Unilever own a number of cosmetic and beauty brands. They often seem to claim some serious benefits to users and often this is accompanied by statements such as ‘from Unilever clinical trials’.
Many of the compounds/ingredients certainly are know to have an effect on the skin of those who use them. Retinoic acid products such as Retinol do help grow new cells, remove dead skin cells, and improve the look of the skin. Nicotinamide has been known for quite some time that it has an effect on skin cells.
"Nicotinamide, also known as niacinamide, is a water-soluble amide form of niacin or vitamin B3. It is found in foods such as fish, poultry, eggs, and cereal grains. It is also marketed as a dietary supplement, and as a non-flushing form of niacin.
Nicotinamide has established medical uses to treat conditions stemming from niacin deficiency such as pellagra. Oral and topical formulations are used to treat a variety of inflammatory skin conditions including acne vulgaris and rosacea (1) (24) (2), hyperpigmentation (25) and to prevent hair thinning (26).
Preclinical models demonstrate photoimmunoprotective and chemopreventive effects against UV radiation (4). Nicotinamide enhances repair of UV radiation-induced DNA damage in human melanocytes (5) and keratinocytes (6) and similar effects have been demonstrated in human studies (4) (7) (8). It was also shown to improve inner retinal (27) and visual function (28) in patients treated for glaucoma. Other clinical trials show oral nicotinamide reduces UV-induced (9) and photodynamic therapy (PDT)-induced (10) immunosuppression.
In patients with sun-damaged skin, oral nicotinamide helped prevent the occurrence of nonaggressive skin cancers (11). In a small trial among renal transplant patients however, similar effects were not significant (12). Other studies found a reduction in actinic keratoses, a predictor of melanoma risk (13) (21), and a meta-analysis reported association with significant reductions in basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas, but increased risk of digestive adverse events (29). Additional studies are warranted (14)>.
Nicotinamide appears to be largely well tolerated in clinical studies (11) (12) (13). Even though niacin is converted into nicotinamide in the body (1), these two supplements should not be viewed as interchangeable as they have different side effect profiles (11) (15)."
Are the Unilever products any more effective in treating skin blemishes or are they pretty much the same as any other product in the marketplace?
Can the veracity of the claims be verified. Can we have real confidence?
As Unilever own many brands (over 400 worldwide) including Ponds, Dove, Rexona, sunsilk, Vaseline, TRESemme, Lynx, and Simple. Is this concentration really creating innovation and real improvements or is it largely just marketing to garner more users of their product range or is a beneficial mix of both?
In the topic on using misleading numbers, one advertisement was offered that showed that their owned brands united to to tackle misinformation on skincare and haircare. Would it have been better to just say Unilever tackled the misinformation or Is this them really uniting (noting they are already just subsidiaries of the same parent company)?
Is this just Unilever using a number of it’s own brands to promote their own products by using puffery?
Is this, not using market dominance, or is it getting to be or already a use of market dominance?
