Used to work for one of the large beauty retailers and they would tell us to tell customers that the products are medical grade "cosmoceuticals" but it was all fake because there is no entity checking these claims so they get away with charging 2 or 3 times more
The word is cosmeceutical. Not cosmoceutical. What is that a space product? Cosmeceuticals are products that have an pharmaceutical effect and not just a cosmetic.
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme they messed up one letter in a mouthful portmanteau, it doesn't invalidate their entire statement. Besides, I don't understand what are you trying to claim with your last sentence there. Something can have both a pharmaceutical & cosmetic effect, many things often are. For example, benzoyl peroxide takes care of your zits so you can look better, but they're also regulated as a drug. So do some topical steroids used to treat skin inflammation (like zits), like dexamethasone. Many people also benefit from not looking like death from their antidepression or whatever important life saving/ quality of life improving medication they rely. It's a very complicated field to regulate for a reason. TL;DR: the difference between "cosmetic" & "pharmaceutical" here is a matter of legal definition, and IRL + historically, the two have always been greatly overlapped. Don't let brands rob you just by slapping random unregulated words on things.
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme Oh thanks for the lesson, grammar nazi. Glad this makes you feel intelligent and important the way your friends and family never did! Spending your time this way must be so fulfilling hahah
Marketing speak always makes me sceptical. So little of the language itself is regulated to mean anything that I get a bit frustrated. Thanks for conveying sometimes complex ideas in an understandable and accessible way.
Also what’s the deal with medical “grade” products always having essential oils in them. Like the stank itself is so gross I feel like they haven’t caught up to the rest of the industry that seems to be making more and more essential oil free and fragrance free products to cater to a larger market it’s just so weird to me when a company adds limonene and linalool and citrus oils because I thought those were kinda known to add to some damage when in the sun light? Or cause way more sensitivity.
tbh i put my trust more on huge established drugstore brands than small 'medical grade' brands because i believe there's more research going behind the former with the formulation especially. if i want more efficacy i'll use prescription products e.g. tretinoin, hydroquinone, etc.
So so SO important to know! I fell for Secret’s “Clinical Strength Deodorant” and it turns out that it has the exact same percentage of it’s active ingredient as literally every other deodorant they make. So disappointed to find out I’d been spending an extra 2+ dollars just for marketing.
I went and bought a stupid 40$ sunscreen because my esthetician convinced me that medical grade is better (from their clinic). Sometimes I question my intelligence and this is embarassing.
Dont feel too badly about it. You trusted someone who you thought was a professional. That person is to be blamed for duping you (if they are even aware that it's an unregulated term).
@@lily5952 Exactly this, these are all marketing terms created to prey on people! They straight up do research to find the best way they can dupe the consumer No one should feel ashamed that they were duped by people who are experts at tricking you into buying their stuff
I would love to hear your thoughts on skinceuticals and those Dr. Barbara Sturm brands that are so $$$ and are always emphasizing their heavy clinical research for their products to justify their price tag.
I do like pharmacy brands or derm recommended brands like cerave, cetaphil, avene, la roche posay, bioderma but i have to agree medical grade skincare is kinda bogus.
I believe in South East Asian countries, cosmetic with high concentration of peeling agent and tooth whitening/bleaching products are required to only be sold applied by professionals. So, this term might be accurate for those products here...
I am a little confused with utube dermatologists claiming that their product line is superior because of the 'delivery processes' of the actives that includes encapsulation. Is encapsulated just another term for an extra part added to the molecule that your skin needs to remove so the active can be in a form that skin responds too.
Im guessing you are talking about skincare only not cosmetic products in general? At least in Spain products sold as professional grade or even higher medical grade arent sold to the public, like lets say a 35% strenght peeling to 50% peeling are sold to estheticians and doctors only, higher percentage to doctors only, same goes to a lot of other products intended to be used for professional treatments
Just because products don't have a "legal" definition, doesn't mean the term means nothing. Medical grade or professional grade is used by drug companies to indicate products that aren't just sold in supermarkets
@@itsgonnabeanaurfromme no they are not lol, like I said there are cosmetics that arent sold to the public, not talking about supermarkets talking about in general. Its illegal in spain and many european countries to sell cosmetics that have a higher percentage of said cosmetic ingredient because those are meant to be used by profesionals. You cannot purchase a glycolic acid of 40% yet i can as a profesional! I cant buy reticulate HA yet a doctor can
@@LabMuffinBeautyScience thank you that was my question, as in Spain i never saw a product being sold as medical grade or marketed that way maybe it goes from country to country
Exactly! I'm an esthetician and we do use products that penetrate into the deeper layers - the jessner peel goes all the way into the dermis, as I think does the vipeel. Maybe these brands aren't what you mean when you say "medical grade" as far as regulatory - but there ABSOLUTELY ARE highly potent products that can cause burning and have major contraindications if not properly trained on the protocol. I usually agree w her takes but this one is a little vague
And this is different than prescription skin treatments if course, right. Prescriptions are necessary because those products *do* contain a concentration level that needs to get medically necessary?
Can you please do a video of the efficacy comparison and the pros & cons of Tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate (like in Truth Treatments) vs L-ascorbate Vit C (like Timeless)? Thanks so much.
I feel the one that are high standards is prescription. Idk if you saw the paper where they compared the % upon use of different vitA products and the OTC were not stable enough to deliver the promised % when ready to use or a month in. Prescription, I think, has to ensure the % until expiration date/open time, which is ofc more testing
Stability is definitely one of the upsides to prescription products! They have less flexibility in terms of the formulation though, so they can't include anti-irritants for example without going through a much longer process than for a cosmetic product. But "medical grade" is rarely used to describe prescription products, they're usually cosmetic products.
Just because some companies use shady marketing tactics with the term "medical grade" to upgrade their status and justify higher prices, doesn't mean the term means nothing. Medical grade in Europe means there is a bigger percentage of the active ingredient in said products, have research AND extended clinical trials, and can only be prescribed by practicing doctors. And all three must apply for a product to be considered medical grade for personal use. Products that are used in clinics/spa centers are regulated automatically by the center's licence. F.e., here not all spa centers can use medical grade products, because there are levels in licences. The "here" is EU, so all countries within the EU are under the same european law regarding spa licences. There is no need for the term to be regulated specifically since it is already regulated peripherically. Let's say, products with glycolic acid, hydroquinone or retinoids. Over the counter products are regulated to have only up to a certain percentage; medical grade products have higher percentage of the active ingredient. F.e. hydroquinone only up to 2%, the medical grade is around 4%; glycolic acid is up to 20%, medical grade is up to 40%, etc. As for clinical trials, yes some over the counter products do present some sort of clinical trial. However, and not sorry, this --> "Usage test: 20 volunteers. Results: % of satisfaction after one application" and this --> "Usage test: 80 participants. Time period: three weeks. Desired results: X number showed significant improvement, Y number showed mediocre/light/no improvement, X number showed irritation/intolerance" are simply not the same. If anything, spa licences in some countries should be regulated more strictly, not the term. And idk if spa licences is FDA jurisdiction
4% hydroquinone and retinoids like tretinoin aren't "medical grade", they're prescription-only medicines, which is the same situation in most countries, and are ironically more likely to be sold in a "drug store" than a skin clinic. "Over the counter" medications are also drugs with good clinical trial data, but lower risk of side effects. "Medical grade" skincare products don't fall into either legal category and are cosmetics.
@@LabMuffinBeautyScience I don’t think she said anything about tretinoin. She said retinoids. If what she’s saying is true, it makes sense to me that what you’re saying in your video is wrong. Not here to argue, it would just be nice if you could address her comment rather than just trying to discredit one small piece of her comment, just to be right.
As lab muffin said, medical grade really doesn't mean anything on skincare, even here in the EU. What you are thinking of are either prescription drugs or those labelled as a medical device. If it is labelled as a medical device, then it has standards it has to meet. Toothpaste (when for treating sensitive teeth), sunscreen, vaginal creams eye drops etc. are medical devices. Some creams like dermol and eucerin are medical devices too. This is actually something defined by WHO, not just the EU. Now medical grade is a thing, when it's in regards to materials being used for a medical device. These have to follow different ISO, from the materials they use to how they are manufactured. I.e. the plastic being used on a pacemaker has to be manufactured in a certain way. Also a fellow chemist (meaning someone who works in chemistry not a pharmacist) specifically in the pharmaceutical industry.
@naynay From her comment, she makes a distinction between "medical grade" and "over the counter", which is why I took "medical grade" to mean "prescription" like for tretinoin. So no, what she's saying is incorrect because she thinks "medical grade" means "prescription", and my reply was not a bad faith argument "just to be right".
Wait but how? I'm an esthetician and we do use products that penetrate into the deeper layers - the jessner peel goes all the way into the dermis, as I think does the vipeel. Maybe these brands aren't what you mean when you say "medical grade" as far as regulatory - but there ABSOLUTELY ARE highly potent products that can cause burning and have major contraindications if not properly trained on the protocol. I usually agree w your takes but this one is a little vague
Peels are procedures and are done by professional. And she is talking the medical grade skincare which is usually more or less same as drugstore ones. The ones you say are different than what she is talking about.
@@madhumitha3805 I was confused because for example I use a lot of Circadia in my backbar and Skin Better Sciences and those are usually the products you will find in places like "skin clinics" - I'm just wondering an example of medical grade? Because I'm taught what I use is considered medical grade
Not sure if this is right but here.....High research standards, purity and safety regulated by the FDA. Medical grade skin care products must have clinical research studies to back up any claims about their benefits.
