A refutation was made by Clinique in Greece, regarding the reports that the independent American laboratory Valisure had detected benzene peroxide in products of the American company, a subsidiary of the Estée Lauder Companies.
“Clinique products that contain benzene peroxide are not directly distributed on the Greek market, therefore there is no risk for consumer safety. In addition, generally the company does not use the benzene as an ingredient in any product in the Clinique brand product portfolio,” a company spokesperson said in a domestic release.
“The company’s Clinique brand products are produced and distributed under all prescribed safety procedures and subject to a very strict evaluation for this purpose. All products are safe for their intended use,” the statement added.
the findings
The denial and the company’s announcement come just one day after New Haven, Connecticut-based independent lab Valisure said it found high levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene in some acne treatments from brands including Estée Lauder’s Clinique, Up & Target’s Up and Reckitt Benckiser’s Clearasil.
According to Reuters, Valisure filed a request with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), asking the regulator to recall the products, conduct an investigation and revise industry guidelines, with no comment or response.
Benzene could build up at “unacceptably high levels” in both prescription and over-the-counter acne treatment products with benzene peroxide, Valisure said.
The detection of benzene in acne treatment products was different from the other cases, Valisure said. “The benzene we found in sunscreens and other consumer products were impurities — however, the benzene in benzoyl peroxide products comes from the peroxide itself,” Valisure co-founder and president David Light told Reuters.
Valisure’s tests showed that some products could form more than 800 times the FDA’s conditional concentration limit for benzene.
The impact and the first statements
Moments after the lab’s first announcements, Estée Lauder shares fell 2 percent, while Reckitt said in a statement that the findings “reflect unrealistic scenarios rather than real-world conditions,” adding that all Clearasil products were safe “when are used and stored in accordance with the instructions on their labels”.
Estée Lauder said Clinique uses benzene peroxide in a product, which “is safe to use as intended.” According to information, this is a product intended for the treatment of acne and is not sold in Greece and the European market.
H Clinic
For the high-end beauty brand that counts decades in skincare, this development is important, as it does not affect the answers it gave to the now legendary question-title of the 1967 Vogue article “Can Great Skin Be Created?”. Written by beauty editor Carol Phillips and Norman Orentreich discuss the importance of a skin care routine. Evelyn Lauder, Estée Lauder’s daughter-in-law, read the article and brought it to Estée’s attention.
Both Phillips and Orentreich were brought to the company to help build the brand – in April 1968, Clinique debuted as the world’s first allergy-tested brand at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York with 117 products.
It was the third brand acquired by the group after Estée Lauder and Aramis.
According to Statista, in 2023, Clinique was valued at approximately $4.8 billion. 21% of scinacare product users in the US use its own products.
Η Carol Phillips
To Clearasil Reckitt Benckiser
With a 5.4% share of the US market, Statista figures show, Clearasil was ranked fourth among acne users.
The brand was invented in the USA in 1950 by Ivan Combe with the help of chemist Kedzie Teller, as the first dermatological brand created specifically for young skin to fight acne. The active ingredients in the original product were sulfur and resorcinol, similar to the pre-existing adult acne product Acnomel.
Ten years later, it was acquired by Richardson-Vicks, which in 1985 was acquired by Procter & Gamble along with Clearasil, while in 2000 it was transferred to the portfolio of the Boots group. In 2006 Boots Healthcare International was acquired by the British-Dutch company Reckitt Benckiser.
Ivan DeBlois Combe with his wife
What else has the Valisure lab found?
As ConsumerReports points out, that lab was the one that in 2019 found a cancer-causing substance in the blood pressure drug valsartan. Later that year, he identified a different carcinogen in the heartburn drug ranitidine and its brand-name version, Zantac. Then in 2021, the company found benzene, first in hand sanitizers and then in various sunscreen sprays, as well as other skin care products in spray form.
The carcinogen has already been found in a variety of consumer products, including sunscreen, hand sanitizer and dry shampoo, prompting recalls of products made by companies such as Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.
The Food and Drug Administration and manufacturers appear to have found Valisure’s tests reliable: the results prompted the companies to recall more than 25 million products, including Aveeno and Neutrogena spray sunscreens and Old Man deodorant spray Spice.
A market on the rise
According to McKinsey data, the cosmetics market is expected to follow the upward trend and steady recovery since the peak of the pandemic, surpassing $580 billion by 2027, showing an increase of 6% annually.
In a market largely dominated by large industries, entrepreneurs are rushing to embrace a new wave of consumers looking for fresh patterns and niche products. The focus is on a niche beauty market that includes a wide range of cosmetic products used daily by people of all genders and age groups.
Absolutely dominant in this market are skin care products, skincare, which involves the combination of skin care with other treatments or personal care products, such as hair care or make-up products.
Statista points out that North Asia has the largest share of the global market with 35%, while in second place is North America with 26%.
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