Cheaper anti-wrinkle eye cream brands outperform Sulwhasoo, Estee Lauder and Shiseido, Hong Kong watchdog finds
- Nivea’s Cellular Expert Filler Eye and Lip Contour Cream found to outrank pricier products, such as Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Eye Cream, Estee Lauder and Shiseido
- Nivea’s product only outperformed by the Gongjinhyang Intensive Nutritive Eye Cream from Korean brand the History of Whoo
Some affordable anti-wrinkle eye creams have been found to outperform others from well-known and more expensive brands, Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has said, stressing that users should manage their expectations.
The Consumer Council on Thursday said it had also found free formaldehyde and fragrance allergens in some of the 15 anti-wrinkle eye creams that it tested, with traces of a potentially toxic substance detected in one sample.
“What we found [is that] from very expensive products to more economical ones, there are good products for you to select as well, so you can select the product based on your affordability,” the council’s chief executive, Gilly Wong Fung-han, said.
She added consumers would have to manage their expectations because eye creams would not really help them get rid of wrinkles. But they would help smoothen wrinkles, as well as the skin around the eyes.
“If it is a really deep wrinkle, it can soften it a little bit, but it may not get rid of it,” she said.
Among the 15 anti-wrinkle eye creams tested by the council, the Cellular Expert Filler Eye and Lip Contour Cream from Nivea outranked pricier products, such as the Sulwhasoo Concentrated Ginseng Renewing Eye Cream, Estee Lauder, Shiseido, Guerlain and SkinCeuticals.
Sulwhasoo’s manufacturer disputed the results by the council, saying an independent study by a Korean laboratory on 31 participants aged between 30 and 69 in 2021 found the product effective in smoothening skin and reducing wrinkles immediately after it was used.
The company also said the sample size that the council tested was relatively small and it could only reflect the trend of the product’s effectiveness, adding the product was more suitable for those aged 30 or above and with minor wrinkles.
The Nivea product cost only HK$11.90 (US$1.50) per millilitre or gram, while Sulwhasoo’s was HK$53 for the same quantity, more than four times pricier.
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However, in a five-point rating scale produced by the council based on the creams’ performance in skin smoothening and wrinkle reduction, Nivea’s product had an overall score of 3.5, while the Sulwhasoo sample only scored a two.
The rating is drawn from testing conducted by the council, where 14 to 15 Asian women were asked to apply the cream around one eye twice a day for 30 consecutive days, while leaving the other side untouched as a control without any treatment applied.
This is the first time that the watchdog has adopted that method, which involved more than 220 Asian women aged between 40 and 55 in Guangzhou between September and November last year.
The Nivea product was only outperformed by the Gongjinhyang Intensive Nutritive Eye Cream from Korean brand the History of Whoo, which scored a four in the overall rating of their cosmetic properties.
The study also found that five of the samples contained different types of fragrance allergens. One product was detected to have free formaldehyde and traces of cyclotetrasiloxane.
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“For the risks from free formaldehyde, we would be most worried about inflammation from skin contact,” Wong said.
“For fragrance allergens, if you are allergic to it, it can produce problems such as making your skin swell, red, itchy and small bumps appear on your skin.
“If it is very serious, it can make you very uncomfortable … however it will not go far enough to cause cancer.”
Among these five products, the History of Whoo’s cream was the lowest-ranked as eight types of fragrance allergens of varying amounts were detected.
The History of Whoo’s manufacturer said it had told its Korean headquarters of the council’s test results and would review its formula for the product, as well as improve its information labelling.
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The council also said that this product did not have a list of ingredients on its label, which would stop users from being aware of allergic substances.
The watchdog also found Olay’s Regenerist Eye Lifting Serum to have free formaldehyde, which it said it believed originated from formaldehyde-releasing preservatives used.
It also found that the same product contained traces of cyclotetrasiloxane, which is suspected to be toxic to the reproductive system. It is also highly toxic to marine life.
In its reply to the council, the manufacturer of Olay’s product noted that the components were in line with the regulations in Hong Kong, mainland China and the EU. It said the product was safe to use.
