http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/fashion/24SKIN.html?_r=2&;
Did a little homework and came across this article that is 3 years old on the anti aging product line they sell called Algenist. Their entry into the luxury cosmetics market is interesting.
They have done an impressive job of building the world wide buzz on the product line: http://www.algenist.com/news/buzz
Then I went to Sephora.com to read the product reviews by customers starting with the lowest ratings. Quite a few complaints that it did nothing OR actually harmed their skin OR plateaued on improving the skin and then started regressing. On the other end lots of people thought it was great. One thing for certain is everyone agrees it is very expensive and goes quickly in the small sizes.
You have to wonder if there is some product QA/consistency issues that are giving these strongly negative results. In any case when people pay a lot for something that has elevated claims and it doesn't work or worse, hurts the skin, then to me that news starts to spread like wildfire and can kill off the product quickly.
They may eventually develop some bullet proof skin products, but this one has a plenty of holes shot in it if you can believe these reviews. If Sephora is selling the stuff and posting the bad reviews, I have to believe they are legit.
On the biofuels side this is all heavily subsidized by governments and thus is easly hit when e.g., defense spending plummets as Obama is now doing. So that doesn't draw me in.
I couldn't come across much independenlty verifiable scientific evidence that their products actually deliver benefits; only claim of 3rd party labs which I assume they hired. Maybe I missed it.
I'm not feeling it so far. The PPS seems to reflect the same sentiments. Would take a lot more homework for me to get a clearer picture. Thanks for the post.