Skin and beauty claims

Skin claims are the easiest to sell and the hardest to measure. This drawer holds the files on collagen drinks, copper peptide (GHK-Cu) creams, eye creams, glutathione, melanotan 2 and blends sold under names like GLOW. The useful question for each one is what a trial actually measured: hydration, elasticity, wrinkle depth from imaging, or simply how testers rated their own skin.

Cream studies often compare a product with no treatment at all, and many are paid for by the brand. Injected and tanning peptides raise a separate issue, because they move the question from cosmetics to unapproved drugs with case reports of harm. Each file gives the verdict, the evidence meter and the sources it rests on. For the vocabulary used in these trials, see the glossary.