Shame on you! Lindi Skincare

We all know that the cosmetics and skincare industries, more than most, rely on a mountain of deception, promises that never come true, and spinning fantasies in the name of selling products to consumers. Hey, but this is nothing new. Sometimes, however, a product line comes along that really hits a new low.

As you know from my previous posts, I really can't stand manipulating consumers especially by misrepresenting science. And the worst offenders are the physicians who market less than the truth to their customers as well. Please see my posts on Dr. Perricone as well! Lindi (although not founded/formulted by an M.D.) is another one of these "pseudo-medical" seeming skincare lines.

What's this all about?
Now let's get to why LINDI SKIN skincare line is the target of this post now. This line has been targeted towards cancer patients receiving chemotherapy or radiation treatments. It's always good to have a niche to market a skincare line, but to aim a skincare line towards cancer patients, it better have the goods to back it up! Sadly for the Lindi Skin line, it doesn't. So what we have here is an unsubstantiated product line claiming it can help cancer patients' skin problems. Not only does it have no backing, the products' formulas are seemingly irresponsible and should NOT be recommended to cancer patients especially.

What's the logic?
It doesn't even seem, according to the packaging and formulas, that this line could even possibly be aimed for the most sensitive of skins. I certainly would not recommend this for patients suffering from skin side effects from cancer treatments.

What's inside?
Check out the ingredients.
Body Lotion contains Deionized Water, Astaxanthin Extract, Isopropyl Palmitate, Cyclomethicone, Glyceryl Stearate SE, Stearic Acid, Glycerin, PEG 100 Stearate, Dimethicone, Chamomilla Recutita (Matricaria) Leaf Extract (Chamomile), Phenoxyethanol (Plant Derivative), Benzyl Alcohol, Potassium Sorbate, Tocopherol (Vitamin E), Butylene Glycol, Polysorbate 20, Palmitoyl Pentapeptide 3, Cucumis Sativus (Cucumber) Fruit Extract, Sodium Ascorbyl Phosphate (Vitamin C), Phytonadione (Vitamin K), Hamamelis Virginiana (Witch Hazel) Extract, Hydrolyzed Soy Protein, Arginine, Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Stearyl Alcohol, Cetyl Alcohol, Triethanolamine, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Parfum (Fragrance).

This ingredient list, like the rest of their products, contains nothing unique that is not found in other products. The only thing that may be unique is the astaxanthin extract. If, then, this is a secret ingredient there's no mention of it at all as being the active ingredient. Besides there is also absolutely no research information on this or other ingredients on their website. You won't find any medical study information here!

And pay special attention to the bold items above. First of all, Fragrance is the most common cause of skin reactions. What a nice additive for those suffering from the negative skin effects from cancer treatment. I would never recommend patients with such skin to use products with fragrances! They would need (like many sensitive skin patients) less possible irritants in their formulas, so it is illogical and counter productive to add artificial, synthetic fragrances to a skincare product for these people.

Take it one step further:
From my previous posts (here and here) you all know about ingredient labels, right? Ingredients have to be labeled in descending order of their amount present in the product until you get below 1%. Well, what the heck? Phenoxyethanol is the preservative in this product. And what??!?! Either there is so much of this preservative (more so than all those other yummy ingredients following it) or there is less than 1% of all of those! Either way it is quite unusual to see this sequence of ingredients. Hmmmm? Is this a mislabeling?

Well I can tell you what is poor labeling, the fact that phenoxyethanol is followed by "(plant derivative)". Not so fast! It's seems to pass over the fact that this ingredient is really a synthesized preservative. (Side note, after fragrance, preservatives are probably the #2 cause of skin reactions). I'm not saying you shouldn't have this preservative, don't try to pass it off as a quasi-natural "yummy" ingredient. It's not. And it's not natural either!

Just by looking at this ingredient list, it seems highly unlikely that a chemist or serious medical professional had much to do with it at all.

What about the website
There's a section for "Medical Professionals" which actually gives no true "medical" knowledge or facts about how this product line could even help. There's a lot about bad skin effects from cancer treatments, but nothing about how this product can help the problem. Then we can find a list of testimonials, not scientific ones, and only one is from a doctor (and who knows what his affiliation is).

Here's where it gets really shady. There is a list of cancer treatments/drugs and the products recommended for those conditions. Now this is pushing ethical boundaries, seemingly as if those products are specifically helpful for specific treatments. Where's the proof? Well, you won't find any of it on the website because there is none.

What you have is a bunch of highly medical jargon thrown in to their wording. For any non-medical professional, this can make everything confusing/convincing enough that there is indeed some medical benefits that they simply just can't make out. Take this line for example "It is our belief that individuals on treatment and/or are neutropenic, and/or are at risk of infection are best served by skin care products with an appropriate preservative system."

And you're aiming this towards cancer patients?!?
What's wrong with the Lindi Skin lip balm? Remember my post about lip balm pots? If anyone is being treated for cancer, especially with chemo, their immune system is seriously debilitated. This means that cancer patients undergoing treatment are at much higher risk for infections (by germs). Why the heck would you market a lip balm pot especially for these patients?!?! Using the finger to apply lip balm only increases the chance of putting possibly infectious germs on your lips!! Not an added risk you'd want to give to cancer patients! How can you have such a serious oversight like this.

I hope you can see why this line really irritates me. Targeting cancer patients undergoing treatment is especially reprehensible unless the product has some serious & sound backing behind it. There is nothing unique or special about the formulas of any of the skincare line's products. Certainly, nothing of note for cancer treatment patients, except THUMBS DOWN!

I please ask, if any company is marketing a product to special groups of people (especially those undergoing extremely serious cancer treatments) ASK FOR THE PROOF! This goes to show you how open and unregulated the skincare/beauty world really is!

**I have no financial or other interest in Lindi Skincare. This post represents my opinion. And I would certainly not recommend this line to cancer patients whatsoever.