Do Beauty Supplements Actually Work?

As for the promising claims beauty supplements make, Akridge says it goes back to naming. "The fact that brands call their supplements 'beauty supplements' means that what it contains is known to help support or maintain the health of skin," he says. The issue is, it's very difficult to prove a certain vitamin or mineral will improve any feature when we are constantly eating foods that contain those same compounds. Furthermore, he says that it's typical for a lot of the supplement claims to be based on cases where people had a deficiency in the vitamin(s).

Another issue is that beauty supplement claims might not be based on scientific research. Akridge says that some cases could be based on perception studies where people are asked if they see improvement (i.e. softness, tightness, brightness) to their skin/hair/nails after taking the supplement for a period of time. Additionally, he says that the placebo effect isn't taken into account in a lot of cases. With the placebo effect, people want to believe something good is happening by taking the supplement.

It's starting to sound murky, isn't it? But things are hopefully improving. With the boom of beauty supplements, there has been greater consumer awareness. Hermoni says that this had led to increasing transparency, clinical responsibility and implementing self-regulation procedures in the industry.

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