2022, and it is estimated that the market size will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2026, reaching 123.6 billion yuan. Consumers pay more and more attention to skin health and skin care, so they are more likely to be "anxious".
For consumers, they should learn more about relevant popular science knowledge and avoid being "kidnapped" by deliberate anxiety.