Plain and simple

Budget £3 face cream outperforms pricier rivals.

08:40 24 August 2009

It is a muti-million pound industry built around women the world over who consistenly invest in the next miracle cream to hold back the signs of ageing. However, the luxury brands designed to replenish and revitalise may not be so different from their cheaper counterparts, with some performing even worse.

A new study by consumer group Which? looked into the effectiveness of face moisturisers. They found that budget creams were equally effective as the more expensive creams, if not more so.

The Simple Kind To Skin Replenishing Rich Moisturiser rated as one of the best in the test, which saw women trialling the creams over a six week period. At only 26p per 10ml (£3.21 for a bottle), the Simple moisturiser proved excellent value for money.

In the experiment, females aged 35-40 tested 12 different top selling anti-wrinkle eye creams. High definition photographs were taken before and after, then an expert skincare panel judged on the best performers. Both testers and judges were unaware which creams had been used.

Nivea Visage Anti-Wrinkle Q10 Plus Eye Cream (£9.99 a bottle or £6.66 per 10ml) was deemed to have worked best overall.

Conversely, RoC Retin-Ox Intensive Anti-Wrinkle Cream – one of the most expensive at £19.99 a bottle or £13.30 per 10ml) received the worst reports.

Other big brands, including Avon, Garnier, Clarins, Clinique and Logona showed little improvement over the budget Simple cream. Even luxury cream Stri-Vectin-SD Eye Cream – the most expensive at £47.00 a bottle – failed to impress the panel.

The findings are a blow to the beauty industry, which has seen sales in anti-ageing products rocket. Women spent £32 million on eye care products in Britain last year, an increase of a third in two years.

Editor of Which?, Jess Ross , said: "It's not just Hollywood stars who want to look younger, we all do, but it's unlikely spending a fortune on the latest miracle product will get rid of wrinkles.

"Our tests show that anti-wrinkle creams have limited success, whatever they cost.  To get the best results, pop down to your local pharmacy and pick up a good sunscreen."

A Which spokesman added: "On average, the creams showed only slight wrinkle improvement at best.

"The cost of an anti-wrinkle eye cream is no indicator of effectiveness. We found none of the creams worked on all of our testers, but the Simple moisturiser worked just as well as more expensive creams."