Review L'Oréal Prolonger Filler-A100 + AMINO ACID  250 ml

This cream is said to have a combination of excellent ingredients and such properties that it effectively fulfils the purpose for which it is marketed: hair conditioning agent. On the L'Oréal website, this cream is listed as an ideal treatment for long, thinning hair. The fibre is instantly renewed and the hair is stronger and shinier.

In other cosmetic products, the Tiiips experts comment on the properties of each individual ingredient in a summary. In this case, as this is a face cream that is obviously also spread around the eyes, I stop at one ingredient which is about halfway down the list on the label:

Phenoxyethanol, a broad-spectrum preservative used in cosmetics against Gram-negative bacteria, moulds and yeasts. It occurs naturally in green tea but is produced chemically using phenol and ethylene oxide. As with many other preservatives included in the formula of cosmetic products, the scientific literature warns of general and specific contraindications concerning the application of this preservative. In particular, with regard to the eyes, this 2020 study by Jingyi Wang and others at Harvard University warns of the toxicity of Phenoxyethanol to the epithelial cells of the Meibomian gland, which secretes the human tear film, the main source of lipids, through its ducts. You can read an extract HERE

Moreover, phenoxyethanol is in seventh position on the label out of 29 ingredients, which means that its quantity is not negligible.

What can I say? Is it to be trusted to use it? The formula of this cream I believe is dated before the date of publication of the study cited, so L'Oréal may not have been aware of it at the time. From my own experience, I have seen for myself that the manufacturers, at every challenge about ingredients considered by recent studies to be dangerous to health, entrench themselves behind the phrase: the ingredient is duly authorised by the control authority. And after this response, of course, there is no more dialogue, so I no longer write to the manufacturers. As you can read in newspapers or on the internet, almost daily the control bodies withdraw substances from the market that were originally considered safe. 

Personally, I have returned the packaging, I had not yet opened it, to the seller and I think the only solution is to wait for the ingredient in question to be replaced. We shall see.